A College Contradiction

This issue is one that has puzzled me for a long time because it's one that puts both the college and the student in between the proverbial rock and hard place.

How does a college balance the fine line between "come to our school and you'll have a wonderful career" and the reality of "you can get a college degree here but that doesn't entitle you to anything afterward"? Because if colleges advertised with the latter, more realistic statement a lot of practical thinking people would wonder why in the world even go to college... and if you push the initial statement only then you will set your students up for certain disappointment.

I recall a student who called me when I was working in admissions who asked what he could expect to make upon degree completion. I told him it would depend where and if he was hired in the field, an answer he wasn't too happy with. He then pressed on, asking if there was a range that could be expected, and if it was too high on your resume if that was deterring employers from hiring graduates from the college I was at. (It turned into a bit of a strange phone call...)

That was when I first started thinking about this paradox of college- and not just the one I worked at but of the whole idea of college. It is a reasonable expectation when one graduates from college to think one will find a job in the chosen field. What I have often heard from students I worked with was disgust at still having to start at entry level positions with entry level pay- despite having a bachelor's degree. They had had the less reasonable expectation of graduating and walking off the graduation stage right into a well paying job doing exactly what they had always dreamed of doing.

In a perfect world it would work like this... but unfortunately our world isn't quite perfect. So at what point do you start introducing the idea of having to still start on the bottom rung and work up with the college degree in hand? Naturally it's hard to recruit that way- though you have to be careful not to go overboard with what's said there on the positive side- but I truly can't imagine anyone would attend Debbie Downer University who says "You can come here, but who knows how long you'll wait to get a job in the field making less than you made at your college job!"

In addition to when is this idea introduced how do you do it without sounding like you're contradicting everything that the student initially thought (whether it was said or not) about the university and disillusioning them about the school that seemed perfect coming in? It's definitely a tough call and line to walk for the college career counselors. This isn't to say that no students do find jobs or that it's impossible... but sometimes the reality of the time between graduation and finding the "real" career job can get a little murky at the beginning of a college career.

What has been your experience with job prospect expectations upon graduation? What are yours? What was your experience after graduation?