Next fall, 80 to 100 Harvard undergraduates will return a week early from their summer breaks to attend the first Harvard Business Leadership Program. The five day conference, sponsored by Harvard Student Agencies (HSA), aims to introduce undergraduates to basic ideas of business management and entrepreneurship.

The conference, and the students who attend it, are part of a process that one graduate school admissions officer calls "working backwards," which, at its extremes, can mean selecting summer jobs, extracurricular activities and classes themselves on the basis of their career implications.

Professor of English and Comparative Literature James Engell '73 decries this trend in a recent issue of Harvard Magazine, arguing that increasing careerism in university culture, and a shift of emphasis from humanities to more marketable fields such as economics, risks a future in which "we will soon be looking at not a weakened tradition of humanistic learning and education, but a defunct one."

But HSA organizers say that, like all good businessmen, they are only responding to the laws of supply and demand.

And the numbers bear them out.

The percentage of recruiters on campus has increased more than 60 percent since 1990. Over this time period, enterprising students founded more than a dozen business and financial associations. (Of course, as with many start-ups, some went bust in their initial year.)

The past year alone has seen the creation of an entrepreneurs club, several investment associations (including one specifically focused on minorities), the initiation of the first annual consulting competition and the formation of several student-run mutual funds.

Student leaders and College administrators say that these clubs enhance, not diminish, a liberal arts education, by providing practical skills and business experience unavailable in the classroom.

"The College doesn't offer classes in financial management and some business skills, and a perfect way to do that is to be able to join together with students who one day may join the same profession," says Student Activities Coordinator Susan Cooke.

Spades

Participation in extracurricular organizations has always given Harvard students a chance to dig for opportunity beyond the academic sphere.

The number of extracurriculars in general has risen in recent years, but the opportunities to prepare for the business world in particular has increased markedly. Students organizations that help students prepare for careers in finance and consulting have almost doubled in the past year, and existing groups have expanded their efforts.

At the same time, the number of people entering the world of business has remained unchanged over the past 15 years. In 1983, 21 percent of seniors cited business as their most likely field of work, while last year 18 percent said they expected to join the business world.

Taken together, these statistics suggest that the rise in pre-professional student groups is not due to an increased interest in business, but to a greater student pre-occupation with future prospects.

Notably, some administrators have begun calling these activities "co-curricular," signifying the new way students are using their undergraduate activities to complement their educational and professional plans.

"There is a lot more focus on postgraduate professional plans," says Cabot House Senior Tutor Robert H. Neugenboren '83. He adds that students structure their free time based on their future plans much more than when he was an undergraduate.

Clubs

Depending on who you ask, the impetus for joining extracurriculars can be genuine interest, practical experience or resume-building.

The opportunity to develop marketable skills increasingly draws students to College clubs, according to William Wright-Swadel, director of the Office of Career Services.

"I think students have two eyes looking at most projects right now," says Wright-Swadel, explaining that he thinks students keep one "eye" on the future while choosing their extracurriculars.

Clubs such as the Harvard InvestmentAssociation (HIA) fill this niche, providing aplace where future investment bankers can satiatetheir hunger for stocks and bonds, and offeradvice to undergraduates concerning the recruitingprocess.

While HIA is less than a year old it seems tohave caught on among undergraduates as its weeklymeetings are well attended and it boasts amembership of close to 200.

HIA president Mark M. Heiman '00 says moststudents join the investment association becausethey are currently interested in finance. He saysits activities also provide members with atraining unavailable in classes.

"[Students] join the Investment Club to see ifthis is a career path they want to take," Heimansays. "It's more vocational than what's offered inclasses."

Another recently founded group is Horizons,which since 1994 has compiled a resume book forminority students and hosted a career forum in thespring.

HSA remains the largest pre-businessorganization on campus. Founded in 1957 as anumbrella organization for disparate studentbusinesses (some of which were run out ofstudents' dorm rooms), HSA has grown into anindependent corporation with a gross revenue ofmore than $4 million annually.

"A lot of students use [HSA] for a type offorum for seeing if they would go into thebusiness world," says Karen Lau '98, former HSAvice president. "You get a lot of responsibility.Nowhere else does someone give you a $100,000budget and say `run with it.'"

This year, for the first time, HSA and FidelityInvestments co-sponsored a campus-wideentrepreneurial contest. Offers of a $5,000 grandprize and $10,000 of seed capital from Fidelitydrew a wide variety of student proposals, rangingfrom a translation service for businesses withinternational interests to a system that wouldallow students to access the equivalent of CliffNotes online.

`If Bill Gates had been entered into thiscontest, he would not have even become afinalist," said Fidelity representative C. BruceJohnstone '64.

Diamonds

The increased undergraduate interest in futurebusiness plans reflects an increasinglycompetitive job market and a booming economy whichresults in high pay-outs to those in the nation'smost lucrative fields.

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.

Jill Hubbell Fadule, managing director of MBAadmissions at Harvard Business School, says in aninterview with Business Week that students shouldnot feel they must base their college years aroundcareer plans.

"Really master what you love," she says."Whether it's biology or French, linguistics orarchitecture. You can study business later."

Officials from humanities graduate programs andlaw schools say they, too, have noticed a shift inthe types of activities their applicants pursuedwhile undergraduates.

"I think that the need to differentiate oneselfmight influence people as to what choices theymake as undergraduates," says Hilary Ford,Cornell's director of graduate school admissions.

Hearts

But many professors and educators questionwhether the aims of a liberal arts education areserved when students devote their undergraduateyears to planning for the future.

Wright-Swadel says most undergraduates choosetheir concentrations and activities based on theirinterests, but some feel pressure to studysubjects that lead to specific professions.

"Liberal arts students often say they wish theyhad something like an accounting degree becausethat would have a particular job attached,"Wright-Swadel says.

Professor of English Engell thinks that thisprofessional focus is jeopardizing the humanities.In an article published last month in HarvardMagazine, Engell asserts that careerism has sappedthe vitality from the liberal arts.

"The idea that students are in college toprepare for full participation insociety--including participation that won'tadvance their careers or enlarge their bankaccounts--no longer has much sway in highereducation," he writes.

Engell says the decline in students studyingthe humanities and a reduction of grant money tothese fields give students an early indicationthat they should focus on more directly marketableareas.

"The perception is that if you are majoring inthe humanities you are not preparing to godirectly to a professional field," Engell says.

While few publicly share Engell's direpredictions, many educators do expressreservations over the trend toward careerism.

Ford says she is troubled by the trend toward"working backwards"--choosing occupations based onfuture money, and activities and majors based onfuture occupations.

But students and administrators involved incareer-oriented clubs dismiss the criticism.

"It's a mistake to think it's resume padding,"Cooke says.

She says these clubs supplement the Harvardeducation where it is most lacking--professionaltraining.

Dudley House Senior Tutor Thomas A. Dingman '67says high levels of student participation inpublic service groups and varsity athleticteams--interest which few students will pursueprofessionally--show that most students do notchoose their activities based on career potential.

"Most who are doing [extracurriculars] feelsome satisfaction in being involved withoutscheming about how this will look on theirresume," Dingman says.

Jokers Wild

But the trend of students training students forthe professional world shows no sign of slowingdown, and based on anecdotal evidence,pre-professional education may not be limited tothe college ranks.

HIA has pioneered an educational program in theCambridge Public Schools, in which they play an"investment game," choosing stocks portfolios andtracking them during the year.

If these students represent the new generationof pre-preprofessionals, Engell's predictions maybe coming true faster than even he predicted.CrimsonSarah E. Henrickson