Graduate School Completion

Among all graduate completions in 2021, public four-year institutions awarded 49.1 percent of all degrees and certificates earned, private nonprofit four-year institutions awarded 43.1 percent, and for-profit institutions awarded 7.7 percent. Over half of all White (52.5 percent), multiracial (52.5 percent), American Indian or Alaska Native (51.7 percent), and Hispanic or Latino (51.2 percent) students graduated from public four-year institutions. In contrast, fewer than one-third of Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander students (32.9 percent) graduated from these institutions. About one in five Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (21.5 percent) and Black or African American (18.5 percent) students graduated from for-profit institutions, while 6.1 percent of White students, 5.8 percent of Asian students, and 2.1 percent of international students did so.

By Carnegie classification^[1], the majority of graduate degrees and certificates completed in 2021 were awarded by R1 doctoral institutions (36.7 percent), other doctoral institutions (29.6 percent), and master’s institutions (24.1 percent). Nearly two-thirds of international students (63.5 percent) and 45.4 percent of Asian students earned a graduate degree or certificate at R1 doctoral institutions, compared with fewer than a quarter of Black or African American (21.3 percent) and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (19.2 percent) students.