Total graduate and first-professional enrollment and percentage distribution of students in degree-granting institutions, by race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1976

Graduate and Professional Education

Table 11-2. Total graduate and first-professional enrollment and percentage distribution of students in degree-granting institutions, by race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1976–2006

Level of student and race/ethnicity	1976	1980	1990	1995	2000	2006

	Enrollment (in thousands)
Graduate
Total	1,323	1,341	1,586	1,732	1,850	2,231
White	1,116	1,105	1,228	1,282	1,259	1,445
Total minority	134	144	190	271	359	519
Black	78	75	84	119	158	247
Hispanic	26	32	47	68	95	136
Asian/Pacific Islander	25	32	53	76	96	122
American Indian/Alaska Native	5	5	6	8	10	14
Nonresident alien	72	92	167	179	232	266

First-professional
Total	244	277	273	298	307	343
White	220	248	221	223	220	242
Total minority	21	26	47	67	78	93
Black	11	13	16	21	24	27
Hispanic	5	7	11	14	15	18
Asian/Pacific Islander	4	6	19	30	37	46
American Indian/Alaska Native	1	1	1	2	2	3
Nonresident alien	3	3	5	7	8	8

	Percentage distribution
Graduate
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
White	84.4	82.4	77.4	74.0	68.0	64.8
Total minority	10.2	10.7	12.0	15.6	19.4	23.3
Black	5.9	5.6	5.3	6.8	8.5	11.1
Hispanic	2.0	2.4	3.0	3.9	5.2	6.1
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.9	2.4	3.4	4.4	5.2	5.5
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.6
Nonresident alien	5.5	6.9	10.5	10.4	12.6	11.9

First-professional
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
White	90.1	89.5	81.0	75.0	71.8	70.4
Total minority	8.6	9.5	17.0	22.5	25.5	27.2
Black	4.6	4.6	5.8	7.2	7.7	7.8
Hispanic	1.9	2.4	3.9	4.6	5.0	5.4
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.7	2.2	6.8	9.9	12.0	13.3
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.5	0.3	0.4	0.7	0.8	0.7
Nonresident alien	1.3	1.0	2.0	2.5	2.7	2.5

NOTE: Because of underreporting and nonreporting of racial/ethnic data, some figures are slightly lower than corresponding data in other published tables. See supplemental note 3 for more information on the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). See the glossary for definitions of minority and first-professional degree. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Digest of Education Statistics, 2008 (forthcoming), table 216 and NCES. (2003). Digest of Education Statistics, 2002 (NCES 2003-060), table 207, data from U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), “Fall Enrollment in Colleges and Universities” surveys, 1976 and 1980, and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), “Fall Enrollment Survey” (IPEDS-EF:90 and IPEDS-EF:95), and Spring 2001 and Spring 2007.

NCES Headlines