Graduate Program Resources

Graduate School 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 (link opens in new tab).

The Graduate School Explorer contains aggregate data on admissions, enrollment, student funding, degree and program completion rates, and doctoral career outcomes. NetID login is required.

To view or download the data behind this visualization, access these Institutional Data Exporters (IDEs):

Note: To use the Graduate School Explorer and its associated IDEs, you must have access to “Student Restricted” data. To request access, complete the Office of Data Management request access web form.

*To access the Historical Graduate Student Funding IDE, you must have access to both “Student Restricted” data and “Employee Record Internal” data. To request access, complete the Office of Data Management request access web form. You will need to submit a separate form for each level of access.

The Graduate Admissions Competitor Landscape visualization presents data on the national postsecondary institutions competing with UW–Madison 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 login is required.

The Graduate School administers three required student surveys: the Doctoral Exit Survey, the Master’s Exit Survey, and the Doctoral Student Experience Survey. To access survey data, click on the corresponding link below (NetID login required).

Read more about the Graduate School Surveys.

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 or download the data behind this visualization, access the Graduate Alumni Employment Institutional Data Exporter (IDE). Note: To access the Graduate Alumni Employment IDE, you must have access to “Student Restricted” data. To request access, complete the Office of Data Management request access web form.

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.

Data Visualizations

Resource Data Restriction Level
Graduate School Explorer Student Record Data Restricted
Master’s Exit Survey Results 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 Peer Institution Comparisons: Retention, Completion & Time-to-Degree Publicly Available
Graduate Admissions Competitor Landscape UW–Madison Employees (NetID Required)
Postdocs at UW–Madison Publicly Available

Institutional Data Exporters

Resource Data Restriction Level
Historical Graduate 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

Graduate Research Scholars Community

IDE = Institutional Data Exporter

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) Student Record Data Restricted

Graduate Student Support Competition (GSSC)

IDE = Institutional Data Exporter

Resource Data Restriction Level
GSSC Application Data (Data Visualization) Student Record Data Internal
GSSC Application Data IDE Student Record Data Restricted

Graduate Student Funding and Employment

IDE = Institutional Data Exporter

Resource Data Restriction Level
Student Assistant Enrollment Status (IDE) Employee Record Data Internal, Student Record Data Restricted
Student Assistant Tuition Remission (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

PhD Career Pathways: Career Preferences, Outcomes, and Alignment Data Brief

Can’t find what you need?

University staff and campus researchers wishing to request a specific data report or product not otherwise available should use our data request intake form. To complete the form you will first need to log in to your campus G Suite account.

Data Projects

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.

Graduate Student Recruitment

The Graduate School offers materials for those traveling to recruitment events or hosting visit days. Materials include recruitment folders and information about graduate study at UW–Madison.

Pre-Application Recruitment Post-Application/Visit Day Recruitment

In addition, the webpage Investing in Graduate Assistants 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.

In addition, the Council of Graduate Schools has compiled a list of social justice and anti-racism resources for graduate education that you can explore.

Explore these DEI resources from campus:

Graduate School KnowledgeBase topics

Click on a subtopic title to be taken directly to that section of the KB.

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 Program Coordinator/Manager Checklist

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.