What to be when I grow up

American Demographics, June, 1996 by Alison Stein

First-time college freshmen may be entering an ivory tower, but they haven't been living in one before they head to school. The fields they cite as their probable careers in many ways reflect the current economic reality around them.

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California at Los Angeles annually surveys first-time, full-time freshmen on numerous topics, including their probable future career. Freshmen respondents may choose one of 44 careers or select "undecided." The latter is what more than one in ten did. "Most freshmen aren't looking for a career," says Thomas J. Denham, assistant director of the career development center at Union College in Schenectady, New York. "Their main concern is getting through college."

This, along with the sheer number of careers available to college-educated Americans, means that freshmen's job choices are widely distributed. About 7 percent say they expect to have careers as business executives in management. This reflects a decline from five years earlier, when 9 percent said they expected to become managers. Entering freshmen may be picking up enough economic news to know that the number of jobs for managers is declining due to ongoing corporate downsizing in the U.S.

Shrinking opportunities in other fields may also have found the ears of first-time college freshmen. The share who cited law as their probable career dropped to 3 percent in 1995, the smallest share since the survey was first taken in 1966. Three factors are probably responsible for the waning interest in law careers, says Janice Austin, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at the University of Pennsylvania Law School: the rising cost of law school tuition, an oversupply of law graduates and decline in public-sector law jobs, and heightened negative perceptions of lawyers. This is a contrast to the 1980s, when the popular television show "LA Law" polished the image of lawyers and drove up enrollment.

Despite the public perception of growing violence and drug use in schools, the teaching profession is gaining popularity among first-time freshmen. More than 9 percent say they may have careers as either elementary- or secondary-school teachers. The share who may opt for a teaching career has remained stable even though college freshmen appear to be increasingly disengaged from the academic process. More than three in ten report being bored in class in the past year; 65 percent failed to complete homework on time. The same share spent an average of five or fewer hours a week studying.

Physical, occupational, and speech therapy are among the "hot" careers for new freshmen. The share who may enter these fields increased slightly over the past five years, to 4 percent in 1995. There is increased awareness in our society of people with disabilities," says Diane Paul-Brown, director of the speech-language pathology division of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Practitioners must have an advanced degree, but they generally do not incur the high expenses associated with other professional degrees, Paul-Brown says.

For more information on career choices, see The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 1995, available for $22 from the Higher Education Research Institute, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California at Los Angeles, 3005 Moore Hall, Mailbox 951251, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521; telephone (310) 825-1925.