The fall 2009 semester is off to a robust start in the Chapman Graduate School at Florida International University (FIU) with 599 new graduate students enrolled—more than ever before. The graduate school in the College of Business Administration offers 12 master’s programs at three locations in South Florida, with a new online program, the Corporate MBA, slated to start later this fall.
“We are very happy that we have a record-setting class size and particularly happy that the students are of very high caliber with higher GPAs, and higher GMAT and GRE scores overall than previous years,” said Joyce Elam, executive dean.
Though business school enrollments tend to be cyclical, and tough economic times prompt people to return to school, Luis Casas, director, marketing, communications and recruiting, credits a number of factors in drawing so many to FIU.
“In an environment of fierce competition, we’ve been able to capture such a large number of outstanding people through a variety of means, including our creative recruiting efforts, our communications, the hard work of the program managers in each of our graduate programs and word of mouth from current students and alumni,” he said.
The picture for the spring semester already looks bright. According to Casas, the deadline for spring admission has not yet arrived, and already two of the programs are close to capacity.
Full house receives warm welcome.
Approximately 400 of the new graduate students attended an orientation at the College of Business Complex on August 21, 2009. They mingled, collected valuable information about their individual degree programs and financial aid options, and met key administrators and nearly 30 faculty members. Members of the International MBA and the Executive MBA had separate events.
