Easy-to-find outcomes data at the interactive American University “We Know Success” page
Visit just about any college and university website in the U.S. and you can learn that something over 90 percent of alumni are employed, attending graduate schools or otherwise engaged about 6 months after graduating. The data is pretty similar for just about every school I’ve ever visited. Nothing in the data that sets one place apart from another.
What is almost impossible to find at most higher education sites is similar information on what matters most to potential students: the same “success” data for the individual academic programs that interest them. American University is one of the few that that is different.
Travel to the AU “We Know Success” site and you arrive at an easy-to-use, interactive masterpiece.
At first glance you’ll see the usual “all university” data for 3 degree levels: Undergraduates or Masters or Doctorates. Scroll through this for graphs on employment, economic sectors with alpha lists of the employers within each one, and 6 income levels. This is also a place that AU uses to tout the importance of internships and overseas study to the success of its alumni with lists and locations for each.
Availability of a “doctorates” tab is misleading at first: AU does not actually include data at that level. Alumni are asked to complete the same survey as other graduates but “results are not included here because of a low number of responses.”
What makes AU outcomes content special…
If that was all that’s available the site would be nice but not special. “Special” starts when you use the tabs at the top of the page to find the same date for the individual major(s) of your choice in the degree level of your choice. Now you can learn about the success of people who majored in Accounting or Chemistry, or Political Science or any other program that AU offers. Pick a major and you’ll immediately see the academic division where it lives.
You’ll see, for instance, the income spread for Chemistry graduates. You’ll also see that “only” 87 percent of the graduates are employed or in graduate school. Master’s graduates do a fair bit better, with 96 percent employed or in grad school. And, as we might hope, their income levels are higher as well.
On mobile…
Sometimes Link of the Weeks site are easier to use on either desktop or mobile device, In this case, there’s no real difference. The mobile version works just as well as the site works on desktop or laptop.
Follow the Link of the Week
Start your exploration of the American University alumni outcomes by majors, schools, and degree levels at the opening “We Know Success” page.
Recommend a future Link of the Week
Always eager to get recommendations of websites that dare to be different… or just do something ordinary in a special way. Write a comment with link here or send me the link at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com
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