Across the bi-co community, over 700 seniors are entering their last semester of college and envisioning life after graduation. At a time of great accomplishment and uncertainty around the next steps, the end of college thrusts graduates into a world beyond the confines of their campus community.
The dominant ideology in the bi-co is liberal, and conversations with students on election day indicate that many undergraduates planned to vote for Kamala Harris in hope for her victory. While senior year is filled with worries of making the most of every moment and planning the future, some members of the graduating class of 2025 face an unusual and unique consideration: how will the Donald Trump administration impact their professional goals and aspirations for the future?
I spoke to seniors across the bi-co to gain an understanding of how the presidential election outcome is impacting their final months at college and plans for after graduation. The students I spoke to have plans to attend law school, work on policy or join nonprofits. Trump’s election has shifted their outlook and motivations while searching for jobs, deciding where to live and considering their hopes for social progress.
Despite holding optimism that Harris would be the next U.S. president, students prepared themselves for a disappointing outcome as election day neared. Anna De La Cuesta, a student at Bryn Mawr studying political science, explains that “people accepted Harris as the ticket not actively wanting it to happen. And so, I was cautious about [the election], but I thought perhaps that [the] grassroots efforts would work.” Leo Gruenstein, a Haverford student who worked for the Harris campaign by analyzing news coverage in the Arizona media, described feeling slightly optimistic for a Harris victory, but that he “wouldn’t have felt confident putting down a bet more than, say, a dollar on either candidate leading up to the day.”
Students described disbelief and discouragement over the unequal qualifications of the candidates. Gruenstein describes feeling horrified by how the close election polls appeared despite the well-run Harris campaign and his observation that “Donald Trump did multiple things on a daily basis that otherwise would be disqualifying for a candidate to be able to run for president, and, obviously, him being a felon too.”
Eight years ago, when Trump was elected president for his first term, the class of 2025 were young teenagers just beginning to follow world events. Memories from 2016 linger and have become potent following the November outcome. Students noted the juxtaposition of Hilary Clinton’s qualifications against Trump’s controversial reputation, which led to confusion, disappointment and fear in the aftermath of his first election victory. Now, they say similar feelings are resurfacing in 2024.
As a middle schooler, Olivia Aguirre, a Haverford psychology major, traveled across state lines with her mom to campaign on the eve of the presidential election. On the evening of election day, they sat in their hotel room to watch the results and the eventual proclamation of Trump as the winner. As an eighth grader, Aguirre remembers not fully understanding the risks of a Trump presidency but sat with her mom, feeling devastated by the lost potential of the first female U.S. president. Now, with a fuller understanding of Trump’s positions and policy, Aguirre is angry with the country for re-electing him to office. Her mom texted her on election night, this time on the other side of the country, to say, “this is so devastating, but I love you.”
In 2016, after Trump’s victory, Jadyn Elliott’s neighbors in a Philadelphia suburb launched celebratory cannons and some drove around with Confederate flags. Her family discussed how support for Trump “normalized and endorsed” racism and brought America “back in time…my family [was] scared,” she shared. Once again, cannons were launched this past fall, on the night of Trump’s re-election. Elliott, a Haverford student, was frustrated and angry at the individuals who didn’t vote or used their platforms to discourage voting as a form of protest against the incumbent government, explaining her feeling that voting is a privilege. “I mean especially being a Black person… a lot of our ancestors literally fought and lost their lives to vote for two racists, people who…never had Black peoples’ interest ever,” she stated.
Emma Gross, who grew up in a conservative Pennsylvania town, heard that Trump was accused of assaulting several women and was confused by the excitement rippling through their school in the aftermath of the 2016 election: “It was very scary to think that was someone who was going to be president. I was thinking, what does that mean for the boys in my class? Do they think that’s okay because we have a president who did that?” Post-graduation, Gross plans to only live in states that are solidly democratic.
The day following the 2024 election, the Philadelphia area was cast with grey skies and pouring rain “kind of [like] a dystopian movie; it [was] visually accurate—reflecting the vibes of the campus,” explains Bryn Mawr student Isabella Rivera. Some students leaned on friends to process the election, while others retreated into solitude and processed the results on their own. Students noted silence seemed to hang over campus, with students who felt like there was nothing left to say.
