This report presents data from the National Survey of Recent College Graduates (NSRCG) on the characteristics of men and women who received a bachelor's or master's degree in a science, engineering, or health field from U.S. academic institutions during the 2000–2001 and 2001–2002 academic years. The data were collected in 2003 and 2004 and reflect the status of individuals as of October 2003. In addition to the demographic characteristics of recent college graduates with science, engineering, and health degrees, the NSRCG data may be used to understand the employment experiences of recent graduates, such as the extent to which recent graduates entered the labor force, whether they were able to find employment, and the attributes of that employment.
Results of the NSRCG survey are presented separately for bachelor's and master's degree recipients. Complementary tables for the two degree levels are numbered sequentially so that odd-numbered tables are for bachelor's degree recipients and even-numbered tables are for master's degree recipients. A complementary set of tables showing the standard errors of the estimates appear in appendix B.
This report contains four sections:
The Division of Science Resources Statistics also produces reports that present data on degree completions in science and engineering. The data presented in this report measure the number of individuals with recently acquired science, engineering, and health degrees and do not necessarily coincide with the data on degree completions whose source is the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). IPEDS is conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. The IPEDS completions data file represents a count of degrees awarded, whereas the NSRCG represents graduates (persons). For additional information on IPEDS see "Comparison with IPEDS Data" in appendix A.
