In 2006, 2 Harvard economics professors launched a "study examining the historical evolution of the career and family outcomes among U.S. college men and women." Their data includes graduates of several "selective" colleges and universities, including a subset called the "Harvard and Beyond Survey."

Harvard Magazine reports that, based on a respondent pool of 6,500 graduates of Harvard College between 1969 and 1992, careers in finance are roughly three times as prevalent among members of the more recent classes compared to the earlier classes. Meanwhile, the numbers going into law and medicine have declined by roughly an offsetting amount.

Not surprisingly, pay seems to be a big factor in this occupational shift. The median income for Harvard College alumni in financial services was roughly 3 times greater than that for all alumni in the survey, who, as a group, are already earning 3-4 times the national median income.

Of the men in the class of 2007 who headed right to work, rather than to graduate schools, more than 58% opted for careers in finance or consulting, with fully 20% going into investment banking, the most lucrative speciality of all.

That said, the professors note that many graduates still choose other, less remunerative paths like "the arts, the nonprofit sector, and academia," indicating the importance of criteria other than remuneration in career choice.