In September, Frederick C. Austin, a self-made businessman, finances a program at the School of Commerce designed to counter criticism that business schools were producing increasingly technical graduates whose specialization did not prepare them for proper leadership roles or general management positions. The F. C. Austin Scholarship Foundation began auspiciously, informed by its benefactor's goal of creating a "business fraternity on a national scale" that would educate "executives of the future" using the most advanced curriculum. By 1936, however, the program was curtailed due to financial pressures brought on by the Depression. The program would reemerge in 1959, producing several dozen graduates until 1966, when the school dissolved its undergraduate business studies. After that time, Austin Scholars were drawn from the ranks of graduate applicants.

Financial pressures brought on by the Depression nearly induced Northwestern University and the University of Chicago to combine their efforts and form a single university. Discussions between the presidents of the two institutions opened the door for a merger, citing the economies of scale that such an arrangement could bring. Two separate administrations would become streamlined into one, while redundant programming across the universities' colleges would be eliminated. Undergraduate training would occur in Evanston, while graduate-level work would take place in Hyde Park. Controversy over the proposed merger included concerns of Evanston merchants, Northwestern alumni and faculty and students, particularly within the Northwestern medical school.

Professors Delbert J. Duncan and Ira D. Anderson found and direct the school's Retail Service Scholarship Program beginning in 1936. The initiative was a partnership between academics and practitioners, and placed graduate interns with prominent Chicago retail stores, including Sears, Wieboldt's, Carson Pirie Scott and Marshall Field's. The program, which ran until 1947, enjoyed considerable success, producing quality graduates - including future School of Commerce marketing scholars Ralph L. Westfall and Harper W. Boyd.

With an annual operating budget of approximately $650,000 and an enrollment of more than 8,000 full-time and part-time students, the School of Commerce is among the largest and financially successful collegiate business schools in the United States.