To some extent, Harvard's Ivory Tower and reputation are tall enough to keep its students above the economic fray. Murray emphasizes that recruiters focus on Harvard because they want the cream of the crop.

"They still want the brightest and the best to work for them. They're not going to cut out coming to Harvard," Murray.

She adds that the presence of Harvard alums at the highest ranks of corporate America guarantees a demand for graduates.

Even in 1987, when the market's dive meant a fall in hiring during the recruiting season, Harvard was hit softer than most schools, she says.

A larger factor, however, is that hiring companies see the market's downturn both as short-term and as only a part of a larger-successful-economy.

"If you reacted to the market on a daily basis, you'd be on a funny farm," says a recruiter at a Greenwich, Conn., investment bank.

"Our business is not affected because stock market fluctuations have very little to do with actual, underlying business results," says Carl Burke, recruiting manager at Integral Consulting in Cambridge.

Even high-profile companies that have taken a beating in the market insist that their hiring will not be affected.

Paine Webber's stock has dropped some 40 percent from a year-long high in mid-August to its current level at the end of trading Friday, but a spokesperson said the stock's volatility would have "no effect" on the company's recruiting plans.

Smaller Firms, Less Optimism

While large New York investment firms stress that recruiting would remain constant, jitters are apparent in smaller firms.

The head recruiter at a Connecticut-based consulting firm that employs about 100 people says the job market is shaky.

He says the market's volatility makes him more conservative when hiring. He is all-too-familiar with companies that are floundering, and responding to inquiries from people thrown out of work by the market.

"I was just talking to a person on the phone [who is looking for a job] because the company had blown up," he says.

Although he is still hiring, he says he doesn't blame companies who are taking the market downturn seriously and are in a hiring freeze.