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Graduates get a breather

— Photo: AFP

A job recruiter with a hopeful at the "Keep America Working" job fair in New York City recently.

As the economy collapsed last fall, so did the job prospects of thousands of college seniors; especially those who had set their sights on Wall Street.

But after the initial panic, some students said they felt an odd relief.

Instead of going straight into a 100 hour-a-week job at an investment bank, they are pursuing less lucrative but potentially more satisfying opportunities in public service, enrolling in record numbers in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America. Other students seeking refuge from the recession are flocking to graduate schools, increasing competition for admission.

At elite universities such as Harvard, where about half the graduating class would enter finance and consulting in years past, many students say they feel liberated to consider alternative career paths, crediting not only the tanking economy but also President Barack Obama’s call for public service.

Fourteen per cent of this year’s senior class at Harvard applied to Teach for America, a non-profit organisation that sends graduates to work in low-income urban and rural public schools. The proportion was 9 per cent last year. “There’s always that push to make money and be comfortable, but the financial crisis made me think that there’s a lot more in life than going to get that corporate job,” said Matthew Clair, a Harvard government major who will spend the next two years teaching at an Atlanta primary school. “It gave me a good excuse to take some more time off to do what I’m really passionate about.”

Alea Stein, a Tufts University senior majoring in international relations and Chinese, said she had been planning to work for a large multinational corporation in Shanghai or Beijing. Now, she is considering applying to the Peace Corps to work in a rural village in China. Other students say the tough job market makes graduate school more appealing. Applications across the country have surged, even as some top research universities, including Northwestern, Stanford, and Harvard, have reduced the number of doctoral students whose costs they fully cover. — © 2009 The New York Times News Service

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