Recruiters say over an over again that the sessions let them "differentiate" themselves from other firms, although they emphasize aspects of their Power Point presentations over their hors d'oeuvres.

Gray says her company "sees it as a chance to present itself on campus but it's by no means their most important recruiting tool."

She adds that she thinks some companies feel they need to hold recruiting sessions to make sure that students "take them seriously."

Rahn pointed out that the expectation of a fancy face-to-face presentation can hurt smaller or less profitable companies' chances of attracting Harvard students.

"I think the problem is that to recruit students the way the big i-banking and consulting firms do is just beyond the means of smaller companies," Rahn says. "An educational non-profit can't fly people out to Harvard to recruit the way a Silicon Valley technology firm can."

Add the information sessions to the mugs, T-shirts and stress balls that proliferate during the fall recruiting sessions, and big companies are putting themselves in the spotlight. The next step is to differentiate themselves from the next big firm.

Thus, recruiters say the personal contact makes the information sessions worth their big bucks.

"I want to put people in front of candidates who can give them an accurate and honest answer to that question," Kolman says. "So that's one aspect of an information session that I think is incredibly valuable for students."