It’s commencement season again. All across the fruited plain, eager students are preparing to take the next step, be it from kindergarten to elementary school, or college into “the workforce”. Universum, an international research and management consulting firm, recently released their annual list of “Most Desirable Undergraduate Employers”. The list is the result of a survey of over 44,000 U.S. undergraduates who were asked to rank-order their ideal employers.

Two major trends emerged in this year’s results – “making the big bucks”, and “serving the greater good”. Either way, according to Universum CEO Claudia Tattanelli, grads expressed an interest in making a savvy move that would pave the way for future success.

Which organizations made the Top Five? Topping the list was internet powerhouse Google, followed by Disney, Apple, the U.S. State Department, and the Peace Corps. A diverse group, to say the least.

In other graduate news, West Texas A&M University (WTAMU), located in Canyon, Texas (just south of Amarillo on Interstate 27 – I know this because I’ve been there), recently held their commencement exercises. Their commencement speaker was Stan Sigman, a 1970 graduate of WTAMU. Mr. Sigman is the CEO of Cingular (soon to be back to AT&T Wireless).

During the occasion, Mr. Sigman presented the president of WTAMU, a Dr. O’Brien, with what he claimed was “the first iPhone in Texas”. Dr. O’Brien then brandished his iPhone from his seat behind the podium. Mr. Sigman went on to describe the mid-to-late-June release of the iPhone as “likely to be the largest commercial product launch in the history of electronics”. As evidence, he went on to point out that “over a million people have written in to express interest in being first to get one”.

The story first broke when a poor-quality video of the announcement, ironically taken from the “nose bleed section” of the auditorium with a Palm Treo smartphone, surfaced on YouTube.

In yet more graduate related news, this week Apple “revved” their MacBook line of consumer portable computers. In this case “revved” can describe “revising” as well as “speeding up”. Keeping the same compact form factor and price points, the new MacBooks got faster Intel Core 2 Duo processors (up to 2.16 GHz), 1 GB of RAM standard, and new, fast, and far-reaching 802.11n wireless networking. Need I say, they make great graduation presents, even for those students heading off to schools mired in Windows XP.