SIDEBAR: Recruiters like applicants from U.

Every year, more than 400 companies come to campus to recruit University seniors. Several recruiters said last week that their companies find what they are looking for in University graduates, whether they have technical, business or liberal arts backgrounds. AMS is a consulting firm specializing in information and systems engineering. Seven of the 249 undergraduates hired by the company last year were from the University. The company usually hires Engineering graduates, but last year one School of Arts and Sciences graduate was hired for a new program offering specialized training to liberal arts graduates, Schlessinger said. John Rae, Jr., Merrill Lynch's director of capital markets recruiting, said five of 80 undergraduates hired for the capital markets division last year were University graduates. "We look for liberal arts and business majors, and Penn has a good combination of both types," said Rae, who graduated from the SAS in 1976. "There is also a lot of interdisciplinary cross-over, which great." "The school attracts a diverse group of people and we're looking to hire a diverse group of people, so there's a good match there," Rae added. "Penn grads have done very well at Merrill." Rae said Merrill Lynch also likes to hire University graduates because they have spent four years in the rough West Philadelphia enviornment. "Most of our jobs are in New York city," Rae said. "The fact that you've lived in West Philadelphia for four years acclimates you well to what life in New York is going to be like. You'd be surprised how many people get to New York and after a year say they don't like it."

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