TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the Well-Being of Recent College Graduates
T2 - Income is not Enough
AU - Senter, Mary Scheuer
AU - Spalter-Roth, Roberta
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge the thoughtful comments of three reviewers of the article drafts, along with the reviewers for Sociological Focus . Their comments improved the paper significantly. They are John Kennedy, Indiana University; Peggy Nelson, Middlebury College; Pamela Stone, City University of New York, Hunter College; and two anonymous reviewers. In addition, we’d like to thank Nicole Van Vooren Amaya for all her work throughout the project. Finally, we’d like to thank the National Science Foundation for the grant. The conclusions are our own and do not represent those of the National Science Foundation.
Funding Information:
This project was funded by the National Science Foundation, Grant [#SES-1054651]. We would like to acknowledge the thoughtful comments of three reviewers of the article drafts, along with the reviewers for Sociological Focus. Their comments improved the paper significantly. They are John Kennedy, Indiana University; Peggy Nelson, Middlebury College; Pamela Stone, City University of New York, Hunter College; and two anonymous reviewers. In addition, we?d like to thank Nicole Van Vooren Amaya for all her work throughout the project. Finally, we?d like to thank the National Science Foundation for the grant. The conclusions are our own and do not represent those of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 North Central Sociological Association.
PY - 2020/1/2
Y1 - 2020/1/2
N2 - Given difficult economic times experienced during the Great Recession and the years following, coupled with the rising cost of higher education, there is increasing pressure by federal and state governments, accreditors, college administrators, parents, and students to view alumni salaries as the key outcome of a baccalaureate degree. Supporters of a liberal education have decried the growth of the individualistic orientation of those who insist that the main purpose of a college education is to secure a high-paying job rather than personal well-being and civic participation. This article, focuses on a series of measures of college outcomes that are proxy measures for a “great job” and a “great life,” using data from a longitudinal study of sociology majors from the class of 2012. For the relatively small number of respondents answering the third wave of the survey, being a sociology major seems to have positive implications for early post-baccalaureate life. Further, respondents who find that sociological concepts and skills learned as undergraduate majors help on the job are often more likely than others to experience positive outcomes. In general, income from jobs is not the sole predictor in most of the multivariate models, although the sample of respondents may be biased toward those who care less about income.
AB - Given difficult economic times experienced during the Great Recession and the years following, coupled with the rising cost of higher education, there is increasing pressure by federal and state governments, accreditors, college administrators, parents, and students to view alumni salaries as the key outcome of a baccalaureate degree. Supporters of a liberal education have decried the growth of the individualistic orientation of those who insist that the main purpose of a college education is to secure a high-paying job rather than personal well-being and civic participation. This article, focuses on a series of measures of college outcomes that are proxy measures for a “great job” and a “great life,” using data from a longitudinal study of sociology majors from the class of 2012. For the relatively small number of respondents answering the third wave of the survey, being a sociology major seems to have positive implications for early post-baccalaureate life. Further, respondents who find that sociological concepts and skills learned as undergraduate majors help on the job are often more likely than others to experience positive outcomes. In general, income from jobs is not the sole predictor in most of the multivariate models, although the sample of respondents may be biased toward those who care less about income.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077905619&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00380237.2019.1703859
DO - 10.1080/00380237.2019.1703859
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85077905619
VL - 53
SP - 10
EP - 28
JO - Sociological Focus
JF - Sociological Focus
SN - 0038-0237
IS - 1
ER -