Colleges with the Best Career Services

When parents and students evaluate and compare prospective colleges, one of the most massively important–but frequently overlooked–factors is the quality of the career services office. In the end, the professionals who provide individual career counseling, arrange internships, engage in corporate recruiting, and plan job fairs will play a big role in your teen’s postgraduate success.

What is the student-to-counselor ratio? What percent of students engage with career services? Does this happen in freshman year or does counseling only get utilized by seniors? This blog will highlight offices that excel in the areas of organizing job fairs, networking events, corporate recruiting on campus, and arranging internships.

The list that follows highlights 27 of the most supportive career services offices in the United States. For a more detailed assessment of the career services offerings at 200 of the nation’s top institutions, pick up the 2023 edition of our outcomes-oriented guidebook Colleges Worth Your Money.

Colleges with the Best Career Services

American University

AU has a student-to-advisor ratio of 274:1 and 99% of surveyed undergraduates are happy with the school’s career advising services. Further, an exceptional 90% of grads have had at least one internship. 504 employers recruited at AU, 238 hiring organizations attended career fairs, and 523 on-campus interviews were conducted.

Discover: How to Get Into American University

Amherst College

The Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning advises more than 1,400 students and alumni each year for a total of more than 6,000 sessions. That prodigious output comes from the office’s fifteen full-time staff members who focus on either career advising or employer relations. Loeb’s 116:1 student-to-advisor ratio Amherst does a superb job recruiting companies to campus with more than 175 visiting per year and close to 450 interviews taking place on campus, which is roughly the size of the graduating class.

Discover: How to Get Into Amherst College

Babson College

The Hoffman Family Undergraduate Center for Career Development (CCD) at Babson is dedicated solely to the college’s undergraduate students. With 11 full-time, professional staff members, Babson operates with a 217:1 student-to-advisor ratio. Ultimately, less than 1% of graduates are still looking for employment/grad school within six months of graduating.

Learn more about Babson’s Career Services.

Bates College

The Center for Purposeful Work features eleven full-time staff and a student-to-advisor ratio of 171:1. Organizations such as The Beacon Group, Analysis Group, Barclays, and the CIA have recruited on campus in recent years. Over 350 interviews are conducted on campus by sixty-five companies in a single academic year. The Purposeful Work Internship Program helps fund living expenses of students interning more than 300 summer hours.

Learn more about Bates’ Career Services.

Bentley University

This school does an incredible job facilitating meaningful internships. Of the 90% of Bentley students who had an internship (70%+ complete more than one) as part of their undergraduate education. Forty percent of 2020 grads landed their first job directly through this experience.

Learn more about Bentley’s Career Services.

Bowdoin College

Bowdoin Career Exploration and Development (CXD) office is staffed by 11 professionals who specialize in areas like discipline-specific career advising and employer relations; this equates to a student-to-advisor ratio of 162:1. . In a single year, the office planned over 200 programs with over 5,200 attendees, more than two-and-half times the size of the student body. Incredibly, the staff managed to work, in some capacity, with 80% of students and 99% of the senior class.

Discover: How to Get Into Bowdoin

Carnegie Mellon University

Over three-quarters of undergrads login to Handshake to view the roughly 12,000 job and 5,000 internship postings. Multiple members of each class intern at companies that include Amazon, Deloitte, and JP Morgan Chase. In a single year, an impressive 488 companies recruited at the university and conducted 5,900 on-campus interviews. Close to 80% of undergraduates complete at least one internship.

Discover: How to Get Into CMU

Claremont McKenna College

The Claremont McKenna Career Services Office has ten full-time professional staff members working on grad school/career advising and employer relations and internship procurement. That equates to a 126:1 student-to-advisor ratio. It even has a counselor solely dedicated to the school’s 350 first-year students, and that counselor is able to meet with more than 90% of that cohort each year. Annual fall career expos attract representatives from more than one hundred top employers. In a single school year, staff conducted 3,000 one-on-one counseling appointments, enticed forty-four employers into recruiting on campus, and facilitated 500+ on-campus interviews, more than one per member of the senior class.

Learn more details about CMC’s Career Services.

