What do most students do after they graduate

by Toby Maurice March 27, 2018

I thought that it would be interesting to peel back the onion a bit and take a look at some stats surrounding the things that students do after they graduate from college and university.

wipebook whiteboard notebook vnps students that start work

1. Percentage that start work after graduating

Harvard Business Review typically breaks down students who graduate or quit college as: sprinters, wanderers, or stragglers. Interestingly, roughly 35% of the sprinters start a career immediately out of college, while the wanderers and stragglers, you guessed it ... take a little more time to find a job.

wipebook whiteboard notebook entrepreneurs vnps

2. What about starting a company

WOW. According to USA Today earlier this decade saw 45% of "business" graduates immediately start a company after graduating. (Pretty amazing stat if you think about it.) This doubled from the latter part of the 2000s. It only continues to increase, despite the major challenges in being an entrepreneur.

wipebook whiteboard notebook intership vnsp

3. Being an Intern

Statistics show 81% students who've done an internship end up shifting their career directions in more positive areas. It's all the more reason to consider being an intern, even if you're not paid. The experience can act like a litmus test to help individuals understand whether this specific career path is right for them ... Not a bad idea actually.

wipebook whiteboard notebook vnps volunteering students

4. Volunteering

Don't forget about putting in volunteer time which is generally a real eye opener for some and often leads to a lot of other wider opportunities in life. Reports show more than a third of high school students volunteer their time and continue the trend throughout college and after graduation.

wipebook whiteboard notebook college grad vnps

5. Going to Grad School

In 2015, stats showed only 4.5% of millennials were enrolled in graduate school. I was a little shocked at this one actually and thought that it would higher. Basically the fraction of people from ages 21-39 in grad school rose steadily over the past several decades but has levelled out since 2015.

Summary

There you have it, 5 things that students do after they complete college and university:

Start a job;
Start a company;
Be an intern;
Volunteer; and
Go to grad school

Just sayin'...