By Casey Chafin | The Duquesne Duke
Duquesne is the 3rd best school in the Pittsburgh region for post-graduation success, behind Carnegie-Mellon and Pitt, according to the 2015 College Salary Report released by online analysis company Payscale.
Nicole Feldhues, director of career services at Duquesne, said although she was not aware of the methodology of this specific report, the findings align well with the goal of career services as a whole, which is to prepare students to be the best job candidates they can be.
“No two students’ dreams are the same,” Feldhues said, “so we want to support them in being the most successful that they can be, as they define it.”
According to Payscale, 54 percent of Duquesne alumni surveyed said they feel their work makes the world a better place.
The report says Duquesne students earn an average salary of $44,700 in the first five years after graduation. This places the university 347th nationally and 26th statewide.
Feldhues said the path toward a successful career does not start immediately prior to graduation.
“It really is that whole career planning continuum, and it really does start as a freshman all the way through,” she said. “Sometimes people don’t realize that, they think career services is identified with what happens at the end.”
She said the most popular service the career center offers is their walk-in advising hours, where students often come in with a variety of questions to have them answered.
“Often times, there’s other things that build from that [and] they really have more questions,” she said. “But what kind of gets them in the door is, ‘I have this resume I need someone to look at.’”
The 2015 report marks improvement for the university. In the 2012 report, Duquesne ranked 531st nationally with a median first five year income of $43,300.
The report combines several statistics, including median salary for the first five years after graduation, median salary for alumni with more than ten years of experience, percentage of degrees issued in science, technology, education and math fields, and percentage of alumni who say they feel their work makes the world a better place.
Carnegie-Mellon University is the highest-ranked school in the Pittsburgh region. At 14th overall nationally, the report said the median first five-year salary of the school was more than $64,000. The University of Pittsburgh ranked 219th nationally.
Overall, Feldhues said more students need to take advantage of the services offered by the career center.
The 54% believing their work is making a difference is eclipses a higher salary.
I still recall the homily at my commencement mass: “…What will you do? Not money, not prestige, but What will you do? To make the world a better place.”
Proud to have graduated from the Bluff.