DD has committed to NEU honors for the fall (and is very excited) and we’ve been getting some mailings. In a recent letter from the co-op/career development office, it was stated that “89% of our students are employed in the same field in which they majored - and…23% of go directly to graduate school.” I was a little surprised at the percentage of students going to grad school. Assuming it also includes professional schools (medical, pharmacy etc.), is this low? How does it compare to other schools? I would expect the number to be high from NEU, so must be misunderstanding the sentence. What do you think?
*23% go directly to graduate school
My daughter is starting NEU in the Fall also. I took that stat to mean that students tend to be employable coming out of their undergraduate studies and so are less likely to go directly to grad school. And in many fields meaningful work experience is way to increase your chances of getting into a good grad school. Maybe I am just looking for the optimistic explanation since my daughter has committed to NEU. But I did find this and am not sure what to make of it, http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2016-02-09/11-colleges-that-often-lead-to-graduate-school
From that article:
“College graduates looking for an edge in the job market often turn to graduate school to gain extra skills and credentials.”
Northeastern grads already have an edge in the job market and do not "need’ an immediate master’s degree to get started in a career.
Also Northeastern has a relatively low percentage of students enrolled in the social sciences and humanities. Those are areas where students are more likely to go directly to grad school.
^This makes the most sense to me, especially as NEU’s career services/counseling has such a good reputation, and the co-ops of course 
.
Yeah, that number seems pretty accurate from my experience - why go to grad school when you have the experience you need? In some STEM fields, your employer will even pay for grad school.
Northeastern offers a 0-6PharmD and some other medical programs, so those are probably not included as “going to grad school” since it’s a combined program.
That stat is probably very close to the national stat (which I don’t have at hand). The reality is, MOST students (at any 4 year university) don’t go to Grad school right away. Many go to work - and never go to grad school. Many go to work and get their employers to pay for grad school.
Also note that some people go into a sciences knowing that they WANT to pursue a PhD and it’s recommended to do that straight after undergrad. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that they couldn’t get employed they just chose a different route.