Campus to Careers Survey

Fill out the Campus to Careers Survey online here.

Join the Facebook group for Environmental Alumni here.

Download Career Insider: Online Graduate Degrees in the Environment here.

CEDD will be providing all member schools an opportunity to participate in the second round of a long-term study of the career pathways of environmental program alumni and how their academic preparation relates to their future careers.

Increasing national concern regarding the aging of the environmental labor force and the need for more students to pursue careers in this field makes this an especially relevant time for such a survey. Currently, very little is known about the relationship between campus and environmental careers and we lack comprehensive quantitative data about the environmental workforce. The results of this survey hold the potential to influence and alter the decisions made by policymakers, students and the participating institutions. This survey of alumni of environmental science programs will be crucial in identifying the diverse career pathways of graduates of environmental programs and learning what colleges and universities can do to better prepare them for career success. This study intends to track alumni over the course of their careers.

The survey instrument was developed in partnership with Dr. Richard Freeman, Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University (http://www.economics.harvard.edu/) and regarded as one of the top labor economists in the country. He is also the director of the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program and Kavita Shukla, from the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program the National Bureau of Economic Research is managing this study. She will be presenting a summary of results at this year’s conference.  

The first round of this survey was administered to alumni from the class of 2005 at 15 member schools, with an overall response rate of 28%. While the first round was entirely web based, paper surveys will also be used in the second round to boost response rates. In addition, the second round of the survey will include a set of customized questions for your program and students. This format provides flexibility and ease for both the participating institutions and respondents. Different versions of the survey will be administered to alumni with baccalaureate and with graduate degrees.

The survey will allow us to answer questions such as:

• What types of careers do environmental graduates go into?
• How do program types relate to career choices and progression?
• How do graduates of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs progress in the workforce compared to graduates of disciplinary programs?
• What curricular approaches and elements lead to certain types of careers?
• What can colleges and universities do to better prepare their students for career success?
• What factors influence the decisions of individuals to pursue different types of environmental studies and careers?

We will be distributing the second round of the survey in the spring of 2009. All interested schools should contact us for further details regarding distribution.

Please send any questions or suggestions to: David@NCSEonline.org or shuklak@nber.org.