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Graduation Rates for Master's & Doctoral Students

Overview

The Office of Planning, Budget, and Analysis looked at graduation rates for master's and doctoral students who entered in fall 1994 and fall 1995. Just under half of entering master's students graduated within two years and about three quarters graduated within four years. A quarter of entering doctoral students graduated within five years and just over half graduated within eight years. See below for cumulative graduation rates by degree level.

There is a wide variance in the results by discipline college and degree program.
The tables link to results for cohorts entering in earlier years

Additional results

• The four year graduation rates for master's students range from 66% for natural sciences to 83% for education. Two-year rates vary more widely, from 25% in music to 60% for MBA business students.
• The doctoral graduation rates (measured through eight years from entry) range from under 40% in social sciences to 80% in education.

Method

The initial population was all master's and doctoral students who entered in the fall of the years listed (identified by SIS registartion types MFO/MTO, DFO/DTO). We excluded exchange students and students who were in the combined bachelor's/master's degree programs.

This method excludes...

Note that this method of assigning students to entering "cohorts" differs somewhat from that used in the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) doctoral completions project and perhaps from the method that will be used in the National Research Council (NRC) study of doctoral research programs.

For each entering student we found the earliest degree after entry that matches entry type (master's or doctoral). We ignored master's degrees earned by students who entered as doctoral-seeking and vice versa.

In counting elapsed time, three terms (fall, spring, summer) is counted as one year.

• One year plus one term = 1.3 years
• One year plus two terms = 1.7 years

Last revision 12/07/04