Helpful links

As admitted students become more interested in statistics like job placement, internships, average starting salaries, etc., it is important to keep up-to-date with Notre Dame's information in these areas. Below are some links to help answer questions and guide your conversations with students.

Future Plans Data

Based on an annual survey of graduating seniors, The Career Center complies a profile for graduates of each individual college and also the University as a whole. The most recent numbers -- for the class of 2008 -- show that, at graduation, only 2% of graduates were still seeking employment (meaning 98% were placed in employment, graduate/professional school, service programs or the military).

A bit further down on that page is the average starting salary for students based on college.

Below that might be the most helpful information on the page. If you click on one of the majors, you will find a profile of future plans for students graduating in that academic area. For example, clicking Chemical Engineering will show you that 67% of Class of 2008 graduates had full-time employment plans, 25% planned on furthering their education, and 8% were going into service. The average starting salary of the 24 chemical engineers who reported a figure was $62,346, and the employers, graduate schools and service organizations are also listed.

This example would be a great opportunity to explain to a student that, although Notre Dame may not be known as an "engineering school", graduates from that college are still incredibly well prepared for their future endeavors.

Internship Survey Data

Students also want to know about internships -- they may not know what they are, but it's a question that is almost always asked as they search for the right college. The link above will take you to a page with more information than you could ever want about internships (broken down by college, year in school, geographic location, pay type, experience type, etc.).

This page, like the one for job placement, will also break down the information by major.

College Salary Report

Last summer, payscale.com conducted a survey to determine the "best investment" for an undergraduate education. 1.2 million users of the website reported their salaries and education credentials, and those without an advanced degree were considered in the final figures (to determine the value of the undergraduate education).

Notre Dame ranked eighth on the list, with a median mid-career salary of $121,000 and a starting median salary of $55,300.

If there are any other questions we can answer, or information we can provide, please do not hesitate to let me know!

The value of alumni connections

As members of the Notre Dame Family, we all understand the importance of the relationships we created as students and the vast network of alumni spread throughout the world. With the economy falling into tough times and jobs becoming more difficult to find, that networking becomes increasingly valuable.

But, did you know that university career centers often make resources available for alumni well after they graduate? Notre Dame's Career Center has always had a link on their website for graduates of the University, but they have recently expanded their resources to provide a greater benefit to the thousands of alumni around the world.

Last Friday, The New York Times ran an article about career centers reaching out to those who have been out of school for quite some time; an allusion to our Career Center was included. If anything, the article reaffirms how fortunate we are to be members of the Notre Dame Family.

Notre Dame ranked 8th on PayScale's "College Salary Report"

Notre Dame is ranked No. 8 on PayScale’s recently released “College Salary Report,” a list of salaries of graduates from hundreds of colleges and universities.

The numbers represent 1.2 million users of PayScale’s Web site who reported their salaries and educational credentials in a survey over the last year. The rankings are by median mid-career salary (minimum 10 years out of school).

Notre Dame’s median mid-career salary is listed as $121,000 and its starting median salary is $55,300. Topping the list is Dartmouth College, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

The data include only survey respondents whose highest academic degree is a bachelor’s, as PayScale’s goal is to determine which undergraduate educations are the “best investment.”

In addition, PayScale ranks the “Top 10 College Majors that Lead to High Salaries” − all of which are offered at Notre Dame as majors or concentrations within fields of study. They are listed in order as aerospace, chemical, computer and electrical engineering, followed by economics, physics, mechanical engineering, computer science, and industrial and environmental engineering.

Click here to see the rankings.

What are you doing next year?

Seniors absolutely love to be asked the magical question, "What are you doing next year?" as they complete their college studies and prepare for the real world. But in all seriousness, what are Notre Dame graduates doing after college?

In the past, our office was asked what percentage of our graduates were "placed"--in a job, graduate school, service work, the military, etc.--after graduation. Notre Dame, quite proudly, boasts a nearly-100% placement rate for its graduates within six months of graduation.

More recently, however (perhaps because of our current economic situation), the placement questions are becoming more pointed. Instead of asking the percentage of our graduates who are placed, prospective students and parents are now asking WHAT our graduates are doing after Notre Dame (for example, I often get the question "What do you do with a degree in Political Science?").

The Career Center has an amazing website which not only provides the placement statistics for classes as a whole, with 2007 as the most recent, but also allows you to search their data by college and major. This is a great tool to share with prospective students and parents and probably contains more information than they will ever want.

Here's a link to the site: http://careercenter.nd.edu/about-us/career-and-internship-data/future-plans-data