Predictable careers: why most top students end up in professional services like law or finance.

At some point toward the end of their studies, every student has to make a decision about their future career. They ask themselves questions like: Where should I start? And what should my first job look like?

At elite universities like those in the Ivy League, these questions usually leave students looking in only one direction. In fact, students leaving elite universities often seek out a career in prestigious professional service companies. They find their work homes in places like management consultancies, banks or the legal profession.

We see this is true when we look at the numbers: on average, 40 percent of Princeton graduates go into finance or consulting, while each year almost 13 percent continue their studies in law school. In the same vein, 29 percent of the Harvard graduating class of 2011 went into finance or consulting, while 19 percent applied to law school.

What is it that draws students from elite universities to professional service companies? In short, it’s mostly the high payment prospects and a challenging work environment.

What’s more, students from elite universities are well suited to the formal application processes that they must overcome in order to land a job at these firms. It’s not so different from the application processes for the elite universities where they got their education: in almost all these universities, students have to pass challenging and highly selective application processes in order to be accepted.

Finally, students influence one another in their career choices. Young students often feel insecure about their future, and look to others to figure out how to orient themselves. That means they follow each other into the same careers, year after year.

As one student said: “It seems like everybody around you is doing banking interviews all the time. This has an effect on you after a while.”