Post.Harvard

Once the Class of 2015 exits Johnston Gate, its members will go all over the country, and the world, to pursue a wide variety of jobs and other activities in the “real world.” A majority of the class will either stay in Massachusetts or go to New York or California after graduation. Fifteen percent of respondents said they were leaving the country.

The vast majority of seniors, 71 percent, said they will be joining the workforce after graduation. Another 15 percent will head straight to graduate school. Four percent will hit the road to travel. And 9 percent said they are not yet sure what they will do.

Of graduates entering the workforce, 48 percent said they are entering either consulting, finance, or technology/engineering. The survey found some major discrepancies between what seniors are doing immediately after graduation and what they want to be doing in 10 years. For instance, though 34 percent of respondents said they will work in consulting or finance after graduation—a figure consistent with recent years—only 5 percent want to be doing so in 10 years. On the other hand, while 5 percent of seniors are going into health-related fields after graduation, 20 percent want to be working in health a decade from now.

Starting salaries vary widely among members of the graduating class, with 41 percent of respondents saying they will make more than $70,000 and 8 percent saying they will make $110,000 or more right away. As in recent years, salary and field vary meaningfully by gender and race. Forty-nine percent of working men said they will make more than $70,000 after graduation, compared to only 34 percent of working women. While around the same proportions of working men and women are going into consulting and public service, 23 percent of working male respondents said they will work in finance, compared to only 14 percent of women. Of those who are working, 35 percent of white respondents, 33 percent of black respondents, and 32 percent of Hispanic or Latino respondents said they will make more than $70,000 after graduation, compared to 60 percent of respondents who said they were of East Asian descent.

Discrepancies between industry and starting salary also exist among students who participated in different activities during college. Forty-seven percent of respondents reporting that they would make $110,000 or more after graduation concentrated in Computer Science. Twenty-three percent of varsity athletes said they are going into consulting compared to only 13 percent of non-athletes. And 32 percent of people who said they were in a male final club during college said they were going into finance, while only 18 percent of seniors overall said that they are.

Twenty-one percent of respondents said that they or their family members are currently in debt due to college-related expenses. Thirty-eight percent of surveyed seniors said their family’s financial situation had affected their post-graduation plans somewhat or to a great extent, though the industries those respondents are entering roughly match those of the class at large.