During each of the four officially declared recessions since 1980, the number of people taking the Graduate Management Admission Test — a requirement for most business school applications — peaked or was about to peak. Through Sept. 30 of this year, registrations for the test were running about 11.6 percent higher than in the comparable period of 2007, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the test.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/business/07SCHOOL.html