November 16, 2017
Linda Blaser
Transforming the Campus Career Center
Commissioned by the Chronicle of Higher Education, this study looks at unique career center models in colleges and universities.
The Lake Forest College Career Advancement Center is featured alongside Stanford University and Rutgers University for its institutional focus on career preparation in the October 2017 Chronicle of Higher Education report on “Transforming the Campus Career Center: New Models for a New Era.”
The report highlights the College’s career services as a unique model and underscores its commitment to successful outcomes for all Lake Forest students.
Some reasons why the College’s career center is in a category of its own:
- Every first-year and transfer student is assigned a career advisor when they begin at the College
- 11 professionals work on the career center staff—more than twice the national median
- More than 90 percent of students work with the center’s staff before graduation
- 99 percent of recent graduates had jobs or enrolled in graduate school within six-nine months after graduation
- Students can pursue up to three credit-bearing internships and more than 50 percent of Lake Forest students graduate with internship credit
The College’s Career Advancement Center has expanded in recent years and has become a central part of a student’s experience at Lake Forest.
In 2015, the Career Advancement Center got a boost in the form of a $2 million gift from an anonymous donor. Since then, the number of internships, employer contacts, alumni and professional mentoring opportunities, and career preparation programs have exploded, along with new offerings, such as the ACTIVATE Summer Internship Program in Chicago. Today, nine in 10 students work with the Career Advancement Center before graduating.