I am a senior considering between UChicago and Georgetown School of Foreign Service, but was concerned about going to Chicago after looking at their employment numbers after students graduate and comparing them to Georgetown’s.
At Georgetown SFS, 80% are employed after graduating, and 9% are at grad school; only 5% are seeking employment and 1% are undecided (https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/hgo1otoernjss0f5otleedn5ksxjnmdj pg 10 of the pdf).
According to this website https://careeradvancement.uchicago.edu/about/outcomes-data 54% at UChicago are employed upon graduation, 17% are at grad school, and 6% are “travel volunteering or studying for exams.” What concerns me is that 15% are “actively searching” for jobs and 8% are “unsure of post-graduate plans.”
So it seems like at Georgetown only 6% either can’t find a job or aren’t doing anything, while at Chicago that’s true of 23% of recent graduates. Could anyone at or graduated from Georgetown or Chicago shed some more light on these statistics if it seems like I’m getting it wrong? Or anyone who knows about how these statistics work if maybe I’m misinterpreting them. Do you think this should impact my college decision?
I wouldn’t put too much stock in the detailed percentages because the colleges do not keep exact track of every graduate, and to the extent that they do so it’s intermittent. So when the survey was undertaken can affect the numbers. Frankly, I wouldn’t try to make much out of the observed differences, and would instead focus on what kind of education I could get at the two universities and how fit are the two to my own tastes and interests.
UChicago has had placement issues for a long time. That said, the administration has recognized this as a problem and has made some major investments in their career services department to help with job placement. Placement at UChicago is not as strong as it is at peer universities, but the school is working to rectify that.
It also may have to do with the methodology of the surveys at the different schools, or even when the surveys were taken - 3 months out, 6 months out, 2 years out? How were responses collected? Did working at Starbucks part time while looking for a job in your chosen career count as employment or as looking for a job? It depends on how you ask the question and how you tally the responses.
Traditionally, a larger percentage of Chicago graduates go on to grad school or professional school, while a larger percentage of Georgetown students go straight into the workforce.