Berkeley Graduate Profile: A Statistical Snapshot

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Among the 36,000 students at the University of California, Berkeley, nearly 30% are pursuing doctoral and master’s degrees in more than 100 disciplines. The Berkeley Graduate Profile, produced by the Institutional Research and External Relations units in the Graduate Division, offers a complete picture of doctoral and master’s student population, including enrollments in each broad discipline, information about graduate student funding, and some of the most important indicators of the exceptional quality of Berkeley’s graduate programs.

A few highlights from the Berkeley Graduate Profile:

The fall 2011 incoming graduate class of 2,918 students was selected from among 38,119 applicants.
57% of Berkeley’s graduate students are enrolled in doctoral programs offered in all but one of the 14 schools and colleges on campus;
43% are here to earn master’s or professional degrees.
In most years, Berkeley produces more Ph.D.s than any other U.S. university.
The largest doctoral enrollments are in the Colleges of Letters & Science, Engineering, Chemistry, and Natural Resources; the largest professional schools are Business, Law, and Public Health.
Berkeley has been the top-choice school for winners of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowships during the past decade.

Graduate Student Statistics

Originating location for the Fall 2009 incoming graduate class

Originating location for the Fall 2011 incoming graduate class

Applications
Fall 2001	26,016
Fall 2011	38,119

Enrollment (Fall 2011)	Doctoral	Master’s	Total
Overall	5,851 (57%)	4,406 (43%)	10,257
Incoming class	953	1,965	2,918

Applicant Age
Average	28
Youngest	17
Oldest	66

Women	Underrepresented Minorities
46%	15%

Ethnic Diversity	Total
American Indian/Alaskan Native	113
Black/African-American	343
Chicano/Mexican-American	381
Chinese/Chinese-American	761
East Indian/Pakistani	394
International	2,015
Japanese/Japanese-American	111
Korean	163
Latino/Other Spanish-American	332
Other/Unknown	1,113
Pacific Islander	24
Pilipino/Filipino	129
Thai/Other Asian	143
Vietnamese	124
White/Caucasian	4,111

U.S. Graduate Students	Doctoral	Master’s	Total
California	1,857	2,516	4,373
New York	272	145	417
Massachusetts	215	61	276
Texas	154	67	221
Illinois	156	59	215
Washington	116	82	198
Pennsylvania	153	23	176
New Jersey	119	30	149
Maryland	103	34	137
Florida	82	43	125
Virginia	83	38	121
Oregon	87	31	118
Michigan	87	15	102
All other states	910	357	1,267
Total	4,394	3,501	7,895

International Graduate Students	Doctoral	Master’s	Total
China	275	116	391
India	127	160	287
Korea	133	55	188
Canada	88	29	117
Taiwan	70	19	89
Japan	25	34	59
France	28	30	58
Chile	30	26	56
Germany	34	18	52
Israel	30	13	43
Brazil	25	17	42
Singapore	25	15	40
Turkey	26	13	39
Italy	25	10	35
Thailand	25	7	32
United Kingdom	21	10	31
Mexico	14	17	31
Australia	15	12	27
Spain	9	17	26
Iran	17	4	21
Greece	13	10	23
Switzerland	9	4	13
77 other countries	186	129	315
Total	1,250	765	2,015

Graduate majors (Fall 2011 Enrollment)

101 graduate majors (master’s and doctoral), 93 of which grant doctoral degrees.