Clemson University

Clemson’s staff garners much-deserved praise for its dedication to student success through the sheer scope of their offerings. Fall and spring career fairs attract more than 600 employers and more than 5,500 students annually. The school’s online database features up to 9,000 job and internship postings each year. The CCPD personally reaches a massive number of students, claiming more than 33,782 engagements in the 2019-20 school year. Fifty-five percent of those engagements were made at workshops, job fairs, and information sessions while the other 45% were made via one-on-one counseling sessions.

Discover: How to Get Into Clemson University

Colgate University

The Center for Career Services (CCS) is comprised of twelve professionals with expertise in career advising, employer relations, and alumni engagement. That works out to a 254:1 student-to-advisor ratio. The CCS holds over 10,000 individual meetings with more than 3,000 current students and recent alumni per year. On-campus workshops and programs attract over 11,000 attendees. The office also excels in employer relations, having forged formal recruiting partnerships with 175+ companies/hiring institutions, which leads to roughly 600 on-campus interviews per year (close to one per senior).

Discover: How to Get Into Colgate University

Cornell University

With a 268:1 student-to-advisor ratio, Cornell’s level of support is unparalleled among large universities. In an average year, students make over 14,000 advising appointments, and more than 12,000 students attend programs and presentations. Over 150 students take advantage of job-shadowing opportunities offered during winter and spring breaks. Most importantly, in an average year, roughly 90% of surveyed students have completed, or plan to complete, an internship/practicum.

Discover: How to Get Into Cornell University

Elon University

The Student Professional Development Center (SPDC) at Elon University has 21 professional employees. Thanks to their efforts, 87% of Elon students complete an internship during their four undergraduate years and the majority of those internships led directly to a job offer. The SPDC facilitates close to 6,000 one-on-one advising appointments per year

Learn more about Elon’s Career Services.

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

The Office of Postgraduate Planning consists of three professional employees, equating to a superior student-to-advisor ratio of 103:1, among the best of any school in the country. 100% of those graduating in 2020 had a technical internship or research experience; 91% had more than one such experience. The Fall Career Fair is attended by more than fifty top companies, an astounding number considering the tiny size of the student body.

Learn more about Olin College of Engineering’s Career Services.

Hamilton College

The Maurice Horowitch Career Center is staffed by 14 professionals which works out to a 136:1 student-to-advisor ratio. Roughly 90% of the Class of 2020 had at least one internship over the course of the four years, and an incredible 81% had at least two. Alumni are highly supportive of current students and are willing to present on campus or offer job-shadowing experiences; 75% of alumni in a recent survey stated they would be happy to supply current students with career advice.

Learn more about Hamilton’s Career Services.

Harvard University

In a single recent year, the Center for Career Development’s 32 professional staff members hosted 343 events that were attended by 12,351 students. It also organizes twenty independent career fairs, each targeting a particular sector that attracts more than 6,000 net attendees. The OCS logs 6,600 advising appointments per year and manages to engage with 70% of the total undergraduate student body.

Discover: How to Get Into Harvard

Lafayette College

The recently renamed Gateway Career Center is staffed by thirteen professional employees who work in career counseling, employer relations, internship coordination, or graduate school advising. This works out to an outstanding 193:1 student-to-advisor ratio. In a single year, this group hosts 180 workshops and programs and engages 1,300+ students in almost 5,000 total career-and graduate school-related activities. By senior year, 80% of Lafayette undergrads have completed an internship, externship, or other field experience.

Learn more about Lafaytette’s Career Services.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT Career Advising and Professional Development (CAPD) has 21 professional staff members who are directly involved in employer relations, career counseling, and graduate school advising. This equates to a 208:1 student-to-advisor ratio. In a single year, the CAPD hosted 130 different employers, which led to a collective 2,609 interviews held on campus. An additional 1,072 employers posted 2,595 unique jobs online in an effort to lure MIT seniors.

Discover: How to Get Into MIT

Northeastern University

Career counselors receive incredibly high reviews from students as 96% report progress on their career goals after only one session; 100% felt it was worth their time to return for a follow-up. The EECD has forged relationships with over 3,000 employers and, through its employer-in-residence program, representatives from those organizations spend up to one day per week for an entire year interacting with students, making personal connections, and offering career tips. A typical Fall Career Fair is attended by 260 employers and the Spring Engineering and Technology Career Fair usually draws 4,000+ students and 140 companies.

