Although the number of freshman business majors might be decreasing across the country, the demand for business education at MSU is increasing, school officials said.
A recent nationwide study conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles found that economic conditions might be putting a strain on business colleges, as the number of freshmen interested in business majors is at the lowest mark in about 35 years.
About 14 percent of all freshmen in 2008 and 2009 reported having interest in business majors, which is about a 2 percent drop from the year before, the survey found.
Freshmen planning on a career in business also dropped 2 percent to 12 percent overall, setting an all-time low for the annual survey that began in 1966.
The drop in interest has hit some colleges in the U.S., but its effects have not reached MSU, said Eileen Wilson, the assistant dean for Undergraduate Education and Academic Services at the Eli Broad College of Business.
“There’s a handful of business schools that are experiencing this,” Wilson said. “We haven’t seen students leaving a major or the college as a whole. Our enrollment remained high — it hasn’t fluctuated at all.”
Freshman applications to the business college have been steadily increasing since 2005, said Gabe Santi, a spokesman for the Office of Admissions.
The college had about 3,100 freshman applications in the fall semester of 2005, which increased to about 4,500 in the fall semester of 2009, Santi said.
“It has not been a phenomena we have experienced on our end — any lack of interest in business,” Santi said. “Business has been very popular in recent years.”
There were 6,772 students enrolled in the business school in the fall semester, which is about a 7 percent increase since 2005, according the Office of the Registrar.
MSU has been able to escape any drop in interest due to the quality of education available, Wilson said.
The Eli Broad College of Business was ranked 15th in the country among public universities and 25th overall by the U.S. News and World Report in 2009, Wilson said.
“One of the reasons our enrollment remains high and remains at a steady pace is our teaching evaluations are good and there’s a lot of experience for undergraduate students outside of the classroom with the (Eli Broad College of Business),” she said.
The poor economy didn’t deter general management freshman Peter Raymond from pursuing a career in business, because he saw it as an opportunity, not a problem.
“I’m hoping that in the future we (as business majors) can help turn the economy around,” Raymond said. “It motivates you to work harder and make things better.”
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