School/College	Doctoral	Master’s/ First Professional	Total	Percentage of total graduate student enrollment
Business Administration	79.5	1,457	1,536.5	14.9%
Chemistry	494	9	503	4.9%
Education	248.5	109	357.5	3.4%
Engineering	1,369.5	388.5	1,758	17.1%
Environmental Design	108	276.5	384.5	3.7%
Information	19	77	96	9.0%
Journalism	–	95	95	9.0%
Law	46.5	1,006.5	1,053	10.2%
Letters & Science (all divisions)	2,874.5	66.5	2,941	28.6%
Arts & Humanities	758	19	777	7.4%
Biological Sciences	553	1	554	5.4%
Mathematics & Physical Sciences	548.5	15	563.5	5.4%
Social Sciences	1,015	31.5	1,046.5	10.2%
Natural Resources	307	8	315	3%
Optometry	31	268	299	2.9%
Public Health	163	235	398	3.8%
Public Policy	18.5	157.5	176	1.7%
Social Welfare	41.5	191.5	233	2.2%
Other programs	50.5	61	111.5	1%
Energy & Resources Group	46.5	61	107.5	1%
>Individualized major	4	–	4	0%
TOTAL	5,851	4,406	10,257	100%

Degrees Granted

Degree Date	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Doctoral	753*	803*	769*	770*	801*	753	895*	864*	863*	888**	906**
Master’s/Professional	1,964	2,087	2,158	2,295	2,390	2,337	2,351	2,406	2,385	2,397	2,481

* The most doctoral degrees awarded in the nation.
** National data not yet available.

Job placement of doctoral degree recipients

Based on surveys of students graduating from 2006-07 to 2008-09, conducted 12-18 months after graduation.

	Count	Percent
Business (for profit)	542	21.3%
College or university*	1,441	56.5%	tenure-track faculty	501	34.8%
Government	94	3.7%	postdoctoral appointment	655	45.5%
K-12 school	22	0.9%	non-tenure track faculty	154	10.7%
National laboratory	115	4.5%	other	131	9%
Self-employed	18	.7%
Other	320	12.4%
Total	2,552	100%

*First positions taken by Berkeley Ph.D.s who went into academia

Graduate student funding

Costs of graduate education at Berkeley (for academic graduate students).

	2010-11		2011-12
	CA resident	Nonresident	CA resident	Nonresident
Educational fee	9,402	9,810	11,220	11,220
Registration fee	900	900	972	972
Campus fees and health insurance¹	2,591	2,591	2,793	2,793
Nonresident tuition (NRT)²		14,694		15,102
Subtotal (all fees and NRT)³	12,893	27,995	14,985	30,087
Living expenses (academic year only)⁴	21,500	21,500	22,060	22,060
Summer (living expenses and fees)	5,000	5,000	5,000	5,000
Total	39,393	54,495	42,045	57,147

¹ based on 2010-11; we estimate 10% increase in the cost of health insurance for 2011-12
² NRST is $12,245 for majors with professional degree supplemental tuition
³ some majors have supplemental fees
⁴ see financial aid website for up-to-date living expenses

Sources of financial support for graduate students

An array of funding packages

Campuswide multi-year fellowships:

Berkeley offers several prestigious multi-year awards for the most highly qualified entering doctoral students, including: Berkeley Fellowships (all fields); Chancellor’s Fellowships and Cota Robles Fellowships (all fields; for applicants who will enhance the diversity of the graduate student population at Berkeley); Mellon Graduate Student Excellence Fellowships (humanities and history); Regents’ Intern Fellowships (humanities and social sciences); Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Fellowships (science and engineering).

Humanities/Social Sciences multi-year packages include:

2 years covered by Graduate Division (full fees plus stipend for the academic year and summer)
2 years covered by department through a combination of fellowships, GSI (teaching) or GSR (research) appointments, including fees and a salary
1 year of Doctoral Completion Fellowship from Graduate Division, including full fees plus stipend (contingent on timely advancement to candidacy)

Sciences/Engineering multi-year packages include:

2 years covered by Graduate Division (full fees plus stipend for the academic year and summer)
3 years covered by department through a combination of fellowships, GSI (teaching) or GSR (research) appointments, including fees and a salary

These awards are based on merit, offered to doctoral students of outstanding achievement and potential. Through a highly competitive selection conducted by a campuswide faculty committee, 15% of the 1,000 doctoral students who enroll in Berkeley’s graduate programs each year receive multi-year fellowships

Fellowships funding chart: 15,000 doctoral applicants. 2,000 doctoral applicants offered admission. 400 doctoral admittees nominated for fellowships. 270 doctoral admittees offered fellowships. 150 fellowships accepted.

