Graduate Program Resources
This page provides information for graduate program faculty and staff at UW–Madison.
The Graduate School KnowledgeBase (or KB) is an essential resource for graduate programs and is the best place to start looking for information about graduate education administration.
Data Resources for Campus Users
University faculty and staff can access a wide variety of campus data resources related to graduate education at UW–Madison including data reports, interactive data visualizations, and data queries. A comprehensive overview of these resources can be found in the Graduate School KnowledgeBase data section.
NetID, Student Restricted Access
Graduate School Explorer
The Graduate School Explorer contains aggregate data on admissions, enrollment, student funding, degree and program completion rates, and doctoral career outcomes.
NetID Access
Graduate Admissions Competitor Landscape
The Graduate Admissions Competitor Landscape presents data on the national postsecondary institutions competing with our graduate programs for new student admissions. Dashboards display the institutional enrollments of new graduate admits over the past five years as well as the reasons reported by admits for not accepting UW–Madison graduate program offers of admission.
NetID, Student Restricted Access
Alumni career outcomes
UW–Madison has provided name and degree information of doctoral and postdoctoral alumni from the past 15 years to Academic Analytics. With that information, they have completed manual web searches to compile the Doctoral Student and Postdoc Outcomes Data visualization. The data includes employment industry, location, title, and salary and is filterable by degree, degree year, school/college, and department/program.
To view certain visualizations, you must have access to “Student Restricted” data.
To download the data behind these visualizations, see the list of Institutional Data Exporters (IDEs), in the Data Queries section below. You will need access to the appropriate data restriction level listed.
Student surveys
The Graduate School administers three required student surveys.
To access survey data, click on the survey title below (NetID login required). Beyond the survey data, our benchmarking visualizations allow graduate programs to easily compare and informally benchmark their student survey data from the past five years against data from program peers at the university. Read more about the Graduate School Surveys.
Master’s Exit Survey
The Master’s Exit Survey is administered to graduating master’s students as a required component of degree processing and conferral.
Students in the Library and Information Studies MA program, and the School of Business full-time, evening, professional, and executive MBA programs do not participate in the Master’s Exit Survey.
Doctoral Student Experience Survey
The Doctoral Student Experience Survey is administered to all PhD students at the preliminary examination stage as a required step to move on to doctoral candidacy. The survey covers career aspirations, academic experiences, and academic challenges, among other topics.
Doctoral Exit Survey
The Doctoral Exit Survey is administered to all graduating PhD students as a required component of degree processing and conferral.
Master’s Program Benchmarking: Student Experience
Compare and informally benchmark master’s student survey data from the past five years against data from program peers at the university.
Doctoral Program Benchmarking: Student Experience
Compare and informally benchmark doctoral student survey data from the past five years against data from program peers at the university.
Data Queries
To use the following data queries you must first have approval for the data restriction level listed next to the query. To request approval, please complete the Office of Data Management request access web form. If an institutional dashboard or report falls into multiple Data Restriction Levels (such as Employee Record Data Internal and Student Record Data Restricted), you will need to submit a separate form for each level.
| Resource | Data Restriction Level |
|---|---|
| Graduate School Explorer | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Master’s Exit Survey Results | UW–Madison Employees (NetID Required) |
| Master’s Program Benchmarking: Student Experience | UW–Madison Employees (NetID Required) |
| Doctoral Student Experience Survey Results | UW–Madison Employees (NetID Required) |
| Doctoral Exit Survey Results | UW–Madison Employees (NetID Required) |
| Doctoral Program Benchmarking: Student Experience | UW–Madison Employees (NetID Required) |
| Doctoral Peer Institution Comparisons: Retention, Completion & Time-to-Degree | Under Construction |
| Graduate Admissions Competitor Landscape | UW–Madison Employees (NetID Required) |
| Graduate Program Admissions Tracker | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Postdocs at UW–Madison | Publicly Available |
| Resource | Data Restriction Level |
|---|---|
| Historical Graduate Admissions | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Historical Graduate Supplementary Admissions | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Graduate Student Milestones | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Historical Graduate Student Funding | Employee Record Data Internal, Student Record Data Restricted |
| Historical Graduate Completion | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Doctoral Minors and Graduate/Professional Certificates | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Graduate Alumni Employment | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Resource | Data Restriction Level |
|---|---|
| GRS Community Annual Reports (Data Visualization) | Student Record Data Restricted |
| GRS Community Admissions Data (IDE) | Student Record Data Restricted |
| GRS Community Completion Data (IDE) | Student Record Data Restricted |
| GRS Community Degree Data (IDE) | Student Record Data Restricted |
| GRS Community Enrollment Data (IDE) | Student Record Data Restricted |
| GRS Community Funding Data (IDE) | Employee Record Data Internal, Student Record Data Restricted |
| Resource | Data Restriction Level |
|---|---|
| GSSC Application Data (Data Visualization) | Student Record Data Internal |
| GSSC Application Data (IDE) | Student Record Data Restricted |
| Resource | Data Restriction Level |
|---|---|
| Student Assistant Enrollment Status (IDE) | Employee Record Data Internal, Student Record Data Restricted |
| Current Funding for Graduate and Professional Students (IDE) | Employee Record Data Internal, Student Record Data Restricted |
Data Briefs
Data Insights: What types of career advising do our master’s students receive? Published November 2025
Data Insights: What are the career interests of our master’s students? Published May 2025
PhD Career Pathways: Career Preferences, Outcomes, and Alignment. Published August 2019
Can’t find what you need?
