It doesn’t take long for Grove City College students to put their degrees to work in the job market and graduate school.
Six months after graduation, 97 percent of the Class of 2015 is employed or in a graduate or professional school, the College’s Career Services Office announced this week. Eighty percent of graduates are working and 17 percent are seeking advanced degrees or further training, according to the office’s survey, which had a 95 percent response rate.
“Our graduates are highly employable,” Dr. Jim Thrasher ’80 said. “The great education they receive at Grove City College equips them to thrive in the working world and academia. It’s not just information and skills that students acquire here, but a sense of purpose that informs their lives and careers.”
The placement rate is just one of a number of statistics that illustrate the value of a Grove City College education. PayScale.com, an online source for career data, reports average starting salary for College graduates at $48,100 and average midcareer earnings of $84,700. Over the course of 20 years, PayScale sets the return on investment in a Grove City College education at $379,400.
Those numbers are a testament to the caliber of Grove City graduates over the years and the work of the College’s nationally-ranked Career Services Office, which helps relate the transferable skills students acquire at Grove City to the employers’ expectations and needs.
“That ‘fit’ provides wonderful opportunities for our graduates to find satisfaction and purpose in their work, to bring value to their employers and to excel in a competitive marketplace. Our Career Services team helps students meet their goals and network with hundreds of employers and alumni who hire our graduates,” Thrasher said.
Grove City College’s Career Services Office works in a number of ways to help students get a leg up on their post-graduation goals. The office invites employers to recruit students for on-campus interviews, job and internship postings and one of the largest regional Career Fairs in the fall semester. It taps the College’s strong alumni network to help students satisfy their career aspirations. The office helps guide students through a four-year process that encourages self-assessment, career exploration and strategic job searches.
“Seeing our students succeed in utilizing their God-given talents, gifts and abilities is rewarding for us as an office,” Thrasher said.
Visit www.gcc.edu/CSO for more.