<p>My daughter will be graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in May and will be starting her dream job in early July. Yippee and all that. But the reason I am posting this is to combat the seemingly never-ending data about how hard it is for college grads to get decent, well-paying jobs these days in their area of study. I am happy to report that among my daughter's three roommates, her five close colleagues in her major, her 13 sorority sisters, and her boyfriend and his four roommates, they all have managed to already secure a job in their area of study with benefits upon graduation. Granted, many of them are in STEM fields, but some have majored in marketing and communications and yet somehow they have been offered a job ahead of graduation. Truth be told, I find this somewhat miraculous. </p>
<p>But I post this to give people hope, to alert parents who are trying to help their sons and daughters decide which school to head to next fall to the fact that a state flagship university (with its lower costs and perhaps lower "elite" ranking) can yield the results most students and their parents seek: a comparatively affordable education that leads to a job that actually allows the student to use the skills and knowledge that he/she learned in college. Of course, the same can be said of students who graduate from the elite colleges and universities that occupy so much time and space on CC. But if parents are considering going into serious debt so that their kids can attend those schools, please be aware that there may be another path---and one that doesn't break the bank in the same way.</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you as your students make their choices in the next several weeks. Hopefully, the class of 2017 will graduate into a much better economy with widening employment possibilities.</p>