Some colleges do have post-graduate career surveys by major on their web sites. Unfortunately, not all have such information, or have very complete information (such as percentage employed, graduate school, unemployed, pay level, etc.).
Hmmā¦ pretty much every kid I know who got any kind of non-STEM degree from a LAC (or Stanford or wherever) chose to work after college. Some eventually went back to school but plenty seem to be doing just fine with that policy sci/english/whatever degree. They have taken advantage of internships and the connections they offer. You may need a college degree to get certain jobs but you donāt need a pre-professional major. It isnāt that hard to study what calls to you and augment it with some useful skills and take that to the job market if you know how to package it. The jobs I have seen kids get include those that involve analysis (and not heavy math major analysis) with companies large (insurance, health care, banking, real estate) and small (start ups), media (especially news), education, social services, government, advertising, film production, etc. Your D is clearly bright and willing to apply herself - and thatās what sheāll need to succeed. All of the schools sheās considering have good advising and career services. They want to help the students study what they love and be useful to the world with it.
When I was in college, I found the career center at some point my senior year. DS, itoh, was introduced to the career center programs --which included resume writing, presentations by employers, and fully paid travel programs to visit alums in different fields, his freshman year!
I really suspect that your D will explore a little, find her āthingā, and move into where that takes her. (And not having met her but having read your description, Colgate, Bucknell, Wake Forest, etc. sound like places sheād really enjoy.)
Put differently, you are already so on the right track!
@gardenstategal Your experience isnāt the norm. At least at the LACs under consideration, most are getting graduate degrees, particularly those not majoring in Econ or otherwise going into consulting or banking. Sounds great in theory to say non-STEM majors get great jobs with their bachelors degrees, but the data does not support that. You can look at the links posted in this thread as an example to see that isnāt true.
What is the source for this claim? Are you talking about those going to grad school directly after undergrad, or at any point in time (still donāt think itās mostāeven including the econ majors who go on to get MBA or law degrees)?
Davidson recent first destination report says 13%-20% of students go directly to grad school, Bowdoin 15%, Wake 30%, Richmond 28%, Bates 10%ā¦of course there are variances year to year.
Dickinson is one school where over time they report most grads do get an advanced degreeā¦23% go to grad school directly, 59% at 5 year mark (class of 2012), 66% at 10 year mark (2007) but that was higher than the average, probably because of the great recession. https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20084/institutional_research/194/graduates
@itsgettingreal All of the colleges we are looking at for D21 and all of the ones on S19ās list have upwards of at least 70% of the kids getting jobs and not going right to graduate school. Many of them are more like 80%. Believe me, Iāve checked on this.
I donāt know what data you all are looking at. First off, Iām talking about overall and not just right out of undergrad. The stats show far greater than 50% getting grad degrees. I remember seeing about 80% for Carleton recently. Just take a look at Wakeās report for 2017 history majors, for example. Most not immediately attending grad school will end up there based on the jobs I see listed (excluding the consultants and finance kids, who will still likely end up getting an MBA). @homerdog, youāve repeatedly used history as a possible major. My point is, be prepared for grad school because the data doesnāt lie. Same goes for English, political science, psychology, etc.
@itsgettingreal17 Iām talking about percentages of kids taking jobs out of undergrad. And graduate school is on our kids to pay for. They know that. Neither my husband or I needed grad school to work in the business world and we both did great. And that success had nothing to do with where we went to undergrad- just how we performed once on the job. The only advanced degree I see S19 getting is maybe an MBA and he knows heād have to pay for that. He also knows that would be down the road a bit because MBA programs want work experience. As for D21 , I really canāt imagine what advanced degree she would get. She wonāt be an academic. Maaaaybe she would get a masters in psych or social work at some point. Again, she knows that would be on her dime.
I think everyoneās right ā most LAC grads get jobs out of college but most/many go back to school within a few years for grad degree (law, med, MBA, MPP/MPA, MSW, Phd, etc.). So looking at the 70% or whatever who get a job after undergrad is just a slice of the info. I can see why after so many years of school students want a break and want to make sure their grad school path is the right one. I worked 4 years b4 getting my graduate degreeā¦
My husband would say itās the grad school āname brandā that counts most, FWIW. @homerdog ā weāve also told our kids that they will pay for grad school.
