Economic collapse puts graduates on unforeseen paths

Enrollment in public service jobs rising sharply

Tufts seniors Jia He (left) and Alea Stein attended a Chinese class Tuesday. Stein is considering joining the Peace Corps to work in China. (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)

As the economy collapsed last fall, so did the job prospects of thousands of college seniors, especially those who had set their sights on Wall Street.

But after the initial panic, some students said they felt an odd relief.

Instead of going straight into a 100-hour-a-week job at an investment bank, they are pursuing less lucrative but potentially more satisfying opportunities in public service, enrolling in record numbers in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America. Other students seeking refuge from the recession are flocking to graduate schools, increasing competition for admission.

At elite universities such as Harvard, where about half the graduating class would enter finance and consulting in years past, many students say they feel liberated to consider alternative career paths, crediting not only the tanking economy but also President Obama's call for public service.

Fourteen percent of this year's senior class at Harvard applied to Teach for America, a nonprofit organization that sends graduates to work in low-income urban and rural public schools. The proportion was 9 percent last year.

"There's always that push to make money and be comfortable, but the financial crisis made me think that there's a lot more in life than going to get that corporate job," said Matthew Clair, a Harvard government major who will spend the next two years teaching at an Atlanta primary school. "It gave me a good excuse to take some more time off to do what I'm really passionate about."

Across the country and in nearly all fields, employers expect to hire 22 percent fewer graduates from the class of 2009 compared with last year, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The drop is even worse in the Northeast, with a 39 percent decrease from last year.

Employers in the finance sector - traditionally a prime landing spot for college seniors, particularly in the Northeast - expect to have 71 percent fewer jobs to offer this year's graduates. At Harvard, overall recruiting is down 19 percent this year, especially by consulting, finance, and other Fortune 500 companies.

The surge toward public service is getting a boost from college leaders, including Harvard president Drew Faust. She recently named a committee to help steer students into such careers, options she said many would have pursued in the past if not for the lure of finance.

"The path to Wall Street was so clearly defined, so if you weren't sure what direction to go, this direction was filled with signposts and rewards," Faust said in an interview. "But we are seeing two historic moments converge: this extraordinary financial crisis and this outpouring of interest in the public sphere."

Faust said she hopes to tap alumni connections and join with other colleges to set up a recruitment process for public service that mirrors the way the corporate world woos students. Teach for America has already adopted the strategy, aggressively reaching out to students through campus recruiters, informational dinners about educational inequity, and four rounds of application deadlines.

The organization has seen a 42 percent jump in applications this year, drawing the largest pool in its 18-year history, said Meredith Boak, who oversees recruitment in the Northeast for Teach America.

Jay Lundy, a Harvard senior majoring in government, spent his summers and spring breaks working at investment banks in New York. He received a job offer last August from Merrill Lynch, the troubled brokerage giant later acquired by Bank of America.

"But my heart was never in banking," Lundy said. Instead, he will teach high school social studies in Harlem or the Bronx for Teach for America, an option he said he would not have considered before the financial meltdown.

Alea Stein, a Tufts University senior majoring in international relations and Chinese, said she had been planning to work for a large multinational corporation in Shanghai or Beijing. Now, she is considering applying to the Peace Corps to work in a rural village in China.

"As hard as the economy is and as upsetting as it is while looking for a job, in a way it's almost a relief because we don't have to face the same kind of job pressure that other students in a good economy face from their parents and everyone," Stein said.

Peace Corps applications are up by 16 percent from last year, and applications to two graduate programs offered at dozens of US universities that offer academic credit for Peace Corps service have grown as well, said spokeswoman Laura Lartigue.

Other students say the tough job market makes graduate school more appealing. Applications across the country have surged, even as some top research universities, including Northwestern, Stanford, and Harvard, have reduced the number of doctoral students whose costs they fully cover.

While the average number of graduate school applications usually increases 3 percent per year, many universities have seen applications jump 10 percent to 20 percent over last year, according to the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C. Applications are expected to grow even more next year, because graduate school enrollment is often a lagging indicator of the economy.

Several schools, including Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Northeastern University, have recently begun offering steep tuition discounts for this year's graduates and new alumni to enroll in their master's degree programs.

Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has seen applications rise 12 percent over last year. Applications to the master's in public policy program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government have jumped 34 percent, reflecting recent interest in public service. Overall graduate applications rose 9 percent at Yale University and 10 percent at Princeton over last year.

Shari Rabin, a senior at Boston University who is deciding between several top doctoral programs in religious studies, said she is grateful not to have to hunt for a job now.

"I will wait out the recession," she said.

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.