UNLV seniors graduate into future

      Laughing and smiling, Maggie Darcangelo and Rudy Rodriguez flickered in a river of black caps and gowns meandering into UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday morning.
      Graduation day had arrived for the pair of hotel administration students, and they were thrilled about the parties and optimistic job market in front of them.
      Three yellow roses graced 22-year-old Darcangelo's "graduation helmet," and 25-year-old Rodriguez wore his "I'm outta here" exuberance around his neck with a tie decorated with martini-drinking bears. "You can't tell we're happy this day has arrived, can you?" Darcangelo asked.
      More than 1,600 seniors on Saturday waited for their names to be called before walking across the Thomas & Mack Center stage to pick up their diplomas. They exchanged years of study and stress for the title of college graduate.
      Some 3,100 graduating seniors were eligible to participate in Saturday's commencement exercises, double the number of students who earned degrees in 1990 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
      College degrees bringing the quickest job offers to UNLV graduates this year are in education, engineering, hotel administration and health care. The university boasts that job-related offers are made to at least 85 percent of graduates in those fields.
      The Hyatt Regency in Denver reserved a spot for Rodriguez on the hotel's management team, and he plans to start working there this summer. Darcangelo hopes to parlay a part-time job into a management position at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
      Across the nation, graduates in the class of 1997 face a better chance of getting jobs than did the class of 1996, according to a national survey of employers conducted by Michigan State University.
      Some of the top job opportunities are in computing, transportation, marketing, sales, logistics management and electrical engineering, according to some 500 employers responding to the survey.
      The highest entry-level pay will go to chemical engineering graduates, who can expect an estimated average of $42,758, the annual "Recruiting Trends" report said.
      Journalism graduates are expected to receive the lowest starting salaries, an average of $22,102. Liberal arts graduates are expected to receive salaries averaging $24,081, and computer science graduates will benefit from the largest boost in starting pay to $36,964.
      "Everything's indicating a good, healthier market all the way around for grads," said Eileen McGarry, UNLV's director of career services. "That's promising. It doesn't mean less competitive, though. It's still very competitive. More and more employers are screening students based on minimal GPAs and career-related experience.
      "Employers still are pretty much able to pick and choose who they want. Graduates can't be fooled into thinking a job is going to fall into their lap."
      While hundreds of UNLV graduates have jobs waiting for them or have plans to enter graduate schools, hundreds more won't even begin their serious search for work until after this weekend's festivities.
      "The big question is, 'What are you going to do now?' I hear that a lot," said Dina Bruno, a 22-year-old psychology graduate who hopes in a year to go to graduate school and eventually get a job helping the mentally ill. "I'm going to be a professional student for a while and take it one step at a time. Everything will work out."
      Some students on Saturday didn't want to talk about life after graduation.
      Those with the toughest job outlook will be graduates with liberal arts, communications and general business degrees. Many of those graduates this summer will land in temporary positions -- jobs that are being accepted by a growing number of college graduates around the country. It's a chance for fresh graduates to gain workplace experience, and three local temporary agencies each expect to help 200 to 300 UNLV graduates search for work in June.
      With the exception of their most successful programs, UNLV administrators spend little time tracking whether graduates succeed in the job market. The university is boosting efforts to report the information.
      "I hope at this time next year we'll have better answers for you," said Guy Bailey, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. "One of the problems we have had in the past is that an advising center did not exist."
      The College of Liberal Arts had 373 graduates this year, and the new College of Urban Affairs had 460.
      "If you know how many graduates are either employed or going on to graduate school or law school, you know how successful your programs are," Bailey said.
      McGarry received only 20 responses last year from a survey of liberal arts graduates, and the results showed three were working in career-related positions.
      "The low percentage of offers reported strongly suggests the need for additional attention to liberal arts graduates in pursuit of career satisfaction," the UNLV report said.
      She said participation to the survey was too sparse to be reliable. But she didn't have any other information to offer about the success of graduates from the College of Liberal Arts or the College of Urban Affairs.
      "National studies show that although many liberal arts graduates do not secure career-track positions upon graduation, many surpass other graduates when looking at long-term career success," the UNLV survey added.
      McGarry encourages students to register with the career services office for referrals and counseling, but fewer than half of UNLV's class of 1997 took the office up on the offer.
      "Those who really get a head start in the process are really getting the most viable opportunities," she said. "Our goal is to help students be placed before they graduate, before the ceremony.
      "There are certainly students, though, who are not ready for that. Pretty much all of their time and energy is taken up all through school, and it's not until graduation or after graduation that they really face up to the job search.
      "No matter what, it's a very stressful process for anybody going through a job search. It tries your ego."
      McGarry said her best guess is that 75 percent of UNLV's graduates will stay in Southern Nevada.
      On average, last year it took students six years to earn their bachelor's degrees when starting and finishing at UNLV, according to the university's statistical report.