As the economy continues to decline, more college graduates are filling out graduate school applications than job resumes.
The bullish market of the 1990s has turned bear, constraining the job market. And as many graduates have noticed, one can post a resume online and wait and wait for the inquiries to come.
Five years ago, when the economy was booming, companies stormed college campuses for prospective employees. But this year, the wilting market is forcing businesses to lay off workers and cancel appointments for college job fairs. Some graduates have even had firm job offers rescinded.
"The crash in the tech sector and the Nasdaq dried up a lot of jobs for college grads," said economics Professor Gilbert Metcalf. A similar trend occurred during the recession of the early 1990s, Metcalf said.
With fewer jobs available, graduates are eyeing spots at graduate schools. The nationwide trend, however, has not been as clearly reflected in Tufts' official enrollment figures.
Tufts graduates between 1,100 and 1,150 students each year, approximately 300 of which enter graduate school immediately.
Surveys by the Office of Institutional Research show that 90 percent of seniors say they will eventually go to graduate school. Alumni surveys show that 73 percent of the 1994 graduating class have a graduate degree or are in graduate school.
Most Tufts students enter graduate school with job experience. Sixty four percent of Tufts graduating seniors in 1998 said they planned to work full time in the fall and 22 percent planned to enter graduate school that year, according to Institutional Research's Executive Director Dawn Terkla.
But getting the job experience to go to graduate school can be difficult. According to Tufts' admissions website, though virtually all graduates are eventually admitted to business schools, most require at least two years job experience. Senior Abby Volin said this was causing problems for Tufts graduates with the recent economic downturns.
"A lot of graduate programs want you to have job experience [beforehand] but it is difficult with today's market," Volin said.
During the past five years, Tufts' statistics have remained relatively stable, but around the country the number of students entering graduate school has increased dramatically.
According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, a non-profit organization that administers the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), 210,000 people took the GMAT last year - a ten percent increase over the previous year. This marks the highest number in five years of students taking the test, which most US business schools require, in five years.
An alternative option, popular among Tufts students, is joining a volunteer organizations like Teach for America or the Peace Corps. Twenty two Tufts alumni are active members of the Peace Corps. According to Jean Papalia, director of career service, the University won an award last year for the second highest number of alumni in service of small colleges and universities.
The Peace Corps has admitted 124 Tufts alumni over the past ten years. Although 80 percent of the participants had bachelor degrees, only 16 percent had a graduate degree. The majority of these graduates had degrees in health or education.
Some students are undeterred by the downturn. Senior Sean McDermott is applying for consulting jobs. "Graduate school is definitely at least a few years away," he said.
Neil Pallaver, a senior engineering student, is also looking for work. "My personal opinion is that most engineers will not suffer because the market will always need engineers," he said.
