Penn State's Smeal College of Business has become one of the most applied to business schools in the nation.

Last year, Penn State received 94,000 applications -- the most out of any school in the country, Randy Deike, associate vice president for enrollment management, said.

Out of those applications, 46,000 were freshman applying to University Park and 6,500 of those applicants hoped to be admitted to Smeal.

Last Wednesday, Smeal was featured on the Web site Businessweek.com in its weekly "B-schools Q&A." The sessions offer a glimpse of the admissions process by chatting with deans from a variety of business schools and MBA programs.

"I chose Penn State because I knew it was very popular this year and it's a big name -- Smeal has a strong academic program," Julie Gordon, businessweek.com reporter, said.

Jim Thomas, dean of Smeal, believes Penn State's first-rate facilities and world-class faculty attract students. "There is no better curriculum in the country for meeting the needs of twenty-first century," he said.

Thomas explained that one of the reasons for the increasing number of Smeal applications is the worldwide knowledge of Penn State's success rate through the accomplishments of some of the 66,000 active Smeal alumni. "It's a cutting edge business program -- the success rate is outstanding with top placement and top salary," he said.

An example of Smeal's success is Patricia Woertz, a 1974 graduate who was been named one of Fortune Magazine's most powerful women for the past eight years.

In May Woertz was named chief executive officer of Archer Daniels Midland Co., one of the world's largest agricultural processors. For 2006, she held the number four position on the list -- the same slot held by Oprah in 2005.

Another reason for Smeal's growing application numbers is the rising interest in business education across the country, Thomas said.

"Business programs are generally reemerging as educational destinations because of changing needs in our society," he said.

Gordon marked the increase in business education by society's focus on professionalism. "It's a good field to make money and apply your degree," she said. "If you are an English major, you might not directly apply your degree to your career.

Penn State is receiving a record number of applications again this year, Deike said. Last year, overall admissions increased by 16 percent, Deike said, adding that if the 2007 admission pool increases by a similar amount, it will break the 100,000 mark.