Is there some website or source providing the placement rates of undergraduate students of all universities and colleges?

Is there some website or source providing the placement rates of undergraduate students of all universities and colleges?

Placement in what?

I want to know the general placement rates of the colleges’ undergraduate students after they graduate from school within 6 months or one year.

Linked in. You can go to the college pages on linked in and it will tell you where their grads end up working. Of course, it’s not going to break it down student by student. I don’t know how many colleges used linked in. Worth a shot.

You can also use pay scale to get a general idea of the salaries earned post grad by looking up college outcomes.

AFAIK, there is no one site that has all the info.

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If you are interested in an indication of employment prospects, then you may want to view the U.S. News entries for colleges of interest. In the section “After College” you can see the median starting salary of alumni. As an example, this is the site for Williams: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/williams-college-2229.

Most universities have a “first destination survey”. Google the “school’s name + first destination survey” for the universities on your list. You should get starting salary information by major as well as company names and geographic locations. If you can’t find it online, contact the school’s career center.

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Don’t most schools list this by major what the outcomes are yearly?

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https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/ has post-graduation pay levels of graduates who got federal financial aid.

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Unfortunately, many colleges do not have have publicly accessible post-graduation survey results, and many that do have them do not have them by major. Also, they are not reported consistently across colleges (e.g. how long after graduation, median versus mean pay levels, etc.).

I guess it’s just on the main schools that I am interested in. Didn’t really realize that.

The UCs and CSUs do this well. I assume some of the other big state systems might do it too. Once you get to the privates, it’s likely to be wild Wild West.

College Scorecard is probably the best bet outside the school sites although it’s a smaller sample.

I will add that employment numbers are going to be wildly subjective, whatever the source. Those in the legal industry may remember that about ten years ago there were multiple class actions against multiple law schools that inflated their employment data to make it look like the prospects for graduates were much rosier than the reality. This exposed how easy it is for schools - in the case law schools, but it applies to any school - to inflate and even outright fabricate employment data if no one is very closely monitoring how schools are documenting student outcomes. Of course it’s useful to look at whatever data is available, but I would honestly take it with a huge grain of salt.

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Related to @Illinoisparent12’s comment, occasionally I will see something about percentage employed in a field related to the major, or something like that. Even that can be gamed, though. What I really would like to know as a parent is, what percentage of students have full-time employment in a field requiring a college degree? And what percentage have full-time employment in a field related to their major that requires a college degree? Some majors, particularly those in the humanities, it’s not expected to be in a related field (i.e. philosophy). But it would be nice to know whether it’s a job that needed a college education, and whether it’s a permanent full-time job or just part-time/temporary.

If anyone finds schools or a data source with the information I’d like, please let me know. If not, follow @Illinoisparent12’s caveat. :slight_smile:

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All of these will have confirmation bias. Very few alumni are going to respond “since graduating in May, I have been spending the past eight months living in my parents’ basement, trying to find a job, any job”.

Same thing when you look at LinkedIn. A person who does not have a job will not have a LinkedIn page, and if they do, they will rarely write “unemployed”.

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Of the hundreds of possible selection criteria, this should rank among the lowest. First, the data are bad. Second, first job does not equal long-term career success. Third, this a a great question to ask of a vocational school, not an institution of higher learning. And fourth, career success has MUCH more to do with the individual seeking the career than the college.

Thank you very much for all the reply above.

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I wouldn’t trust numbers such as placement rates reported by a school. They have every incentive to puff up those rates to make themselves look good.

The better question is, why would your son/daughter depend upon a college to “place” him/her in a job? It is up to the individual.

The quality of career counseling at schools can vary just as much as the quality of dorms, cafeteria food, or the strength of any academic department. Though not a perfect indicator, the job placement rate will to some extent reflect that quality among schools of similar tier.

Lots of people spend time fretting about college food, when, in my experience, whether they have a job upon graduating will matter much more to their overall level of happiness in school. Looking for a job can be anxiety producing.

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