Expect More. Achieve More.
Career Survey Report - Class of 2001
000The
Career Services Office conducts an annual survey of the previous year's
graduating class to determine the career and employment status of the new
graduates. The 2001 survey was
mailed out in early January to 1,107
alumni representing bachelor degree graduates from January, May, and August
2001. A second mailing was sent
out in February, and follow-up phone calls were made in April and May. For the third year, we utilized an on-line survey located on
our web site that allowed graduates to send their results to us over the
Internet.
Through all of these efforts we yielded a total of 541 replies, a response rate of approximately 50 percent. Appendix A provides a comprehensive listing of the majors included in each field of study and the number of respondents from each major. The chart below offers a short summary of the respondents
| Fields of Study | # of Respondents |
| Social Sciences | 144 |
| Education | 127 |
| Management | 88 |
| Humanities | 129 |
| Sciences | 53 |
Six
months to a year after graduating, 89 percent, of the class of 2001 were
employed. Of those employed, 95 percent were employed on a full-time basis and 5
percent were employed part-time.
Fifty-eight
graduates indicated that they were not currently employed.
These respondents fell into one of the following categories: they could not find
employment it their field or location (16), they were in graduate school (24 percent), or they were not looking for employment
(18 percent).
Out
of 58 Not Employed Reasons
The unemployment rate (3.5 percent) for the Class of '01 was up 2 percent from the previous year's graduates. This is not surprising given the economic downturn that started in 2001. The unemployment rate of BSC graduates for the Class of 2001 was still slightly lower than the regional unemployment rate of 3.7 percent during the same time period.
The graph below illustrates the BSC unemployment rate over the past five year.
Unemployment Rates of BSC Graduates: 1997-2001
Bridgewater graduates continue to work in the
Commonwealth and contribute to the vitality of the Massachusetts economy;
approximately 94 percent of this year's respondents are employed in the state.
For the Class of 2001 graduates, only 3 percent indicated that they were
employed in other New England state, and 3 percent outside the Northeast.
Fields of Employment
The
Class of 2001 graduates are employed in a variety of fields.
Thirty-eight percent indicated that they were employed in
Business, either manufacturing or non-manufacturing. Thirty percent
reported employment in Education (including Elementary, Early Childhood,
Physical Education and Special Education), 14 percent in human services
and non-profits and 9 percent in health-related fields.
Given the educational preparation of our graduates, these results are not
surprising. The vast majority of
respondents were Management Science, Education, and behavioral science majors.
The number of graduates in government positions increased slightly from
5.0 percent in 2000 to 6.2 percent in 2001.
Relatively
few graduates indicated that they were self-employed (11), in the Military (3)
or in volunteer service (1).
Relation of Position to Academic Major
Graduates
were asked to identify the degree to which their position was related to their
academic major. Seventy-seven
percent felt that their current position was either directly
or somewhat related to their major,
down 5 percent from 2000. Even with
the job market beginning to change in 2001 most graduates have had the
opportunity to secure positions closely related to their field of study.
BSC Preparation
Graduates
were also asked how well they thought BSC had prepared them for their position
by responding to the statement, "The
academic program at BSC prepared me for my current position" using a scale
from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Overall, 84 percent agreed
or strongly agreed with the statement. The response to this question
has stayed consistent over time with responses ranging from 81 to 85 percent
over the past several years.
"The academic program at BSC prepared me for my
current position"
Salary Data
[Out
of the 541 returned surveys, 483 answered the salary range question representing
89% of the respondents.]
Overall
salaries increased since last year's survey despite the economic downturn. On
the upper end of the salary scale were Science and Management majors.
Twenty-five percent of Science majors and twenty percent of Management
majors reported they were making between $42,000 - $51, 000 or more.
In
the $30,000 - $41,000 salary range the percentages were fairly similar for
Humanities (43%), Sciences (46%) and Education (46%). Management students
maintained the highest percentage (61% ) within this range.
