He says the percentage of students who plan togo abroad after graduation has dipped slightlythis year because students are worried aboutgetting into the job market at home. Only 17.9percent of last year's graduating class planned togo abroad, a drop from the usual 20 percent,Klingelhofer says.

"Some students are just a little more waryabout taking that year after graduation to goabroad," Klingelhofer says. Nevertheless,Klingelhofer advises students to take a yearabroad both for the opportunity to reflect on whatone really wants to do and for the internationalskills that employers value.

"Don't go to Wall Street or don't go to lawschool if you don't really want to be on WallStreet or at law school. Better to go to Japan fora year to teach English," he says.

The majority of companies who recruit atHarvard, however, are still investment banks andconsulting firms, which make up 61 percent of lastyear's on-campus recruiters.

Some companies count Harvard on a very shortlist of campus visits. Walt Disney Co., forexample, only recruits from Harvard and Stanford,according to Disney Senior Analyst Tony A. Hung'89.

According to Goldman Sachs Co. Senior PersonnelAssociate Debbie H. Gottesman, Harvard is one ofthe company's most recruited colleges, second onlyto the University of Pennsylvania.

"It all depends on how many people have theright skills," she said. "We are concentrating onmore informational meetings and we expect to getas many students as we can."

Goldman Sachs hired 15 Harvard graduates lastyear, Gottesman says.

Proctor & Gamble continues to recruit fromHarvard despite recently cutting the number ofcolleges it visits by more than half, according toSenior Recruiting Manager Stanley M. Haude.

"[Harvard] wouldn't be one of the schools we'dcut out even if we had a recruiting budget cut,"says Carla Graci the recruiting coordinator forOracle Co., the world's third largest softwareservices company.

Most science consulting companies look forcomputer science majors, says Science CounselorWilson Hunt Jr. "About 25 to 30 companies look forcomputer science majors," he says. "But othersciences are not so fortunate."

Harvard students may register with MIT'srecruiting program, which draws many morebiotechnology and electronics firms. "I think ofMIT as one of Harvard's resources," Hunt says.

Even though the prospects for Harvard studentsare better than for most seniors around thecountry, competition within OCS' recruiting isfierce because it pits Harvard students againsteach other. "Everyone is looking out forthemselves but also looking over their shoulders,"Abdi says.

Only one in three students who participate inrecruiting will take a job through the process,according to OCS.

"There is a lot of heartbreak," says Adam D.Taxin '93, an analyst at Morgan Stanley. "I'veseen a lot of classmates devastated by theprocess."