New Groundbreaking Book By Jeffrey Selingo: "There Is Life After College"

By Megan (Weyrauch) Johnson on May 5, 2016

An exclusive survey of 752 young adults to be featured in the forthcoming book, There is Life After College, revealed that two-thirds of new college graduates fail to find meaningful employment in the years after they graduate, according to this press release. This nationally representative study of people between the ages of 24 and 27 revealed these students drift from job to job, live with their parents, or work part-time jobs that don’t require a college degree.

uwire.com

Conducted by higher education consulting firm Maguire Associates, the survey found that landing a job right after college depends more on what students did during their time in school rather than on where they went to school. Factors included whether they chose a major early on, took on little or no debt, or worked as interns.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, today’s college graduates are taking longer to reach key markers of adulthood like getting married, buying a house, and having kids. Students today reach financial independence around the age of 30, when in the ’80s young adults achieved this goal by the age of 26.

Additionally, massive shifts in the global economy have had an impact on people in their twenties with little work experience. According to the Federal Reserve reports, nearly half of recent college graduates are underemployed, which means they have jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree; also, the average wage of workers with a bachelor’s degree has declined 10 percent since 2000.

According to the survey, students launch into a career after graduation as Sprinters, Wanderers or Stragglers. Here is a chart taken from the press release to describe the difference between these three terms.

Sprinters Wanderers Stragglers
Sprinters move right into full-time work related to their major or go directly to graduate school with specific plans. Determination and experience are markers of Sprinters. 80% of them had an internship in college; 64% were sure of their major going to college. Wanderers take about half of their twenties to get their start in a career. Students who drift through college are likely to become Wanderers afterwards. Only 50% of them had internships in college and were sure of their major going off to school. 66% of Wanderers are women. For Stragglers, most of their twenties are spent trying to get their start in a career. Delay and indecisiveness best describe Stragglers. They often take off time from college or go part-time. 75% of them didn’t hold any internships while in school.

Sprinters

This group includes those who jump right into their career after college or those on a path to a successful launch after completing some additional education. Sprinters have less than $10,000 in student loan debt in general, typically majored in the STEM fields and found a job within six months of graduation.

About 35 percent of young adults are considered Sprinters, with about eight in 10 of them having had at least one internship while in college, and two out of three of them sure of their major when they began school.

Wanderers

Wanderers are young adults who are less sure of their major as they go to college or change it often while there, sitting in the middle of the pack of young adults. These students often move back in with their parents for a few years after they graduate, and began working in jobs unrelated to their majors or didn’t work at all in the first six months after graduating. Wanderers usually take jobs that don’t require a degree (i.e., baristas, nannies, etc.) and stay in them for years after graduation.

http://www.theenquirer.co.uk

According to the survey, about 32 percent of young adults are Wanderers, and half of them didn’t have any internships while in college. Women make up about 66 percent of Wanderers, and men who would likely become Wanderers don’t go to college immediately after high school if at all, and then fall into the Stragglers group.

Stragglers

Stragglers typically go to college part-time, many times ending up not graduating with a degree and frequently changing jobs once they choose a career (which takes nearly their whole twenties to figure out). Stragglers make up 33 percent of young adults according to the survey, and about 75 percent of Stragglers do not pursue an internship in college. Only about one-third of Stragglers were sure of their major when they went to college, and oftentimes Stragglers don’t work for years after they graduate.

The findings of the survey are used in the book There is Life After College, which explores why gaining admission to college isn’t enough for a teenager to successfully launch into their twenties, as what students do in college is more important than where they attend. Author Jeff Selingo creates a portrait of what navigating the transition into adulthood looks like for present-day students, focusing on a student’s fundamental experiences both in and out of school and how these shape a student’s standing in the job market.

Some recent reviews of the book include the following, taken from the press release:

Essential reading for high school and college students and their parents. Selingo doesn’t just provide the answers, he makes sure his readers know the important questions to ask. Students looking for a roadmap to the future should get this book and heed its advice.”
– Patricia Rose, Director of Career Services, University of Pennsylvania

“A necessary and thoughtful contribution to the conversation on the role our colleges and universities play in preparing students for young adulthood. Everyone who has an interest in the development of today’s college students and tomorrow’s leaders should read it.” 
– Dan Porterfield, President of Franklin & Marshall College

With his writing featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Slate, and with appearances on ABC, CNN, PBS and NPR, Selingo is a special advisor and professor of practice at Arizona State University. Selingo has written about higher education for two decades, including two books: College (Un)bound and MOOC U.

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