As we revamp the ad-hoc data request form, please contact data@grad.wisc.edu directly with any ad-hoc data requests.
Graduate Student Recruitment
The Graduate School offers recruitment-focused information about graduate study at UW–Madison. You can share these resources via email or print them to bring to an event.
Our Investing in Graduate Assistants page outlines the strength of the university investment in graduate assistantships and related support. This resource may be useful to graduate faculty in a variety of settings, from recruiting new graduate students, to better informing your current graduate students about their full range of benefits, to dispelling common myths about assistantships.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
There are many resources on campus available to assist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committees throughout departments, schools, and colleges. For instance:
- The data resources included on this page are valuable tools for DEI committees to monitor aggregate student data, think about the trends shown in the data, and take steps toward increasing equity and inclusivity in a program or department. The student exit survey data can also help programs examine various factors related to climate and satisfaction within the program and the university broadly.
- The literature on student retention and completion highlights the need for students to be engaged both academically and socially. The Graduate School hosts the Bridge and Build Community series to support graduate students at UW–Madison from an array of life experiences and backgrounds overcoming hardship and challenges in their educational opportunities. Bridge and Build Community events are open to all UW–Madison graduate students dedicated to fostering a thriving community of inclusive excellence.
- UW–Madison values all individuals and commits to a shared responsibility toward designing inclusively and accessibly for people with disabilities. Visit Accessibility@UW–Madison to learn about disability rights, ableism, accessibility resources, and information faculty, students, and staff need to do their part in creating accessible events and content.
Resources for Graduate Program Coordinators and Managers
Whether you are a graduate program coordinator/manager for admissions, fellowships, a master’s program, a PhD program – or all four – you are often the first contact students have with UW–Madison or your department. You may be asked about applying to graduate school, your program requirements, and deadlines for fellowships. These resources can lead you to many of the answers.
As you browse the Graduate School website, remember a list of essential resources is also available in the footer of every webpage.
Quick Links
Graduate School KnowledgeBase: The place to start
The Graduate School KnowledgeBase (or KB) is an essential resource for graduate programs and is the best place to start looking for information about graduate education administration.
Graduate School contacts
We’re here to help. Use these lists to identify the right person to address your questions or concerns.
Graduate Guide
The Guide is an official document of record and is reviewed and updated every year. Graduate program coordinators play an essential role in updating the publication. Learn about the update/editing cycle for Guide.
Unit Directory
The Graduate School’s Unit Directory lists important contacts in each graduate program. These roles include Graduate Program Coordinator, Director of Graduate Study, Admissions Contact, Graduate Faculty, and more. The Graduate School uses this directory when sending information to graduate faculty and staff.
Graduate program coordinators are responsible for keeping their directory up to date. Here’s how to update Unit Directory information.
Graduate Program Coordinator/Manager Offboarding
This guide to graduate program coordinator/manager offboarding describes the steps you should take when you leave a position as a graduate program coordinator or manager, including what records to retain, who to notify, and how to list a new contact for your role, whether temporary or permanent.
For New Graduate Program Coordinators
New graduate coordinator/manager checklist
The Graduate School offers comprehensive guidance for new graduate program coordinators/managers. This checklist is the perfect place to start.
New graduate coordinator/manager training
Jump Start is an online, self-paced training that gives new graduate program coordinators and managers a comprehensive overview of the Graduate School and its resources. New graduate program coordinators/managers will gain access to the Jump Start Canvas course after they have been added to the Unit Directory.
The Graduate School
217 Bascom Hall
500 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Front Desk Hours:
Fall and Spring Hours
(September – April):
Monday – Friday
10 am – 3 pm
Summer Hours (May – August):
Monday – Friday
10 am – noon
Faculty/Staff Resources
Connect
Prospective students and applicants:
Current students: