Black Americans and building equitable pathways from school to career
The latest in Liaison’s Black History Month blog series highlights Black Americans’ historical and ongoing disadvantages moving from campus to the workplace. We also delve into Liaison’s efforts to pursue products and partnerships that foster inclusivity, equity and diversity. For example, our BusinessCAS team is working with institutions and affinity groups to create a robust library of resources for programs looking to adopt full-spectrum practices of increasing equity.
Without test requirements, the application gap widens between high-profile and “less-selective” colleges
The recent trend of waiving standardized test requirements for applicants has led to a surge of applications at “prestigious universities… [while] smaller and less recognizable schools are dealing with the opposite issue: empty mailboxes.” For example, through early December, Cal Poly Pomona, part of the California State University system, had received 40% fewer applications from potential freshmen compared with one year earlier. Applications from transfer students were down 52%. On the other hand, the nation’s “most selective” public and private four-year schools experienced a record-high 17% increase in the number of applications they received. At Harvard, application volume increased 42%; at Colgate it rose 103%. “Although most schools that waived standardized tests this year did so temporarily, a growing number are making it permanent because of concerns that the tests are inherently biased. The University of California system, which serves nearly 300,000 students and includes some of the nation’s most-desired schools, decided last year to suspend consideration of SAT and ACT scores. Applications across the system increased 16% this year, a record high.”
Source: The New York Times
International grad student enrollment was down nearly 40% in 2020
After rising 4% in the fall of 2019, the number of international students enrolled in U.S. graduate programs plummeted 39% in 2020, according to a new report from the Council of Graduate Schools sponsored by Liaison. International applications to some science and engineering programs have plummeted more than 50%. International students account for less than 6% of college enrollees overall, but 20% of graduate students. “First-time enrollments decreased 26% at the doctoral level and 43% among master’s-degree students, the new report shows. Because master’s programs are shorter in duration, students may have opted to defer or to reapply next year, rather than spend much of their studies online or in hybrid mode.”
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Generation Z questions the value of the “traditional” college pathway to employment
Just one in four recently surveyed members of Generation Z “believe the traditional college model is the only pathway to getting a good job.” Only about 50% of the 3,000 respondents said they are likely to follow a four-year college plan. Instead, many may be considering options including “career and technical education and apprenticeships but also a more staggered approach to education and lifelong learning that could help them better position themselves for jobs in a digital economy and avoid potentially big costs of a four-year degree.” Gen Z students say their biggest concerns about following a traditional college path include accumulating too much debt (50%), not being able to find a good job (44%) and lacking required skills once they do find a job (44%).
Source: University Business
Humanities grads’ earnings never “catch up” with those of others
While older humanities majors earn more money than younger peers with similar degrees, their incomes consistently lag behind those of workers with other types of degrees. In most cases, they never reach the same level. Women experience a greater-than-average income disparity. “Humanities graduates in general received a 34% earnings boost from an advanced degree, but that increase was substantially greater for men than it was for women. Among graduates with humanities bachelor’s degrees, women earned 16% less than men. Among humanities graduates with advanced degrees, women made 22% less than men.”
Source: Inside Higher Ed