T U ESDAY, APRIL 22, 2025
Michigan State’s Independent Voice
STATE NEWS.COM
GRADUATION EDITION
Illustration by Riya Patchava.
MSU SENIORS COMBAT WORRIES OVER JOB PLACEMENT, ECONOMY AS GRADUATION NEARS By Ria Gupta rgupta@statenews.com The end of the semester marks the biannual practice of LinkedIn profiles being updated. Headshots become graduation photos, bios are changed to “MSU Alum,” and posts starting with “I’m happy to announce” begin to flood feeds. Yet, for some in the spring graduating class of 2025, figuring out what comes after acquiring their bachelor’s degree hasn’t been easy, nor something that can be summed up in a LinkedIn post. During her job search, mathematics senior
Trixie Southwood applied to nearly 50 job postings, but only heard back from one. It was the same experience for other graduating seniors she knew, Southwood said. Before committing to American University for a master’s in data science in the fall, Southwood applied to both graduate programs and jobs as she prepared for post-graduate life. Part of the reason for applying to a master’s program was because of her parents, who both have graduate degrees, but also because of “the state of the world.” Initially, Southwood planned to go into research after graduating from MSU, but “with cuts to research funding, now all
those jobs are gone,” she said. “I’m kind of buying myself more time by going to grad school, so that maybe in two years, the funding is better and I can go into something,” Southwood said. However, at graduate school, Southwood is unsure if positions as a research assistant will be available due to funding cuts by the federal government, even with her past research experience interning with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science last summer. Pursuing data science also gives Southwood the chance to go into finance or economics, but research remains the end goal. It’s comforting to have something to look
forward to, Southwood said in reference to grad school. Be that as it may, Southwood continues to stress over her lack of internship for the upcoming summer and fears that opportunities may still be limited after grad school. Federal funding cuts have also caused worry for fisheries and wildlife senior Molli Thibodeau when it comes to job placement. “It definitely seems like it’s going to be more difficult to find a job, and there’s not very many opportunities at all right now,” Thibodeau said.
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