No jobs? Try grad school: economy is down, enrollments are up.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: Education - Graduate school

"With the economy down, more students are pursuing graduate schools because the job market's not healthy," says Stan Jones, commissioner of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. But the economy is only part of the recent boom; grad school enrollments have been on a 10-year upward trend.

"Students recognize they have quite a bit more earning potential with graduate degrees," Jones explains. Earnings over an entire working career average $1.2 million with a high-school diploma, $2.1 million with a bachelor's degree, $2.5 million with a master's and $3.4 million with a doctorate. Sixty percent of Indiana's high-school graduates are now going to college, says Jones, so it's only natural that many will go on to seek master's degrees.

Graduate enrollment at Purdue University's West Lafayette campus hit 7,221 last year, according to the commission, up about 250 from the year before. Although it's commonly thought that the economy and lack of jobs boosts enrollment, two other trends have likely also contributed, says Tom Atkinson, assistant dean of Purdue's Graduate School. The Council of Graduate Schools says employers increasingly expect employees to hold advanced degrees, and substantially more international students are applying to American graduate schools. Indeed, 43 percent of Purdue's grad students are from foreign countries. There's also a slight increase in the number of grad students staying in school.

Enrollment in 15 of Purdue's 60 grad programs grew by 20 percent or more this year, with the largest increases in veterinary clinical sciences, industrial administration, animal sciences, technology and biomedical engineering.

"While macroeconomic trends clearly have impacted enrollment, some departments have worked very hard to recruit graduate students and that may also be reflected in some of these higher-growth programs," says Atkinson. "In addition, the Graduate School's electronic application has made it easier for prospective students to apply. Almost 80 percent of applicants this past year applied via the Web."

With some 400 more grad students this year, competition for slots is increasing, says Atkinson, and departmental graduate committees were able to be more selective. Of the students who applied for the current year, 26.8 percent were admitted, compared to 34 percent last year. More than 100 graduate students are expected to be stationed at to-be-built Discovery Park, a $100 million interdisciplinary research park...