The MIT Careers Office is pleased to provide the results of the MIT Class of 2008 Graduating Student Survey, providing information about the immediate post-graduation plans of all graduating MIT students. One thousand three hundred and eighteen of the 2,280 June 2008 graduates responded, representing 58 percent of the graduating class. This report represents a collaborative effort between this office and Institutional Research. I particularly want to thank John Nonnamaker, Associate Director for Graduate Student Career Services, for his leadership of this survey. Our survey of the MIT Class of 2008 certainly reflected these findings in their employment outcomes, as shown in the following highlights: The undergraduate placement rate (full-time employment or graduate studies) for the Class of

2008 is 87 percent, representing a slight decrease over 2007-08. Masters degree recipients saw placement rates of 90 percent. PhD graduates reported a placement rate of 93 percent.

On-campus recruiting continues to be a primary source of employment as reported by 44 percent of bachelors, 38 percent of masters and 20 percent of doctoral degree recipients. This represents a decrease for bachelors and masters but a slight increase for PhDs. Three hundred and ninety seven employers recruited through the Careers Office in 2007-08, a 26 percent decrease over 2006-07. Networking and internships that led to a job offer represented the next highest methods. For bachelors degree recipients, internships replaced networking as the next highest method and continuing the trend with an increase of 5% over 2006-2007. The importance of internships leading to full time jobs continues to emerge as a recruiting trend.

Seventy one percent of undergraduates and 89 percent of Masters students indicated that their position was related to their academic major, down slightly from 2006-2007. The percentage of all students who accepted offers were with consulting and finance firms also decreased in 2007-2008 despite the fact that these employers seek out our graduate for their analytical and problem solving skills, which are characteristic of an MIT education. To both the students and the employers, these opportunities are directly related to academic major.

The average salary for undergraduates was $65,655, a 7.4 percent increase from the $61,118 averages for 2007 graduating seniors. Nearly all other degree levels saw an increase. This represents the fourth year of salary increases for graduating seniors, and multi-year increases for most graduate degree recipients.

Another measure of job market strength for the Class of 2008 was that over 59 percent secured their position by December 2007, compared to 50 percent for the class of 2007.

The full report follows, providing a broad snapshot of the professional and education destinations for the MIT Class of 2008. We welcome any comments or suggestions from the MIT community regarding ways that we may improve our survey process or reporting. Thank you! Sincerely, Melanie Parker Executive Director, MIT Careers Office

Welcome to the 2007 MIT Careers Office Annual Graduating Student Survey Report. Please take a moment to learn more about the survey and the data we collect and present. PURPOSE: The purpose of the Graduating Student Survey (GSS) is to promote an accurate understanding of the immediate post-graduation plans of all (undergraduate to PhD) graduating MIT students and to provide data for related career issues. METHOD: The GSS is a completely voluntary web-based survey. The survey was emailed as a link multiple times throughout the late spring and early summer in an effort to capture as much of the graduating student population as possible. Altogether, 1,318 (or 58%) June 2008 graduating MIT students participated in the 2008 Survey. RESULTS: All data are self reported and presented anonymously in aggregate form. Due to the variety and various levels of MIT degrees granted, the majority of statistics presented are related to specific subsets of the population (e.g., undergraduate, Masters, PhD, major, etc.) and are labeled accordingly. This is done to provide more meaningful and accurate data. Any data not labeled should be assumed to represent the entire sample. The majority of results are presented in table format for ease of reading and comparison. Many tables contain empty cells. This is for two reasons; first, not all majors offer all types of degrees, and second, fewer than two students from that major and degree level responded to the survey question. The remainder of this report presents the data that we collect and analyze. We highly recommend that you start with the Frequently Asked Questions, which highlight our most common requests for information. The MITCO Data Committee John Nonnamaker Kathleen Haggerty Deborah Liverman Melissa Ackerman

2008 MIT POST GRADUATION STATISTICS*

*Based upon 1,318 responses (58%) to the June 2008 Graduating Student Survey

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF UNDERGRADUATE, MASTERS & PhD STUDENTS GO ON TO GRADUATE/PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL, WORK OR OTHER?*

Degree Graduate/Professional School

Work Other Response Rate

SB 42% 45% 13% 63% Masters 14% 76% 10% 48%

PhD 1% 92% 7% 70% *Other includes continuing my studies (2nd bachelors degree), internship, taking time off, traveling,

deciding between fields, public service, still looking for a job, undecided & other

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF PhDs GO INTO INDUSTRY, GOVERNMENT, ACADEMIA, POST-DOCS, CONTINUE THEIR EDUCATION, OR OTHER?

WHICH EMPLOYERS HIRED THE MOST MIT GRADUATES?

