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!

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.

Two weeks of posts in one

After being out of town for two weeks, I came back to an inbox full of e-mails. Instead of posting each of these separately, I've decided to condense everything into one post:

• An interesting article from The Chronicle of Higher Education about honorary degrees, our commencement this year, and Fr. Hesburgh.
• An article from USA Today about nation-wide graduation rates. It's scary to think that only 53% of students starting college will graduate in six years! We are very fortunate to be in a position where 95% of our students will graduate in four years.
• A survey that shows what we expected: this year, students were more likely to choose a school based on affordability rather than choosing their "dream school."

Sorry to bunch the links together, but there is some good-albeit diverse-reading here!

We're moving on up...

Business Week magazine recently released their rankings of undergraduate business schools with the Mendoza College of Business moving up the number two!  According to their rankings, the best undergraduate business program in the United States is the University of Virginia's Mcintire School of Commerce.

Link to the article

Link to the rankings

MBA program ranked #20

Last week, BusinessWeek magazine ranked the Notre Dame MBA program 20th among US business schools.  Read on for more details and individual rankings and evaluations of the program.

Another department rewarded

Following in the steps of the History Department (recently rewarded for its fellowships, story here), the Industrial Design program was recently ranked as one of the world's top programs by Business Week magazine. The ranking, based on the number of awards won in the past five years, puts Notre Dame in a tie for fourth.

The News and Information article is found here.

Intramural sports

Everyone knows about Notre Dame's varsity athletics, but what about the intramural and clubs sports? The Princeton Review ranked (and we know they love their rankings!) Notre Dame #1 for intramural sports.

In our survey of enrolled students, we routinely find that anywhere between 60-80% of first year students played a varsity sport in high school. With this in mind, it is not surprising that so many of our students play intramural sports.

The year in review

The featured video on www.nd.edu today is "The Year in Review: 2007-2008". It concentrates a bit too much on "Notre Dame is ranked this" and "such and such is ranked this", but is nevertheless a good review of what has happened in the past twelve months. You can find the video by going to www.nd.edu, or also by clicking this link if you're more of a YouTube fan.

Not that the rankings matter, but...

...the new rankings from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity just ranked Notre Dame number sixteen on the list of all national universities.

Obviously, we like to stress that Notre Dame is much more than rankings (like academics; dorms; student life; spirituality; family; and yes, even football), but it does not hurt to have this information in your back pocket at your next college fair!