The Top 100 Interpreting the Data

By Victor M.H. Borden and Pamela C. Brown

Substantial growth continues in both the number and percentage of students of color obtaining master’s, doctoral and first professional degrees, but there is still notable under-representation among African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians at the doctoral and first professional ranks. The overall numbers also mask important representational differences across disciplines among various racial/ethnic groups. Asian Americans continue to obtain disproportionally high numbers of advanced degrees in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and the health professions. African-Americans, in turn, have very low representation in these areas but very high representation in education and human service fields like public administration and criminal justice. Hispanics — the fastest-growing ethnic group in the overall population — have made notable strides in representation among master’s and doctoral degree recipients but not as much among first professional degree recipients, which are dominated by law and the clinical health professions. Over a 10-year period, minority gains have outpaced White increases, but as advanced degree attainment becomes more closely linked to positions of influence, the stakes become greater.

This edition of the Top 100 analysis considers graduate degrees awarded during the 2004-2005 academic year based on data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Set (IPEDS). As in past years, this analysis is based on “preliminary” data but is complete and accurate for those colleges and universities included in the analysis. We only consider in this analysis institutions eligible for Title IV funding (i.e., accredited by a federally recognized agency), located in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and that award post-baccalaureate degrees.