College grads' salaries on the rise

1998 College graduates reported a five percent average salary increase. Few would deny that the study of English, history and political science is good for the mind. But if recent studies are any indication, a liberal arts education may be good for the pocket as well. A survey conducted by the University's Career Services office --formerly known as Career Placement and Planning Services -- shows that students who graduated from the College in 1998 have achieved average starting salaries in their post-college careers of $31,694, an approximately five percent increase from the average salary of $30,112 that members of the Class of 1997 earned upon entering the workforce. Of the 639 College graduates who returned the Career Services surveys, 63 percent, up seven percent from last year's figure, are employed full-time, while 26 percent are involved in graduate studies. A record-low four percent are still searching for employment. The Class of 1998 is the second consecutive graduating class whose average starting salary exceeds the $30,000 mark. Associate Director of Career Services Peggy Curchack polled the 1548 members of the Class of 1998 through a series of mailings but received feedback from only 639 students, or 41 percent of students who received surveys. Curchack attributed the College graduates' continually increasing salaries to the nation's "extraordinarily strong" economy as well as the wider range of career opportunities available to college graduates. Certain data, such as which professions are popular and which courses of study yield higher incomes, have remained largely predictable in the 15 years that the survey has been conducted, Curchack said. The more-business oriented arenas -- consulting and financial services, for instance -- continue to attract many College graduates, as a total of 35 percent of responding students said they were involved in either field and reported an average salary of $37,596 in consulting and $37,730 in financial services. "[Some students feel] that they don't honor the degree if they aren't doing a highly remunerative job," Curchack said, offering one possible explanation for why many College graduates choose to work high-paying jobs. "I tend to believe that that is expressive of something of the culture of Penn," Curchack added. She did note, however, that 13 percent of the most recent respondents currently work in non-profit professions. Curchack also said that different majors continue to earn vastly different salaries. English majors from the Class of 1998, for instance, reported average starting salaries of $30,117, while Economics majors from the same class are making average salaries of $37,728. Curchack said the disparity can be explained in part by the "range of career choices" that English majors and other liberal arts students make, which often encompass varied salaries. There is, however, a significantly lower percentage of College graduates who attend graduate school immediately after completing their undergraduate careers. Of the 166 College graduates currently attending graduate school, 35 percent are enrolled in law school, 25 percent are in medical school and 10 percent are earning their graduate degrees in the social sciences. But although College graduates' salaries remain on the rise, they still pale in comparison to those earned by graduates of the Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. In separate surveys conducted by Career services, Wharton students made approximately $41,000 a year, while those in Engineering made about $43,000 on average. College Dean Richard Beeman could not be reached for comment this week.

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