This may seem like a preposterous question. After all, Princeton students are admitted based on their competence and interests. Nonetheless, nearing the end of my time at Princeton, many of my classmates and I find ourselves unable to answer the question "What are you doing next year?" To some - often neighbors and family friends - this comes as a shock. What's equally shocking to students is the high numbers of people choosing a few paths: finance and consulting, academic fellowships or service fellowships. But it shouldn't be surprising once you consider the requirements of a liberal arts education.
A preceptor once told my class, "You guys got into Princeton because you always knew what the expectations were and exceeded those expectations." Exceeding expectations was doable in high school when the expectations were so clear. Get good grades, hone an extracurricular skill and do all this for the ultimate objective of getting into "the college of your choice." Though Princeton students are often thought of as self-starters, for many of us from well-funded public or private schools, there was actually much hand-holding in the college admissions process. The process was made easier still by a limiting curriculum and the stern hand of a guidance counselor.
Things get fuzzier in college. Expectations become more elusive. President Tilghman implores us to discover and follow our passions. Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel encourages students to check out different majors before making their Major Choices. Gone is the hand-holding. What are expectations-exceeders to do? Left to their own devices, students do end up taking a wider range of courses than their high schools would have allowed. But breadth does not equal depth. Lacking the right kind of guidance, it's easy to merely fulfill requirements via a bunch of introductory courses - hardly enough to whet one's palate. Many students find something they are interested in and continue to take courses down that path. But for many others, being told to take a wide variety of courses creates the paradox of choice. When there are many choices, it's difficult to be satisfied with one. As a result, some students manage to go through seven semesters of college without discovering a passion or interest. In the end, many choose a default major, evidenced by the high concentration of students in the five most popular majors.
By the time junior year arrives, the expectation to do something useful post-graduation arises. Without having any real passions, some students default to top recruiters. It's difficult to avoid finance, consulting firms, Princeton Project 55 and Teach For America. We shouldn't be surprised then when of the 400 people in the Class of 2008 who reported having full-time jobs, 166 were in the financial industry. An additional 122 were in the "services" industry, which mostly consists of consulting. In fact, of all 1,007 students with post-graduation plans, 444 were going into the financial industry, services industry, the top five grad schools and one-year Princeton-sponsored nonprofit fellowships. Does this mean all these students are passionate about these four different options? It's unlikely. There must be another reason.
Students sometimes feel like they're choosing between going into the private sector and making a lot of money or going into nonprofits and becoming martyrs. But this is a false dichotomy. Instead, the factors common to all four of the options above are the intensity of recruiting and level of prestige. Because banks, fellowships and grad schools recruit on campus, students are more likely to explore these options than any others that would require actual exploration. When explaining their post-graduation plans to friends, seniors often say "I don't really know what I want to do, so I'm working at (insert fellowship/bank/consulting firm) for two years." While this is a legitimate reason for post-graduation plans, it's hardly the enthusiastic "desire" that Booker referred to.
As I near the end of my seventh semester here, I am reminded of my high school senior self. Back then, my peers and I believed that college would provide the answers to our futures. But maybe we should stop expecting schools like Princeton to shape the rest of our lives. Instead, college should be seen as a place to make one's own expectations. Only when we do that can students step away from the default options.
Cindy Hong is a Wilson School major from Princeton, N.J. She can be reached at cindyh@princeton.edu.
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