Useful Stats 2001: S&E Graduate Students by State

The National Science Foundation has released Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2001, a collection of 54 statistical tables present the distribution of graduate students in science and engineering (S&E) across population segments, fields of science or engineering and by college and state. Overall long-term trends for S&E graduate students from 1975 to 2001 and short-term trends from 1994 to 2001 by detailed fields are presented.

Nationally, there were 426,342 graduate S&E students in 2001, up 2.8 percent from 2000. The tables report California, New York, Texas and Illinois had the most graduate S&E students in 2001; these same states represented the top four in the previous year as well.

To standardize the data for comparison across states, SSTI has prepared the accompanying table <http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/062003t.htm> presenting the amount of academic R&D spending in each state per graduate S&E student. The results show Maryland, at $178,119, has the most R&D expenditures per student, followed closely by Alaska at $178,021. New Hampshire ranks third with an expenditure per student of $147,326 with Vermont fourth at $126,628. The national average academic spending per graduate S&E student in 2001 was $75,558, up 4.2 percent from 2000. The top 10 is rounded out with Washington, South Carolina, Hawaii, North Carolina, Missouri, and Maine.

Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2001 is available at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf03320/htmstart.htm