Admissions
Identifying talented students poised to succeed is the first step in building a strong graduate program. CGS conducts research to understand how graduate schools identify promising candidates for admission and avoid unfair biases.
Holistic Review of Graduate Admissions
Based on the findings of a 2015 research project supported by Hobsons, this publication explores current strategies for creating a more diverse graduate student population. This publication outlines the current state of graduate admissions at U.S. institutions, offers promising practices for graduate institutions seeking to implement holistic admissions processes, and provides an overview of existing resources for institutions.
Master’s Admissions: Transparency, Guidance, and Training
Approximately three out of four graduate students in the United States are pursuing a master’s degree. This publication examines how master’s students are admitted to their programs of study, helping graduate deans and their admissions teams put transparent processes in place to better identify promising candidates for admission and avoid unfair biases.
An Essential Guide to Graduate Admissions
This publication identifies good practices in graduate admissions and graduate enrollment management. Topics addressed include organizational structures and university-wide policies and procedures, departmental guidelines, and legal and financial issues.
NEW! 2024 Graduate Enrollment and Degrees
The CGS Graduate Enrollment and Degrees report, published annually since 1986, presents the findings of the CGS/ETS Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees and is a joint project of the Council of Graduate Schools and the Educational Testing Service (ETS).
The latest report, Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2013 to 2023, is the most current version of the only national survey that collects data on first-time and total graduate enrollment across all fields of master’s and research doctorate programs in the United States. It is also the only source of data on first-time and total graduate enrollment by degree level (master’s/certificates versus research doctorate) and the only national survey that collects data on applications to graduate school by broad field of study.
Members can download the associated fine fields report here.
Completion
Completing a degree is the goal of every student who enrolls in a graduate program. However, degree completion is influenced by a variety of factors.
Master’s Completion
Master’s education is the fastest growing and largest component of the graduate enterprise in the United States, yet little is known about completion and attrition rates in master’s programs and factors contributing to student success. To begin to address this gap, CGS conducted a pilot study, Completion and Attrition in STEM Master’s Programs.
PhD Completion
The Ph.D. Completion Project was a seven-year, grant-funded project that addressed the issues surrounding Ph.D. completion and attrition and resulted in four publications:
- PhD Completion and Attrition: Policy, Numbers, Leadership, and Next Steps
- Ph.D. Completion and Attrition: Analysis of Baseline Demographic Data
- Ph.D. Completion and Attrition: Findings from Exit Surveys of PhD Completers
- Ph.D. Completion and Attrition: Policies and Practices to Promote Student Success
Underrepresented Student Attrition and Completion
Doctoral education can be credited for any number of scientific, literary, and intellectual achievements, and those U.S. institutions that confer doctoral degrees are often regarded as being of the highest quality in the world. Underrepresented minority (URM) students, however, have not participated in doctoral education at the same rate as their peers, a trend that is particularly acute in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. America’s capacity to meet STEM workforce demands of the future will undoubtedly be compromised if this state of underrepresentation is allowed to persist.
The Doctoral Initiative on Minority Attrition and Completion (DIMAC) report reflects analysis of the largest dataset on completion and attrition among URM STEM students.