CPPS survey shows rising incomes for College grads

Students in the College of Arts and Sciences -- and their parents -- fear not: it is possible to earn a living on a liberal arts education. According to a survey conducted by the University's Career Services office -- formerly known as Career Planning and Placement Services -- students who graduated from the College in 1997 have been taking full advantage of the nations' strong economy, posting a 9 percent increase in starting salary over the previous year. After growing by only 10 percent over the previous three years combined, starting salaries for College grads entering the workforce jumped from an average of $27,629 in 1996 to $30,112 in 1997 -- crossing the $30,000 plateau for the first time. And with the strong economy, more graduates are eschewing graduate and professional schools in favor of a paycheck. Whereas only 47 percent of grads went to work in the 1995 survey, a full 56 percent got jobs after their May 1997 commencement exercises. "In a rising tide all boats float," said Associate Director of Career Services Peggy Curchack, who has conducted the survey for every graduating class since 1985. "This is a stunning economy with a huge array of job openings. This has affected all of us -- especially new undergraduates." Curchack surveyed the 1387 members of the Class of 1997 through a series of mailings and heard back from 694, or just more than half. Of those, 56 percent were employed full-time, 30 percent were in graduate school and 8 percent were traveling or in other activities. Only 6 percent were still seeking employment. However, while all graduates seem to be faring better in the revitalized American economy, Curchack's study -- and those performed on graduates in the Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science -- showed a great disparity in income based on the chosen course of study. Within the College, the graduating classes of different majors can have income disparities upwards of $10,000 a year. For instance, while mathematics, economics and political science majors all average starting salaries in the $32,000 to $38,000 range, students with degrees in art history, English and biology are hard-pressed to bring in more than $25,000 a year. "That's true every year," Curchack explained. "The reasons math and econ majors have higher salaries is that a larger percentage of those students choose corporate employment that has the highest salaries." "It's not that English majors make less," she added. "It's that they make choices that result in lower salaries." In fact, consulting, corporate finance and investment banking -- the industries that provide the highest salaries to recent graduates, often at more than $40,000 a year -- draw the majority of their recruiting classes from the social sciences. Meanwhile, the survey found the graduates' lower-paying jobs to be concentrated in education and scientific research. "I have to say that consulting is the real hot ticket right now," Curchack said. "It's not that nobody in English is working in a high-end earning capacity job [but] we've only got one or two making choices to join those sectors of the economy." But while $40,000 may be top money for a College graduate, it is only par for the course for a student coming out of one of Penn's pre-professional undergraduate schools. In separate surveys conducted by Career services, Wharton students made slightly more than $38,000 a year, while those in Engineering made more than $39,000 on average. And students in the combined Wharton and Engineering Management and Technology program bested both, topping $40,000 a year for the second straight year. But according to School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston, starting salaries alone do not give an accurate picture of future success. "First jobs are only a small component of a career," he said. "Arts and Sciences students have built a solid base for a lifetime of achievement, a base that includes an unusual degree of adaptiveness and flexibility. Their first jobs are less indicative of where they will wind up than is true of graduates with more specialized training." And according to Curchack, alumni surveys conducted five years after graduation show that more than 3/4 of the graduates do go on to get graduate degrees, many after spending several years in the workforce first.

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