Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

EDITORIAL: Broaden Cawley’s Focus

As an institution that promises to prepare its graduates for life beyond the Hilltop, Georgetown University has a responsibility to provide its students with guidance as they seek to chart their path post-graduation.

Yet, the Cawley Career Education Center, the primary source of assistance for students’ career-related concerns and queries, is unable to serve all Georgetown students to the extent they truly need in their search for post-graduate education, internships and jobs.

Cawley lacks the resources it truly needs, and the university should act to correct this situation. At the same time, the center can redirect its current resources to more appropriately address the myriad interests and needs of Georgetown’s undergraduates.

For example, students often face difficulty even getting an appointment to speak to advisers and, due to the overextended nature of their schedules, these appointments are frequently too short to be productive.

The center could also benefit from specialized advisers in more diverse fields and from greater connections with academic advising deans.

Cawley currently employs only one adviser dedicated to students planning to go to law school, and it does not currently have an adviser specifically designated to work with students interested in medical school or careers in the health field. Meanwhile, Harvard University — which currently has an undergraduate population of about 6,700 students, comparable to Georgetown’s almost 7,000 — employs four premedical or health career advisers in its Office of Career Services.

Though students in pre-medical or health-related fields often receive such counseling from their academic deans, a greater connection between Cawley and the deans’ offices could prove extremely fruitful for students who need guidance in the professional realm or who need help understanding how their major can apply to different career paths.

Often, the career center directs much of its attention toward industries such as finance, consulting and banking, potentially because of the sheer number of students interested in those paths and the dearth of companies that recruit on campus. For example, a large proportion of the events on the center’s calendar on Handshake, a career-networking site, are focused on consulting or financial services.

Seventeen percent of the Class of 2016 went into consulting and 23 percent went into financial services, according to a report from the Cawley Center.

However, the McDonough School of Business also has a program for career guidance, for which it employs five undergraduate career coaches specifically for students in the MSB, including one dedicated to the financial services industry. This program is unsurprising, as more than 65 percent of the MSB Class of 2016 went into financial services or consulting, according to the Cawley’s report.

Such an industry-specialized program in the MSB calls into question why Cawley needs to focus so much on consulting and financial services. Though students outside the MSB do pursue these fields, this fact does not justify such a diversion of the center’s resources.

Cawley could better direct its resources to ensure it is providing adequate attention and resources to students in other industries, or even to students who may not yet know what industry they hope to enter.

To be clear, this editorial board appreciates the efforts of the Cawley staff, who do their best to help students. Still, the center does not have sufficient resources to effectively assist students across all industries. The center could also better allocate its resources to ensure it is helping as many students as possible.

Cawley could do so by designating school-specific counselors for Georgetown’s three other schools — the College, the School of Foreign Service and the School of Nursing and Health Studies — to help all undergraduates explore the options associated with their Georgetown degree and how to pursue these paths.

These counselors could also work more closely with the academic deans in each school, who are invaluable resources to understand the potential careers suited to each major. The center should use its resources to allow industry-specific specialization in a wider variety of fields, such as health.

Advantaging students from specific schools or industries contradicts the university’s mission to provide equal opportunities to all graduates. To rectify this issue, the university and Cawley must ensure that students — regardless of their school, major or post-graduate plans — have the necessary resources and advising they need to succeed beyond the Hilltop.

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