High school students feel more pressure than ever to go to the "right" college.

U.S. News & World Report

But where a student goes isn't as important as what they do there, says a new report from Gallup and Purdue University. Regardless of what type of college students attend, or how selective the school is, they're no more likely to be engaged in their jobs after graduation or rate their well-being higher.

The experiences students have in college, however, do make a significant difference.

"Instead, the answers may lie in what students are doing in college and how they are experiencing it," the report says. "Those elements – more than any others – have a profound relationship to a person's life and career. Yet they are being achieved by too few. It should be a national imperative … to change this."

Only 39 percent of college graduates who are employed full time are engaged in the workplace, the report showed. Those who are engaged had different experiences in college than those who aren't, meaning if colleges prioritize increasing opportunities for students in certain areas – like internships, for example – it could lead to better life quality and work engagement for graduates.



Courtesy Gallup

Although more graduates in science or business work full time, slightly more graduates who studied arts and humanities or social science are engaged at work.

Courtesy Gallup

The report analyzed how six college experiences – described as either "support" or "experiential and deep learning" – affected their work engagement later in life.

Courtesy Gallup

An increased likelihood of work engagement is highest if graduates believe college prepared them for life outside of school (2.6 times greater) or if they believe their college was passionate about the long-term success of its students (2.4 times greater). Graduates who achieved all three supportive learning experiences in school – they had a mentor and felt professors cared about them as people and made them excited to learn – are 2.3 times more likely to be engaged at work. Deep learning experiences – internships, projects and extracurricular activities – also correlate with a 2.4 times increased likelihood of work engagement.

Still, only 3 percent of graduates achieved all six undergraduate experiences.

Ratings in well-being also show room for improvement. More than 1 in 6 graduates aren't thriving in any category of well-being Gallup measured, which the report says "suggests that many graduates are still waiting to experience that 'great life'" they thought a college education would bring.

Gallup identified five categories of well-being: purpose, financial, social, community and physical. Physical well-being among graduates – if they feel like they were "active and productive" every day for the last seven days and if their physical health is "near-perfect" – had the lowest score at 35 percent. Purpose had the highest rating at 54 percent. The category measures if graduates like what they do every day and if they learn or do something interesting every day.

Well-being relates to engagement at work as well. Graduates' odds of thriving in all areas of well-being are 4.6 times higher if they are engaged at work.



Courtesy Gallup

Graduates with less debt also are more likely to be thriving.