Most graduates face some level of uncertainty about entering a changed world, even a budding epidemiologist. Eight members of the Class of 2020 told The Wall Street Journal about their plans.
John Ball, Hillsdale College
Hillsdale, Mich.
John Ball’s decision last year to train as a Marine Corps officer now seems a good move. ‘You can’t cancel the military.’
Photo: John BallWhen John Ball applied during his junior year to join a program for college students who want to become officers in the Marine Corps, many of his classmates questioned the move.
While supportive, they wondered why he would make such a commitment when the job market was so hot. His answer was he wanted to do something for his country. Now, he’s one of the few graduating seniors that he knows who has a job.
Mr. Ball, a history major, completed a 10-week training program as part of the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Class last summer and will be commissioned as an officer on Saturday, the same day his college commencement ceremony would have been held if it hadn’t been canceled.
In the fall the 21-year-old will head to Quantico, Va., for six months of further training in leadership, navigation, weapons, tactics and communication.
“I was very excited about it beforehand, but it looks like an even better decision now,” said Mr. Ball, whose father attended the U.S. Naval Academy and who has both officers and enlisted military personnel in his family.
“This definitely seemed like a risk a year or two ago. You’re taking kind of a paycut compared to some other jobs I maybe could have gotten,” he said. “In hindsight it looks like it was a really good decision for me. You can’t cancel the military.”
—Kathryn Dill
Anna Smith, Pace University
New York
Anna Smith dotes on a new French bulldog puppy at her parents’ home in Knoxville, Tenn., her Broadway dreams on hold.
Photo: Anna SmithMost of Anna Smith’s final semester has been spent rehearsing for her senior class performance of “Head over Heels,” a rock musical set in the 16th century to a 1980s score by the all-female band the Go-Gos.
The show was to be a critical culmination for theater students looking for jobs in show business because it’s performed in front of hundreds of talent agents.
“Our showcase in April is supposed to jump-start our careers,” said the 22-year-old Ms. Smith. “I was finally going to be this young professional.”
The show will go on—but not until September.
Ms. Smith has moved back into her parents’ home in Knoxville, Tenn., putting her Broadway dreams on hold.
“It just feels like we are floating,” she said.
But Ms. Smith said she’s gotten a new French bulldog puppy to dote on and has appreciated having the time to reconnect with her family. “What’s saved me through this process is just remembering not to take things for granted.”
—Patrick Thomas
Anthony Johnson, Michigan State University
East Lansing, Mich.
When Anthony Johnson’s start date at Fiat Chrysler was postponed, he worried about major financial hardship.
Photo: Anthony JohnsonAnthony Johnson was supposed to go to work this month at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.
Graduating with a degree in supply-chain management, the 22-year-old was eager to jump into his new job. Then the start date was postponed. Mr. Johnson said a long delay could create major financial hardship.
As the pandemic spread, the Ann Arbor, Mich. native was laid off from the 30-hour-a-week job at Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. he had held while finishing his studies. He moved in with his father in Chicago, though he’s still on the hook to pay rent for his college home in East Lansing.
“I have zero money coming in. I have my money set up through July, but everything was contingent on me starting May 11,” Mr. Johnson said.
“I put myself in all this debt with student loans,” he said. “I don’t even get to have a graduation now.”
Mr. Johnson was considering looking for work at a grocery store to help pay bills, even though he has asthma and is concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus. But in the last few days, Fiat called to nail down a new start date: June 1.
The company told Mr. Johnson he could start the job working remotely. A company laptop is on its way in the mail.
—Patrick Thomas
Amy Schlussler, Bucknell University
Lewisburg, Pa.
Amy Schlussler, at her family's home on Long Island, is considering graduate school.
Photo: Amy SchlusslerAmy Schlussler majored in psychology and hoped to land a job in human resources after graduating. Several companies she had been communicating with have gone radio silent, so she’s starting to consider graduate school.
“I don’t know if getting a job is super realistic right now,” she said.
From her family’s home on Long Island, Ms. Schlussler, 22, said she’s been passing the time by preparing to take the Graduate Record Examination test, a prerequisite for some programs, and is reading for pleasure for the first time in a long time.
She’s considering master’s programs in applied psychology, including at New York University, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. She hopes to enroll somewhere in the spring of 2021. Even as she starts the application process, Ms. Schlussler said she’ll continue searching for HR jobs on LinkedIn.
The prospect of living at home indefinitely isn’t appealing. “It’s scary thinking about,” she said. “I don’t know the next time I’ll be able to move out again,” she said.
—Patrick Thomas
Kayla Dieker, Washburn University School of Law
Topeka, Kan.
Kayla Dieker and her fiancé aren’t sure they can sit for the bar exam in July as planned.
Photo: Kayla DiekerKayla Dieker and her fiancé had a plan. After graduation in May, they would study for the July bar exam, and then move to Nebraska, where her fiancé’s family is, buy a house and start their law careers in Lincoln, he at a law firm and she at an estate-planning firm.
The coronavirus stalled that. The bar exam was postponed in many states and they have been unsure when they’ll be able to take the test. “We feel we’re just in limbo,” she said.
Originally both job offers were contingent on a successful bar exam, but their respective firms have been considering a faster start date even without a license to practice law.
