June 9, 1999
Web posted at: 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT)

(CNN) -- Actor and comedian Bill Cosby is known for parenting. America watched as he guided his television family "The Cosbys" through the 1980s, and can now see him on CBS's "Cosby" still dispensing advice to young adults and grown children.

Author of the best-selling book "Fatherhood," Cosby has now penned "Congratulations! Now What?" for college graduates, published by Hyperion.

The parent of five college-educated children, he takes a humorous but honest look at college life and post-graduation reality for graduates and their parents.

On the experience of leaving college for the job market, he writes, "You have moved from fantasy to reality. Fantasy is the life in which your parents were the search and rescue squad that saved your precious little tail, again and again. Reality is knowing that your liberal arts degree will get you no job besides a restaurant receptionist. 'Welcome to the Four Seasons,' you brightly say. 'Smoking or nonsmoking?'"

Cosby, who holds a doctorate degree in education, also shares his thoughts on graduate school.

"Of all the ways to avoid real life, from joining a religious order to trying to find the Abominable Snowman, none has been more popular that going to graduate school," he writes. "Millions of college graduates take a quick look at the outside, and then, like parolees who miss the penal womb, they go right back inside the walls. Some graduate courses do lead to such things as accounting, dentistry , and law, all of which from time to time are of use to society; but dozens of other courses lead directly to a degree that should be called Master of Nothing in Particular."

A popular commencement speaker, his experience addressing graduating audiences comes through in his book.

He sums up his advice to graduates this way, "Stay with your dream and don't be concerned when your mother asks a few time a day, 'What now?' and 'Have you thought about the Merchant Marines?' and 'Why are your pupils dilated?' You have got to leave yourself open for all the possibilities that have nothing to do with making enough money to stay alive."