CDO reaches out to seniors: Ready...set...401K!

Mike Alberti Staff Writer

Seniors, are you ready to balance your checkbooks? Throughout the month of April, the Career Development Office (CDO) is hosting four workshops intended to help graduating seniors prepare for life after college. The workshops, entitled the “Senior Real World” series, will teach students how to budget their lifestyles, manage their finances and network in the job searches, as well as ensure that they understand the difference between a 401K and 403B.

The workshops fit into the CDO’s larger function of helping students transition into the post-graduate working world as well as giving students from all disciplines essential tips to becoming financially efficient.

Director of Career Development and Student Employment Mary Raymond said that she meets students of all ranges of financial savviness.

“We see everything, from students living off campus who don’t see the hidden costs of living, to students who are very mindful of every dollar that they’ve invested in their education since coming here,” she said. “It might be related to financial aid or the expectations of the students’ parents, and it might just come from never having lived on their own.”

Raymond said that she saw a substantial contrast in expectations when reviewing applications for the Internship Grant Fund (IGF), which provides money for students undertaking low- or non-paying summer internships. For one part of the application, students were asked to estimate their total budget for the summer, including rent and food costs.

“Some students requested $15 a week for food,” said Raymond. “I’d like to see who these students are that can live on $15 a week. On the other hand, some requested $200. I think there’s a certain infantilizing that happens when you come to college. There’s just a lack of awareness of what it takes to live.”

Economics major Gil Wasserman ’09 said that his Vassar education has prepared him for managing his money after graduation.

“If you want to learn how to craft a spreadsheet in your head about your income and expenses, then economics [classes] definitely deal with that. There’s a correlation between doing financial equations and managing your own situation. At the same time, I don’t think it takes an economics major to know how to manage your money.”

But Wasserman agreed that Vassar students are generally “clueless” about financial matters.

“Just yesterday when I went to Taco Bell, I noticed that they have free refills, so I ordered a small soda. My friend ordered a medium drink and paid 40 cents more, and we ended up drinking the same amount. Some people just aren’t so savvy. Not everybody majors in economics,” said Wasserman.

This trend is what the CDO aims to change through its workshop series. “There are obviously students who are aware of what they have in their wallets, and there are those who are not,” said Raymond. “Our job is to help them make the transition from dependent students to informed, capable, responsible people in the real world.”

Another part of that job is helping students find and prepare for jobs after graduation, a mission that is made more difficult by the state of the economy and the diminishing job market.

Director of Budget and Planning David English, who hosted a workshop last Wednesday entitled “Budgeting and Financial Management for the New Graduate,” said, “If you look at the economic indicators, the job market is not going to be as good this year as it has in the last few years. I’m not going out on a limb with that one. It’s important that students aren’t sanguine about getting a job right now. They need to realize that no one out there owes you a job because you’re a Vassar grad.”

For some students, a quasi-independent and self-sustaining way of life is already a reality.

Environmental studies major Leah Wilkes ’09, who lives off campus on Park Avenue, said that living out of the dorms has increased her awareness of her spending habits and the amount of money that it actually takes to live.

“Part of it is getting older and having to pay for more of your own stuff,” she said. “In terms of figuring out finances and learning how to pay bills, my house has learned so much as a group about how to do all that. At Vassar, if you leave your light on or leave your heat up, you don’t feel the repercussions of that. It has definitely made me think about things a lot more. Maybe it’s just a matter of real world experience.”

For more information on how to plan ahead for managing your finances, you can visit the CDO Web site at careers.vassar.edu.