HOW MANY EMPLOYERS RECRUITED THROUGH THE MIT CAREER

DEVELOPMENT OFFICE IN 2007-2008? 397

Industry, Government, or Business

Academia

Post-Doctoral Fellowships

Continuing Education

Other

47% 8 % 37% 1% 7%

Employer # of Hires McKinsey 32 MIT 19 Google 18 Booz Allen 15 Boston Consulting Group 15 Oracle 13 Goldman Sachs 10 Morgan Stanley 9 Microsoft 8 United States Air Force 8 Harvard University 7 Jet Propulsion Laboratory 7 J P Morgan 7 Bain & Company 5 Cisco 5 Boeing 5 UBS 5 United States Navy 5

WHAT WAS THE AVERAGE SALARY/BONUS (for those receiving bonuses) OF

WORKING MIT GRADUATES? SB: $ 65,655/ $ 10,187 MEng: $ 85,830/ $ 15,269 SM: $ 79,570/ $ 12,188 MBA: $117,906/ $ 33,029 PhDs Going Into Acad. Post-Docs: $ 44,370/ $ 2,143 PhDs Going Into Ind Post-Docs: $ 89,720/ $ 6,000 PhDs Going Into Industry: $106,469/ $ 19,622 PhDs Going Into Academia: $101,857/ $ 15,667

HOW DID GRADUATES FIND THEIR JOBS?

(Students could check all that applied) Undergrad Masters Doctoral On-campus recruiting 43.8% 37.6% 19.7% Networking 27.4% 28.9% 33.1% Internship led to job offer 28.3% 14.9% 1.6% Career fair 24.7% 15.7% 7.1% Professional Conference .5% 1.7% 8.7% Contacts acquired through MIT Careers Office .9% 3.7% 2.4% Through Department (faculty, academic administrator) 5.9% 7.9% 22.8% Directly applied to employer 22.4% 16.9% 36.2% Advertised job listing (on-line, print) 5.5% 2.9% 18.9% Other 10.0% 16.5% 10.2%

WHEN DID WORKING GRADUATES BEGIN THEIR JOB SEARCH AND RECEIVE THE JOB OFFER THEY ACCEPTED?

Undergrad Masters Doctoral Month Begin

Search Received

Offer Begin Search

Received Offer

Begin Search

Received Offer

Prior to September 2007 33.2% 18.9% 26.7% 19.8% 30.7% 9.9% September 2007 31.6% 3.9% 30.5% 4.1% 30.0% 3.1% October 2007 10.8% 12.7% 9.6% 9.9% 12.0% 6.1% November 2007 2.8% 14.5% 5.5% 17.3% 5.3% 8.4% December 2007 2.0% 9.2% 1.6% 8.2% 3.3% 12.2% January 2008 4.8% 7.5% 5.1% 8.2% 6.0% 13.0% February 2008 4.0% 11.0% 3.9% 8.2% 3.3% 11.5% March 2008 2.8% 5.7% 2.9% 8.2% 2.7% 18.3% April 2008 4.4% 9.6% 2.6% 7.8% 07% 8.4% May 2008 1.2% 6.6% 1.3% 4.5% 2.7% 6.9% June 2008 .4% .4% 1.0% 2.9% .0% 2.3% July 2008 .0% .0% .6% .8% .0% .0% August 2008 .0% .0% .3% .0% .0% .0% WHAT IS THE AVERAGE FOR JOB APPLICATIONS/INTERVIEWS/JOB OFFERS?

Degree Level Job Applications Job Interviews Job Offers Undergraduate 13.0% 7.6% 2.1%

Masters 9.2% 6.4% 2.2 Doctoral 14.9% 6.0% 2.6%

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WHAT PERCENTAGE OF WORKING GRADUATES NEGOTIATED THEIR SALARY

AND BONUS? Degree Level Negotiated Salary Negotiated Bonus Undergraduate 13.4% 10.2%

Masters 32.0% 24.1% Doctoral 20.2% 15.0%

WHAT WAS THE AVERAGE NEGOTIATED INCREASE IN SALARY AND BONUS

OF WORKING GRADUATES?

Degree Level Increase in Salary Increase in Bonus Undergraduate $6,056 $2,974

Masters $6,685 $4,691 Doctoral $4,557 $14,346

WHAT WERE THE TOP US LOCATIONS FOR WORKING GRADUATES?

Massachusetts 179 California 98 New York 92 Virginia 20 Illinois 19 Texas 16 Washington DC 15 Connecticut 13 New Jersey 12

Pennsylvania 10 Washington 9

WHAT WERE THE TOP INTERNATIONAL LOC