actually, those aren;t most areas but the worst areas. PA as a whole is pretty bad at retaining college grads.

Actually I think Pittsburgh and Cleveland are more representative of large areas of the country than the NE corridor. Look at Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, and even places like Minneapolis (which may retain its college grads but doesn’t strike me as being a hotspot for college grads to move into). There are only a handful of cities that can really be said to do well on this score: Boston,. NYC, DC, Chicago, SF, Seattle, LA, and perhaps a few others. That’s not the majority of the county. I’ll grant, however, that Philadelphia should look to the top tier as far as competition rather than rest on its laurels.

I went to school in DE. I had 3 good job offers in DE before I graduated. The job fairs were plentiful. Would have been easy to stick around. I applied for a few jobs in PA my senior year and no one wanted me. Just one person's experience, and there are a lot of variables at work here, but... I definitely feel wanted in DE and less so in PA. Luckily I'm not ready to settle down and start a family and a chicken farm in one of the most boring states ever, so I turned down DE.

There was something on the news about a year or two ago that said if you live in PA, you tend to stay in PA, even if you go to college elsewhere. PA has one of the highest retention rates. So I guess that means that of those non-PA people who move away from their home state, most don't settle in PA.

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Meatwad get the honeys, see.

but cleveland and Pitt are among the worst in the country at retaining even their own students. they are both in the bottom five.

I'm a Penn grad, and it seemed that almost EVERYONE left after graduation. New York, DC, San Francisco were the most popular destinations. The rest moved back to their hometowns (that would include the Philly folks) or out west for some different type of lifestyle change.

I was one of the ones who moved to NYC, mostly because I was ready for something new, and all my friends were going. As for everyone else, Penn's career services provides a great recruiting program -that is if you want to work for the top companies in NY, SF or DC. There was never much of a resource for finding jobs in Philadelphia -they just pointed you to job boards and local job fairs! There's just not as much opportunity here for all these grads...as this has been discussed often.

That's a really curious post. But I suspect that the same problem with job services exists at our other good colleges and universities.

You wouuld think with all the groups pushing for stopping the "brain drain" from Philadelphia and the money that is being spent, that something as simple as getting the local job folks at colleges and universities to push Philadelphia jobs would be a priority.

Maybe we are stupid.

To be honest, I think Penn's priority is to have one of the top recruiting programs...to represent itself and send its grads to the most highly recognized and prestigious investment banking programs, consulting companies, government agencies...most of which are not located in Philadelphia. -and most of the students want to compete for these positions. I find it rare that a Philadelphia company would offer a senior a job 5 months in advance and offer them a hefty signing bonus. -many of these out of town companies do.

As for Philadelphia jobs, of course there are some, but there was never really any emphasis on what you can do if you want to stay in the area. It just wasn't part of Penn's agenda. However, if the city got involved... and set up some sort of program at all the local univerisities to show what is in the area, perhaps it would help keep the grads here. I had ONE friend that stayed in Philadelphia -because her older boyfriend was here. -and she found her job through the classifieds.

Yeah, why can't Innovation Philadelphia or another Philadelphia booster organization set up seminars for the job service people at local colleges and universities.

If selling Philadelphia is important enough to booster groups so that they set up seminars for hotel staff, etc, you would think they could do something similar for job service people. And, local corporations could set a prioritiy on recruiting people from local colleges and univesities - signing bonuses and all. I know that New York firms spend a huge amount of time at Columbia, NYU and other New York schools.

yeah, perhaps showcasign how few jobs there are might get some people moving. Really, from what I can tell, Philadelphia is really lacking in the types of jobs that retain Wharton students. People say the job market ain't so bad here, but that's the metro area. if you want to work in the city, chances are you will have to leave ro suck it up and live in the city and commtue to the burbs. last year some new yorkers remarked how odd it was that most jobs labeled philadelphia aren;t really in philadelphia. I watch the job amrket and rarely are there good entry level jobs and rarely are there job posted that I would want to apply for inside city limits. it seems you ahve to leave to get experience and perhaps you can get one of the few branch positions available in philly. plus, young doctors are leaving in droves. by far, the most important thign to do to retain young college grads is to create a more business firendly enviornment that encourages companeis tolocate here or does not drive young entrpreneurs out. it is so hard to justify starting your biz inside city limits given the taxes, esp. the privilege and gross receipts taxes.

Look, I'd be happy if they even stayed in the region. They'll still disposable income here in the city.