In addition to finding that graduate school applications and first-time enrollment in the United States both rose from 2011 to 2012, this year’s Graduate Enrollment and Degrees report from the Council of Graduate Schools and the Graduate Records Examinations Board revealed many other interesting data points about the types of students who are enrolling in graduate school.
In his recent news round-up of all things related to grad school, fellow blogger Russell linked to this USA Today article on some of the report’s highlights. We dug deeper into the data, and here are 6 most compelling pieces of information that we found:
1) While the data is based on survey responses from only 675 colleges and universities, (about one third of the total number of graduate degree-granting programs in the U.S.), these programs grant 73% of the master’s degrees and 91% of the doctorates awarded each year.
2) Women comprised 57.9% of all first-time graduate students in 2012. They comprised 59.4% of first-time students pursuing master’s degrees and graduate certifications, and 50.3% of first-time doctoral candidates.
3) Women also accounted for the largest share of first-time graduate students at the master’s and graduate certificate level in health sciences (80.0%), followed closely by public administration and services (78.0%), and education (75.4%). Men had the largest share of students in engineering (75.8%), mathematics and computer sciences (68.2%), and business (56.2%).
4) First-time graduate enrollment has grown over the last five- and ten-year periods. Between fall 2007 and fall 2012, first-time graduate enrollment increased by an average of 2.0% annually, and between fall 2002 and fall 2012, the annual increase in enrollment averaged 2.4%.
5) From 2011 to 2012, first-time enrollment increased in seven fields, and decreased in four other fields. The three fields with the largest gains were: mathematics and computer sciences (which increased by 8.0%), health sciences (increased by 5.0%), and public administration and services (also increased by 5.0%). The two fields with the largest declines between 2011 and 2012 were ‘other fields’ (-3.7%), and social and behavioral sciences (-2.1%).
6) From 2007 to 2012, Hispanics/Latinos had the largest gains among the U.S. citizen and permanent resident racial and ethnic groups; their average enrollment increased by 5.0% each year.
So what does all of this data mean for your advisees? Applicants need to know the playing field when they apply to master’s and doctorate programs. They need to understand who exactly their competition is, so that they know how to stand out to admissions committees. Before a student edits her resume, writes personal statements, or even decides whom to ask for recommendations, she needs to decide which aspects of her candidacy to highlight, so that every component of her applications demonstrates the unique perspective that she will bring to a program.
