US MBA students seek alternative routes in job market

CAMBRIDGE, Mass: For decades, investment banking was a well-worn path to affluence for business-school graduates. But as Wall Street teeters, many are scrambling to find alternate routes into a brutal job market. 

Facing one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression, some Masters of Business Administration students are lowering expectations. Aspiring investment bankers are looking elsewhere, while international students wonder if they will have better luck at home than in the United States. 

As big banks including Citigroup Inc, Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc cut tens of thousands of jobs, MBA students who just a few years ago would have been aggressively recruited by companies now expect to fight for the handful of positions available. 

Meghan Gallery, 24, enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of management in September with hopes of working on mergers and acquisitions at an investment bank. Now, she would consider a summer job at a start-up company, ideally in corporate finance.