College Public Service Pipeline

Hello all,

At Amherst College, roughly 31% of students go into finance/​ consulting while only about 12% go into public service. Many other schools have similarly imbalanced post-graduation outcomes. A group of us at Amherst College are trying to change that, starting here. We want to create a public service pipeline akin to the finance/​ consulting pipeline that already exists.

Issues we need to address:

  • Public service opportunities are not as well known or advertised as finance or consulting jobs

  • The finance and consulting timeframe is super early and takes advantage of college students’ uncertainty

  • Public service jobs are usually not seen as prestigious compared to finance/​ consulting

These are just a few of the major issues that we need to address. I’ll be happy to go more in depth in the comments or additional posts. We have some ideas to address them but I’d love to hear any ideas you have or you have seen work at your universities.

Thanks so much for your help!