Study Tracks College Graduates, Ten Years Later

What happens to bachelor’s degree recipients after they graduate? The National Center for Education Statistics tackled that question in an ambitious ten-year longitudinal study titled Where Are They Now?: A Description of 1992-93 Bachelor’s Degree Recipients 10 Years Later. The study followed students who earned or expected to earn a baccalaureate degree in 1992 or 1993, and surveyed these students in 1994, 1997, and 2003.  The result was a sample of 9,000 students who answered questions about further education, employment, satisfaction with the college experience, and civic participation.

FINDINGS

Employment

• Most bachelor’s degree graduates (87 percent) were employed in 2003. Graduates primarily held one full-time job (70 percent), while 9 percent held multiple jobs.
• The average salary for 1992-3 bachelor’s degree graduates was $60,7000; the median salary was $52,000.
• Men employed in business and management, education, and research earned more than their female peers in the same professions.

Advanced degrees

• 40 percent of 1992-3 graduates had enrolled in an advanced degree program—25 percent completed their degree, 6 percent were currently enrolled, and 9 percent left the advanced degree program without graduating.
• By 2003, 20 percent of 1992-3 baccalaureate graduates earned master’s degrees, 4 percent earned first-professional degrees (such as MD or DDS), and 2 percent earned PhDs.
• College graduates working in the education field were more likely than those in any other field to hold master’s degrees by 2003 (38 percent for education, versus between 9 percent and 20 percent for other occupational areas).

Satisfaction with Undergraduate Experience

• About 60 percent of 1992-3 bachelor’s degree recipients reported that the quality of instruction they had received as undergraduates remained “very important” ten years later.
• Graduates of private institutions were more likely than their public-institution peers to say that their liberal arts courses were important ten years after graduation.

Civic Participation

• Nearly one-half (47 percent) of the 1992-3 graduates reported in 2003 that they had participated in community service in the past year.
• While a majority (76 percent) of the 1992-3 bachelor’s degree recipients reported voting in the 2002 election, only 36 percent had contacted a public official within the past two years; 15 percent had attended a political event (rally, etc.) within the past year.

The National Center for Education Statistics may be downloaded in its entirety here.

DID YOU KNOW?

• About 78 percent of respondents reported that their undergraduate education was very important in preparing them for their career.
• Nine out of ten 1992-3 bachelor’s degree recipients felt that obtaining a bachelor’s degree was worth the time, effort, and cost. 
• The 1992-3 graduates who had completed a doctorate or first-professional degree by 2003 were more likely than peers with bachelor’s or master’s degrees to participate in civic life by attending political events or contacting their representatives.