By Adam Wagner
Each summer, high school graduates and college students across the country eagerly wait to see how The Princeton Review and U.S. News and World Report rate their university. Despite faring less than favorably in the rankings, Ohio University's job placement for graduates remains average.
At least 80 percent of OU students were employed one year after graduating each year from 2001 to 2007, according to OU's Career and Further Education Survey.
In 2007, the last year the OU survey was available, the national unemployment rate for 20- to 29-year-olds was 3.7 percent, according to The New York Times. The unemployment rate for OU grads that year was 3 percent.
OU students' reputation with employers continues to be positive, said Thomas Korvas, director of Career Services at OU.
"Our students have an excellent reputation of being well-prepared technically and professionally and also having the personalities (and) the communication skills to be successfuland I think that's really key," Korvas said.
This summer, OU received negative press after landing in the top spot for beer consumption, seventh in liquor consumption and second for overall partying on The Princeton Review's annual report. The U.S. News and World Report ranked OU at 124 on its overall university list.
"Literally thousands of employers that I deal with are very, very positive about our students and the institution and about their education. So honestly, I don't think most employers — from the data I've seen — take (rankings) seriously," Korvas said.
Eugene Kenyo, the informational technology college recruiting program manager for Progressive Insurance, said the company does not consider rankings when hiring from a school with which it has a pre-existing relationship. OU has placed first or second in number of hires for the company's IT department in each of the last 10 years.
Rankings do play a role, however, when employers are considering whether to start recruiting from a new school.
"(Rankings are) probably a very good starting point to get a big picture of what a school has to offer from an enrollment standpoint: graduation percentages
diversity makeup, types of majors offered," Kenyo said.
Korvas said employers rely on many factors when considering a university, including, but not limited to, the comparative success of graduates from a given institution, its curriculum, the size of the school and its geographic location.
Location is a factor for Progressive, which is located in Cleveland, when deciding to work with OU.
"I don't put as much emphasis on reputation because I've been doing this for 10 years," Kenyo said. "We've established relationships with six universities across the U.S. that we know have really strong curriculums."
