More than 95 percent of recent graduates in the Trinity College Class of 2024 have reported securing jobs, enrolling in continuing education, or finding other satisfying “first destinations” within six months of graduation, according to a survey.
The goal of the first destinations survey—conducted annually by Trinity’s Career and Life Design Center—is to learn about each new graduate’s first stop after Trinity. The specifics of reporting this information are governed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
The survey found a 95.2 percent successful career outcomes rate, which reflects Class of 2024 alumni who are employed full time, continuing their education, serving in the military, or volunteering.
More than 68 percent of the respondents reported full-time employment. More than 24 percent are continuing their education at the graduate level. Within the 1.4 percent who have pursued volunteer or military service, three alumni are working with Teach For America, and three have joined the military. The survey includes data as of December 31, 2024, and comprises responses from 482 of Trinity’s newest alumni, reflecting a knowledge rate of 90.9 percent of the class.
“From the time students arrive on campus, the staff in Career and Life Design engage with students by offering classes, workshops, and one-on-one coaching,” said Joe DiChristina, vice president for student success and enrollment management. “These interactions provide an array of opportunities for students to build their skills and to develop career-related goals. The results from this survey show how students are prepared for success after graduation.”
Severn Sandt, associate director of strategic partnerships and outreach, said that the survey confirms that Trinity students do very well when it comes to finding a satisfying first step within six months of their graduation. “Our career outcomes rate of 95.2 percent is comparable to our career outcomes rate over the past five years and to our peers,” Sandt said. “This is a testament to Trinity’s commitment to a liberal arts education—in essence, ‘learning how to learn.’ Whether it be law, finance, health care, research, tech, or the many other fields they pursue, Trinity alumni clearly have the tools to find great possibilities and the grit to get offers.”
Class of 2024 graduates started their post-Trinity lives with employers from an array of disciplines representing the many interests and intellectual pursuits they explored as undergraduates. Well-known employers of this class include PwC, Deloitte, Bank of America, and J.P. Morgan Chase. But it is in the individual results where you find the diversity of interests fostered by Trinity’s liberal arts education: Council on Foreign Relations, American Institutes for Research, Hachette Book Group, Steve Madden, Wayfair, Prosek Partners, the Republican National Committee, and Lisson Gallery to name just a few.
The graduate schools that Trinity alumni are attending are of equally high quality, Sandt said. “Five members of the Class of 2024 have gone on to graduate school at each of these prestigious institutions: Columbia University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, and New York University,” she said. “Beyond that, students are pursuing further education at schools as diverse as Brown University, California Institute of the Arts, Dartmouth College, Thunderbird School of Global Management [at Arizona State University], and the University of Pennsylvania, to name a few.”
Sandt noted that there was a 6 percent shift away from employment and toward graduate education this year. “That is a trend that has been increasing since the Class of 2022 and grew by 2 percent with the Class of 2023 and 6 percent with the Class of 2024,” she said.
Over the past five graduating classes, an average of 46 percent of graduating seniors went on to roles in business, consulting, real estate, and finance. This year, Trinity alumni from the Class of 2024 succeeded in getting roles at some of the nation’s most prestigious financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citi, Fidelity Investments, JPMorganChase, Stifel, and Wells Fargo.
Candida Ogu ’24, a sales and trading analyst at Citi, took part in Trinity’s Summit to Wall Street summer program as a student and built connections with several alumni in the finance world. “The Career and Life Design Center played a pivotal role in shaping my career in finance,” Ogu said. “They provided me with tailored resources and went above and beyond to connect me with alumni from various industries, offering insights into career paths I hadn’t even considered. Their support set me on a path to pursue a career I’m truly passionate about.”
Engineering majors from Trinity started their careers at some of the most well-known companies in the field, including Boeing, Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense, and General Dynamics Electric Boat.
Members of the Class of 2024 who intend to go to law school are getting critical experience at top firms, including Alston & Bird, Freshfields, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, Harris Keenan & Goldfarb, Mintz, Nixon Peabody, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch.
Students interested in careers in health care—including as doctors, physician’s assistants, nurses, and more—are doing research at some of the nation’s top academic medical centers, including Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital of Beth Israel Lahey Health, Mount Sinai Health System, the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Rockefeller University, the Yale School of Medicine, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard.
Four members of the Class of 2024 were hired as Alaska Fellows and are doing a year of service in that state. Ben Craig ’24, who has a fellowship to work with the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, said that Trinity’s Career and Life Design Center helped him navigate postgraduate opportunities. “It’s hard to overstate the relief of having support for professional correspondence and application materials during an already busy academic schedule,” Craig said. “The self-assuredness of professional support was an essential and much appreciated feature of my time at Trinity College.”
This first destinations survey offers critical information for the Career and Life Design Center and for the students and alumni it serves. “Looking at these numbers from year to year helps us understand trends in employment and continuing education that we use in working with students in subsequent classes,” Sandt said. “We are continually fine-tuning and improving our offerings to support all Trinity students as they pursue their goals.”
