By Sheri Mahaney
Career Development
One of the most important publications the CALS Career Development Office produces every year is the annual Post-Graduate Survey Report outlining what CALS B.S. recipients do following graduation. This publication is used extensively throughout the College to demonstrate the excellence and variety of activities in which our students are prepared to participate as a result of their academic experience in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell.
This year, we achieved an all-time high 77 percent response rate, the second highest response rate among the colleges and schools at Cornell. Data collection began in January 2005 with a university-wide effort to collect information from December graduates online. Additional electronic mailings were sent to these recent alumni as well as to May and August graduates. Follow-up paper surveys, emails to department faculty and staff, and phone calls to non-respondents by the CALS Career Development staff in mid-January rounded out the survey collection process which closed in February 2006. We achieved responses from 636 of our 827 graduates.
Here are some of the highlights from the class of 2005:
- 53 percent of the respondents reported full-time employment, professional internships, military service, and paid positions with service organizations as their primary status.
- 73.8 percent of employed graduates are working in the private sector, 11.6 percent in education, 8.1 percent in other nonprofit, and 6.5 percent in government.
- 33 percent of the respondents elected to pursue graduate/professional study.
- The median salary for employed graduates was $39,500.
To view the entire CALS Post-Graduate Report, go to: http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/current/career/discover/postgrad.cfm. In addition to the 2005 report, you can also view reports from 2003 and 2004.
The CALS Career Development Office is now in the process of collecting data on the class of 2006, so if you know of B.S. recipients for December 2005, or May or August 2006 who have finalized their plans, please direct them to our website at: http://www.cals.cornell.edu/current/career/ to complete an online survey, or contact Sheri Mahaney at sfm3@cornell.edu for more information. We would love to hear from you!