A record number of Harvard undergraduates and graduate students attended the 10th Annual Career Forum held yesterday in Memorial Hall, said Martha E. Leape, director of the Office of Career Services (OCS), which sponsored the forum.

"This is an excellent turnout by students and recruiters" Leape said "We have 68 companies here and many more who wanted to come but couldn't because we didn't have the room. We expect to have upwards of 1600 students attend the forum, which is more than in previous years."

Judy E. Murray, manager of recruiting services at OCS, said that the number of companies participating in the forum has remained constant in recent years, despite the downturn in the economy.

"Companies are scaling back their recruiting effort by recruiting at less schools than in previous years, but fortunately we are not affected," Murray said.

"We've eliminated recruiting trips to some colleges we visited in the past, but kept Harvard on our schedule because of its academic reputation, and because we are pleased with the quality of people we've gotten from here in the past," said James T. Willie, a recruiter for Teach For America, a service which trains college graduates to teach in embattled public schools around the country.

Companies participating in the forum represented a broad range of industries, including banking, consulting, manufacturing, financial services and public service.

Murray said students have consistently been interested in careers in consulting, "because of its high pay and eclectic work assignments."

Murray added that careers in banking and Wall Street firms appear to have lost some of their appeal in recent years, due in part to scandals, massive layoffs and the general downturn of the financial industry.

"These students know some of their friends who went to Wall Street in previous years are now out of work. This must be on their minds," she said.