Despite high levels of unemployment, demand for top- flight MBA students is at a premium and students at leading business schools are being courted by blue-chip companies as never before.

While some second-tier business schools are finding it harder to place students, at top programmes there is growing recruitment competition. As a result, some companies are starting the MBA hiring process even before business school students take their first steps into the classroom.

At Deloitte Consulting LLP incoming MBAs apply to join a consulting immersion weekend that is held a month before school starts. The company says it is a chance for several hundred students to spend a weekend learning about the industry. While Deloitte foots the bill – meals, transport and hotels – it also gets early access to the newest crop of talent.