The future is particularly bright for this year's graduates. Members of the Class of 2007 can expect plenty of job offers and starting salaries that are 10.3 percent higher than last year's undergrads, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a trade group for university job-placement officers.
 
Newly minted M.B.A.'s also have something to look forward to: Employers recruiting from b-schools plan to hire 22.1 percent more graduates than last year, according to NACE's Job Outlook 2007 survey.

And as an added commencement day bonus, students will be getting warm send-offs-and free career advice-from celebrity C.E.O.'s and other business all stars.

In recent years C.E.O.'s have become more popular choices at universities. "We're getting more requests for C.E.O.'s who have been there and done that," says Richard Schelp, managing partner with Executive Speakers Bureau, who places speakers at universities and associations.

Heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, humanitarians, and chief execs are perennial favorites at graduation ceremonies, but college dropouts occasionally make the program, too. One of them—Bill Gates, arguably the most famous Harvard student never to graduate—is the featured speaker at his almost-alma mater's commencement on Thursday.

Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1976 to start Microsoft. When he returns to campus, he will receive an honorary degree and will probably talk about entrepreneurship and the importance of philanthropy.

Also headed back to his alma mater is U.S. Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, who will deliver the keynote graduation address at Dartmouth on June 10. A member of Dartmouth's class of 1968 and Goldman Sachs' former C.E.O., Paulson is expected to speak about business and public service.