Grad School Beckons Senior Job Hunters Poor Economy Prompts Students to Reevaluate Future Plans

Author: Claire Bourne

The Class of 2002 arrived at Middlebury College four years ago in the midst of the dot-com boom. The prospect of finding a desirable job was favorable, and seniors had the upper hand in the recruiting process.

Graduates with bachelor's degrees in engineering and computer science boasted up to 12 job offers, while liberal arts majors stepped right into positions at Internet companies and consulting and financial firms, The New York Times reported on Feb. 22. Furthermore, The Times continued, 22 year-olds fresh out of college were signing bonuses of $10,000 or more.

Today, the Class of 2002 faces the tightest job market the nation has seen in a decade. The number of on-campus recruiters to visit the College's Career Services Office (CSO) this year has plummeted. In comparison to last year's class, 50 percent fewer job-hunting seniors will successfully obtain employment by the end of the academic year, Executive Director of Career Services Jaye Roseborough said. Moreover, The Times article estimated a 20 to 25 percent reduction in jobs available to students with bachelor's degrees.

Seniors are not concerned anymore with securing a dream job. They are worried about not finding a job, period. Confronted with dwindling vacancies in many sectors traditionally open to Middlebury graduates, some members of the Class of 2002 have decided to avoid the job market altogether. That is, at least for the moment.



The Prospect of Law School



Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science Murray Dry said he had never seen so many Middlebury students interested in pursuing post-graduate law studies. "I have been advising more students about law school this year than ever before," he commented.

In the fall, Dry conducted three preparatory courses for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), the first such classes ever offered by the College. Whereas Dry had advised "one or two" students about law school in previous years, the LSAT prep program attracted 25 seniors.

He attributed the significant increase in interest to both the current economic downturn and the lack of job opportunities in higher education. "When the economy is weak, students stay in school," he explained.

Lee Rowland '02, who participated in one of Dry's fall semester courses, said she would have applied to law school regardless of the state of the job market. She added, however, that she now considered the weak economy "another good reason to go."

On the other hand, Kevin King '02 and Jonathan Shapira '02, both of whom planned to enter law school next fall, said that the sagging economy prompted them to put off graduate studies for a couple of years.

"I think the poor job market encouraged me to look into graduate school options but then discouraged me from applying to law school because it seems like so many other people are applying to law school this year," Shapira elucidated. Consequently, Shapira will attend the London School of Economics to earn a M.A. in History of International Relations.

King had already submitted applications to more than six institutions when he "decided time off was the right thing" for him. He said that the destabilized economy initially influenced his decision to apply to law school. "Now, I'd say that the 'down' economy has made applying to law school a lot harder, given that many ex-dot-com employees who went directly from undergraduate [studies] to the workforce are now applying," he explained. According to the Law School Admission Council, applications to law school nationwide were up 25.2 percent over last year's figure as of Jan. 26.

King will reapply for the 2003-2004 academic-year "when things look a little better in terms of the volume of applicants."



Graduate School Versus Real World Experience



"Our concern around law school is that a lot of people apply and go for the wrong reasons," Roseborough affirmed. "They go because they don't know what else to do, or because they believe the entire job market is closed to them." For students who do not intend to pursue a career in law or a related field, she continued, "graduate school is not the panacea that I think people are looking for."

Associate Director of Recruiting and Senior Year Programs Donald Kjelleren explained, "Some students think they should sit out the bad economy by defaulting to graduate school. To think that you have to wait for the entire world to shift so that you can get one desirable offer is an extremely self-limiting assumption at best."

What students "most need to do to obtain employment," Roseborough continued, is to conduct an effective job search. "Education is a wonderful thing," she said, "but past a certain point, what an employer wants to see is somebody who has done something. I'm not sure that any general graduate program would boost one's chances [of employment] later on."

Once out of law school, a student will encounter the same competitive job market — their own classmates and graduates from the three years they had been in law school — he or she could be tackling now, she added.

Dry, too, expressed concern about students applying to law school to ride out the weak economy. "I wouldn't recommend that students go to law school just because they can't get a job," he said. "If their reasons [for applying] are sound, most Middlebury students can get into an accredited school."

Shapira explained that waiting two or three years before submitting law school applications would allow him time to gain "more perspective and experience."

In addition to stressing the importance of learning how to effectively network with employers, both Roseborough and Kjelleren cited post-graduate internships as a viable option for those looking to break into the job market. The Times article also noted that such temporary positions were gaining in popularity.

King, for instance, said that he planned to work on Gov. Bob Taft's (R-Ohio) re-election campaign over the summer and then "likely continue on with that administration" in the fall.