Ohhhh… I understand your line of thinking, but I totally disagree. Job placement stats are in university marketing literature for various degree programs. Maybe not for Top 100 schools, but it’s all over the place now when you look at major universities and colleges, and try and evaluate whether their various degree programs are ‘worth it.’
Job placement statistics are a big deal with business related degrees, and actually… they played a role in university selection with one of my nieces who is a mech engineering major.
Two of my cousins attended Babson college in New England a little over a decade ago… and they routinely talked about how Babson’s job placement stats made it an AWESOME choice for business school. But both cousins chose business degree tracks related to entrepreneurship and marketing degrees… but upon graduation could only find low end, commission based sales jobs, that required ridiculous travel. Tuition at Babson was almost $50 k per year…not including room, board and books. Lucky for both cousins, their parents paid their bills and they had no loans… but was it wise to spend over $200k on a business degree to get a traveling sales gig, with commission based compensation and limited benefits? I don’t think so. You can get business/marketing degrees from many state schools for a fraction of that cost.
Another example… my two nieces who are both currently in their sophomore year and pursuing engineering degrees. One is a double major in Computer Science and biomedical engineering (she’s a brainiac). She got scholarship offers from some GREAT schools… including Columbia, RPI, and Carnegie Mellon. But none were full rides, and when she factored in books, living, partial tuition, she was still going to have to pay close to $30k per year. And take out loans to do it. So that would have been $120k in debt after 4 years. Her state flagship school gave her a full ride offer, plus money for books, living, etc. And they had an honors program. So she chose to go that route, and will graduate 100% debt free. Neither Columbia, nor her state university engaged in marketing tactics with respect to job placement stats… the inherent value of either/or was pretty obvious at first glance - a prestigious Ivy League alma mater vs. an economic but solid degree program from a public university.
By contrast, my other niece, who was a top notch high school athlete, REALLY wanted to play women’s lacrosse in college, while also pursue an engineering degree. She ended up looking at a variety of mid-tier private colleges and universities with D3 programs, most in the mid Atlantic and North East. She eventually chose to accept an offer from Clarkson University… which is a great school. But private. And not exceptionally well known, or super prestigious. However, Clarkson markets the heck out of their full time job placement statistics for graduates (apparently it was 97% in 2020). So, that was the major factor in my niece choosing that school… she knew she was going to take out loans to go to a private school and play college lacrosse, and so she wanted good employment chances upon graduation. But it’s over $50 k per year in tuition alone to attend that school, and she’s taking out big loans to do it. She will have over $200k in student loan debt upon graduation. Call me crazy… but perhaps she would have been better off playing club lacrosse while in college, and attending the state flagship school (which is still quite good) for a FRACTION of the cost, and graduating with only about $50k in student loan debt, vs. $200k. I seriously doubt that Clarkson will get her that much better of a job placement chance. than her state university might have if she just did their mech engineering program instead…
Anyway… just trying to provide concrete examples of how these expensive, mid tier private schools are trying to market to potential students by using job placement stats. It often seems to me like it’s an attempt to convince people to pay exorbitant tuition for various degrees… instead of choosing other options (like in state public universities) that would provide a better ROI).
These equine science/equine studies degree programs? Well, some of the programs linked earlier in this thread were for smaller private schools, and seemed to be mentioning job placement stats. It’s just more of the same general marketing strategy, in my opinion, to try and justify the pricey tuition.