UChicago employment numbers

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

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.

2

One factor may be that most students who go to the Georgetown School of Foreign Service have a clear idea of their career plans. UChicago places a premium on knowledge for its own sake, and is often contrasted with schools where the atmosphere is more pre-professional. Chicago students are thus unlikely to seek out a career-oriented pathway on day 1 of their freshman year.

Maybe I’m completely wrong. This site is full of smart people; they’ll notice a heap of malarkey pretty quickly, and set me right. Or maybe the above plays a role.

3

One thing you might want to figure out is when the data is collected. A month before graduation vs. 6 months after might give you different pictures of what employment looks like a year after graduation. I didn’t see anything re dates for the G’town survey and the U of C survey was ambiguous (initial survey in May and a follow-up the next Spring (with a much lower response rate). So where did these stats come from? Sounds like May, but how/were they modified by follow-up?)