Wilson School adapts to students' changing interests

Founded in 1930, the Wilson School boasts a reputation for preparing select undergraduates to pursue advanced degrees and careers in public and international affairs.

For a school whose mission follows Woodrow Wilson's vision of the University being "in the nation's service" and only admits a select few from each undergraduate class, an increasing number of graduates are turning away from public service for more lucrative professions.

According to senior check-out surveys conducted by University Career Services, 12 percent of students in the Class of 2001 selected positions within the non-profit sector and 3 percent of graduates chose jobs in government.

"A lot of other students are just concerned with making a whole lot of money, which is obviously a consideration [for me], but there are some other factors that go into choosing a job," Wilson School major Omar Abdelhamid '02 said.

Of the combined 15 percent of last year's graduates in non-profit and government fields, six Wilson School graduates listed "non-profit" as the type of career they planned to pursue in 2001.

Wilson School professor and Chair of the Faculty Committee on the Undergraduate Program Stanley Katz explained that a systematic review of the "trajectories" of Wilson School undergraduates is difficult to calculate because many students enter graduate school and have not determined their "professional direction."

Wilson School major Elizabeth McKay '02 agreed. "I would say that not as many go into service professions or public professions as that slogan would apply," she said. "I think part of it has to do with jobs available and jobs students feel are available."

McKay continued, "It also has to do with the expectations of the students that they will have a high-powered career like consulting or investment banking."

The face of the undergraduate program of the Wilson School is changing to accommodate students who have career interests other than public service. Katz noted business, law and medicine as professions that are "in the service of all nations."

"A few of the students I know best are doing exactly what I'd hoped they'd do — careers in service," he said. "Those include not only working for non-profit organizations and NGOs [non-governmental organizations], but a profession of any kind where the principal objective is changing society for the better."

Katz said though the traditional goal of the Wilson School is to train students for public service — the curriculum has been changing. Courses now offered provide students with the flexibility of a "superb liberal arts education," he said.

Students will draw upon the depth and rigor of a Wilson School education regardless of what profession they enter. "If you don't come out of here with the sense that you are using the knowledge to benefit others in some form, then you haven't gotten the message of the entire University, 'Princeton in the Nation's service and in the service of all nations.'"