Even those seniors who did not shun investment banking say they covered their career bases this year. Many applied for jobs outside the field of investment banking just in case they did not fare well on Wall Street.

After the crash, says Diana E. Edge '88, she heard rumors about banks hiring fewer people. "I guess I was nervous, although you don't really know," says Edge, who will be working at the commercial bank of Bankers' Trust.

One senior, who asked to remain anonymous, says that he explored the field of consulting to enhance his chances of finding employment. "I was trying to play out all my options," he says.

Thanks in part to students who scattered their resumes and those who avoided Wall Street altogether, a number of consulting firms received a record number of applications.

"I've got to imagine the crash had something to do with the extra 500 resumes coming in," says Nancy J. Martin, manager of university relations at Booz Allen.

And Clarence X. Koo, of Oliver, Wyman & Co. says the market's antics provided his consulting firm with a larger applicant pool. "The difference for us has been probably a bit better selection of people," he says. "Our feeling is that we had a very good crop of people this year."

Once seniors started looking at consulting, many of them found the industry attractive, seniors and firm officials say.

This year, most of the applicants who turned down job offers from Booz Allen said they were taking jobs at other consulting firms, rather than investment banks, Martin says. Consulting firms "were probably the employers of choice this year, over investment banks." Two Harvard seniors will be working at Booz Allen after graduation.

While the crash convinced many students to look at other industries, it had relatively little effect on the number of positions available at investment banks.

A number of firms laid off some workers after the crash, but job-seeking seniors were generally not affected by the cutbacks, as only a few firms cancelled their plans to recruit at Harvard.

The main reason undergraduates were barely affected by the market's decline is that the entry-level positions seniors will fill are low-paying, short-term jobs that companies can afford to keep offering, observers say.

"Generally it's a good deal for the investment banks to get very bright and educated young people who are for the most part willing to work long hours," says Samuel L. Hayes, Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at the Business School.

Hayes says of the two-year analyst positions traditionally taken by graduating seniors, "The bottom line is it's a good source of personnel for the investment banks, and it carries with it no obligations beyond the contract period."

Thus, Black Monday brought with it speculation about the future of investment banking and frightened many people, but, in the end, had a larger effect on seniors' perceptions of the job market than it did on the reality.

Pamela D.A. Reeve, manager of the associate program at the Boston Consulting Group, says that the crash's most visible effect on undergraduates was the smaller number of students who attended introductory meetings for jobs in finance.

"The crash's impact on undergraduates has been fairly minimal," Chernick says. But she adds, "I think-there was some nervousness in the fall."