<p>This is something I’m curious about. How many applicants to top colleges (Ivy League, Tier 1) know their future plans when applying? I know most people end up switching majors in college…</p>
<p>There are a few (like me) who know what they want to do and what they want out of their lives, but I’ll bet the majority of applicants don’t. 
I don’t think this is something you should be stressing out about.</p>
<p>I didn’t (and to some extent, still don’t) know for sure what I want to do in the future.</p>
<p>Whether matriculants know it or not, the outcome is fairly predictable: roughly 75% of male Harvard grads go to Wall Street.</p>
<p>The majority don’t. Most college students change majors at least twice while in college. College is a broadening and enriching experience that changes many students’ perspectives on what they want to do with their lives. This particularly is true at a place like Harvard, which has an enormous diversity of courses and activities.</p>
<p>Change majors, perhaps, but 75% go into careers in finance (although a major in Greek may somehow enhance proprietary trading strategies).</p>
<p>Dad2, where are you getting that statistic?</p>
<p>I’m an alum, and 75% of my male friends certainly did not go to Wall Street.</p>
<p>^^That does seem to be a fairly extreme statistic.</p>
<p>There is no chance that 75% of Harvard grads go into finance. Not even close. I know dozens of Harvard grads, and only two of them are remotely “in finance” – one a lawyer who does work on Wall St. kinds of deals, and one a banker in a city in the Rio Grande valley. (I also knew another Harvard guy at J.P. Morgan years ago, so he counts, too.) The rest? Lots of doctors. A rabbi. Two foundation staff heads. Several journalists. Several TV/movie screenwriters. A midwestern hospital general counsel. Another general counsel to a French consumer products company. Lots of other kinds of lawyers who have little or nothing to do with Wall St. A bunch of professors (English, government). A classical musician.</p>
<p>Actually, Dad2 is correct: according to the May-June 2008 issue of Harvard Magazine, 3/4 of 2007 male Harvard graduates went directly into finance.</p>
<p>Well, then neither you nor Dad2 can read. What the article said was that a little over half of the 3/4 of 2007 male graduates who got jobs out of college rather than going to graduate school got jobs in finance or consulting (which is not necessarily the same thing). Or, put another way, the statement in the article does not prove that more than about 20% of Harvard’s 2007 grads took jobs in the finance sector. Of course, the actual percentage will be higher than that, because I’m sure women take jobs in the financial sector, too, although the article makes clear that they were still lagging men substantially at that point.</p>
<p>Remember, too, that the 2007 hiring season was approximately the high water mark in the history of the world to date for financial sector hiring. I would be surprised if half of the new graduates hired in 2007 had jobs in finance 18 months later at the end of 2009.</p>
<p>Here’s the relevant bit from the article:</p>
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