Shan Patel graduated with high honors from Harvard University in June. But that wasn't enough to get him a position with Teach for America or the New York City Urban Fellows Program, two public-service programs.

"I made the mistake of thinking that because I want to do something that's public service-oriented, which ... I thought was somewhat noble, it wouldn't be so competitive," says Mr. Patel, a Bedford, Mass., native who taught English to Somali refugees as a high-school volunteer outside Boston. "I thought I could pick and choose, but it didn't really pan out that way."

Neither prior experience nor an Ivy League pedigree, it turns out, is any guarantee of success in the heated-up competition for slots in the public-service sector. Applications for such positions are soaring, while budgetary problems at AmeriCorps, the federal umbrella organization that runs and finances national and community service, are taking their toll on the number of positions available.

Not long ago, politicians and university presidents were bemoaning the lack of interest in public-service work by college graduates, many of whom were being lured by high-paying jobs in the private sector or had too much college debt to take up a low-paying career dedicated to the common good. But all that has changed drastically, partly attributed to altruism engendered by the 2001 terrorism attacks but, even more significantly, to one of the worst jobs markets for college graduates in years. Over the past two or three years, the number of employers participating in campus job fairs has dropped by 30% to 40%, with fewer positions being offered by those who still come.

At Teach for America, a much-lauded program that finds teachers for two-year commitments in low-income areas, applications for positions in the coming school year rose 13% from a year earlier, pitting 15,700 people against each other for 2,300 slots. The New York City Teaching Fellows, a similar program, saw its applications soar 32% to 19,737 positions.

Even the Peace Corps, offering stints in developing countries where conditions are often trying, is inundated with aspirants. It placed 4,047 volunteers in its latest fiscal year, when applications rose to 10,793 from 9,156. Several smaller programs -- including the Alliance for Catholic Education, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and the New York City Urban Fellows Program, which places college grads in city-government service -- also report a swell of applications from the class of 2003.

Most service jobs don't pay much, but some -- especially those in teaching -- do provide a livelihood, albeit a temporary one since service terms are typically limited to a year or two. And that has become an increasingly attractive alternative to unemployment.

"There aren't 40 dot-coms saying, 'Come and play with us for a couple of years, and you'll be with a group of extremely smart people, and, if we do extremely well, the world will be your oyster,' " says Bill Wright-Swadel, the director of career services at Harvard. Recalling a time when seniors got signing bonuses to work in business, he says: "That kind of market doesn't exist at this point in time, so students have to be much more assertive."

Teach for America members are paid by their local school district at the starting salary of a beginning teacher -- from about $20,000 in some districts to $39,000 in places like New York City -- and can sometimes earn financial help for a master's degree in education.

At the Peace Corps, volunteers get living expenses and a "readjustment allowance" of $6,075 at the end of their two years in service.

"You don't get rich, but it actually is a pretty good savings plan," says Dennis McMahon, a Peace Corps spokesman. "It's more than some people save after working for a year."

This year's dearth of public-service jobs is exacerbated by the budgetary problems at AmeriCorps, which is moving to cut 20,000 of the 50,000 positions it earlier thought it could fund. The U.S. House of Representatives adjourned for the summer without approving $100 million in emergency aid for AmeriCorps.

Elizabeth Boucher, who graduated this spring from Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., had been confirmed as a volunteer at City Year, an AmeriCorps program, since February. But the nonprofit, whose volunteers mentor young children and run after-school programs in locations throughout the country, learned in early June that AmeriCorps's problems would trim its sails.

The effects: an $8 million cut in City Year's budget, reducing its volunteer corps to 490 from 1,010.

The organization is in "massive contingency-planning mode" right now and can't determine with certainty whether volunteers like Ms. Boucher will still have a place, says Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year, which provides its volunteers with a living allowance of $165 to $185 a week before taxes and a $4,725 education award at the end of their stint.

Ms. Boucher sent out her first résumé two weeks ago, after waiting in limbo the past two months -- just in case.

"I'm not hearing either way, and I don't blame City Year for it at all because it's out of their control, but I need to pay off my loans and not let other opportunities pass me by," she says. "In this economy, they're few and far between."

The 22-year-old is waiting to see how her first inquiry, at a nonprofit in New Haven, Conn., fares. If that doesn't work out, Ms. Boucher says she may try to turn her summer job at a café into a full-time affair while she figures out what to do next.

As for Mr. Patel, he's spending his summer learning Spanish to prepare for a trip to South America. After being turned down by Teach for America and the New York fellowship, he joined up with his third choice, the WorldTeach program, for whom he will soon be teaching English in Ecuador.

"Keep an open mind and look at many different alternatives," he advises the college class of 2004. "You don't know where you'll end up."