Career Paths

The occupational choice of Scripps alumni are typical of research-trained scientists, with the largest two groups choosing careers in teaching and research. More detailed graphs on each of these categories follow:

• Teaching Careers
• Research Careers
• Postdoctoral Appointments
• Top 10 Employers

Teaching Careers

31% of Scripps alumni are teaching. Of those, 87% hold a tenured position, 6% are in a non-tenured position, and 7% are teaching at the community college or K-12 level:

Research Careers

Of the 27% of Scripps alumni who chose a career in research, 44% are employed at a four-year college or university, 24% are working in government (20% federal government and 4% state or local government), 16% are in industry or business, 12% are employed at a research institute, and 3% are in the non-profit sector

Postdoctoral Appointments

Of the alumni currently holding postdoctoral appointments, 60% have held that position for one-two years and 40% have been in a postdoctoral position for three-five years:

Of those employed by the University of California, San Diego campus (UCSD), 85 are based at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). Seventy-six of the alumni employed at Scripps have a PhD degree; the remaining 9 hold a master's degree.

After UCSD, the second-largest employer of Scripps alumni is the University of Washington, employing 25 Scripps alumni, followed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, employing 24 Scripps graduates. The following graph depicts the top ten employers of Scripps Alumni: