The University of Wisconsin–Madison Graduate School is committed to data transparency about student experiences and employment outcomes. This page provides data highlights, links to interactive data dashboards, and information about national data initiatives in which UW–Madison is a partner.
Explore the Data
Admissions and enrollment
For fall 2021, the admission rate was 33%. The enrollment (yield) rate was 43%. Admissions and enrollment information for individual programs is also available through the link below.

Doctoral student funding
In fall 2021, 86% of PhD students had full funding through UW in the form of graduate assistantships and fellowships. Other students generally rely on a combination of funding sources such as external funding, employment, personal savings, and loans.

Degrees awarded
UW–Madison granted over 3,100 graduate degrees in 2021-22 (2,333 master’s degrees, 816 PhD degrees), with a median time to degree of 5.8 years for a PhD degree and 1.8 years for a master’s degree.

Doctoral career outcomes
PhD alumni 5 years post-graduation held careers in a variety of sectors, including in academia (53% of PhD graduates), for-profit industries (34%), government (6%), non-profit organizations (6%), and other fields (1%).

About Our Data Projects
The Graduate School is involved in a number of data projects that seek to improve data collection and transparency about graduate admissions, enrollment, funding, career outcomes, and more.
Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement
UW–Madison is part of a multi-institutional grant aimed at collecting and making transparent data about PhD students’ career aspirations and alumni outcomes. The data will be used to strengthen career support and initiate an employment tracking system to extend into the future.
Coalition for Next Generation Life Science
Recognizing the lack of clear marketplace information on career options for life scientists, UW–Madison joined eight other research universities and a major cancer institute to form a coalition that has publicly posted career outcomes data for biomedical scientists.
Data publications
In the news
Survey shows diverse career preferences among UW–Madison PhD students
The Graduate School has released its first data brief from the Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement project, sharing a glimpse into the career preferences of PhD students at UW–Madison.
August 19, 2019New data on UW–Madison graduates support value of college degree
A University of Wisconsin–Madison pilot project is providing new insights into the economic well-being and career progress of its graduates. The project looks at the median earnings of UW–Madison graduates — by area of study and degree level — one, five and 10 years after graduating. The data are available on UW–Madison’s website.
April 24, 2019New tool makes Graduate School data interactive, aligns with national transparency efforts
As prospective graduate students plan their educational pathways, accessible data about graduate institutions is increasingly valuable to inform those decisions. A new, interactive tool from the Graduate School now makes existing data available in a user-friendly format.
March 28, 2018- More data news >>