Graduate School Completion

The primary fields in which students completed master’s degrees in 2021 were business and management (23.3 percent), STEM (17.9 percent), education (17.7 percent), and health (16.4 percent).

• By race and ethnicity, over a quarter of Asian (27.4 percent), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (26.0 percent), and Black or African American (25.8 percent) students earned a master’s degree in business and management.
• Over half of international students (51.7 percent) earned a master’s degree in STEM fields. This was the only group for which STEM was the top field of study.
• More than one in five American Indian or Alaska Native (23.1 percent), Hispanic or Latino (22.5 percent), and White (22.2 percent) students earned a master’s degree in education. In contrast, 9.1 percent of Asian students and 2.8 percent of international students did so.
• Larger shares of domestic student groups studied health fields when completing master’s degrees, ranging from 16.3 percent of Hispanic or Latino students to 22.8 percent of Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander students, compared with 3.3 percent of international students.