

Thanks to a major campus undertaking, the University of Illinois and College of Liberal Arts & Sciences know a little more about one of its most important groups of people—its new graduates. The university today released results of its Illini Success initiative, which surveys new bachelor’s degree recipients on their post-graduation plans.
Career data has important implications, from addressing the questions and concerns of prospective students to answering accreditors who are measuring institutional quality. Federal and state governments are asking for more information about the value of a college education, and making comparisons that can potentially be tied to funding of higher education institutions.
The Career Center, with the help of all undergraduate colleges and numerous other units across campus, drove the effort, which, through a combination of surveys, employer and college reports, and LinkedIn data, obtained verifiable information on the early career track of more than 5,700 bachelor’s degree recipients in the class of 2014-15. That number represents 74 percent of the total number of bachelor’s degree recipients at Illinois over that time period.
Full results of the study can be found at illinisuccess.illinois.edu.
In the College of LAS, information was obtained for 2,185 bachelor’s degree recipients, or 71 percent of the college total. That data revealed that 77 percent of LAS alumni in the class of 2014-15 who participated in the study had secured a “first destination,” which includes employment, continuing education, military service, or volunteer work.
Some 69 percent of LAS bachelor’s degree recipients reporting a “first destination” were classified as employed. The average annual salary of full-time LAS graduates who replied for the study is $49,675, compared to the campus average of $55,390. The average annual salary by discipline in LAS ranges from $36,743 to $66,923.
LAS graduates contribute heavily to the Illinois economy, according to the study. Some 74 percent of LAS graduates indicate they are working in Illinois in the months after graduation, compared to an average of 70 percent across campus.
Of those LAS graduates pursuing more education, 49 percent are pursuing master’s degrees, 18 percent are pursuing professional degrees (law and medicine), and 19 percent are pursuing doctoral degrees. Some 63 percent are continuing their education in Illinois.
Some 77 percent of LAS graduates participated in one or more experiential learning opportunities (internships, assistantships, student teaching, service learning/volunteering, study abroad with internship or practicum components, clinical experience, co-ops, and field experience) while they studied at Illinois. Of those, all ranked those experiences as “very helpful” or “helpful.”
Other highlights of the study of the class of 2014-15 include:
- Graduates of the chemical sciences have the highest average annual salary of any LAS discipline ($66,923).
- Communication has one of the highest percentages of alumni securing employment after graduation (78 percent).
- About 83 percent of graduates from the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics have secured a first destination, which is second-highest in LAS after communication graduates (88 percent).
Because of a presentation error in the report, our initial story on Illini Success included a few incorrect statistics on individual departments’ employment and first destination rates. All data in the story is now correct. For the newly updated full LAS report, please visit illinisuccess.illinois.edu.