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NCSES GSS 2012 DST 11 SAS Output Newer information icon. Newer information is available.
Table 11. Full-time graduate students in science, engineering, and health in all institutions, by detailed field: 2006–12

Field 2006 2007olda 2007newa 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
All surveyed fields 419,015 430,860 437,365 449,613 456,115 461,185 457,292 459,498
   Science and engineering 349,802 362,976 371,542 383,560 398,498 409,107 411,168 414,384
      Science 261,984 269,821 277,229 285,305 293,561 299,315 303,015 304,795
         Agricultural sciences 9,478 9,634 9,822 10,132 10,823 11,087 11,448 11,375
         Biological sciences 58,918 60,093 60,428 60,662 61,466 62,770 62,773 63,921
            Anatomy 899 906 823 731 806 800 726 650
            Biochemistry 5,433 5,581 5,498 5,085 4,886 4,909 4,771 4,781
            Biology 12,413 12,330 12,062 12,486 12,811 13,084 12,832 12,352
            Biometry and epidemiology 3,495 3,734 3,919 4,294 4,176 4,868 4,933 5,837
            Biophysics 1,145 1,183 1,159 1,037 1,001 1,033 972 932
            Botany 1,655 1,713 1,655 1,613 1,664 1,679 1,729 1,710
            Cell biology 6,188 6,317 6,445 6,632 6,660 6,621 6,517 6,440
            Ecology 1,602 1,744 1,617 1,620 1,417 1,471 1,372 1,324
            Entomology and parasitology 947 926 926 910 892 933 910 990
            Genetics 2,060 2,067 2,042 2,056 2,175 2,254 2,318 2,276
            Microbiology, immunology, and virology 5,015 4,992 4,898 4,745 4,660 4,569 4,643 4,612
            Nutrition 3,441 3,621 3,365 3,526 3,631 3,776 3,625 3,630
            Pathology 1,400 1,406 1,386 1,384 1,308 1,272 1,218 1,151
            Pharmacology 2,818 2,808 2,789 2,743 2,884 2,756 2,714 2,743
            Physiology 2,195 2,164 2,455 2,606 2,597 2,678 2,681 2,777
            Zoology 994 964 976 726 661 589 686 666
            Biological sciences nec 7,218 7,637 8,413 8,468 9,237 9,478 10,126 11,050
         Communicationa ne ne 4,528 5,224 6,091 6,274 6,913 6,978
         Computer sciences 28,760 30,511 30,082 31,338 32,198 32,782 32,861 34,108
         Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences 11,431 11,376 10,892 11,171 11,589 12,318 12,404 12,617
            Atmospheric sciences 930 959 1,011 1,169 1,132 1,193 1,197 1,277
            Geosciences 5,497 5,473 5,423 5,409 5,825 6,352 6,450 6,686
            Oceanography 2,231 2,177 2,144 2,120 2,197 2,130 2,199 2,158
            Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences nec 2,773 2,767 2,314 2,473 2,435 2,643 2,558 2,496
         Family and consumer sciences and human sciencesa ne ne 1,594 1,936 2,168 2,377 2,616 2,410
         Mathematical sciences 15,571 15,966 15,668 16,241 16,885 17,606 18,303 18,990
            Mathematics and applied mathematics 12,348 12,587 12,279 12,530 12,950 13,427 14,014 14,264
            Statistics 3,223 3,379 3,389 3,711 3,935 4,179 4,289 4,726
         Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studiesa ne ne 2,398 3,110 3,957 5,063 4,103 3,987
         Neurosciencea na na 1,530 1,909 2,261 2,682 3,911 4,333
         Physical sciences 32,841 33,091 32,857 33,254 34,181 34,856 35,643 35,868
            Astronomy 1,158 1,186 1,185 1,233 1,348 1,292 1,325 1,245
            Chemistry 18,942 19,001 18,887 19,073 19,682 20,011 20,403 20,672
            Physics 12,439 12,596 12,570 12,626 12,771 13,085 13,413 13,522
            Physical sciences nec 302 308 215 322 380 468 502 429
         Psychologyb 38,994 41,166 40,678 42,103 40,373 38,571 38,548 38,325
            Clinical psychology 10,168 10,687 10,691 10,349 10,144 9,378 8,094 7,630
            Psychology, general 12,148 12,824 12,550 12,925 11,443 10,716 12,872 12,897
            Psychology nec 16,678 17,655 17,437 18,829 18,786 18,477 17,582 17,798
         Social sciences 65,991 67,984 66,752 68,225 71,569 72,929 73,492 71,883
            Agricultural economics 1,836 1,856 1,762 1,868 1,896 1,825 1,767 1,692
            Anthropology (cultural and social) 6,219 6,303 6,315 6,459 6,462 6,596 6,471 6,454
            Economics (except agricultural) 10,018 10,181 10,358 10,541 11,433 11,879 12,391 12,476
            Geography 3,158 3,166 3,166 3,299 3,331 3,373 3,383 3,319
            History and philosophy of science 602 726 661 798 653 476 425 420
            Linguistics 2,488 2,453 2,275 2,328 2,386 2,419 2,589 2,629
            Political science 23,109 23,473 23,209 23,640 25,970 26,850 28,554 28,439
            Sociology 6,682 6,819 6,750 7,110 7,006 7,222 7,148 6,761
            Sociology and anthropology 579 559 428 393 301 171 173 139
