Last month, Career Advancement released its annual student outcome statistics for the Class of 2026. “When they walk across the graduation stage,” Career Advancement wrote, “98% of the Class of 2026 will have secured significant postgraduate plans.”
In other words, just 34 of the 1,840 members of the Class of 2026, per more precise figures Career Advancement provided to the Maroon, do not have post-graduation plans. But 66 students—close to double the number Career Advancement reported—told the Maroon they had not secured employment or graduate school admission.
Career Advancement calculates its statistic using data on every member of the graduating class, according to Meredith Daw, the office’s executive director, and uses information from interactions between students and their career advisors, other staff advisors, and the Handshake job application platform, as well as directly from employers and graduate schools, among other sources.
The Maroon fielded a survey asking graduating fourth-years several questions about their post-graduate plans. The Maroon classified those who had not secured employment—which includes paid or Metcalf-funded summer internships and part-time work, following Career Advancement’s definition—admission to graduate school, or fellowships as not having post-graduate plans.
289 students completed the survey, representing about 16 percent of the graduating class.
Asked to comment on the inconsistency between Career Advancement’s statistic and the Maroon’s findings, a University spokesperson wrote, “Differences in data-collection methods or the wording of survey questions sometimes produce small differences in results. Career Advancement draws on information from multiple sources, and we cannot independently verify the information provided in response to the Maroon’s survey.”
The statistic has remained almost unchanged in recent years: In 2023, 99 percent had post-graduation plans; in 2024, 98 percent; and in 2025, 98 percent. No peer school which reports comparable data claims a higher rate of students securing full-time employment or plans to attend graduate school.
When fourth-year Nicole Reed first heard the 98 percent figure, it struck her as “preposterous.” She recalled how “everyone laughed” when the statistic was cited at the undergraduate English department’s end-of-year celebration.
Other fourth-years weren’t so amused. Katia Sergeeva, a double major in neuroscience and data science without plans for the coming year, described the figure as “demoralizing.” “That was a frustrating number to hear,” she said. “It makes me feel worse about where I’m at.”
Reed, who also does not have firm post-grad plans, looked at it differently. “I guess the number doesn’t make me feel bad because I just think it’s obviously wrong,” she said.
The 98 percent figure plays a significant role in the College’s marketing materials and is displayed prominently on the College’s admissions homepage.
Fourth-year Environment, Geography, and Urbanization major Tallulah Gonsky recalled being informed of a similar statistic as she was making the decision to attend UChicago. She told the Maroon she felt confident pursuing a “less employable major” because of what she perceived as a guarantee of post-graduate employment. But Gonsky will walk across the graduation stage this weekend without a plan for what comes next.
One possible explanation for Career Advancement’s overreporting is a tendency to miscategorize students’ employment status.
After not hearing back about many job opportunities, Sergeeva scheduled a meeting with her career advisor last month—where she was shocked to learn that the Career Advancement system had listed her as already having a job. “I was like, ‘Wow,’” she recalled.
The company Career Advancement mistakenly believed Sergeeva had received an offer from was in fact merely a firm she had worked with a few months prior through the Data Science Institute. “Somehow that translated into me having a contract with this company,” Sergeeva said. “If I hadn’t randomly decided to make this appointment… they fully would have counted me as someone with a job.”
She added that this experience was even more “frustrating” because only after Career Advancement corrected their data did she begin to get regular communication from the office about new opportunities. Two days after her meeting, she received an email from Career Advancement soliciting her resume for a company that was hiring someone with her skills. She remembers thinking: “You guys have been doing this the whole time? What the hell—this would have been very helpful three months ago.”
Students without plans often receive a near-constant stream of communications from their career advisors. Jack Foley, a fourth-year studying English and Romance Languages, does not yet know his plans for next year. He has grown increasingly frustrated by Career Advancement’s persistence. “[My advisor] calls me weekly, like, ‘Jack, please talk to me,’” he said.
After receiving one too many phone calls from Career Advancement, fourth-year Noam Levinsky falsely told the office that he had received a job offer. “I just figured that they would probably stop calling me if I told them I already had a job,” Levinsky said. “So, I said: ‘Nope, I already have a job lined up,’ and then I hung up the phone.’”
Foley’s advisors have gone so far as to reach out to his parents, and he’s heard that something similar happened to one of his friends. To Foley, this feels both unnecessary and patronizing. “I’m not in high school—you don’t have to call my parents to get in touch with me,” he said. “It’s my career.”
Defining “significant post-graduate plans”
Setting aside questions of data collection, it is unclear if Career Advancement’s statistics accurately capture the number of students with what it calls “significant” post-graduate plans. Career Advancement counts students who received offers for graduate school that they cannot afford or job offers that they do not ultimately accept as having secured post-graduation plans.
Amber Singleton, a physics major, was “banking on” financial support from the Fulbright Program when she applied for a master’s program at the University of Glasgow in the fall. While she was accepted into the school, she did not secure funding and so was unable to attend. Singleton currently has no plans after graduation. Since then, she has submitted applications to numerous jobs without success and plans to apply to graduate schools again in the fall. But according to its stated definition, Career Advancement would classify Singleton as having “secured significant post-graduate plans.”
The Maroon has heard from several other students who were accepted into a graduate program but declined admission and currently lack post-graduate plans.
In some cases, Career Advancement seems to count students as having plans even if they are pursuing an opportunity that does not fall under the office’s definition. The Maroon reviewed emails exchanged this past week between a graduating student and their career advisor indicating that the student had been categorized as having firm post-graduate plans—but the student’s only plan after graduation is to attend a foreign language instruction program, without an attached stipend, that lasts just a few weeks.
Even when students are able to accept graduate school offers, some do so as a fallback option, several students told the Maroon. Chief among these are master’s programs, such as 4+1 programs offered by the University, which have drawn criticism for their high costs and poor student outcomes.
“I think a lot of the people who do the 4+1 do it because they feel like they have to be doing something the year after they graduate,” Levinsky said.
Even if students do not ultimately find employment after completing a 4+1 program, they are still counted as having secured post-college plans by Career Advancement.
Another marginal case is summer internships. Though Career Advancement does not include unpaid internships in its count, it does include those funded through University-awarded Metcalf grants, which often support otherwise unpaid positions.
Fourth-year philosophy major Kofi Graves said he would be curious to know “if they take out summer internship[s], take out Metcalf[s], how many people don’t have grad school or a ‘job, job’ lined up after September.” He suggested that this would make for “a more intuitive metric,” giving current and prospective students a better understanding of the outcomes they should expect upon graduation.
The University did not respond to requests for disaggregated outcome statistics that would allow for calculation of such a metric.
