Roping in the MBAS: Graduate programs face tough competition for students.

• Author: Caley, Nora

Earning a master's degree in business administration can be a valuable learning experience.

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The average new MBA with a job offer in hand will earn $92,360 during the first year of employment, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council's 2006 Global MBA Graduate Survey.

GMAC, the McLean, Va.-based group that administers the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), indicated this was a 4 percent raise from 2005, when the starting MBA salary was $88,626. Two-thirds of the new graduates received signing bonuses of about $17,600 in 2006.

However, the number of people applying for business school has not increased. Colorado business schools are fighting for a shrinking pool of business school applicants. The number of people taking the GMATs in Colorado has decreased 12 percent, from 2,393 people in 2001 to 2,127 in 2005.

Universities try to set themselves apart by adding programs, making it easier for working adults to attend. They're also spending some advertising dollars to attract a niche audience: adults who have been in the workforce for years and want to earn more money, get promoted, or move into a leadership role at a different employer.

"It's a tough market out there, in terms of competing," says Venkat Reddy, the dean of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) College of Business. "MBA programs are interesting. If the economy is not doing well, people go get an MBA. If the economy is doing well they just get a job and say, 'I don't need an MBA."

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Michael Goess, chairman of the Business Division of Graduate Programs at Regis University, thinks the applicant pool will grow steadily. "When the economy improves, the opportunity for promotion and new jobs improves," he says. "Years ago, people thought, 'What do I have to do to save my job?' and now it's, 'What do I have to do to get a promotion?'"

Susan T. Meyer, director of the Distance MBA Programs at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, says business schools compete not only with each other but with a certain mindset. "People say, 'I don't think I need an MBA,'" she says. The challenge is to convince people that not only will the degree earn them more money, but the knowledge they gain will help their careers.

The choices are overwhelming for students, too. Benjamin Ezrine, who is pursuing a dual-MBA degree in sports management and finance at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, says he applied and was accepted into five MBA programs nationwide.

"There are a ton of MBA schools," he says. It helped that he was looking for a specific degree. "I was looking for a program with sports management, and they had an MBA degree as opposed to a master's in science education for sports management, and I thought the MBA degree was more...