By Samantha McCoy, Staff writer
“In a study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA,” Zippia found,” 60.1% of incoming college [first years] inidicated it “very important” that their college’s alumni get good jobs after graduation.”
Susquehanna was ranked 1st in Pennsylvania for getting a job after graduation and 9th nationwide, according to career website and database Zippia Inc.
Zippia allows its users to find careers based on their college experience and available job openings.
Using information gathered from the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the College Scorecard database Susquehanna took the 9th place spot in the ranking with a 95.455 percent in placement rate.
This placement is only a few tenths of a decimal off from University of Mary in North Carolina.
“I’m delighted that Zippia’s data collection has proven what we at Susquehanna already know our graduates make a difference in the world and achieve uncommon professional success,” said Madeleine Rhyneer, vice president for enrollment and marketing at Susquehanna in the university’s article about the ranking.
She added, “Our commitment to putting the liberal arts and sciences to work is paying great dividends for our students.”
According to the article published by Zippia, the results were calculated using data from IPEDS, specifically employment levels of graduates after ten years.
The higher education schools were then ranked based on their rating from College Scorecard.
Zippia states in the article that they strive to keep their information as impartial as possible, since placement rate is an important factor for incoming first-year students.
This effort is important because there has been a history of inaccurate or misleading numbers in the past.
To help combat this issue, Zippia also states in the article that the Institute of Educational Sciences is a bipartisan government organization that helps to keep statistical information impartial, and they keep the information used in this ranking in the IPEDS database.
The article that Susquehanna published after the ranking was released states that 77.3 percent of graduates from the Class of 2016 are currently employed, with 19.2 percent currently studying in graduate or professional school. The remaining 3.5 percent consists of graduates participating in post-grad internships, fellowships and compensated volunteer programs.
The Susquehanna article also states that 90 percent of Susquehanna students have at least one undergrad internship or research experience.
Zippia’s article also includes that Susquehanna has been rated 54th best liberal arts college by Washington Monthly.
The top three schools in the country that the article mentions in order are Virginia Military Institute, Saint John’s University in Minnesota, and Assumption College in Massachusetts.
