Only 2% of last year’s graduating class in the College of Arts & Sciences graduated without a job offer or graduate school admission, the lowest number in recent years, according to Jen Maclaughlin, director of A&S Career Development.
Some highlights of last year’s post-graduate survey include:
- 80% of graduates responded to the survey
- 64% are employed, 31% are attending graduate school, 2% are seeking employment, and 3% are pursuing other endeavors. A&S saw a 5% increase in students attending graduate school; this is mainly due to the popularity of the master’s in engineering program in Cornell Engineering, Maclaughlin said.
- Financial services remains the top employment sector for A&S graduates, with 22% entering the field; technology is in second place with 14%. Education at 12% (which includes students pursuing research at Cornell or other universities), consulting (11%) and human healthcare services (11%) round out the top five employment sectors, as they have for the past couple of years.
- For students pursuing graduate school, computer science remains the top graduate area field, with 30% pursuing that field (up from 14% in 2022 and 24% in 2023). The MEng degree at Cornell is very popular, with 20% of students entering graduate school pursuing the MEng degree.
Maclaughlin credits the College’s first-year advising seminars for at least part of the success for 2024 graduates.
“Career development is now integrated in these seminars, so we are involving first-year students in career-related discussions right away,” she said. “And because of that, we are seeing quite an increase in student appointments with career advisors earlier in their Cornell journey.”
A 2022 student study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that
graduating seniors who used at least one career services offering received an average of 1.24 job offers, with an increase of .05 percent for every additional career services offering they used. Seniors who didn’t use any career center’s services averaged one job offer.
“Through one-on-one appointments, we’re able to help students work on their goals and create a plan for tangible steps to get there,” Maclaughlin said. And no matter what year students are at Cornell, an appointment with career services can help them navigate next steps, whether that be an internship, a grad school application or a full-time job, she said.
Maclaughlin encouraged seniors who are still looking for positions to attend the All-Ivy+ Just-In-Time Virtual Job & Internship Fair on April 10, from 1-4 p.m. The fair connects students to employers who have jobs and internships available right now, she said. More information is available on Handshake.
A&S seniors are also encouraged to come to the A&S Career Development Senior Celebrations on Wednesday, April 23 and Thursday, April 24, from noon-2 p.m. There will be goodies, raffle prizes and photo booth signs to help students celebrate their next steps. Seniors who already know their next steps are encouraged to fill out the 2025 post-grad survey, which includes graduates from December 2024, and May and August 2025.
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