Editor's note: This story is being highlighted in ASU Now's year in review. To read more top stories from 2016, click here.
Arizona State University has been ranked in the top 10 in the nation for graduate employability, according to a new survey of employers.
The Global University Employability Survey 2016 ranked ASU ninth in the country for preparing graduates for jobs, ahead of MIT, Columbia and UCLA.
Mark Searle, executive vice president and university provost, credited ASU’s wide variety of real-world experiences.
"ASU’s academic rigor and distinctive programs prepare our graduates to excel at jobs across a wide range of disciplines,” Searle said.
"This ranking provides wonderful confirmation that our dedicated faculty are successfully educating students with the knowledge and skills needed to achieve in the workplace."
Of the top 20 universities on the list, seven are public. ASU is the second-highest-ranked public university, behind No. 8 University of Florida. The complete list of the top 20 in the United States are: New York University, Harvard University, Princeton University, California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Boston University, Yale University, University of Florida, Arizona State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California Los Angeles, Duke University, Penn State University, North Carolina State University, Texas A&M University, University of Notre Dame, Boston College and the University of Virginia.
The universities were ranked by recruiters and managing directors. The survey was published by Times Higher Education.
Among ASU’s unique and innovative professional-pathway programs are the iTeachAZ residency, which places students in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College in local schools for a year, and the aviation programs at the Polytechnic campus that provide a seamless transition to jobs with top carriers.
Another program is the Startup Center in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, which offers classes, workshops, mentoring, investment and extracurricular activities that expose students to the concepts of entrepreneurship and technology innovation. Earlier this year, the Ford Motor Co. named ASU as one of its top schools for recruiting and hiring, tapping into the career centers of the Fulton Schools of Engineering and the W. P. Carey School of Business.
Analise Ortiz went to work for TV station KGBT, the CBS affiliate in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, right after graduating from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2014. She said that working in the school’s Cronkite News weekday broadcast show, which airs on Arizona PBS, was great preparation because of the design of the "teaching hospital" model of newsroom journalism the Cronkite School employes.
“Right out of college I started as a morning reporter, and after two months, I was promoted to night reporter covering the fifth-largest metro area in Texas,” she said.
“I pitch ideas, set up the interviews and then shoot all of my own video, write the story, edit the video and go live on air to present it,” said Ortiz, whose title is multimedia reporter.
Going from the student-run Cronkite News show to a network affiliate broadcast wasn't difficult for her.
“I already had that experience of shooting my story in a day and editing under pressure and then presenting it live on the air,” she said.
After two years, Ortiz maintains a close relationship with her ASU professors.
“They continue to give me guidance and mentorship, and they have a genuine interest in my success,” she said. “They take time to give me feedback and help me in meeting people in the industry who might one day be a potential employer.”
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