Other sources of graduate student support for entering and continuing students:

Departmental support packages:

First-year departmental fellowship (from Graduate Division’s block grant funds or private endowments)
Remaining years covered through a combination of departmental fellowships, GSI (teaching) and GSR (research) appointments

Continuing students may also apply for fellowship support from the Graduate Division, including: Mentored Research Awards, Summer Fellowships, Doctoral Completion Fellowships, UC Dissertation Awards, Conference Travel Grants, Research Travel Vouchers and Parent Grants, as well as several privately-sponsored fellowship program.

Competitive Pressures

From the 2010 UCOP Graduate Student Support Survey:

Berkeley’s top competitors:

Stanford
MIT
Harvard
Princeton
Cal Tech
University of Chicago
Cornell
Columbia
University of Washington, Seattle
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Deciding factors for students considering graduate offers of admission from several schools:

Academic reputation of each university
Research interests of faculty in their discipline
Amount of financial support
Type of financial support
Multi-year financial support

Rankings and other measures of excellence

The National Research Council (NRC) has found that Berkeley continues to be one of the nation’s most preeminent universities for doctoral studies. In the latest study, Berkeley had the highest number of top-ranked doctoral programs in the nation, based on a regression analysis involving 20 criteria from more than 5,000 programs at 212 institutions. For more information see the article "National Research Council ranks UC Berkeley’s Ph.D. programs among nation’s best" and rankings graphic.

Number of programs ranked within a range that extends into the top ten:
1	University of California, Berkeley	48 of 52
2	Harvard	47 of 52
3	Stanford	40 of 47

Number of programs ranked within a range that extends into the top five:
2	University of California, Berkeley	43
2	Harvard	40
3	Stanford	30

Number of programs assigned an upper range of first place:
1	Harvard	19
2	University of California, Berkeley	16
3	Stanford	11

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships (cumulative 2001-2010)
1	University of California, Berkeley	1,333
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	1,242
3	Stanford University	1,070
4	Harvard University	847
5	University of Michigan	399
6	University of Washington	369
7	Cornell University	342
8	Princeton University	314
9	Georgia Institute of Technology	286
10	California Institute of Technology	278

Counts represent the number of NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award offers to students who indicated each institution as their first choice for graduate school during the period 2001-2011, from the total 13,587 GRFP awards made during the 11-year period. The metric shows the choices of the nation's top science and engineering graduate students, reflecting which institutions they believe offer them the best graduate research opportunities.

Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships (cumulative 1986-2011)
University of California, Berkeley	105
University of California, Los Angeles	71
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	73
Harvard University	54
University of Texas, Austin	46
Yale University	41
Stanford University	40

Rankings

The 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities, compiled by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, rates UC Berkeley number four in the world (after Harvard, Stanford, and MIT). Berkeley was the top-ranked public university. The ranking compared 500 higher education institutions worldwide, public and private. It used a variety of indicators of academic or research performance, including:

Nobel Prizes and other international awards won by alumni and faculty or staff.
Highly-cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories.
Articles published in selected top journals and noted in major citation indexes.

According to the latest graduate school rankings by U.S. News & World Report Berkeley is number 7 in Business, number 12 in Education, number 9 in Law, and number 8 in Public Health (all ranked in 2011), and number 6 in Public Policy (ranked in 2008). In academic graduate programs last ranked in 2009 and 2010, Berkeley came away with first place for its departments of Chemistry, Computer Sciences, English, History, Psychology, and Sociology.

Graduate Alumni

Awards
Nobel Prize winners	20
MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" recipients	37
National Medal of Science recipients	30

Additional Resources:

More News:

UC Berkeley is at or near the top in recent rankings of universities in the U.S. and the world

Last Updated: December 15, 2011 9:29 AM