The Old Grad

Between the shores of Maine and California live some 6,000,000 Americans who have at least one thing in common: they all went to college. How have they turned out? Is the old grad really much different from the average U.S. citizen?

This week, with the publication of a new book called They Went to College (Harcourt, Brace; $4), U.S. readers could find out. The book is the product of a five-year study, made by TIME, of 9,064 representative graduates. A Columbia University statistician, Patricia Salter West, analyzed the survey, and LIFE Editor Ernest Havemann translated the statistics into eminently readable English. The result: as complete a portrait of the Old Grad as has ever been published.

Who's Who. When TIME questioned them in 1947, the graduates had a median age of about 37, and four out of ten were women. About half grew up in towns of less than 25,000, and less than half came from "college families." The big majority of the graduates worked at least part of their way through college: only about three out of ten "never turned a hand at gainful labor until they got their degrees."

They chose a wide variety of majors. Three out of ten picked the humanities.' Then came the sciences (15%) and the social sciences (9%). The rest of the graduates were apparently preoccupied with their careers: 11% took up engineering, 9% education, 8% business administration, 3% agriculture and forestry, and so on down the line to the 1% who went in for pharmacy.

The outstanding fact of the survey is that, as a group, they have done well financially. As of 1947, the median income for all American men was $2,200, but the Old Grad was making well over twice as much. Only one in 200 was unemployed; only 16% held minor or manual jobs. The rest were in business (53%), became doctors, lawyers or dentists (16%), teachers (16%), clergymen (4%), artists or scientists (1% each). The doctors were the biggest earners: over half making more than $7,500 a year. The graduates at the bottom of the economic pyramid: teachers and preachers (median income: $3,584).

As husbands, the Old Grads have also done well. Of the 85% of the men who have married, 96% have stayed married, thus topping the 89% record for all U.S. married males by seven points. College women have not been so fortunate: 31% of them have remained unmarried as compared to only 13% of all U.S. women. It would appear, concludes the survey, that for many women college "amounts to an education for spinsterhood."

If she is a career woman, she soon learns that it is still a man's world. Her median income at the time of the survey was a mere $2,689, and only a handful (6%) of fellow graduates have ended up as doctors, lawyers or dentists; only 12% became executives. In six out of ten cases, "the typical college career woman [is] a schoolteacher." Party Lines. Male or female, the Old Grad is something of a rebuke to those who think that a campus is a breeder of radi cals. Republicans outnumber Democrats three to two, and more than half of the graduates admit that they vote as their fa thers did. Apparently, the chances are less than one to ten that Republican children will switch parties; among Democrats, the chances are twice as great. Thus, says the survey, "whatever effect college has is to the benefit of the Republican Party." Independents account for about 35% but whatever their political sentiments' Old Grads on the whole do little more than vote. Only 17% are apt to make a campaign contribution; only 3% ever tried to raise money for a campaign; only 6% have held any elective office in recent years. The Old Grad seems to exert comparatively little direct influence on public affairs. Politically, he appears passive.

Past & Present. His passivity does not extend to his own career, and his present attitude towards his college days is largely determined by the amount of success he has achieved. Is there any way to predict that success by his college studies?

Looking over his paycheck, the graduate who went in for general education has some reason to be sorry he did not specialize ("It is regrettable," said one alumnus, "but culture is inedible"). The humanities major tends to embark on an unprofitable career as teacher (27%), clergyman (/5%), or artist (1%). Even if a humanities man goes into business, the chances are about one to four he will end up just eking out his living (only 6% of the specialists find themselves in that position). The social scientists do even worse in business: 31% hold "rank-and-file" jobs.

College grades make some difference, "but hardly enough ... to inspire anyone to burn the midnight oil." Of the male A students, half are in the over-$5,000 bracket; but 41% of the C and D people are in it, too. In the learned (and lowpaying) professions, the Phi Beta Kappa's advantage is greatest: he is twice as likely to be making over $5,000 as his C or D counterpart. In business, his advantage dwindles to almost nothing.

If the Phi Bete does not leap ahead, does the campus politician? Surprisingly enough, the answer is no. The men who went in for four extracurricular activities for instance, are apt to average about $1,000 less than men who went in for no activities at all. And what about the students who worked their way through college? Here the survey shatters an old American illusion. Among the Old Grads of 40 whose parents supported them entirely, 42% make $7,500 or more. The score for the Horatio Alger group: 31%.

In trying to predict a student's success, says the survey, "the wealth and prestige of his college are the best guide of all." The men who went to Harvard, Yale -or Princeton have ended up with a median income of $7,365. After them, the graduates run slowly downhill:

OTHER IVY LEAGUE CAMPUSES (Columbia, Cornell,

Dartn.outh, Pennsylvania) $6,142

SEVENTEEN TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

(California, Carnegie, Massachusetts, etc.) 5,382

TWENTY FAMOUS EASTERN COLLEGES (Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Brown, etc.) 5,287

THE BIG TEN

(Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin) 5,176

ALL OTHER MIDWESTERN COLLEGES 4,322 ALL OTHER EASTERN COLLEGES 4,235

Wide & Thin. With these figures, the survey climaxes its statistical portrait. Since it deals with statistics alone, the real worth of U.S. higher education is left un-assessed. A college education obviously pays off in dollars and cents. Whether it pays off in various other ways, the figures cannot say.

The only thing the figures can say with certainty about U.S. higher education is that it has been spreading itself both wide and thin. A generation ago, 60% of the graduates would have said that they were planning to go into a profession, as doctors, lawyers, teachers, dentists, clergymen or scientists. Only 39% were planning to go into business. Today, less than half the students plan for professions, and business has jumped to first place, with 48%. The fastest-rising type of career is in such "service industries" as advertising, public relations, market research, etc. Once, only 5% of college men would have planned for such a life. A college education today is for just about everything and everybody. The B.A. is no longer something special. It has become, says the survey, an "elementary matter of self-defense."

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