<p>Do you think that it would be harder to get into graduate schools, more specifically, engineering, this year due to the economy?</p>
<p>That is what I have been hearing.</p>
<p>I think you're better off in engineering than other fields regarding the increase of applications to grad schools, but I still imagine it will be more competitive this year than in the past few.</p>
<p>Only time will show, but it's hard to imagine laid off workers in biotech, or whatever respective fields, deciding to return to the life of a student. It may frighten some new college grads into academia for another several years, but the real world does that anyway. I will be interested to see how the admissions statistics rack up from this cycle.</p>
<p>My professors have been advising every senior to go to grad school. Basically unheard of, before this economy.</p>
<p>That... sucks. :(</p>
<p>I think the poor economy-rise in grad applications is massively overstated, sort of like the supposed link between high gas prices and higher use of mass transit (which, for anyone wondering, is spurious).</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that most layoffs are coming in specific sectors of finance and manufacturing jobs and, as someone before said, it's hard to see some auto parts worker who just got laid off going back to get a masters in Russian lit. I'm sure more UG's are looking at grad school due to fear of the job market, but most probably realize that there hasn't yet been a massive number of job losses and the country is going through a prolonged period of sluggish growth as opposed to a full blown depression. Although I expect a modest rise in grad applications this year, I don't see it getting too crazy.</p>
<p>I do expect that there will be a modest rise in numbers of applications, across many fields of study, but particularly in the humanities. The more significant problem is that at many universities (especially publics), university-funded fellowships and assistantships may be cut back in several departments, again, most often in the humanities.</p>
<p>Professor X brings up a really good point. Fellowship and assistantship cuts are not good...We may see departments admitting fewer students this year due to these cuts. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I think the latter half of the year saw the beginnings of the economical downturn that may last for years to come. The number of applicants will probably increase in the coming years if the recession gets worse. But I think we've been spared of the onslaught, at least for fall 09 ;)</p>
<p>This has already been a longer recession than the ones in the late eighties and early nineties. I don't know about years of recession, and I am certainly not in a position to evaluate or make predictions on the economy, but I don't see this affecting the grad school admissions world in biomedical science for this year. The pharma pipelines are drying up with nearly every blockbuster coming off patent in a few years. Every biotech is in some state of merger/acquisition. Scientific talent will not disappear from industry any time soon and the NIH budget is not declining. In fact, if Obama's administration holds to its plans, we will see the budget double in the next ten years. If I were aiming for a MBA or JD or something, I would be really troubled. However, my impressions are that this wont' be detrimental for those of us in the sciences as high achieving students normally go onto medical or graduate school after undergrad anyway.</p>
<p>I work at a graduate office..in which we process all the applications and this year there actuallyy was a drop in the number of applicants that applied..</p>
<p>Actually, sweet reminded me of something. I applied for (and got! yay me!!) an internship at my State Legislative Session. I asked the interviewer if she had seen an increase in applications, since so many people were hyped up about politics now. She said no, and they actually received less applications than they usually do in a budget year. She thought the reason was economic, possibly because people are keen on graduating on time and trying to get a job.</p>
<p>yes, yay you!! congratulations.</p>
<p>I feel horrible for the older folks who may lose their retirement, the parents who are losing their homes, and anyone who stands to lose their job in the upcoming years. But, selfish as this sounds, a tough recession was bound to hit sometime in our lifetimes--and us youngsters were lucky enough to get hit when we have nothing to lose. I can't imagine spending years building up my career, acquiring property, saving for retirement, and building a family, only to see all of that jeopardized by bad decisions on the part of bankers and stock brokers and have to go back to living the way I do now. We're used to living on Ramen and sleeping five hours a night. We can handle it.</p>
<p>So, I agree with jmleadpipe and ProfessorX; there will be a moderate rise in grad school applications because new college grads will do their best to strengthen their resumes, but older people aren't going to drop everything and take ten steps back in life for an economic flu. I just hope it won't be terribly more difficult to get assistantships or loans like a lot of us predict.</p>
<p>captiv8ed, if your internship paid? Government internships tend to be notoriously low-paying or unpaid unless you're accepted into the prestigious public service fellowships (often at the master's degree or higher level). That's possibly why there are fewer people applying to government internships.</p>
<p>tkm- I came of age in the 80s andsaw home mortgages in the 15-21% range....then prices boomed for a while..........in time for plenty of people to lose a ton of money in real estate in the early 1990s....things recovered again.....then came the dotcom bust of the early 2000s......and now this, so just since I became an adult, everything I have seen is up & down.</p>
<p>Thankfully I learned a lot from watching that and do not subscribe to the spendy lifstyle of many friends, our income is not huge and not as reliable as some, thus I try to avoid debt and live conservatively.</p>
<p>Other than losing a ton in retirement investments and my mutual fund (and that would be loss on the basis, not loss of paper gains :() I am okay....though sad.</p>
<p>Don't think this is the only time you will see ebbs & flows of the financial markets, instead learn from the mistakes of others and do not overextend yourself. Play it safe with your basic lifestyle and only risk what you can afford to lose!</p>
<p>It actually pays about $1300 a month which, although slave wagish, it seems to be pretty good for an internship, at least in our town.</p>
<p>"Don't think this is the only time you will see ebbs & flows of the financial markets,"</p>
<p>I certainly don't. But I do hope this will be one of the very few times I read articles calling it "the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression" or, less, dramatically, "the end of the world" (of course, they said that about Y2K, and all that came out of that was colorful computer bug plushies). I'm sure I'll see more ebbing and flowing, but hopefully no more overturned ships necessitating $700 billion bailouts.</p>
<h1>15, tkm256.</h1>
<p>Young people have lost a lot, its just in your future lifestyle. Do not blame the bankers and stock brokers but the leaderships and expectations.</p>