College Graduates in Increasing Proportion
Are Taking It Up Instead
of the Law and the Ministry.
College graduates in these times are found in all walks of life; but, of
course, there are more in the professions than in business--and more in
some professions than in others. Also there has been a change, during the
last twenty years, in the relative proportions of college men going into
different kinds of work.
Chancellor MacCracken, speaking at a commencement of New York University,
said:
What change, if any, has there been in the choice of
professions by college graduates in the last twenty years? I
was recently asked this question by a New York editor, and
was unable to answer him. I have since obtained this
information from the advance sheets of the new alumni
catalogue, issued to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of
the university.
I have studied the record of ten classes of the College of
Arts, from 1885 until 1894, inclusive; also, of the ten
succeeding classes, from 1895 until 1904, inclusive. I find
most satisfactory reports have been obtained respecting the
occupation of these graduates. The chief results are as
follows:
Changes in Occupation.
There are two kinds of occupation which enlisted graduates
for the first decade and for the second in practically the
same proportions.
One is journalism, which enlisted two per cent in the first
decade and two and a half per cent in the second, an
increase of only one-half of one per cent.
The other is business in varied forms, which enlisted
sixteen and a half per cent of the college graduates in the
former decade and sixteen per cent in the latter decade.
On the other hand, three occupations show a decided falling
off. The graduates who have become clergymen numbered twenty
per cent in the first decade, but only seventeen per cent in
the second, a decrease of three per cent.
Those who entered the law were thirty-three per cent in the
first decade and twenty-six per cent in the second, a
decrease of seven per cent.
Those who became physicians were sixteen and a half per cent
in the first decade and fifteen and a half per cent in the
second, a decrease of one per cent; being a total decrease
in the recruits of these professions of eleven per cent.
Teaching Monopolizes the Increase.
Then comes the surprising fact that a single profession has
monopolized the entire increase. The profession of teaching,
which has twelve per cent in the ten classes first named,
has increased to no less than twenty-three per cent in the
ten classes down to the year before last.
The striking fact respecting college graduates is that
eleven per cent fewer of them go into law, medicine, and
divinity, and this entire eleven per cent have gone into
teaching.
What is the explanation? I answer, first, the teaching
profession has increased in dignity and reputation, and in
no part of the world more than in the region where New York
University finds its students.
A second reason is that philanthropic spirits find in
teaching to-day, compared with other professions, larger
scope than ever before. Law is less altruistic as a
profession and more commercial than a generation ago.
Theology is waiting for new statements of what to teach and
how to teach. Therefore, men who are inclined to teach turn
to the common school, the high school, and the college to
find scope for influencing others for good.
As further explanation of the vast increase in the number of
the teachers required for the higher positions, I can give
exact figures for only the year 1905, compared with the year
1900. In 1900 there were enrolled in the high schools of New
York City 11,706 students; last year there were enrolled
20,770 students; in other words, they have almost doubled in
the space of five years.
Can sordid covetousness long be charged against a people whose youth
increasingly seek entrance into "the poorest-paid profession"?