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Graduate Student Enrollment Hits New High

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Alyssa Rumsey considered a few universities when choosing where to earn her Ph.D. But in the end she decided to come home — to Georgia Tech.

“I considered other schools, but they just didn’t offer everything I was looking for in a graduate program like Atlanta’s startup ecosystem, Tech’s affordability, and Tech’s strong ties to technology development,” said Rumsey, who earned a bachelor’s in history from Tech in 2013. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what the digital media program is all about.”

This fall, Rumsey is one of approximately 3,600 new graduate students starting advanced degrees with Tech — which breaks the previous new graduate student enrollment record of 2,582. She is one of more than 19,200 applicants to the graduate program, which has seen a 12 percent increase in applications in the past year alone.

“Thanks to the popularity of cutting-edge degree programs, we’ve seen a significant jump in the size of our overall enrollment,” said Susan Cozzens, vice provost of Graduate Education and Faculty Development. “Of course, the Online Master of Science in Computer Science has played a role in this, but all of our colleges have experienced increased enrollment since this time last year.”

Here are a few more things to know about this year’s incoming graduate students: 

  • More than 84 percent are pursuing master’s degrees.
  • 330 of them have received fellowships from a variety of sources including the National Science Foundation.
  • 40.4 percent of the new graduate students at Tech are enrolled in computing programs, 36.5 percent in engineering programs, 6.4 percent in science programs, 9.1 percent in business programs, 5.3 percent in design programs, and 2.3 percent in liberal arts programs.  
  • About 41 percent are international students, coming from 74 different countries, with the largest numbers hailing from China, India, and South Korea.
  • Average age is 26.7 years old.

“It’s impressive to think that more than 42 percent of Tech’s total enrollment — about 11,347 students — this fall are pursuing a master’s or Ph.D.” said David Bamburowski, director of Graduate Studies. “We’re excited to welcome an incredibly diverse and academically talented graduate student population to Georgia Tech, and look forward to their many contributions to our campus community.”

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Brian Gentry
  • Created:10/03/2016
  • Modified By:Amelia Pavlik
  • Modified:10/03/2016

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