Table 274.

Graduate enrollment in science and engineering programs in degree-granting institutions, by discipline: Fall 1998 through fall 2010

Discipline of engineering or science	1998		1999		2000		2001		2002		2003		2004		2005		2006		20071	20081	20091	20101
1	2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11	12	13	14
Total, all science and
engineering disciplines	485,627	2	493,256	2	493,311	2	509,607	2	540,404	2	567,121	2	574,463	2	582,226	2	597,643	2	619,499	631,489	631,645	632,620
Engineering	100,038		101,691		104,112		109,493		119,668		127,377		123,566		120,565		123,041		131,676	137,856	144,677	149,241
Aerospace	3,137		3,349		3,407		3,451		3,685		4,048		4,089		4,170		4,482		4,616	4,902	5,266	5,540
Agricultural	975		986		943		947		952		1,058		1,041		1,059		1,073		1,126	1,233	1,303	1,457
Architecture3	†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		4,601	5,905	6,804	6,795
Biomedical	2,855		3,069		3,197		3,599		4,338		5,301		5,807		6,067		6,482		6,904	7,339	7,904	8,497
Chemical	7,093		6,883		7,056		6,913		7,414		7,516		7,452		7,173		7,261		7,584	7,892	8,188	8,668
Civil3	16,517		16,226		16,451		16,665		17,713		18,890		18,561		18,114		17,802		16,071	16,931	18,638	19,559
Electrical	31,384		31,822		33,611		36,100		39,948		41,763		38,995		37,450		38,265		40,588	41,164	41,218	41,336
Engineering science	1,701		1,627		1,632		1,798		2,121		2,240		2,198		1,951		2,046		1,806	2,099	2,168	2,071
Industrial/manufacturing	11,221		11,803		12,119		12,940		14,033		14,313		13,852		13,650		13,829		14,474	15,692	15,825	15,205
Mechanical	14,696		14,956		15,235		15,852		17,139		18,393		17,852		17,373		17,919		18,347	19,585	21,243	22,509
Metallurgical/materials	4,680		4,481		4,377		4,721		4,992		5,131		5,059		5,160		5,268		5,314	5,539	5,863	6,274
Mining	304		328		287		240		267		278		308		279		244		222	290	312	419
Nuclear	821		830		792		801		795		885		971		1,013		1,099		1,180	1,201	1,243	1,459
Petroleum	571		642		627		656		766		849		845		808		813		1,014	1,009	1,190	1,295
Other engineering	4,083		4,689		4,378		4,810		5,505		6,712		6,536		6,298		6,458		7,829	7,075	7,512	8,157
Physical sciences	30,575		30,691		30,385		31,038		32,341		34,298		35,761		36,375		36,901		36,824	37,319	38,149	38,941
Astronomy	820		832		888		916		990		1,080		1,119		1,191		1,211		1,232	1,275	1,409	1,331
Chemistry	18,482		18,416		18,105		18,366		19,045		20,049		20,776		21,101		21,351		21,298	21,574	22,094	22,404
Physics	10,809		10,869		10,841		11,248		11,701		12,555		13,298		13,472		13,722		13,816	13,862	14,060	14,507
Other physical sciences	464		574		551		508		605		614		568		611		617		478	608	586	699
Earth, atmospheric, and ocean
sciences	14,258		14,083		13,941		13,841		14,240		14,620		15,131		14,836		14,920		14,100	14,389	14,839	15,655
Atmospheric sciences	965		913		963		924		1,036		1,150		1,086		1,146		1,079		1,178	1,400	1,355	1,455
Geosciences	6,687		6,637		6,596		6,544		6,712		6,889		7,358		7,212		7,177		7,020	7,089	7,539	8,251
Oceanography	2,562		2,624		2,668		2,585		2,618		2,695		2,801		2,760		2,770		2,615	2,634	2,633	2,556
Other environmental sciences	4,044		3,909		3,714		3,788		3,874		3,886		3,886		3,718		3,894		3,287	3,266	3,312	3,393
Family and consumer science/
human science4	†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		2,780	3,549	3,794	4,191
Mathematical sciences	16,485		16,257		15,650		16,651		18,163		19,465		19,931		20,210		20,815		20,975	21,400	22,226	23,136
Mathematics and applied
mathematics	13,827		13,521		12,823		13,569		14,702		15,569		15,964		16,106		16,649		16,528	16,449	17,204	17,589
Statistics	2,658		2,736		2,827		3,082		3,461		3,896		3,967		4,104		4,166		4,447	4,951	5,022	5,547
Multidisciplinary/
interdisciplinary studies4	†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		4,484	5,559	6,557	7,944
Neuroscience5	†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		1,584	2,012	2,356	2,798
Communication4	†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		†		7,303	8,444	9,418	9,825
Computer sciences	38,027		42,478		47,350		52,196		55,269		53,696		50,016		47,978		47,653		48,246	49,553	51,161	51,546
Life sciences	149,634		151,345		148,080		150,252		159,356		170,374		178,600		185,553		194,313		188,760	189,033	174,464	166,704
Agricultural sciences	12,168		12,312		12,023		12,235		12,698		13,197		13,445		13,123		13,016		13,528	14,153	15,200	15,656
Biological sciences	56,695		56,959		56,282		57,639		61,088		64,701		66,565		68,479		69,941		71,932	72,666	73,304	74,928
Anatomy	785		749		795		735		906		908		897		938		961		867	764	833	849
Biochemistry	5,148		5,101		4,966		4,917		5,190		5,552		5,612		5,814		5,824		5,853	5,473	5,271	5,308
Biology	14,277		13,989		13,407		13,352		13,822		14,770		15,458		15,681		16,463		15,898	16,514	16,840	17,210
Biometry/epidemiology	3,514		3,704		3,615		3,817		4,071		4,439		4,674		4,805		4,789		5,694	5,971	5,739	6,398
Biophysics	737		710		751		877		953		1,032		1,180		1,183		1,203		1,193	1,084	1,042	1,072
Botany	2,042		1,974		1,904		1,921		1,973		1,901		1,831		1,860		1,850		1,821	1,803	1,831	1,863
Cell biology	4,379		4,637		4,820		4,911		5,375		5,689		5,830		6,177		6,553		6,839	7,096	7,153	7,047
Ecology	1,670		1,704		1,762		1,888		1,967		2,230		2,185		2,165		2,162		2,026	2,026	1,746	1,828
Entomology/parasitology	1,168		1,145		1,104		1,170		1,191		1,206		1,241		1,126		1,114		1,078	1,079	1,079	1,116
Genetics	1,727		1,783		1,712		1,841		1,909		2,073		2,129		2,155		2,154		2,120	2,120	2,242	2,333
Microbiology, immunology,
and virology	4,773		4,815		4,814		4,798		5,208		5,256		5,375		5,401		5,324		5,212	5,054	4,968	4,896
Nutrition	4,486		4,508		4,413		4,429		4,539		4,695		4,771		4,817		5,042		4,890	5,177	5,330	5,548
Pathology	1,580		1,580		1,531		1,637		1,613		1,541		1,557		1,593		1,612		1,580	1,618	1,450	1,376
Pharmacology	2,730		2,757		2,963		3,140		3,234		3,357		3,122		3,114		2,985		3,013	3,005	3,163	3,101
Physiology	2,151		2,083		2,015		1,967		2,076		2,328		2,409		2,399		2,416		2,738	2,863	2,866	2,879
Zoology	1,586		1,523		1,445		1,411		1,349		1,301		1,236		1,264		1,145		1,108	925	875	896
Other biosciences	3,942		4,197		4,265		4,828		5,712		6,423		7,058		7,987		8,344		10,002	10,094	10,876	11,208
Health fields6	80,771		82,074		79,775		80,378		85,570		92,476		98,590		103,951		111,356		103,300	102,214	85,960	76,120
Medical fields5	16,643		17,276		16,407		17,363		19,166		20,574		20,866		21,414		23,441		22,751	23,939	24,125	25,699
Other health fields7	64,128		64,798		63,368		63,015		66,404		71,902		77,724		82,537		87,915		80,549	78,275	61,835	50,421
Dentistry	1,518		1,467		1,430		1,494		1,446		1,654		1,946		1,748		1,614		1,688	1,643	1,770	1,661
