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Table A-7a. Imputation for nonresponse within graduate student totals, by field and type of graduate degree: 2015–17

Year and field Total in survey Number imputed Imputation rate (%)
Master's students Doctoral students Master's students Doctoral students Master's students Doctoral students
Full time Part time Full time Part time Full time Part time Full time Part time Full time Part time Full time Part time
Fall 2017, all surveyed fieldsa 245,010 133,577 235,778 34,747 6,641 2,926 2,314 424 2.7 2.2 1.0 1.2
Science and engineering 209,221 116,704 224,695 30,529 5,344 2,390 2,174 381 2.6 2.0 1.0 1.2
Science 145,689 83,480 165,120 21,279 5,037 2,155 1,769 335 3.5 2.6 1.1 1.6
Agricultural sciencesb 3,609 1,994 3,157 587 21 15 10 10 0.6 0.8 0.3 1.7
Biological and biomedical sciencesa,c 23,889 10,037 47,977 3,314 325 157 757 74 1.4 1.6 1.6 2.2
Computer and information sciences 44,320 31,298 11,886 2,405 2,445 1,001 52 34 5.5 3.2 0.4 1.4
Geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences 4,107 1,899 5,797 742 35 52 25 24 0.9 2.7 0.4 3.2
Mathematics and statistics 11,551 5,017 11,903 1,198 638 93 104 13 5.5 1.9 0.9 1.1
Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies 4,038 2,885 2,320 611 170 23 249 2 4.2 0.8 10.7 0.3
Natural resources and conservationb 4,866 2,445 2,831 737 104 124 56 45 2.1 5.1 2.0 6.1
Physical sciences 4,197 2,171 32,954 2,507 161 39 257 24 3.8 1.8 0.8 1.0
Psychology 19,318 10,320 16,617 3,778 780 366 149 88 4.0 3.5 0.9 2.3
Social sciencesa 25,794 15,414 29,678 5,400 358 285 110 21 1.4 1.8 0.4 0.4
Engineering 63,532 33,224 59,575 9,250 307 235 405 46 0.5 0.7 0.7 0.5
Aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering 2,183 1,139 2,078 308 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Agricultural engineering 388 117 592 89 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Bioengineering and biomedical engineering 3,234 803 6,103 742 52 3 69 0 1.6 0.4 1.1 0.0
Biological and biosystems engineering 53 18 115 48 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Chemical engineering 2,396 896 6,451 423 17 5 80 3 0.7 0.6 1.2 0.7
Civil engineering 9,084 4,422 6,529 1,097 37 10 43 10 0.4 0.2 0.7 0.9
Electrical, electronics, and communications engineering 20,941 8,875 15,263 2,673 107 82 92 13 0.5 0.9 0.6 0.5
Engineering mechanics, physics, and science 428 251 1,333 124 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Industrial and manufacturing engineering 7,212 5,060 2,841 792 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Mechanical engineering 10,778 5,501 9,744 1,405 46 74 28 6 0.4 1.3 0.3 0.4
Metallurgical and materials engineering 1,587 528 4,071 355 28 13 31 5 1.8 2.5 0.8 1.4
Mining engineering 227 85 194 35 13 22 2 3 5.7 25.9 1.0 8.6
Nanotechnology 31 13 93 2 0 0 39 0 0.0 0.0 41.9 0.0
Nuclear engineering 325 119 907 91 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Petroleum engineering 606 310 591 71 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Engineering nec 4,059 5,087 2,670 995 7 26 21 6 0.2 0.5 0.8 0.6
Health 35,789 16,873 11,083 4,218 1,297 536 140 43 3.6 3.2 1.3 1.0
Clinical medicine 15,043 10,240 3,260 1,150 543 355 77 39 3.6 3.5 2.4 3.4
Other health 20,746 6,633 7,823 3,068 754 181 63 4 3.6 2.7 0.8 0.1
nec = not elsewhere classified.
a In 2017, changes to the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS) taxonomy led to the fields of architecture, communication, and public administration (part of social sciences) to become ineligible for the GSS. Parts of family and consumer sciences and human sciences and nutrition (in biological and biomedial sciences) also became ineligible. These newly inelgible units led to a large drop in overall counts of graduate students in the GSS.
b In 2017, natural resources and conservation was split out of agricultural sciences.
c Prior to 2017, neurobiology and neuroscience was reported as a separate broad field; starting in 2017, neurobiology and neuroscience is reported as part of biological and biomedical sciences.
NOTE: 2017 was the first year that master's and doctoral counts were reported seperately.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering.