Vassar College - Economics Department
WHAT OUR GRADUATES ARE DOING...
The following tables and graphs make use of the information collected through a survey
set up by AAVC and sent in early 2011 to all Economics majors who graduated between
2001 and 2010. 193 responses were received, which represents a response rate of 41.6%.
TABLE 1. Number of Majors and Response Rates
Year
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Number of Majors
38
47
49
38
43
46
53
52
60
38
Number of Responses
16
12
17
17
19
20
29
20
27
16
Response Rate
42.1%
25.5%
34.7%
44.7%
44.2%
43.5%
54.7%
38.5%
45%
42.1%
There is a lot of missing information and this problem is compounded by the fact that not
all questions were answered. Notwithstanding, this will likely be as close as we can get to
characterizing the job market activities of our graduates.
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Vassar College - Economics Department
Current Employment
Investment / Financial Service
30.9%
Management Consulting
9.3%
Legal Practice
8.8%
Education
8.3%
Banking (Commercial / Retail)
5.9%
Marketing
3.9%
Health Care
3.4%
Intern. Relations / Development
2.9%
Federal Government
2.9%
Insurance
2.0%
Comp. Science / Inf. Systems
1.5%
Advertising
1.5%
Merchandising / Retailing
1.5%
Accounting / Auditing
1.5%
Others
15.7%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Absolute Number
Sample Size: 193
Unsurprisingly, investment banking and financial services denote the larger concentration
of economics majors. It is interesting to observe the relative importance of law related
careers. Occupations are very diverse, nonetheless, a definite feature of economics and a
selling point for our majors. The "Others" category includes 24 more miscellaneous lines
of work, with a density of one to two graduates each.
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Vassar College - Economics Department
Absolute Number
First Employment Location
120
100
56.0%
80
60
40
32.6%
20
0
USA
4.7%
4.1%
1.0%
1.0%
0.5%
Europe
Asia
Africa
South
America
Oceania
Non
Available
Sample Size: 193
Absolute Number
First Employment Location (USA)
70
53.7%
60
44.4%
50
40
30
14.8%
20
10.2%
6.5% 3.7%
10
2.8% 1.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9%
0
NY NYC DC CA MA CT NJ WA WY CO
RI
MD NC
IL
PA
Sample Size: 108
More than 10% of our graduates find their first job abroad. Most of them are likely to be
foreign students choosing to return home. This number may be slightly higher given that
almost one third of the respondents did not answer this question. Out of those answering
and declaring to have found their first job in the United States, more than half remained
in New York State and most of them in New York City. Washington, D.C. follows as the
second most popular U.S. job destination.
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Vassar College - Economics Department
First Employer Same as Current (%)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
75.0%
31.3%
29.4%
8.3%
2001
2002
26.3%
45.0%
48.1%
2008
2009
31.0%
20.0%
5.9%
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2010
Sample Size: 193
There is significant job mobility among our graduates, which is naturally more evident
the more distant the graduation year is. In general terms, more than two thirds of our
graduates are likely to switch jobs over a five year interval after their graduation.
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Vassar College - Economics Department
Graduate Studies
120
56%
44%
Absolute Number
100
80
60
40
20
0
Yes
No / Non-declared
Sample Size: 193
At worst, more than half of our graduates pursue graduate degrees at some point in their
careers. See the next page for more details.
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Vassar College - Economics Department
Graduate Degrees
45
Absolute Number
40
36.1%
35
30
24.1%
25
23.1%
17.6%
20
15
10
4.6%
4.6%
5
2.8%
2.8%
1.9%
CER
Others
MARC
0
Masters
(Total)
Masters
(Econ
Related)
JD
MBA
MD
PHD
Sample Size: 108
Legend:
JD
MD
CER
MARC
Law
Medicine
Post-Graduate Certificates
Architecture
The percentages are relative to the number of graduates pursuing graduate degrees.
Notice that a large proportion of these degrees are completely unrelated to economics.
MBA's are also (marginally) more popular than the combination of economics related
Master's and PhD's. Once again, the high relative prevalence of law degrees stands out,
consistent with the data on current employment of our graduates. This is not surprising,
given that this particular line of activity, unlike others, requires a graduate degree.
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Vassar College - Economics Department
Average Number of Years after Graduation for Receipt of Graduate Degree
12
10.3
10
7.8
8
6.1
4
6
5.3
6
3.6
4.3
4.3
2
0
Masters
(Total)
JD
MBA
MD
PHD
CER
Others
MARC
Sample Size: 108
There is no data on the enrollment moment for graduate degrees, just the time of receipt
of the degree (anticipated, in some cases). We see that our graduates wait on average four
to five years before starting their MBA (which can last one to two years). By the same
token, given an expected duration of three years for a JD degree, our graduates have
taken an average of one year before starting their law studies.
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