For this same range, Education major's salaries for the class of 2001
rose 16 % over the previous year's class.
For
comparison purposes a list of regional salaries and national salaries is
included on page 8.
Class of
2001 Salary Data -
Employed Full-time
Data is represented in percentages.
|
Annual
Salary $ |
Social
Sciences |
Humanities |
Sciences |
Education |
Management |
|
<
12,000 |
2% |
3% |
0% |
1% |
3% |
|
12,000-14,999 |
4% |
3% |
2% |
6% |
1% |
|
15,000-17,999 |
3% |
3% |
0% |
6% |
0% |
|
18,000-20,999 |
3% |
5% |
5% |
6% |
0% |
|
21,000-23,999 |
9% |
3% |
2% |
7% |
3% |
|
24,000-26,999 |
21% |
15% |
9% |
14% |
4% |
|
27,000-29,999 |
18% |
14% |
9% |
14% |
7% |
|
30,000-32,999 |
16% |
24% |
30% |
34% |
19% |
|
33,000-35,999 |
7% |
11% |
7% |
6% |
26% |
|
36,000-38,999 |
3% |
5% |
2% |
4% |
8% |
|
39,000-41,999 |
4% |
3% |
7% |
2% |
8% |
|
42,000-44,999 |
1% |
3% |
7% |
0% |
7% |
|
45,000-47,999 |
2% |
1% |
7% |
0% |
4% |
|
48,000-50,999 |
0% |
0% |
0 |
0% |
1% |
|
51,000
& over |
5% |
3% |
11 |
0% |
8% |
|
Missing |
2% |
4% |
2% |
0% |
1% |
Methods of Obtaining Current Position
Graduates
were asked to reveal what they considered to be the primary source used to
obtain their current position. The
top three ways graduates landed their first job are highlighted below:
Job
Search Strategies:
-
Networking with others 34%
-
Hired from internship or part-time employment 19%
-
Newspaper/help wanted ads 20%
The remaining methods included employment agencies, on-campus interviews, resume referrals, job fairs and job postings on the web. The number of students who found positions using job related website (10 percent) remained the same from the class of 2000.
Ninety-three
students were enrolled in graduate school at the time of the survey, which
represents about 17 percent of the class. Of the ninety-three, 47 were enrolled
full-time and 46 were enrolled part-time. The consistent trend shows that from
1997-2001 between 13 to 17 percent of our graduates go directly on to graduate
school. Increasingly, many graduate programs are encouraging applicants to have
at least a year or two of professional work experience before enrolling.
Of those enrolled in graduate
school, 87 are in masters programs, 3 in post baccalaureate programs, 2 in
professional degrees and 1 in doctoral programs. A list of all the programs, colleges and universities can be
found in
Appendix B.
Internships & Undergraduate Research
Graduates
were asked about their involvement with internships. The vast majority of
respondents (87%) received academic credit for the experience, and most felt the
internship (94%) was related to their field of study. Although there has been a
growing trend by industry to pay interns, most students (83 percent) did not get
paid.
The
chart below identifies the questions asked and the overall response rate from
the 148 graduates who indicated that they participated in an internship. This
does not include student teaching.
| Did you
complete an internship? 27% indicated yes 72% indicated no Did you receive academic credit? Was the internship required of your major? |
Was the internship related to your field? 91% - indicated yes 9% - indicated no Were you paid? |
This year we included a few questions on undergraduate research. The questions asked if the student was involved in undergraduate research and if the experience helped them with the current responsibilities or assisted them in getting their job. The responses are illustrated in the charts below.
Notes/Acknowledgements:
-
Included in Appendix C is a Summary Sheet of the responses to survey items for all graduates. For any major with more than 10 responses we can provide a break out report. Please contact Career Services, at
(508) 531-1328 for details or by e-mail at careersrv@bridgew.edu
-
Special thanks to Denise Diliddo who assisted in the data collection and reports.
Last Modified: October 7, 2003
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