From: Department of Public Information Princeton University

Telephone: (609) 452-3600

Release: Sunday, June 26, 1966

So broad is the impact of graduate study and military service on the current college generation that it is only this June — five full years after graduation — that a majority of Princeton's Class of 1961 is in the labor force in full-time employment.

Nearly one in four in the Class are still in graduate school, completing the program of higher education they began in the fall of 1957, shortly before the So­viet Union launched the first "Sputnik."

This is one of the findings in a survey of Princeton's Class of 1961 conduct­ed "five years after" and based upon 405 responses. As described by the survey's director, Dr. William M. Michelson, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Princeton and a member of the Class of 1961, "it aimed to discover not only what had happened to the members of the class in the years after they left college but also to find patterns in the relation of events to each other."

Professor Michelson was assisted in his work by Princeton's Office for Survey Research and Statistical Studies and by the University Computer Center. The survey measured the Class's occupational, income and marital status, current residence and degree of mobility since graduation, as well as political and other preferences.

The study found that prior to this year, with 69 per cent now in the labor force, the great majority of class members were either studying or were in the armed forces. Some 22 per cent are still in graduate school with 7 per cent in military service.

Five years ago, after they had completed four years of undergraduate work, approximately half of the class entered graduate school and another 30 per cent im­mediately joined the Armed Forces. The number of men engaged in graduate study continued to rise through the first three years following graduation, for those al­ready there were joined by others released from active duty with the Armed Forces. Only after the first three years did the number in graduate school start to decline and those in employment to rise rapidly.

The most popular occupations in the class are law (20%), teaching — both secondary school and college (16%), finance (14%), and the health professions (13%). No other occupation lists as many as 10% of the respondents. In four fields, teach­ing, medicine, law and the clergy, the survey notes that "at least a third of the respondents" continue in graduate school.

AVERAGE INCOME IS $7,075

The median income Of the Class, five years after graduation, is $7,075. How­ever, there is a great range in the amount of income. Over a fifth of the Class is earning less than $3,000 a year, most of them undoubtedly still in training. Even a greater number, however, is earning over $10,000 a year.

The overwhelming majority is optimistic about future income — some 85 per cent of the Class expect to be earning over $10,000 annually five years from now.

Men working in the applied research fields are earning more, as a whole, than are men in all other fields with more than half earning over $10,000. In descending order of income are 1) applied research, 2) manufacturing, 3) communications, 4) merchandizing, 5) finance, 6) public affairs and the learned professions (tie), 7) law, 8) armed forces, 9) teaching, 10) clergy, 11) health professions, and 12) pure research. (It should be noted that in a number of these fields — notably in pure research, health professions, clergy and teaching — many are still in grad­uate training.)

MYTH OF RICH BACHELORS

One myth the survey knocks down is that of the rich bachelor. Some two-thirds of the Class are now married, and show a median income of $8,013. Among the bachelors, however, the median income is $5,285.

One good reason for this undoubtedly is growing families — nearly three out of five married Class members have one or more children.

Other marital statistics show that almost three-quarters of the wives of the Class of '61 also have graduated from college. One per cent of the wives have doc­torates of their own, and one in eight have earned master's degrees. Only three per cent of class wives have not attended "some amount of college."

GO WEST, YOUNG MAN?

A comparison of where the Class of '61 lives today with where they came from when they entered Princeton nine years ago reveals ''an enormous amount of migration."

Only two regions of the country — the Middle Atlantic and North Central areas — have held more than half the men who lived there before entering college in 1957. The percentage of the Class who have left their home regions over the past decade are: New England &ndash 53%, South &ndash 54%, West &ndash 67% and Southwest - 69%.

In all this trekking back and forth, however, the West still winds up show­ing the biggest net gain — up some 200 per cent in numbers of Class members living there. New England, with its excellent graduate schools, is the only other area showing a net gain in its 1961 population.

ONCE A SUBURBANITE

Once a suburbanite, always a suburbanite — or so the Class statistics seem to reveal. Those who now live in suburbs — about one-third of the Class — are pre­dominantly suburban in their upbringing.

By way of contrast, the current big-city dwellers — about half of the Class now resides within the boundaries of a major city — come from diverse backgrounds, urban, small town and rural areas.

The big city is frequently noted as being "no place for children" — and for 1961 it is often even "no place for a wife." Those Class members now living in the

city are either single (65 per cent of them) or married but without children. The suburb, it appears, is the domain of men with families.

POLITICAL NEIGHBORS

Half of the Class of '61 profess to be Republicans; 19 per cent are Demo­crats, 14 per cent Liberal, and the remainder a variety of political hues.

Their choice of neighbors takes on political hue also. From a list of nine men whom they most prefer as a neighbor, the Democrats pick Sen. Edward (Ted) Kennedy, the Republicans, New York's Mayor John Lindsay. And what their neighbors might get by way of dinner accompaniment if he dropped by has something to do with politics. Both Republicans and Democrats agree on their preference for scotch and bourbon — after that, however, the Democrats choose wine while the Republicans take beer.

FAVORITE PASTIMES

By way of final note — and without explanation — Professor Michelson offers the observation that there are distinct differences in the favorite pastimes by poli­tical affiliation. "The overwhelming favorite among Republicans is sports. Demo­crats list sex. And Liberals prefer reading."

The sports in which members of these parties actively participate also dif­fer. Democrats and Liberals prefer to play tennis, with the various water sports a distant second choice. Republicans, on the other hand, choose golf over tennis by a ratio of almost two to one, with water sports even further to the rear.

With respect to spectator sports, all the political shades prefer to watch football. The only difference worth noting here is that over a third of the Demo­crats and Liberals prefer no spectator sport, compared to only a fifth of the Republicans.