In light of this year's financial crisis, MBA programs around the country, including Wharton, anticipate a rise in the number of applicants.
With thousands of corporate employees on the job market, the prospect of adding a graduate degree to one's resume is expected to be more popular than in the past.
The first round of applications at most business schools was due in mid-October. The second round is due in January and the third in March.
David Peterson, founder and president of Admissions Consultants, a company that aids in undergraduate and graduate school admissions, said "there was a bit of an upswing" in the first round of applications.
There is usually a lag time between layoffs and reactions, so he expects the increase to be felt more acutely in round two of the admissions process, he added.
Wharton's MBA program expects an increase in applications, according to Jackie Zavitz, the senior associate director of Wharton MBA admissions.
However, the increase is no reason for applicants to panic.
"Applications are not going to increase 500 percent," Zavitz said.
The Princeton Review, a popular test preparatory company, said it has also experienced an increase in interest in graduate school admissions tests.
Harriet Brand, a spokeswoman for the test company, said anecdotal evidence shows that there has been an increase in demand for graduate school test prep.
She did not release specific numbers about program demand.
In an economic recession, students, or those who were laid off from the marketplace, will sometimes return to school to sharpen skills or fine-tune their resume, Brand said.
Making themselves more marketable with an MBA is one way to get an edge over the competition, she explained.
Individuals in the MBA admissions and test-prep fields, however, don't expect an influx of applications to require additional staff hirings in admissions.
Zavitz said that while Penn "obviously staffs accordingly," no drastic hiring procedures are in place.
Brand said that The Princeton Review has the capacity to cater to a larger number of interested clients and similarly does not predict a substantial increase in employment.
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