Enrollment mostly flat at MBA programs across Va.

Common campus wisdom holds that when the economy sinks, interest in graduate school spikes. Better to wait out the slump and get another degree than to try scrounging up a job.

That's not necessarily true for most master's in business administration programs in Virginia, which report static enrollment numbers this fall.

Among the exceptions: the College of William and Mary's MBA program, which experienced a 19 percent increase in students entering this year; 121 will begin classes today.

The admissions director, Priscilla Case, credits that growth to excitement about the business school's new $75 million building - and economic jitters. "They were fearful of the job market, understandably, so they figured, 'OK, if I'm going to do this, why don't I just do this now?' " she said Friday.

A handful of other programs across the state say those trends have been counteracted by the dampening effects of the downturn.

"People who are unemployed don't have the money to go to school," said Nancy Bagranoff, the business dean at Old Dominion University.

Plus, fewer companies are subsidizing their employees' educations. "Some are trying to cut costs," Bagranoff said.

ODU admits MBA students three times a year - January, summer and fall. The director of the program, Bruce Rubin, said the final count isn't in for the fall semester, which will begin next week. But he expected the total first-year enrollment for 2009 to equal or slightly exceed last year's 142.

A recent survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, based in McLean, said nearly two-thirds of business schools reported a rise in applications from would-be full-time students. The results were mixed for part-timers. The council runs the Graduate Management Admission Tests.

That's because people who have lost jobs often enroll full-time, said the council's president, Dave Wilson. Part-timers tend to want to "accelerate the chances of success where they are," he said, but employers are reducing tuition reimbursement and workers may now feel "it's a good time to keep your head down."

Slightly more schools reported an increase than a decrease in foreign applicants. Wilson said several trends shrank the international pool, including difficulties in obtaining visas, a decline in loan programs and competition from schools outside the United States.

A few Virginia universities will see declines in MBA enrollment this fall. The number of first-year students will drop from 65 last year to 53 at Virginia Tech and from 333 to 311 at the University of Virginia.

MBA applications shot up more than 50 percent at Virginia Tech, from fewer than 200 in 2008 to under 300, said Stephen Skripak, the associate dean for graduate programs at the Pamplin College of Business. But the "yield" - the percentage of admitted students who actually enrolled at Virginia Tech - dropped considerably.

"In some cases," Skripak said, "some of them said they needed to earn some more money first." And a decline in international applicants at schools opened more spots that some of Virginia Tech's admitted students grabbed.

U.Va.'s Darden Graduate School of Business tapered first-year enrollment because last year's class was larger than expected, said Sara Neher, the director of MBA admissions.

"We can't have two big classes at the same time," Neher said. "It has nothing to do with the economy."

At Hampton University, applications were up, "but not of the quality that we'd want to bring into the program," said Sid Credle, the dean of the business school. "So the numbers have been consistent from the past," he said, referring to the number of new students.

Likewise, the University of Richmond's Robins School of Business will have 42 first-time MBA students, the same as last year. "We do not want to grow," said Richard Coughlan, the senior associate dean. "We are focused on quality here, and not quantity."

William and Mary's Mason School of Business, on the other hand, is happy to be growing, Case said. Its first-year class of 121 is nearly double its size of 63 in 2004.

Before, "we actually were too small to do things well," she said. "You can't offer as many electives because you can't offer electives for three or four students." A larger class size also will attract more corporate recruiters, Case said.

Regent University will have about 18 new MBA students, said Bruce Winston, dean of the School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship. The school did not provide data for previous years.

Winston said the program has undergone a transition "from training people to get jobs in Fortune 500 companies to starting their own new ventures in an entrepreneurial economy."

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com