We have all heard about the bright future that lies ahead of us after leaving the College, especially in such great economic times.
But what really happens after the last note of "Pomp and Circumstance" fades? How is the big green economy affecting the career choices of Dartmouth graduates?
Career counselors and economists disagree on the issue. While economics professor Patricia Anderson said the number of students who pursue many post-graduate paths should change with the economy, Assistant Director of Career Services Kathryn Hutchinson believes in many instances, theory does not coincide with practice.
Hutchinson said the growing economy, first and foremost, increases the variety of employment opportunities available to graduates.
"A strong economy means that there is a greater diversity in the kinds of jobs that are available," she said.
Anderson said, theoretically speaking, in a booming economy graduates should be more willing take advantage of this diversity by pursuing their interests in newer and less traditional fields.
"You would think that when jobs are plentiful, then the risk of taking a job that doesn't work out is obviously smaller," Anderson said.
But Hutchinson said that, even in light of the recent explosion in employment opportunities, students still tend to focus on traditional careers.
"We watch people default to the old traditional things because those are the only things that they've really heard of," she said.
Hutchinson attributes this to the fact that many students are largely uninformed about new economic opportunities.
"To be perfectly honest ... I don't think that the students are aware of the availability of jobs," she said. "There are lots of job opportunities out there, and I think that being in an insulated environment like a college, the students don't get exposure."
According to Hutchinson, in the past four years especially, the demand for Dartmouth graduates in the technology and computer industry has "gone through the roof" -- and, at least in this field, student interest has corresponded with economic growth.
"The main thing that we've really seen is students who are interested in working for a dotcom," Hutchinson said, although she added that students expressing interest in the growing technology industry rarely know exactly what roles they would like to take on within it.
In the financial industry, theorists argue that more students should be attempting to strike it rich in fields such as investment banking --since, in this case, rich means swimming in money.
Anderson said if growth and wages are higher on Wall Street than in other places, as has been the case in recent years, then students would likely be attracted to those higher paying jobs.
But Hutchinson said even in the growing economy, the number of students who pursue finance-related fields such as has not increased.
"There's actually been a decline in finance and an increase in marketing and education" among recent Dartmouth graduates, she said. "A strong economy doesn't mean that people start pursuing something that they didn't have an interest in before."
The section of Career Services that seems to have been the most strongly effected by the economic boom is the one that deals with graduate school applications. The economy may be what has directed more students to delay the pursuit of their interests in graduate study in order to take advantage of financial opportunities.
"I would say generally the trend for the last five years has been to go directly to work for anywhere from one to five years before pursuing further education," Assistant Director of Career Services Ursula Olender said.
And the trend is not limited to simply to business school hopefuls, who traditionally attempt to gain more experience in the field before pursuing graduate studies.
Olender pointed out, in recent years, the average age of students matriculating at both law and medical schools has increased. The average is currently between 24.5 to 25 years old, meaning that many students are attempting to take advantage of the big green economy for up to three years before pursuing further education.
Anderson explained this phenomenon in terms of students' financial incentive to take advantage of higher wages and greater employment opportunities in a growing economy.
"Basic economic models would say that there would be a higher opportunity cost of graduate school" in a booming economy, she said. "You actually tend to see that empirically. Graduate school enrollment tends to swell when unemployment is high."
However Hutchinson does not believe that the rise in graduate school matriculation age can be explained economically.
"It has nothing to do with it," she said. "[Graduates] are not going to employment because it's a strong economy."
Hutchinson said most students who delay graduate studies do so because they want a break from academia or because they do not have a clear enough focus to choose among the myriad of career choices before them.
Olender partially attributes the trend to the new focus of admissions officers to graduate programs.
"Professional schools and graduate schools are looking for students who bring a certain amount of maturity and are able to distinguish themselves in some way," Olender pointed out.
Finally, Hutchinson emphasized the influence of individual preference over the use of impersonal economic tools in prediction of student career choices, pointing out that, in the end, "you go for what you like to do."
Anderson said it is too soon to tell what the effects of the recent stock plunge will be on the graduate labor market, but said that if it does not progress beyond this point, it will probably have little to no effect.
"The fundamentals of the labor market are fine," she said of the current situation.
Anderson feels that while the slight economic changes may affect student interest in specific industries such as investment banking, this year's seniors will face the same vast opportunities that were available to last year's class.
