Graduate school is an increasingly common educational investment. The number of adults in the United States with a graduate degree doubled over the past two decades, and there are now more individuals with graduate degrees than there are high school dropouts. Despite its growing prevalence, there is limited knowledge about the outcomes of graduate education. This paper aims to fill this gap by documenting several key facts about graduation rates from graduate programs.
The authors use administrative data on graduate program entrants in Texas public and nonprofit higher education institutions during the 2003-04 through 2012-13 academic years. Their sample contains enrollment and graduation information covering 543,611 graduate program entrants. They document the following concerning findings on graduate program graduation rates:
- Graduate students have similar graduation rates to undergraduates. Average graduation rates for graduate students entering in 2003-04 were 58%, increasing to 68% for the 2012-13 entering cohort.
- Graduation rates vary widely across fields of study, ranging from an average of 81% for law programs to 53% for education programs.
- Graduation rates also vary across institutions, among students within the same field of study. On average, 72% of students who entered programs in flagship public universities graduated in six years compared to only 57% of those who entered programs at non-research-intensive institutions.
- Graduate students who do not complete their degrees may face negative consequences due to lower average earnings and substantial levels of student debt. In most fields of study, completers and non-completers have relatively similar debt levels. Exceptions to this pattern are programs with high debt and high completion rates, such as health and law.
This research is the first to provide systematic evidence on how graduation rates vary across graduate programs, by field of study, and across institutions. While undergraduate programs are legally required to disclose completion rates, policymakers and researchers have spent much less time measuring and understanding graduation rates for graduate school. The information released here has important implications for prospective graduate students’ educational investment decisions and for policymakers looking to identify successful programs.