Following the news that it was dropping its minimum age to 14, LinkedIn announced the launch of University Pages this week. The pages give prospective students a way to connect with current students and alumni, as well as a look at where most of a school's graduates work and what fields they work in. It isn't hard to imagine the professional network's latest rollout growing to play a larger role in university admissions.
So how are schools measuring up so far? We took a look at the 10 U.S. institutions with the largest student and alumni networks, compiling the following list of the top employers and fields for each. The number of alumni employed at each company or in each field is noted in parentheses.
Location: Phoenix, Ariz. (Headquarters)
Type: For-profit (owned by Apollo Group Inc.), online
Size of LinkedIn Network: 437,800
Top Employers: University of Phoenix (4,690), U.S. Army (1,341), U.S. Air Force (1,175), Bank of America (1,167), AT&T (1,125), Wells Fargo (1,088), Apollo Group (916), Boeing (877), JPMorgan Chase (828), U.S. Navy (801)
Top Fields: Operations (42,013), Sales (33,220), Information Technology (31,935), Support (25,136), Education (23,429)
2. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
Location: Berkeley, Calif.
Type: Public non-profit, flagship
Size of LinkedIn Network: 247,900
Top Employers: UC Berkeley (4,801), Google (1,303), Kaiser Permanente (969), UC San Francisco (818), Oracle (759), Cisco Systems (712), Wells Fargo (645), Genentech (642), Apple (601), Intel Corporation (560)
Top Fields: Research (19,942), Engineering (19,801), Education (19,617), Entrepreneurship (17,753), Media and Communication (13,269)
Location: University Park, Pa.
Type: Public non-profit
Size of LinkedIn Network: 245,900
Top Employers: Penn State University (4,887), IBM (832), Lockheed Martin (664), Merck (596), Deloitte (516), Vanguard (501), PwC (454), Johnson & Johnson (443), Accenture (425), PNC (388)
Top Fields: Sales (22,284), Operations (21,483), Engineering (19,952), Education (15,636), Information Technology (14,552)
4. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Location: Austin, Texas
Type: Public non-profit, flagship
Size of LinkedIn Network: 242,200
Top Employers: The University of Texas at Austin (4,890), Dell (1,827), IBM (1,037), Microsoft (571), Hewlett-Packard (546), Intel Corporation (527), Apple (503), Austin Independent School District (456), Freescale Semiconductor (452), Accenture (393)
Top Fields: Engineering (18,894), Entrepreneurship (17,702), Education (16,864), Sales (16,326), Media and Communication (12,867)
5. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Type: Public non-profit, flagship
Size of LinkedIn Network: 237,800
Top Employers: UCLA (3,134), Los Angeles Unified School District (872), Kaiser Permanente (667), Northrop Grumman Corporation (583), Google (568), UCLA Health (493), University of Southern California (426), Amgen (420), Boeing (415)
Top Fields: Entrepreneurship (18,218), Education (16,787), Media and Communication (15,268), Research (12,271), Engineering (11,732)
Location: New York, N.Y.
Type: Private non-profit
Size of LinkedIn Network: 223,000
Top Employers: New York University (3,410), NYC Department of Education (690), Citi (611), JPMorgan Chase (476), NYU Langone Medical Center (408), Morgan Stanley (361), Goldman Sachs (327), IBM (303), Google (296), Columbia University (296)
Top Fields: Media and Communication (23,617), Education (17,147), Entrepreneurship (15,964), Arts and Design (12,524), Marketing (10,788)
Location: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Type: Public non-profit, flagship
Size of LinkedIn Network: 214,000
Top Employers: University of Michigan (5,516), General Motors (1,247), Ford Motor Company (1,161), University of Michigan Health System (739), Microsoft (519), Chrysler Group LLC (516), Google (464), IBM (457), Intel Corporation (429), Deloitte (381)
Top Fields: Engineering (17,419), Education (17,332), Research (15,054), Entrepreneurship (13,370), Operations (10,997)
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Type: Public non-profit, flagship
Size of LinkedIn Network: 213,900
Top Employers: The Ohio State University (5,630), JPMorgan Chase (1,418), The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (1,107), Nationwide Insurance (1,050), Cardinal Health (494), Nationwide Childrens Hospital (456), IBM (422), Huntington National Bank (353), OhioHealth (324), Limited Brands (323)
Top Fields: Sales (18,132), Education (17,162), Operations (15,704), Entrepreneurship (14,216), Engineering (13,599)
Location: East Lansing, Mich.
Type: Public non-profit
Size of LinkedIn Network: 212,800
Top Employers: Michigan State University (4,984), General Motors (963), Ford Motor Company (822), State of Michigan (717), Associated Students of Michigan State (689), Chrysler Group LLC (512), IBM (476), University of Michigan (415), Hewlett-Packard (298), EY (266)
Top Fields: Sales (19,593), Education (16,299), Operations (15,798), Entrepreneurship (13,014), Engineering (11,051)
10. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Location: Urbana and Champaign, Ill.
Type: Public non-profit, flagship
Size of LinkedIn Network: 200,700
Top Employers: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (5,081), Caterpillar Inc. (627), Intel Corporation (602), Microsoft (574), IBM (557), University of Illinois (463), Accenture (453), Deloitte (431), Google (404), University of Illinois at Chicago (368)
Top Fields: Engineering (19,891), Education (17,537), Research (13,852), Sales (12,595), Entrepreneurship (11,860)
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