YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY
99
NOW THE MAN OF AFFAIRS. —
Changes in the Vocation of the College
Graduate,
[From the Editorial Notes of the Yale Review for
November, by the Courtesy of the Editors. ]
Appended hereto are given in con-
densed and abbreviated form the figures
indicating the distribution of Yale Col-
lege graduates among the various pro-
fessions and occupations. The records
of the various class secretaries cover
the period since 1839 without a break.
Records for the earlier classes are often
incomplete, and sometimes wholly want-
ing. From those that do exist the
above figures have been derived. The
leading difficulty in doing so is due to
the changes of occupations reported by
individual graduates, more frequent in
the earlier years of the century than
now. So, for instance, a graduate of
the College might begin to earn his
livelihood by teaching, then study and
practice law, and finally enter upon
some mercantile career; or, another
might study for the ministry, exchange
that profession for journalism, and
eventually retire to the country and end
his days as a farmer. In each case a
graduate has been assigned to that oc-
cupation in which he appears to have
been most successful, generally a ques-
tion of the number of years devoted to
each vocation. Another difficulty lies
in the fact that a considerable num-
ber of graduates make no report of their
doings; they are often the unsuccessful
ones, and must of necessity be disre-
garded. A third, but minor difficulty
presents itself in the case of those who
die before the final selection of their
vocation. Owing to this fact, the pro-
portion of teachers, whose occupation
is so often a stepping-stone to some
other, may be unduly swelled, but to
no very considerable extent.
The graduates of each year were as-
signed to one or another of the ten
occupations indicated in the_ table,
namely: Law, Ministry, Medicine,
Teaching and Science, Business, En-
gineering, Journalism and Literature,
Farming, Government Service (mili-
tary and civil), and Miscellaneous.
The relative share of each occupation
was expressed in a percentage of each
year’s graduates; and an average per-
centage for five-year periods was de-
tived and is given. in the table.
FEWER CHOOSE THE MINISTRY.
The results of the inquiry may be ex-
pressed as follows: At the end of the
last century 39 per cent. of the class be-
came clergymen. This was almost the
exact proportion (40%) which held
good for the classes graduating during
the first hundred years of the College’s
history (1701-1801). The first fifteen
classes sent on an average 78 per cent.
of their number into the ministry; the
first fifty classes, 52 per cent.; the sec-
ond fifty classes, 28 per cent. During
the first half of this century the propor-
tion remained fairly constant at about
the last figure. Beginning with the
middle of the century, however, the frac-
tion of each class that entered the minis-
try fell off, especially in the case of the
classes graduating during the Civil War
and during the late seventies. Since
then the figure for individual classes
has varied between 3 and 13 per cent.,
but the average figure for five-year
periods has remained noticeably con-
stant at 6 and 7 per cent.
As compared with the great falling
off in the clerical profession, from 40
per cent. at the beginning, to 6 or 7
per cent. at the end of this century, the
proportion of a class choosing the law
as a profession has varied little during
the same period, at least if the figures
are taken representing the average for
periods of five years. This is especially
true of the last five periods (1871-93),
during which the figure was three times
35 per cent. and twice, 36 per cent. It
may be more than a curious coincidence
‘that the three maxima of the above
figure (barring the first in 1797) occur
during the periods immediately follow-
ing the three wars, of 1812, of 1848, and
the Civil War.
TEACHING.
The profession of teaching has at-
tracted a fraction of each class that has
varied within very wide limits. In
some classes previous to the Civil War,
one-fifth or one-sixth of the members
became teachers; in others the fraction.
sank to zero. It is difficult to explain
the irregular changes in this figure, un-
less they are taken to indicate that the
teacher’s profession has generally been
a stepping-stone, in some years de-
serted for some other profession, in
other years, often owing to accidental
causes, permanently enrolling college
graduates among its members. Since
the Civil War, however, the fraction of
each class becoming teachers, or devot-
ing themselves to scientific pursuits, has
varied within much narrower limits—
in the case of the graduates of 1879 to
1893, between 9 and I5 per cent.—indi-
cating that teaching has become a well
recognized profession, and tends nowa-
days, like the law and medicine, to at-
tract approximately the same fraction
of each college generation.
The last has been distinctly the case
with the medical profession, which dur-
ing the five year periods since 1841 has
uniformly attracted about one-tenth of
those graduating from the College, the
figures falling once as low as 8 per
cent., and three times rising to I2 per
cent, During the second, third and
fourth decades of this century it rose to
an unusual height. This unusual popu-
larity of the medical profession at that
time is also illustrated, though not as
conclusively, by the fact that the aver-
age number of physicians annually
graduating from the Yale Medical
School during the third decade of the
century was not again equalled or ex-
ceeded in any single year before 1806.
As regards the above four learned
professions, the law, the ministry, medi-
cine, and teaching, the figures conclu-
sively show that, after attracting a
larger and larger constituency from
among the classes of the first thirty
years of this century, the tide then
turned, and from attracting nine-tenths
of each college class during the early
thirties, the proportion fell off steadily,
with hardly an exception, till recent
times. However, the last eighteen
classes, arranged in four groups in the
table, send a surprisingly constant
fraction of their members into one or
the other of the four learned profes-
sions, namely approximately five-eights.
MORE GO INTO BUSINESS.
The most striking fact brought to
light by the table is the great increase
of the graduates of the College pursuing
a mercantile career. The proportion of
business men in the first 20 classes of
this century was temporarily high, per-
haps owing to the stimulus of the for-
eign wars and of our war of 1812 and
of its after effects. Then the fraction fell
to a low level in the twenties and early
thirties. Beginning with the Class of
Thirty-Nine, the fraction rose steadily,
with practically no setback, until the
present time, rising most rapidly in the
case of those graduating in the late
forties, during the Civil War and during
the seventies. From generally occupy-
ing the fourth place in importance
among the occupations of graduates,
business rose to the third place with the
Class of Forty-Two, the second place
during the Civil War, and will presuma-
bly eventually wrest the first place from
the legal profession. —
While the relative number of mer-
chants among Yale College graduates
has grown so much, the number of
farmers has greatly fallen off. This is
largely,, but not wholly, explained by
the disappearance from the list of
alumni of the Southern planter. In ad-
dition, the greater attractions offered by
the other vocations and by urban life
should be taken into account.
One more occupation deserves notice,
that of government service. Here it
was evidently the Civil War which at-
tracted a considerable number of grad-
uates of the time and of previous years
to the military and civil service of the
government. Those graduating since
the war have in but a few cases followed
their example.
The general outcome of the move-
ment as indicated in the table may be
summed up as follows: The law dur-
ing the past century has fairly, uni-
formly enlisted one-third of each col-
lege generation. At the beginning of
the century the ministry followed closely
in second place. Roughly speaking,
‘the law and the ministry were then
chosen by two-thirds of the class.
Nowadays, the law still holds its own,
but the ministry has fallen off greatly
in relative importance; its place has
_been taken by the merchant’s vocation,
[Continued on rooth page.|
It is quite the way now with thous-
ands of business people to keep track of.
appointments and éngagements, and to
make memoranda of all kinds, on the
Columbia Pad Calendar. Itis an ortho-
dox piece of desk furniture and one of
the evidences of the universal reputa-
tion of the concern by whom it is pub-
lished.—A dv.
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