WASHINGTON — Graduates who visited the career services office as undergraduates are more likely to be employed full time for an employer or for themselves — at a rate of 67 percent versus 59 percent among those who did not visit career services, according to a new survey released Tuesday.
And, in a finding that one campus diversity leader described as “unintuitive,” the situation was more pronounced among Black graduates. Whereas 66 percent of Black graduates who visited the career services office were employed full time after graduation, the full-time employment rate was only 54 percent among those who did not, the survey found.
Dr. Kumea Shorter-Gooden, chief diversity officer at the University of Maryland, had a mixed reaction to the survey’s finding that Black students appear to benefit more greatly from career services.
“The data suggest that career services are working pretty well for students of color, which is really good news,” Shorter-Gooden said.
However, she added that the finding was “a little unintuitive” because students of color often don’t see themselves modeled among career services personnel, or because the services may not be delivered in a “culturally responsive way.”
Shorter-Gooden stressed the need to be cautious about interpreting the data and to not infer causation, even with graduates who rated their visits to career services as “very helpful.”
Black and Asian graduates were more likely than any other group to say their visits to the career services office was “very helpful,” at rates of 21 and 22 percent, versus 19 and 15 percent for Hispanic and White graduates.
