Nowadays, there seem to be more epidemics than ever before: COVID-19, obesity, drug addiction and bird flu, among others. But another epidemic haunts the ivory towers and brick-lined paths of elite universities across the U.S.: the “sellout” epidemic.
For years, students at elite universities have used this phrase to describe a fundamental career dilemma: One can either pursue their passions and interests or choose to “sell out” by entering high-paying industries and careers that are much less aligned with one’s moral compass. With so many students confronting this question, there appears to be a larger systemic issue with how universities disproportionately emphasize “sellout” careers over other paths that align with students' values. The peak of these “sellout” industries? Finance, technology and consulting, often grouped together as FTC.
There is a clearly established pattern of elite college students taking the “sellout” path and entering FTC. The 2024 Harvard University graduating class, for instance, saw 50% of its employed students working either in finance, technology or consulting sectors. Yale University’s 2023 graduating class sent 40.8% of its employed students to FTC fields, and a whopping 70% of Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2024 employed graduates entered these industries. Meanwhile, nonprofit and government work remains scant: for the class of 2023, less than 8% of Georgetown University (GU) graduates end up in the government or nonprofit sector, despite the university’s prestigious political pedigree. Compare that to almost 15% of GU grads working in investment banking alone, and the rosy picture of college graduates giving back to their community suddenly looks very bleak.
Hopkins too is not immune to the “sellout” epidemic. Around 41.5% of the 2023 graduating class who were employed ended up in FTC. A little more than 20% of employed graduates hold explicitly consulting or finance positions, and consistent top employers include Deloitte and JP Morgan. At Hopkins specifically, the military-industrial complex (MIC) is also highly overrepresented, likely due to our strong engineering presence and our ties with the Applied Physics Laboratory: it’s not uncommon to see Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin or Booz Allen tables at Whiting Future Fests and coffee chats. It seems that despite our university’s motto (Veritas vos Liberabit: The truth will set you free), many students find themselves shackled to the “sellout” train.
Astute readers will question the usage of the word “shackled“: after all, there are undoubtedly many driven students who actively choose to “sell out.” A New York Times article centered at Harvard University captures the struggle many Generation Z students face when deciding between FTC or something they truly care about. There are, of course, valid reasons to go into FTC — genuine passion, perhaps or intellectual interest. However, as the name implies, a sizable number of “sellouts” choose this path because of its perceived income, status and prestige. Also prevalent is a strong herd mentality: Students follow what they think is the popular path.
To what extent is choosing to “sell out” a personal choice? Although it’s tempting to place the blame solely on the ambitious, cynical attitudes held by the nation’s “best and brightest,” there is a dark underbelly behind this whole system.
“We should get beyond thinking of just students who want the payout or the employers as the only source of the problem. Instead, we should look at the university campus as the place where the matchmaking gets done,” said Professor Amy Binder a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora professor at Hopkins, in an email response. “Since this is an organizational problem, then the solutions must also be based at the organizational level. The university must take a look at what’s happening on campus, own it, and then think about solutions.”
Career fairs, speaker panels and coffee chat events are all examples of ways universities subtly push students towards FTC.
“Students come to campus as first-years very ambitious but naive about the landscape of jobs and that leaves them susceptible to any kind of messaging on campus. If the messaging is that the best and most prestigious jobs are in this narrow band of fields, then they learn to compete for these jobs,” explains Professor Binder in her email response. “Once that happens, all other jobs are compared to those jobs, and those other jobs are seen to be unexciting, ordinary, and not the best. This is how students learn to want this very narrow band of jobs.”
Ostensibly, the role of the University should be to nurture students’ talents, interests and passions, not to funnel them towards careers they might not even enjoy. Yet, at top universities across the U.S., the exact opposite is happening: Students enter the campus bright-eyed and visionary but are quickly jaded and pushed towards traditional paths to success by their families, their peers and their university. In the end, it’s not our fault: It’s on the university for funneling us into this small set of careers.
The real tragedy comes not from people joining FTC but the simple issue that students aren’t doing what they want to do. Students who choose to “sell out” despite their best interests, in part because they want the prestige and in part because it’s all they know, are active losses both to themselves and to society as a whole. Elite universities have a responsibility to minimize these losses as much as possible. But that raises the question: Will they take it on?
There’s a large and growing network of students at elite universities who have taken it upon themselves to push for change. Class Action — a national student activist organization — has centered their mission around holding elite universities accountable for the power, money and influence they hold over our society. At Hopkins, we can be part of the movement and push the university to make meaningful change.
Because, as we all know, the only way to end an epidemic is to stop it at the source.
Yvette Shu is a sophomore from Claremont, Calif. studying International Studies and Political Science.
