Beginning with the Class of 2026, the Arts & Sciences Guarantee is a fellowship that will be open to all current College of Arts & Sciences undergraduates, and will provide funding of up to $2,500 to support approved unpaid internships, research, or fieldwork experiences.
The College of Arts and Sciences is committed to empowering, encouraging, and providing students with experiential learning opportunities
— President Mark R. Nemec, PhD
As part of Fairfield’s Jesuit mission, the University is committed to providing students with experiential learning opportunities, hands-on research experiences, and career-launching internships to give them a competitive edge in today’s job market.
To prove this commitment, the College of Arts and Sciences is excited to announce the “Arts & Sciences Guarantee,” a distinctive fellowship that provides up to $2,500 in support to any College of Arts and Science student, beginning with the Class of 2026, who secures an approved unpaid internship, research opportunity, or fieldwork experience while studying at Fairfield.
The College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s founding school; built upon Fairfield's 500-year-old Jesuit tradition of forming men and women of purpose, explained President Mark R. Nemec, PhD, in a recent video message to prospective students, “so they may lead lives of productive citizenship and societal stewardship.”
Designed to ensure that students gain important, hands-on industry experience, “the College of Arts and Sciences is committed to empowering, encouraging, and providing students with experiential learning opportunities,” said Dr. Nemec, “[as well as] hands-on research experience; career-launching internships; and innovative professional development training that will help them find their calling and be successful at it.”
“As a values-based, student-centric, outcomes-focused institution,” Dr. Nemec continued, “we recognize that the question of the life-time value of a college degree is one that has long been discussed but considered hard to quantify.”
In his speech, Dr. Nemec referenced a recent study by Georgetown University which has put numbers to that intrinsic sense of value, capturing in empirical data what Fairfield grads and community have long perceived.
Using a 40-year period as a comprehensive benchmark, researchers took into consideration students’ income after graduation, average debt, and graduation rates. They collated and analyzed statistics from more than 4,500 U.S. colleges and universities — including public, private nonprofit, and private for-profit colleges that offer bachelor’s degrees, associate’s degrees, or certificates.
In the study, Fairfield earned high marks —placing it in the top one percent of institutions for Return on Investment (ROI), and second only to Yale University in the State of Connecticut.
Fairfield also placed higher than Amherst College, Boston University, New York University, and Syracuse University.
Other benchmarks are notable, too: the study ranked Fairfield fourth among the top five of 28 Jesuit universities in the United States — apace with Georgetown, Santa Clara University, Boston College, and College of the Holy Cross.
What are the numbers that got Fairfield to the top of this ranking? Its alumni have an earning potential, just ten years after graduation, of $103,000, plus a relatively low average debt, and a top graduation rate (82 percent).
As Dr. Nemec reflected on these findings, he noted in the closing of his address that with the Arts and Sciences Guarantee Fairfield is, “innovating in order to build upon this position of strength to ensure that our students are ready in the spirit of Ignatius ‘to meet the world as it is’.”
For more information, contact the College of Arts and Sciences Office of Career and Professional Development at CASCareers@fairfield.edu.