Discover: How to Get Into Northeastern

Pomona College

The Career Development Office (CDO) has nine full-time professional staff members for a 164:1 student-to-advisor ratio. Pomona’s staff puts its resources to good use, engaging 80% of freshmen through lunches where the CDO’s offerings are introduced. Each year, the office engages in over 1,800 one-on-one counseling appointments, more than one per enrolled undergraduate student. Two-thirds of seniors directly engage with counselors. By senior year, 89% of students have participated in at least one internship, and 70% have completed two or more.

Discover: How to Get Into Pomona

Rice University

The Rice Center for Career Development (CCD) is staffed by eleven full-time professional employees, which equals a student-to-advisor ratio of 371:1. Internship opportunities can also be discovered at the Career and Internship Expo, which is attended by more than one hundred employers—it’s no wonder 88% ultimately procure one or more internships.

Discover: How to Get Into Rice

Stanford University

BEAM (Bridging Education, Ambition, & Meaningful Work) is Stanford’s career services office. It employs 24 professional staff members which works out to a 265:1 student-to-advisor ratio. In a given year, the career services staff facilitates roughly 20,000 “meaningful connections” between current students and alumni/industry professionals and initiate 37,000+ “meaningful opportunities” for undergraduates to carve out a pathway toward their employment or graduate school destination.

Discover: How to Get Into Stanford

Tufts University

Tufts does an exceptional job of assisting undergraduates with internship procurement. A robust 80% of 2020 Tufts graduates completed two or more internships during their time at the university; 93% completed at least one. The Fall Career Fair is attended by 185+ companies, and on-campus recruiting/interviews take place throughout the academic year. Career Treks and networking events in cities like New York and San Francisco are also regular occurrences.

Discover: How to Get Into Tufts

University of Chicago

An exceptional 80% of freshmen engage with the Career Advancement Office. Through the Metcalf Internship Program, massive numbers of students procure internship positions at top companies around the globe. In a given year, UChicago students secure more than 2,800 internships with more than 850 organizations. Undergraduates participate in excess of 500 employer site visits around the world that are known as Career Treks as well as 200 externships.

Discover: How to Get Into UChicago

University of Notre Dame

More than three-quarters of students participate in at least one internship during their undergraduate years. Career fairs are attended by 450+ employers annually, including many major corporations known for employing large numbers of Fighting Irish alumni. Overall, more than 500 companies conduct approximately 7,000 job interviews on campus each academic year.

Discover: How to Get Into Notre Dame

Wake Forest University

Sporting a phenomenal student-to-advisor ratio of 130:1, Wake Forest’s career coaches meet with over 4,000 members of the student body to engage in 1:1 career planning sessions and/or small workshops. Career treks took students to New York City, San Francisco, and DC to meet with alumni in their places of business. All freshmen are introduced to the services offered via the OPCD Orientation that alerts students to the wealth of career-prep resources available to them from the moment they step on campus.

Discover: How to Get Into Wake Forest

Washington University in St. Louis

The Washington University in St. Louis Career Center is staffed by 20 full-time professional employees and has a student-to-advisor ratio of 383:1. Five large career fairs drew a collective audience of almost 2,334 individuals and 300 employers. The center also hosted 330 low-key employer information sessions and a number of SLAMs, miniature career fairs for a particular industry where, in a bit of a role-reversal, employers pitch their companies to students. An almost hard-to-fathom 475 employers recruit on campus each year, and close to 1,100 on-campus interviews are conducted.

Discover: How to Get Into WashU

Wellesley College

The 99:1 student-to-advisor ratio at Wellesley is unmatched by any institution in the country. In the 2019-20 academic year, 98% of the undergraduate population engaged digitally or face-to-face with career services. The annual total of advising sessions exceeds 5,200. Even in the middle of a pandemic, there were 332 seniors in Class of 2020 who were matched with an alumnae advisor in their area of interest.

Learn more about Wellesley’s Career Services.

For more information about where graduates of particular colleges most frequently land jobs, visit our Dataverse page entitled Where Alumni Work.