Where A&S Grads Are Headed
For the past five years, a majority of graduates have entered or been seeking to enter the workforce upon graduation, while about 1/3 enter or prepare to apply for graduate school. Most Cornellians applying to law school apply a few years after college, usually within one to three years of graduation. The majority of Cornellians applying to medical school take 1-2 gap years after graduation, meaning that they apply as a senior or one year after graduation. This is increasingly common with other graduate and professional programs as well.
Graduates of A&S find success at organizations across the world in a diverse array of career fields: from technology, law, and finance to communications, government, and nonprofits. Similarly, A&S graduates pursue a bright diversity of graduate degrees after finishing their undergrad degrees here. A&S graduates find success in fields like computer science, medicine, mathematics, social sciences, fine arts, business management, law, engineering, and more at schools like Columbia, Georgetown, Brown, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Oxford, Penn, UCLA, Tufts, and Cornell.
About the Data
Cornell University conducts an annual survey of the postgraduate activities of our graduates. The reports provided represent first-destinations as reported by students. Graduates of the College of Arts & Sciences go on to prestigious graduate programs, advanced professional degrees or directly into challenging and rewarding careers.
Overall reports for each major are available for survey years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 (currently being updated). Major reports may include data from multiple graduating classes depending on the number of graduates.
- For majors with 50+ respondents in the most recent year, we provide percentages for the most recent year.
- For majors with 50+ respondents in the last 5 years, we provide percentages for the last 5 years.
- For majors with <50 respondents in the last 5 years, we provide descriptive information, but no percentages.
View and download college and major reports
If you need accessible versions of any of these documents, please contact as_communication@cornell.edu. You will receive a response within 2 business days.
Class of 2023 Outcomes
78% of the Class of 2023 responded to the survey. (n=846)
|
Primary Status |
Percentage |
|---|---|
|
Employed |
67% |
|
Attending Graduate School |
26% |
|
Seeking Employment |
4% |
|
Other Endeavors* |
3% |
* Other Endeavors includes preparing for graduate school, traveling, volunteering, time off.
EMPLOYMENT DETAILS
Class of 2023 graduates reported entering 19 unique sectors following graduation. Sectors not listed below had <1% of the graduating class employed.
|
Employment Sector |
Percentage |
|---|---|
|
Financial Services |
21% |
|
Technology |
15% |
|
Consulting/Professional Practice |
13% |
|
Education |
11% |
|
Human Healthcare Services |
10% |
| Law | 5% |
|
Government |
5% |
|
Other Nonprofit Organization |
4% |
| Communications/Media | 4% |
|
Retail |
4% |
| Other | 2% |
| Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals/Life Sciences | 1% |
| Insurance | 1% |
Salary
- Average: $86,445
- High: $250,000
- Median: $85,000
Top employers
Top Companies who hired Cornellians. 356 unique employers hired Class of 2023 graduates.
1. Amazon
2. Cornell University
3. JP Morgan Chase & Co.
4. Amazon Web Services
4. Microsoft
4. National Institutes of Health
4. Weill Cornell Medicine
8. Deloitte Consulting
8. Epic Systems
10. Capital One
10. Citigroup
10. Goldman Sachs
10. Teach for America
10. Wells Fargo
Other sample employers
• Bloomberg Philanthropies
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
• Duolingo
• Federal Public Defenders
• London Stock Exchange Group
• Mayo Clinic
• McKinsey & Company
• Museum of Modern Art
• NASA
• Netflix
• The Walt Disney Companies
• Uber Technologies Inc.
- United States Department of State
GRADUATE SCHOOL DETAILS
Class of 2023 graduates reported entering 87 unique graduate fields following graduation. Fields/degrees not listed below had <1% of the graduating class enrolled.
|
Graduate Field |
Percentage |
|---|---|
| Computer Science | 23% |
|
Law |
13% |
|
Information Science |
5% |
|
Medicine |
4% |
|
Chemistry |
3% |
|
Physics |
3% |
|
Applied Statistics |
2% |
|
Mathematics |
2% |
|
Biology |
1% |
|
Education |
1% |
|
International Relations |
1% |
DEGREE TYPES PURSUED
|
Degree Type |
Percentage |
|---|---|
|
PhD |
24% |
| MEng |
22% |
| JD | 13% |
|
MS |
10% |
| MPS | 7% |
|
MA |
6% |
|
MD |
4% |
Sample Graduate Schools Attended:
Class of 2023 graduates reported attending 70 unique graduate institutions.
• California Institute of Technology
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Cornell University
• Columbia University in the City of New York
• Duke University
• Emory University
• Georgetown University
• Harvard University
• London School of Economics
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• McGill University
• New York University
• Princeton University
• Stanford University
• University of California-Berkeley
• University of California-Los Angeles
• University of Cambridge
• University of Chicago
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
• University of Oxford
• Vanderbilt University
• Yale University
PRE-PROFESSIONAL 2023 DATA
Pre-Law Students:
Top Law Schools for Class of 2023
- Cornell University
- Harvard University
- New York University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Stanford University
Pre-Med Students:
Top Medical Schools for Class of 2023
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- Harvard University
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Rochester
- University of Pittsburgh