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Careers

New Chemistry Grads in 2003

Graduations remain below high levels of five or so years ago as growth in women's share pauses

February 7, 2005 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 83, Issue 6

Chemistry programs approved by the American Chemical Society awarded 10,068 bachelor's degrees, 1,614 master's degrees, and 2,007 doctorates during the 2002–03 academic year.

The totals for bachelor's and Ph.D. graduates were marginally higher than they were for the 2001–02 academic year. But they were both about 10% shy of the highs of 11,219 and 2,208, respectively, set in 1997–98. The 2002–03 total for master's graduates was down by 5% from 2001–02 and by a substantial 23% from its 1995–96 high of 2,098.

Another feature of the 2002–03 data is a hiatus in the progress that women have been making in chemistry for the past 30 years or more.

The percentage of bachelor's degrees earned by women fell back to 49.3% in 2002–03 from the majority status it had attained for the first time in 2001–02 with 50.0%. For Ph.D.s, the year-to-year dip was from 33.2% to 31.8%. For master's, there was essentially no change, with women earning a fraction below 46% of the degrees in both years. In the early 1970s, women earned about 17% of the chemistry bachelor's degrees from ACS-approved programs, 23% of master's degrees, and 8% of Ph.D.s.

All of these 2002–03 data are from the latest annual report of ACS's Committee on Professional Training (CPT). These reports are produced by ACS's Office of Professional Training, directed by Cathy A. Nelson.

CPT is charged with examining, approving, and monitoring undergraduate chemistry programs. Schools with approved programs are required to report annually to the committee the number of degrees they award at all degree levels. CPT does not approve master's or Ph.D. programs.

The schools with approved bachelor's programs supplying 2002–03 data to CPT totaled 630. Of these, 314 have master's programs and 193 also have doctoral programs. These advanced-degree programs do not all produce graduates every year. For 2002–03, 279 of them produced at least one master's graduate and 181 had at least one Ph.D.

CPT also gathers annual data on chemical engineering graduates from departments accredited by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology. These data are not complete because these schools are not required to report to CPT. For 2002–03, 140 of the 151 schools that were contacted responded.–MICHAEL HEYLIN, C&EN WASHINGTON


Download 2002–03 school-by-school data on both chemistry and chemical engineering graduates
( Adobe PDF format - 96 K)
and on the Web at http://chemistry.org/cpt/annrpt.html.


 

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