On Friday, Ms Dieker and her fiancé received an email from the Nebraska Supreme Court asking them to choose between sitting for the July bar or a new September date. Unless there is an equal number of preferences, the state will randomly assign people to one of the two dates, they were told. “This is unlike anything I’ve seen from other states and only increases stress and uncertainty,” she said.
—Julia Carpenter
Miggs Borromeo, University of Maryland
College Park, Md.
Miggs Borromeo still hopes to move out West.
Photo: Miggs BorromeoMiggs Borromeo’s dream was to find a job in California after graduation.
The Olney, Md., native interviewed for a position at a Los Angeles insurer earlier this year but in March the firm told him they were temporarily freezing their hiring plans, but would stay in touch.
Mr. Borromeo, 23, said he has been talking a lot to his aunt, who graduated during the 2008 financial crisis.
“She’s been giving me advice saying ‘Hey, listen, I know times like these are hard. You’re gonna grow from this experience,” he said.
Mr. Borromeo, a finance major, is still determined to move out West, but for now is spending time with his family and learning more about investing and financial markets and improving his Microsoft Excel skills.
“I’m staying optimistic,” he said. “If we can make it through this, we can make it through whatever comes next.”
—Patrick Thomas
Laura Beilsmith, Saint Louis University
St. Louis
Laura Beilsmith, an epidemiology student, says at least now people understand what she is studying.
Photo: Laura BeilsmithLaura Beilsmith, a public-health student with a focus in epidemiology, says there’s one perk of graduating during the coronavirus pandemic: “People always ask what it is I actually do. And now no one will ever have to ask me that again.”
Ms. Beilsmith is in a dual-degree program and is returning to campus to finish the master’s degree component. She had banked on a paid internship this summer and was fielding four offers earlier this year, from two nonprofits, a hospital and a health-care company. Before she could accept one they were all withdrawn due to the worsening outbreak.
“Not having that opportunity is concerning for me, for my own professional development and my job prospects once I do graduate,” she said.
Now, the 22-year-old is hoping to spend the summer as a $15-an-hour Covid-19 contact tracer for the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, making calls to track down people who may have been exposed to the virus. She can work from her parents’ house in St. Louis, where she is now staying. Though the pandemic may disrupt her career in the short term, she said it has reaffirmed her passion for epidemiology.
“It’s been so interesting to see other people using terminology that I have only just recently studied, like ‘R0’ and ‘basic reproductive rate,’” she said of the estimate of how many healthy people one contagious person will infect.
—Francesca Fontana
Colton Denton, Knox College
Galesburg, Ill.
Colton Denton, a first-generation college grad, has had his Peace Corps start date postponed.
Photo: Colton DentonColton Denton was in high school when he first heard about the Peace Corps. The chance to travel the world and help people appealed to him. In November of his senior year at Knox College, he was accepted for a Peace Corps assignment in Ukraine.
He had picked Knox because so many of its students spend time abroad. During his time there, he traveled for coursework to London and Bulgaria and spent a semester at the University of Flensburg in northern Germany.
As a first generation college grad, the 21-year-old was particularly looking forward to his commencement. But as coronavirus spread, Mr. Denton returned in mid-March to his family in Phoenix to finish classes online, and the June commencement ceremony was canceled.
He recently found out the Peace Corps has postponed the two months of training he was supposed to start in August. It’s now scheduled for Sept. 30 and could be further delayed.
Knox has said it will try to hold a live graduation ceremony later this year. “It’s definitely strange to know that I’ll be getting my diploma and cap and gown in the mail,” he said, “but I honestly feel pretty lucky” the school is planning a delayed commencement. “A lot of first-gen college kids won’t get that opportunity since so many colleges have called off their graduations entirely.”
“I just hope that it’ll happen before I leave for Peace Corps, assuming that still pulls through.”
—Kathryn Dill
Share Your Thoughts
What advice would you give to the Class of 2020? Join the conversation in the comment section.
Are you or someone in your family graduating this year? We’d like to hear about your plans. Use the form below to contribute to a future reporting project.
Read more of The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the challenges new graduates are facing.
The Class of 2020 Takes Flight as the Job Market Crashes
The hottest job market in half a century evaporated with the worldwide spread of a deadly virus. The key now for college graduates is to stay flexible as they chart a new path forward.
How to Ace Your First Job After College. Remotely.
The American workplace is suddenly a very different place. New college graduates must adapt if they hope to start careers on the right foot.
Graduating in a Recession Can Have Some Silver Linings
Some who set up their own businesses after the 2008 crash say crisis is a good teacher. “I had to grow up a little bit faster,” said one, “because there was no train track I was on.”
M.B.A. Programs Anticipate Drop in Enrollment
Business schools in the U.S. and abroad are bracing for a decline in enrollment as the pandemic upends higher education and threatens already-fragile graduate programs.
What New College Grads Need to Know About Their Money: A Checklist
School is over, and it’s the first day of the rest of your financial life. Here are answers to questions about everything from student loans to saving for retirement.
Navigating the Suspension of Student Loan Payments
The U.S. is suspending monthly loan payments and freezing interest accruals for most borrowers until Sept. 30. Here’s what you need to know.
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