            Social sciences nec 11,300 12,448 11,828 11,789 12,131 12,118 10,591 9,554
      Engineering 87,818 93,155 94,313 98,255 104,937 109,792 108,153 109,589
         Aerospace engineering 3,374 3,482 3,482 3,691 3,974 4,211 4,251 3,813
         Agricultural engineering 893 917 917 1,022 1,084 1,198 1,372 1,254
         Architecturea na na 4,097 5,211 6,112 6,079 2,772 2,045
         Biomedical engineering 5,666 5,898 5,921 6,262 6,859 7,418 7,931 7,978
         Chemical engineering 6,218 6,275 6,459 6,762 7,110 7,516 7,639 8,059
         Civil engineeringa 13,074 14,691 11,336 11,909 13,503 14,191 14,363 14,580
         Electrical engineering 27,379 28,934 29,076 29,212 29,282 29,977 30,735 31,526
         Engineering science 1,656 1,454 1,432 1,486 1,490 1,502 1,574 1,705
         Industrial engineering 6,421 7,036 7,422 8,216 8,362 8,371 8,251 8,115
         Mechanical engineering 12,666 13,170 13,160 13,763 15,609 16,625 16,084 17,000
         Metallurgical and materials engineering 4,627 4,667 4,613 4,811 5,181 5,551 5,877 6,126
         Mining engineering 181 209 142 207 212 361 414 241
         Nuclear engineering 910 960 951 941 968 1,123 1,165 1,162
         Petroleum engineering 647 792 792 828 993 1,063 1,064 1,289
         Engineering nec 4,106 4,670 4,513 3,934 4,198 4,606 4,661 4,696
   Healthb 69,213 67,884 65,823 66,053 57,617 52,078 46,124 45,114
      Clinical medicine 16,567 17,451 15,478 16,965 16,725 17,704 17,853 17,195
         Anesthesiology 1,189 826 826 562 400 321 5 3
         Cardiology 32 51 51 38 38 48 54 41
         Endocrinology 42 37 37 60 47 48 48 46
         Gastroenterology 17 28 28 15 15 7 7 2
         Hematology 14 9 9 8 9 4 1 5
         Neurologya 2,885 3,283 1,707 1,416 1,284 1,039 211 169
         Obstetrics and gynecology 47 71 71 65 69 55 75 73
         Oncology and cancer research 340 355 264 260 258 229 248 240
         Ophthalmology 389 385 378 1 1 5 2 2
         Otorhinolaryngology 8 7 7 9 2 3 1 1
         Pediatrics 245 267 267 169 162 183 117 113
         Preventive medicine and community health 8,590 9,292 9,585 11,679 12,219 13,312 14,913 14,913
         Psychiatry 126 153 93 95 114 122 88 100
         Pulmonary disease 10 23 23 13 12 12 14 12
         Radiology 184 213 224 225 271 284 261 262
         Surgery 85 45 29 17 26 49 20 25
         Clinical medicine nec 2,364 2,406 1,879 2,333 1,798 1,983 1,788 1,188
      Other healthb 52,646 50,433 50,345 49,088 40,892 34,374 28,271 27,919
         Dental sciences 1,340 1,265 1,406 1,372 1,564 1,494 1,553 1,528
         Nursing 13,979 13,137 13,128 13,204 9,544 4,980 3,294 3,403
         Pharmaceutical sciences 4,480 3,756 3,852 2,979 3,182 3,032 2,836 2,987
         Speech pathology and audiology 11,506 12,698 12,679 12,438 12,466 12,554 12,116 11,867
         Veterinary sciences 1,663 1,634 1,891 1,860 1,637 1,651 1,271 1,250
         Other health nec 19,678 17,943 17,389 17,235 12,499 10,663 7,201 6,884

na = not applicable; data were not collected at this level of detail. ne = not eligible; data were not collected for this field prior to 2007.
nec = not elsewhere classified.
a In 2007, eligible fields were reclassified, newly eligible fields were added, and the survey was redesigned to improve coverage and coding of eligible units. “2007new” presents data as collected in 2007; “2007old” shows data as they would have been collected in prior years. The science fields Communication and Family and consumer sciences and human sciences were newly eligible in 2007; data for these two fields begin in 2007new. The science field Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies was also added to the code list in 2007; some data reported in this field were reported under other fields before 2007 and are included in those fields in 2007old. Neuroscience is reported as a separate field of science in 2007new; data were reported under health field Neurology in 2007old and previous years. Architecture is reported as a separate field of engineering in 2007new; data were reported under Civil engineering in 2007old and previous years. See appendix A in http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10307/ for more detail.
b Beginning with 2008, more rigorous follow-up was done with institutions regarding the exclusion of practitioner-oriented graduate degree programs in Psychology and in Other health (a subfield of health). This change may affect interpretation of trends in these fields.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF-NIH Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering.
Data from survey cycle Fall 2012, as of December 2013.