Dive Brief:

• The well-being of college graduates appears to be most connected to emotional support from professors and “experiential and deep learning,” according to a poll by Gallup and Purdue University.
• Only 39% of the 30,000 college grads polled felt engaged at work — emotionally and intellectually connected — and 12% were actively disengaged, according to the poll.
• The survey shows that graduating from an elite college provides no discernible advantage over a run-of-the-mill school in terms of feelings of happiness and engagement.

Dive Insight:

This poll looked at success as measured by happiness and engagement, instead of the more typical measure: Income. But the cause-effect relationship may be skewed by the self-reporting aspect of the survey — graduates who are currently happy and engaged may also have a more optimistic view of other aspects of their lives, including their college experience. The survey also showed that 14% of grads with no student debt reported themselves to be thriving, compare to 11% with $1 to $10,000 of debt, 7% for $10,001 to $20,000, 4% for $20,001 to $40,000, and only 2% for students with more than $40,000.