At Harvard, the number of on-campus recruitershas ballooned. Last year 385 representatives ofthe world's leading firms came to Cambridge overthe three recruiting seasons. These numbers haveincreased greatly, up from 31 in 1971, and 242 in1990, according to Judy Murray, OCS recruitingdirector. Recruiters this year conductedapproximately 5,200 interviews.

"Now people have to start in the early fall orJanuary because it has become too competitive,"says Connie Clifford, recruiting coordinator atthe consulting firm Bane and Co. She adds thatincreasing numbers of first-years and sophomoressubmit their resumes for the even more intensesummer internship recruiting, which is limited tocollege juniors.

"Undergraduates are starting much earlier toprepare themselves to go into these professionalpositions," Clifford says.

Pre-professional organizations are a naturalway to prepare for the intense competition thatmarks the recruiting process, Wright-Swadel says.

"[Students] want to be leaders in their fieldand they hope they have enough skills,"Wright-Swadel says. "They know that someone elsehere at Harvard has more."

While anxiety over competition has drawnstudents to these groups, so has an excitementover potential personal and professional rewardsthat come with a growing economy.

"We've had a real surge of interest in the pastcouple of years," Heiman says. "That, I think, iscommensurate with a surge in the stock market.People see the bull market and get excited aboutwhat's going on down on Wall Street."

HSA has felt this surge as well. The upcomingBusiness Leadership Program represents HSA'seffort to offer its business resources to agreater portion of the student body, says Jon M.Sakoda '99, HSA vice president and conferenceorganizer.

Students say pre-professional organizations areinvaluable resources in preparing for therecruitment process and for business.

Lau says for many of its members, HSA is anatural stepping stone to a career in business.

"A lot of [HSA] people go into I-banking orconsulting," Lau says. "They're all over theplace--but [they stay] in business."

But the jewels students collect asundergraduates--be they top grades or leadershippositions--will not just adorn their resumes. Manystudents who succeed in the recruiting processlater compete for other prized offers, this timefrom top business schools.

Credentials from pre-business organizationslike HSA are a plus in the admissions process forbusiness school, say those involved in it.

"[Business schools] like to see people who usewhat they learned outside of the classroom," saysRuth A. Pechauer, an admissions officer at theCarlson School of Management at the University ofMinnesota.

Admissions officers at other programs agreethat undergraduates who actively engage inactivities pertinent to their professional goalshave an edge in admissions, but warns that schoolsstill expect students to have a broad-basedliberal arts education.