Investment banking out of favour
The word out of an education fair that has 26 US universities participating is that, investment banking as a career option has lost its shine. Blame it on the global financial meltdown. From being most sought after, it's now down.
India is quickly becoming a big market for foreign universities, especially with more and more students fancying the idea of going abroad for further studies every year.
Many of these students could be seen at the educational fair organized by United States-India Educational Foundation at the Fulbright House on Hailey road in Delhi. About 26 US universities, offering a wide variety of courses participated in the fair providing a platform for potential applicants to interact with these universities.
While its effect around the world (as well in the US of course) has been seen over the past few weeks, the depression in the US economy had another interesting effect seen at the fair. While MBA programs (leading to investment banking jobs) may have been the most sought after courses in the past, that is not quite the case this year. “Given the current state in the US, investment banking which was their first option before has now fallen to second and third choice,” says Luna Das Bangia, an educational advisor with the United States-India Educational Foundation.
Universities are also debating the impact of a slowing American economy on the number of applicants they expect to get this year. One would probably expect many students to worry about how a slowing economy also translates to a lack of jobs upon graduation - and given the price of education these days, that’s not a small worry to have.
However, some administrators felt that there are applicants who recognize the value of a good education, regardless of what may be happening in the economy.
Daniel Tutchtov, Director of International Enrollment at the Savannah College of Arts and Design shared this insight: “There are two ways of looking at the trends in education specifically looking at the world economies… One way of looking at it is that the number of international students will drop because education is becoming difficult to afford and the other way of looking at it is that maybe the students who do have an advanced degree will be ahead in the competition for the jobs available.”
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