As the struggling economy causes graduate school application rates to rise and admissions rates to fall, many Pomona College seniors are still forging ahead with their graduate school plans for next year. Some are adapting their application strategies for an admissions climate that many describe as one of the toughest in recent memory.

“I just know that the [applicant] pools keep getting bigger, especially to the top schools,” said Eddie Sayles PO ’11, who is applying to graduate programs for vocal performance. “In the back of my mind, I’m scared I’m not going to get in anywhere, but then my teachers say I’ll get in.”

Sayles added that he decided not to apply to the ultra-selective Juilliard School because of surging application rates.

Mary Buchner PO ’11, who is applying to library science programs, said that many of her peers across the country are coming to think of graduate school as a necessity.

“A lot of people are kind of afraid to go directly into the job market,” she said. “A bachelor’s isn’t really good enough anymore in a lot of professions.”

The New York Times reported early this year that record numbers of people took the LSAT and GRE in 2009, indicating a spike in national interest in graduate school. This increase in graduate school applications may be a response to the low job creation rates that accompany recessions.

Career Development Office Director Carl Martellino said that he did not predict that the numbers of Pomona students applying to graduate school and gaining admission would change drastically this year. He pointed to last year’s graduating class, 14 percent of which went directly to law school, which he said lived up to Pomona’s usual standards despite the recession.

Martellino added that while economic downturns cause more students across the United States to file graduate school applications, the trend is less pronounced at Pomona.

“A lot of students here want to take a year off or two years off, and they’re not letting the economy affect their plans,” he sad.

Martellino added he had seen no major shift in the types of graduate programs Pomona students are applying to. Even journalism schools, the traditional farm system for an industry now mired in financial trouble, are receiving an ordinary number of applications from Pomona students, he said.

Still, Martellio said, the economic downturn and the resulting rise in application rates has caused students to think hard about how graduate school fits into their plans and how they will pay for it. More students than usual are worried about the cost of graduate school, and some are choosing to take a job and earn some money before applying, he said.

Sayles said that he thinks the large number of seniors planning to take a year or more off before applying to graduate school is a result of the tough admissions climate.

“I think that’s reflective of how competitive it is, because you need work experience before you can apply,” he said.

Nina Vertlib PO ’11, who was recently admitted to the University of Virginia School of Law, said she had used another strategy to improve her chances: applying Early Decision. However, Vertlib said her choice to apply ED was not a response to recent changes in the admissions climate. Her main concern was that her LSAT score might not be high enough for the numbers-driven law school admissions process.

Vertlib, who plans to defer her admission a year, said she and many of her peers did not feel much affected by the national rise in graduate school applications.

“I don’t think that there’s a distinct change [in attitude] from previous years, from talking to friends in the years above me,” she said. “We’ve all heard about the surge in applications, but I don’t think the surge has really dampened the mood of the class.”

Martellino agreed that seniors have mostly remained calm about graduate school, adding that seniors are generally “more on edge about getting a job than they are about getting into grad school.”

Still, Vertlib said, the usual pressures of applying to graduate school are felt at Pomona. She said that for many of her peers, the process caused “an existential crisis about whether this is what we want to do with our lives.”

“All of my friends are applying to grad school of some flavor either now or in the next year,” she added, “and it’s putting a strain on our ability to discuss other things.”