Graduate School | UW–Madison
Graduate Programs & Services at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

Graduate School Data

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.

Data resources for faculty and staff >>

Explore the Data

Admissions and enrollment

For fall 2023, the admission rate was 32%. The enrollment (yield) rate was 42%. Admissions and enrollment information for individual programs is also available through the link below.

Admissions and Enrollment bar chart showing 21,090 students applied, 6,655 were admitted, and 2,790 students enrolled for fall 2023.

Doctoral student funding

In fall 2023, 91% 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.

PhD Student Funding pie chart data for fall 2023 shows 38 percent of PhD students were research assistants, 28 percent were teaching assistants, 13 percent had other funding, 13 percent were fellows, 5 percent were project assistants, and 3 percent were trainees.

Degrees awarded

UW–Madison granted over 3,400 graduate degrees in 2023-24 (including 2,527 master’s degrees and 833 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.

Graphic of a graduation cap floats above text saying 2,530 master's degrees awarded. Next to it, a graphic of a ribbon floats above text that reads 920 PhD degrees awarded.

Doctoral career outcomes

PhD alumni 5 years post-graduation held careers in a variety of sectors, including in academia (52% of PhD graduates), for-profit industries (36%), government (7%), and non-profit organizations (5%).

A horizontal bar is segmented into color chunks representing the percentages of PhD alumni now employed in different sectors. This includes 52 percent in academia, 36 percent in for-profit industries, 6 percent in government, and 5 percent in nonprofits.

Data publications

Understanding UW–Madison PhD Career Pathways: Career Preferences, Outcomes, and Alignment

Published August 2019

Data projects

Coalition for Next Generation Life Science

Recognizing the lack of clear marketplace information on career options for life scientists, UW–Madison joined other research universities and a major cancer institute to form a coalition that has publicly posted career outcomes data for biomedical scientists.