Nursing	25,591		25,074		23,457		23,609		24,715		26,649		29,781		31,670		35,846		31,803	30,471	21,355	12,107
Pharmaceutical sciences	2,882		3,422		3,611		3,679		4,538		5,493		5,218		6,091		6,315		5,066	4,251	4,443	4,291
Speech pathology/audiology	13,198		13,600		13,636		13,193		13,368		13,694		14,045		14,821		14,847		16,229	15,968	14,641	14,645
Veterinary sciences	1,288		1,314		1,367		1,476		1,691		1,719		1,732		1,970		2,067		2,371	2,478	2,170	2,211
Other health related	19,651		19,921		19,867		19,564		20,646		22,693		25,002		26,237		27,226		23,392	23,464	17,456	15,506
Psychology7	52,557		51,727		50,466		50,454		51,152		52,162		54,126		57,282		57,653		59,617	58,991	56,184	53,419
Social sciences	84,053		84,984		83,327		85,682		90,215		95,129		97,332		99,427		102,347		103,150	103,384	107,820	109,220
Agricultural economics	1,995		2,014		2,079		2,161		2,187		2,318		2,195		2,127		2,158		1,989	2,132	2,222	2,180
Economics (except agricultural)	10,701		10,562		10,748		11,408		12,009		12,316		12,318		11,805		12,132		12,597	12,971	13,993	14,317
Geography	4,326		4,250		4,036		4,304		4,383		4,721		4,809		4,800		4,750		4,660	4,745	4,810	5,059
Linguistics	2,935		2,799		2,674		2,744		2,875		3,028		2,941		3,187		3,074		2,879	3,095	3,170	3,132
Political science	30,828		31,372		31,131		31,805		34,934		36,880		39,023		40,780		41,784		41,349	40,871	43,919	45,045
Sociology and anthropology	17,492		17,340		17,023		17,111		17,146		17,689		17,539		17,616		18,022		18,453	18,988	18,666	18,740
Other social sciences	15,776		16,647		15,636		16,149		16,681		18,177		18,507		19,112		20,427		21,223	20,582	21,040	20,747

†Not applicable.

1 Data for 2007 and later years may not be comparable to previous years’ data because some surveyed fields were reclassified, new fields were added, and the survey was redesigned to improve coverage and coding.

2 Because three fields were added to the survey in 2007, previous years' totals for all fields are not comparable to the totals for 2007 and later years.

3 Before 2007, architecture was included under civil engineering instead of being reported as a separate field of engineering.

4 Three science fields--family and consumer science/human science, multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary studies, and communication--were added to the survey in 2007; some of the data may have been reported under other fields prior to 2007.

5 Before 2007, neuroscience was included under the health/medical field of neurology instead of being reported as a separate field of science.

6 Excludes enrollments in practitioner-oriented programs, which have the primary purpose of providing the knowledge and skills required for credentials or licensure to practice in a medical or other health field.

7 For 2008 and later years, enrollment declines in psychology and in other health fields such as nursing may be due to more rigorous follow-up with institutions to exclude enrollments in practitioner-oriented graduate degree programs. Examples of excluded programs are those leading to DNP, PsyD, and DPT degrees.

NOTE: The survey on which this table is based includes institutions in other jurisdictions, including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF-NIH Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, 1998 through 2010. (This table was prepared September 2012.)