The Tuck School of Business saw a 35 percent increase in applications for its 2006-2007 class over last year, the highest jump among U.S. News and World Report's top 10 business schools with available data.
"Our percentage increase in applications is the greatest in our history," Tuck Dean Paul Danos said. "The team at Tuck is very happy with these results."
Tuck is currently ranked the number one business school by the Wall Street Journal and by Forbes magazine, third by The Economist, and ninth by U.S. News and World Report.
In addition to the surge in overall applications, Tuck saw a sizable increase in the number of international applicants, especially from Europe and South America. Danos attributed this rise to Tuck's Ambassador Program, which employs current foreign Tuck students to recruit prospective students from their home countries, and to newly-launched initiatives in Europe, Mexico and India. Whereas in prior years when the majority of international students were from India, Danos expects a more representative international enrollment this fall.
A national economic comeback probably fueled the rise in this year's total applications, according to Tuck Director of Admissions Dawna Clarke.
"The economy was weak for a considerable number of years and there was a shift of people going from full-time programs to looking at alternative options, such as keeping their jobs and going to an evening or executive program," Clarke said, adding that those trends seem to be reversing now.
While virtually no U.S. corporations offer to foot the bill for their employees to attend full-time business schools, many offer stipends part-time executive programs on the condition that students agree to work a set number of years for the company after completing their degrees.
But at the same time, business leaders tend to recommend full-time programs like Tuck's because they afford students the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in a business-learning environment.
Clarke said that economic recovery also fed increases in applications from ethnic minorities and women this year.
When the economy is weak, she said, these demographics tend to be underrepresented in graduate programs because they tend to be more risk averse than white males when it comes to assuming debt and facing future loan repayment.
Clarke said that the jump in this year's applicant pool also reflects population trends, in that the number of students taking the GMAT exam required for business school admission dipped after the baby boom generation hit business-school age.
"The people going to business school tend to be in the 25- to 35-year-old range," Clarke said. "For several years there was a downturn in that age range."
Because Tuck has four rounds of admissions for each incoming class, held in October, November, January and April, the school did not have final application statistics until recently.
"At one point this year in our deadline our applications were up by 67 percent," Clarke said.
