Thirty percent of the federal government's 1.6 million employees will be eligible to retire in five years. Among the highest ranks of the civil service, 65 percent will be qualified to start drawing pensions as early as 2004.

Confronted with this picture, it's not hard to see where stereotypes about today's college students come from. We're supposedly all self-interested, career-driven and politically apathetic. We've turned our backs on the public sphere and want to make our first million before we're 25.

Of course, it's not that simple. Students are graduating from college with heavier debt loads than ever before (see story, page xx), and the booming economy has made lucrative and prestigious jobs available for recent graduates with little or no training. Furthermore, some say Washington is no longer the best training ground for aspiring politicians just out of college.

Nevertheless, Washington will face a talent vacuum in the first part of the 21st century, and it doesn't look like Harvard students will be there to fill it.

Political Disillusionment

The observation that today's college students are disenchanted with politics is yesterday's news.

Poll after poll shows that despite a growing participation in volunteer work--feeding the homeless, teaching, religious service, environmental work--college-age students are losing faith in the power of the government to solve the nation's problems.

A survey of 800 college students released in January by California's Panetta Institute, a think tank headed by former White House Chief of Staff Leon V. Panetta, showed that students are less likely to vote than the population at large. Fewer than six of 10 turned out to vote in the presidential election of 1996.