Economics and Graduate Education Dashboard
This dashboard visualizes data from CGS and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from January 2013 onward, and is updated monthly and yearly to track changes in graduate education metrics and economic indicators such as the Consumer Price Index and unemployment rate. It serves as an interactive tool to compare trends in graduate program applications and enrollments with economic health markers.
CGS members have access to an advanced version of this dashboard here.
CGS Members Lend Their Expertise
Hear from CGS members Thomas Jeitschko (Michigan State University) and Jon Woon (University of Pittsburgh) about the relationship between the U.S. economy and graduate application and enrollment trends. This video explores how different states of the economy can either drive or depress graduate education trends and what economic policy considerations influence those trends.
How to Use this Dashboard
Click on the headers below to expand the content.
Data Details
The dashboard visualizes CGS and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data from January 2013 to today. The data is updated monthly to reflect new BLS data and yearly to include new CGS data from its annual Graduate Enrollment and Degrees (GED) report.
- CGS data is the median value of various graduate education metrics included in the GED Report of that year. The CGS metrics are as follows:
- Applications (All Students)
- First Time Enrollment (All Students)
- Applications (Doctoral Students)
- Applications (Master’s Students)
- First Time Enrollment (Master’s Students)
- First Time Enrollment (Doctoral Students)
The median value is calculated for each year using the Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Survey data. Though the sample is different every year due to the nature of the survey respondents, its large reporting numbers ensure that the median value can be trusted to provide a cross-section of a “typical” graduate school that responded to the survey that year. The same survey also captures data for other racial and ethnic groups, specifically, students that identify as American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and Pacific Islander. The omission of these groups from this tool is due to the organically low numbers for the these groups relative to those currently in the tool. Future versions of the tool will seek to include these students in a meaningful way that adds data context to the user experience. Directions for future use of the tool that includes these groups will also be updated at that time.
- BLS data is the presented rate of change of the following metrics:
- 12-month percentage change, Consumer Price Index (All Categories)
- Civilian Unemployment Rate (All Civilians)
Using these Data
This dashboard is an interactive tool to track common markers of the health of the U.S. economy alongside specific markers of enrollment into and applications for U.S. graduate programs. The comparison to be made between the two sets of markers is primarily made at prima facie, that is, only to represent information drawn from the respective dashboard graph itself. The dashboard graphs do not purport to establish a direct relationship between the economic markers and the graduate program markers, nor does it put forward statistical relevancy to one conclusion.
Users of the dashboard could use the two sets of markers to broadly discuss the ever-evolving relationship between macroeconomic trends in the US economy and the supply-demand structure of graduate education. The dashboard graphs do not endorse arguments for or against the existence of any relationship between the two sets of markers, nor do the graphs posit any policy that might causally explain the existence of any relationship between the two sets of markers.