For better or worse, Iām not sure that early career salaries can be avoided as a point of consideration when comparing post graduation outcomes from curricularly and geographically similar colleges. For example, the first few NESCAC LACs by this measure (from data in US News) place in the order of Hamilton, Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin. Impressions related to career centers and networking across the NESCACs might need to be superseded by this firmer data, as might also be the case for other sets of comparable colleges.
@homerdog: Iāve read most of the thread with respect to your daughterās criteria, and think the University of Richmond should be among her top schools to research further. Its only āmissā appears to be that itās set about six miles from downtown Richmond.
Did you say communications is an interest? If so, thatās a real strength at Elon and they have great connections in the media industry. We have a friendās D who is starting there this fall as a communications fellow. It provides lots of benefits and a small merit-based scholarship ā hereās more info: https://www.elon.edu/u/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/fellows-programs/communications-fellows/
@AlmostThere2018 Hm. I go back and forth on Elon. The ACT scores are low-ish and it only gets three stars for academics in the Fiske Guide so Iām not sure what that means. Gives me pause. One comment in Fiske also has a student saying that their courses arenāt as rigorous as other schools but they make up for it in experimental learning. Also not sure what that means. Need to look at that moreā¦
Yes, I have heard Elon is big on experiential learning ā itās a pretty career-focused small university. If you fly to RDU to visit Wake (other thread!) itād be directly on your way for a visit. Itās a very small town but thereās suburban type shopping nearby.
Most humanities-major grads I know are launched into careers, not in grad school. Iām sure some do go, but most of the ones I know went right to work.
That said, some employers will cover a big chunk of grad school costs (Dās for instance) so why not take advantage of that benefit. Even if an employer wonāt cover, it can be worth doing as one works to enhance career opportunities. IMO grad school isnāt a bad thing, thoughtfully done it can lead to a higher income and better career. That doesnāt mean the person couldnāt have a good career prior to that.
OPās daughter sounds like my niece except that nieceās high school was small. 100% of the graduates go to 4 year colleges, many to catholic schools because it was a catholic high school and many catholic universities seem to be in that 5000-10,000 size range. Niece was in the top % of her class, wanted a liberal arts experience but at a bigger school than a typical sized LAC. Her picks were BC, Vandy, USC (California), and a few others like that. Refused to apply to her own flagship but did apply to the California ones (although I donāt think she ever really wanted a school that big). She also applied to Brown and Duke without a lot of hope of admission. Her BFF also applied to a lot of those schools too. They were very similar in grades and scores, and even shared an office in student government (co-senior class secretaries) Niece was more athletic and the friend is truly an excellent writer, and I know the friend was accepted to more schools than niece, Iām sure it was that extra boost from the essays that got the admissions since their stats were otherwise almost identical. In the end, they both picked USD, were in the honors program. They both were very happy with the size of the school (about 6000), the course choices, Greek life (in different sororities), study abroad (same time, different countries).
After graduation, niece moved home and worked for the professional sports franchise while the friend went to DC directly to law school. Friend is extremely successful, was very involved in law school, on law review, hired by a big firm, clerked for a federal judge. After a year, niece ended up in DC also, just by chance, and is working in a job that doesnāt exactly match her undergrad degree (International studies?) but that she enjoys very much and sheās progressing through the ranks. Yes, there is life after college with a non-STEM degree.
If OPās daughter didnāt like Wisconsin (very hard for me to fathom anyone not liking Wisconsin), maybe William and Mary or UVA would be a good public option. Smaller schools, smaller towns. Clemson or U South Carolina honors program?
Iāve been absent here lately, so just chiming in without having read previous responses. Itās not warm, but I would look hard at St. Lawrence. Great school spirit, phenomenal alumni network. A motivated student could absolutely write their own ticket there.