The Smartening up of American continues. Having already smartened up and stopped applying to law schools, it appears that more Americans are now smartening up not applying to business school, either. Just how smart can America get?

At least this smart:

This year, application volume was down at 21 of the top 30 full-time MBA programs, according to data collected by Bloomberg Businessweek. The decline in applications is a trend that appears to be accelerating, with eight additional schools reporting declines in application volume this year over 2010.

Could it be that all those thousands upon thousands of bright young things who spent the past decade flocking to business schools were motivated not by love of learning, but by some tawdry financial considerations? Hey, just because the corporate and financial sectors are now completely vilified and you can't get hired there anyhow is no reason to give up on your pure, untainted love of spreadsheets and marketing strategy case studies. Go to business school whether it will make you money or not! The passion for wearing suits and attending professional conferences is what really matters.

What else are you going to do? Occupy Wall Street?

[Businessweek via Inside Higher Ed. Photo: Patricia Drury/Flickr]