For Elliott, the time to process was limited. After the election, working to support herself, Elliott quickly returned to her workplace, a financial firm, where she shared office space with coworkers who voted for Trump. “I’m having to put on a strong face and know that I’m working with people who are most certainly Trump voters and who probably donate to their campaign,” she says. Seeing people she considered friends on social media support Trump created a wakeup call “that there are so many people who are around me every day that are not for me. They are not about Jadyn. Not about Black people, they are not about women; they’re not about immigrants. And I just realized that that’s more than half of America. They’re literally all around me all the time.”
Some students expressed reservations about living in conservative areas or spaces with political contention. Aguirre says “I get it, Kamala’s not perfect, but someone openly and willingly choosing to value and to support this man who stands for a lot of things that are going to hurt so many people… How could you be neighbors with that person?” After the election of Trump, Aguirre says she’s decided that if she’s living in the U.S. that she wants to move back to California and be close to family.
Gross, who previously worked for nonprofit organizations that help immigrant populations, was seriously considering moving to Washington D.C. and interested in working at the Institute of Peace, but worries that the Trump administration will defund the institution. Now, Gross is looking at potential job opportunities beyond the U.S., where funding might be more stable, no longer considering making D.C. their home. “I don’t want to be in the [same] space that Trump is in,” they say.
Aguirre faces similar funding concerns. Deeply interested in working in special education, Trump’s threats of dismantling the Department of Education might mean there is not funding or job opportunities in the field. “It seems like this leader will not necessarily put a lot of priority into students with disabilities” she says.
Given his work during the Harris campaign, Gruenstein hoped for a position at the White House or on Capitol Hill in the event of a victory. Now, he’s “seriously considering it, but with a lot more skepticism.” Achieving policy accomplishments appear bleak for Democratic lawmakers in the current political climate. Given the stark polarization in Washington, Gruenstein is now looking at job opportunities beyond politics and evaluating whether he “really want[s] to be a part of that hodgepodge of ugliness.”
Anna De La Cuesta says her post-graduate plans have already been impacted by Trump. Planning to attend law school and hoping to become a judge since high school, she is concerned. Trump’s appointment of conservative judges who rolled back Affirmative Action changes the admissions practices of law schools, which might prevent De La Cuesta’s application from offering a full representation of her lived experience. “As someone who already has all those hurdles to jump through and then on top of all of that, knowing that an admissions officer won’t be able to really get [a] full grasp of who I am because those things are going to be omitted from my application, is concerning.” She says that the demographics of top law schools will start to look different now that Affirmative Action has been rolled back. Trump’s administrative actions might shape legal discussions and create “a whole new area of interesting legal research, but also, you know, possibly concerning for the nation” she says.
Students believe that while the next four years will be tough, Trump’s second term might serve as a wakeup call. While the checks and balances of our government might be tested, they believe they will still work. Gross describes themselves as “not completely not hopeful. I do think that I have a lot of faith in our generation.”
In a similar sentiment, Gruenstein describes himself as “cautiously optimistic,” but fears that as older Supreme Court justices step down, an overwhelmingly conservative court will “will make things even worse for the next, you know, 50 years, which is a scary thought.”
For Rivera, it’s unclear how to change people’s minds and perceptions of the Trump administration: “After we saw who he was the first time, they just don’t care. And to me that was the biggest disappointment. What do you even do? How do you even make people care? You can’t.” she said.
While she’s unsure how to change the opinion of the majority American voters, Rivera plans to resist the Trump administration by working in policy or nonprofit spaces. While she already had an interest in working in her community, she now says it’s not just about working for a good cause, it’s a form of resistance against the current administration.
After the 2024 presidential election “I was just paralyzed,” says Elliott, “I just did not want to do anything.” Now, instead of focusing on the election results, Elliott is focused on her goal of becoming a lawyer and utilizing her computer science background to lead policy changes around technology and artificial intelligence. She says Trump’s election has fueled her motivation: “it just makes me want to go faster. Finish quicker.”
