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University of Redlands
College of Arts & Sciences
College Graduate Pursuit of STEM
Wendy McEwen, Assistant Provost for Institutional Research
The Council on Independent Colleges (CIC) recently published a report demonstrating “…that private colleges
are preparing students for careers and graduate study in STEM fields more efficiently than many public
universities.” (Eckman, 2014) STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The
following analysis is an effort to help quantify the College of Arts & Sciences’ contribution to graduates in STEM
careers. While I understand there are differing opinions in what is considered a STEM field, I included students
receiving majors or minors in environmental studies, environmental management, or environmental science as
well as the more traditional STEM degrees in this analysis.
What is the mix of STEM versus Non STEM in the College of Arts & Sciences?
Of the First-Time Full-Time Entering Freshmen who enrolled between Fall 2002 and Fall 2012, 19.6% of them
listed their first academic interest as a STEM field on their application. As of Fall 2013, 28.8% of College students
with declared majors had a STEM major or minor.
For completions, of the 6,857 students who have received an undergraduate degree from the College of Arts &
Sciences between Fall 1999 and Spring 2013, 1,617 received majors or minors in STEM fields (23.5%). The
graphics below show the distribution of these degrees.
Note that for the number of STEM majors and minors awarded in the histogram above, the total adds up to
1,899 – 282 higher than the number of STEM graduates. This is because many of the 1,617 students who were
awarded STEM degrees had double majors or major/minor degree combinations where both degrees were
STEM.
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One specific point the CIC study makes is that students attending small and mid-sized independent colleges
graduate at a much higher rate than those of other institutions – and most graduate in four years. Because
many College of Arts & Sciences students don’t declare a major until the end of their sophomore year, it is
difficult to calculate graduation rates for individual majors because determining the denominator is a moving
target. However, we can look at the overall rates for the College and compare these rates to the study’s results.
For College of Arts & Sciences First-Time Full-Time Entering Freshmen enrolling between Fall 2002 and Fall 2009,
the overall graduation rate from the College is 70.8%. For the students who have graduated, 88.8% received
their degree in four years or less. For the students who graduated with STEM degrees, 89.8% graduated in four
years or less. These rates are comparable to those of the schools included in the CIC study. The study reports
that “…an overwhelming proportion (80 percent) of bachelor’s degree recipients in STEM fields earned their
degrees in four years or less at these institutions, compared with 34 percent at public four-year nondoctoral
institutions and 52 percent at public four-year doctoral institutions” (Rine, 2014, pg. 1). Our internal numbers
support the study’s assertion that “Small and mid-sized independent institutions produce bachelor-level
graduates in the STEM fields more efficiently than their public peers” (Rine, 2014, pg 6).
Looking at all undergraduates, how many have pursued subsequent STEM degrees?
Determining the number of College of Arts & Sciences graduates who receive subsequent higher education
degrees in STEM-related fields is relatively easy because of the National Student Clearinghouse database (NSC).
The NSC contains enrollment information for over 98% of all higher education students in the United States.
Researchers can submit queries and receive subsequent enrollment information at an individual student level
unless a student specifically requests that their information be blocked, which is relatively rare.
The National Student Clearinghouse does not provide degree or major information unless a student receives a
degree. Thus, I narrowed the focus of my analysis to College of Arts & Sciences graduates who have had at least
two years to pursue a graduate degree. This group of 5,730 graduates received degrees from the College of Arts
& Sciences between Fall 1999 and Spring 2011. For this group, 3,510 have subsequently enrolled in additional
higher education courses. Excluding
those students who enrolled in
courses at community colleges, the
number of graduates subsequently
enrolled is 2,961 (51.7% of the total
graduates). Of these subsequently
enrolled students, 2052 received
graduate degrees including 389
students who received STEM
graduate degrees.
These 389 individuals have received
406 STEM degrees because several
graduates have received more than
one subsequent degree. The subsequent degrees awarded to this group include 23 PhD’s, 16 medical doctors,
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and 27 doctorates in other medical fields. The largest number of STEM graduate degrees received (41.1%) are in
communicative disorders or the related fields of speech pathology or audiology. Medicine or medically-related
fields comprise 22.4% of the degrees. The graphic below has the breakdown of graduate degrees received by
general STEM category as well as the breakdown of degrees for PhD’s and doctorates.
Medical
MD
Doctor of Physical Therapy
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
Doctor of Audiology
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
Doctor of Dental Surgery
Other Medical Doctor
Total
16
8
6
5
2
2
4
43
PhD
Chemistry
BioChemistry & Molecular Biology
Statistics
Materials Science & Engineering
Mathematics
Biology
Physics
Science Education
Immunology
Total
9
4
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
23
While the number of PhD’s and other doctorates may seem low, it is likely that as we continue tracking these
graduates, the number of College graduates awarded a terminal degree will increase. According to a study from
the National Science Foundation, the median total time for baccalaureate to doctorate was 10.1 years (Hoffer,
March 2006). For the graduates who are pursuing graduate degrees, almost half began their undergraduate
career less than 10 years ago.
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For students who received STEM undergraduate degrees, what are their subsequent enrollment patterns?
Changing the focus of this analysis slightly, I also looked at the
entire population of STEM undergraduates and their subsequent
enrollment patterns. Graduating between Fall 1999 and Spring
2011, there are 871 College of Arts & Sciences STEM
undergraduates who have pursued subsequent higher education.
This is out of a total of 1,282 students graduating with STEM
degrees in this same time period – an incredible 67.9%.
The subsequent degrees awarded include 326 graduates awarded
339 STEM-related subsequent degrees and 290 graduates
awarded 318 Non-STEM subsequent degrees. The graphic below
shows the subsequent degrees awarded to these STEM
undergraduates.
Conclusion and Next Steps
This analysis shows that the College of Arts & Sciences is contributing significantly to strengthening the number
of STEM graduates in the United States. Our numbers are comparable to those included in the CIC study of
small and mid-sized Independent Colleges. In particular, we do well in the field of Communicative Disorders.
Institutional Research will continue tracking the achievements of this group of graduates, further improving our
understanding of their academic career progression. Understanding these patterns will not only inform our
current academic programs but also provide more robust information for prospective students.
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References
Eckman, Richard H. (March 18, 2014). CIC Issues Report Document Superior Performance of Private Colleges in
Preparing Students for STEM Careers. [Email].
Hoffer, Thomas B. and Vincent Welch, Jr. (March 2006). Time to Degree of U.S. Research Doctorate Recipients.
National Science Foundation InfoBrief retrieved from
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf06312/nsf06312.pdf on March 27th, 2014.
Rine, P. Jesse. (March 2014) Strengthening the STEM Pipeline: The Contributions of Small and Mid-Sized
Independent Colleges. A report by the Council of Independent Colleges.
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