Ryan ChartrandAfter graduating high school, I thought I was entering the “real world.” It was a glorious thought: I, like the majority of my high school classmates, would start the next chapter of my life at a university. I would be free to do whatever I wanted.
It was difficult to even imagine what complete freedom from rules would feel like. If I didn’t want to go to class, it was my decision. My room could get as messy as I wished, and I would be allowed stay out as late as I desired without calling to check in.
Looking back, it’s easy to see that college life is not, in fact, the real world. Sure, we have more freedom and responsibilities than in our adolescent high school years, but we are still under the close watch of authority. Most of us still receive financial support from our parents in one way or another and we have these four to five years of our lives mapped out.
It is after the transitional period of college that you really enter the real world. It’s a scary thought, but being financially independent is not the only big change. You will no longer be surrounded by peers, no longer have the option of skipping out on your responsibilities to spend the day at the beach, and you will no longer have your life mapped out.
After graduating it’s time to find a real job – a job where you will likely work for the next several years. There is no flow chart to tell you which job to take, no group of friends to follow and no guarantee that you will find a job at all.
Cal Poly’s graduation statistics do, thankfully, offer comfort to the undeniable insecurity felt before entering the real, post-college chapter of our lives. The most recent statistics (from the 2004-05 school year) showed that 73 percent of graduates were working full time within one year of graduating. Of the leftover 25 percent, only 2 percent were still looking for a job.
The other 25 percent stayed busy doing a variety of things. Twenty-one percent continued their education at graduate school and 3 percent were working parttime. The other 1 percent was neither working nor looking for a job. Perhaps they are taking a break from studying and work and spending time traveling the world, or maybe they’re starting a family.
The 2005-06 graduation statistics showed that the median starting salary for Cal Poly graduates (of both graduate and undergraduate students) is $48,000. The highest median salary – $56,000 – came from the College of Engineering.
Engineers were followed by the Orfalea College of Business and the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, where the median starting salary was $48,000. The College of Education came next with the median salary at $43,000, followed by the College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Liberal Arts at $39,000 and $35,500, respectively.
Some students will get their dream job, others their dream salary, and yet others may find that they are still not ready to embark in the realm of uncertainty. The latter group may still find a job (as the statistics show, only 2 percent were not able to do so) or they may choose to continue their journey of transition.
Samantha Frietas is a journalism senior and Mustang Daily staff writer.