By MARTY LEVINE
Graduate applications are up 6.5 percent, Amanda Godley told the April 19 meeting of the University Senate’s Educational Policies committee — but “we’re still very much in process with graduate admissions.”
Godley, vice provost for graduate studies (and interim vice provost for undergraduate studies), said Pitt still expects 1,500 more graduate applications for the fall, mostly for the professional schools.
But at the moment, compared to fall 2023, applications to graduate and professional programs are already up from 17,798 to 18,929 (excluding the School of Medicine, which has its own application process). This increase stems from a 15.5 percent surge in research doctorate applications (from 6,654 to 7,686) and a 4.5 percent jump in professional master’s degree applications (from 4,884 to 5,106), while professional doctorate applications remain essentially steady (up from 4,116 to 4,158).
Applications for research master’s programs have fallen 7 percent (from 1,886 to 1,753). Meanwhile, certificate and micro-credential applications rose from 149 to 299, a 101 percent increase.
The decline in research master’s degree applications follows the national trend, Godley said, since there is no clear benefit for professional advancement from such a degree unless the student then pursues a Ph.D.
The leap in certificate and micro-credential popularity also is part of an emerging national trend, she noted, since certificates may often be accumulated toward a master’s degree. The biggest increase in certificate applications occurred in Katz Graduate School of Business, where students can build toward an MBA and other master’s degrees.
The graduate admission rate is 5.8 percent so far, Godley also reported.
“It’s early but we’re seeing a very big increase in Black applicants” who say they intend to enroll, she added, but no similar increase for Hispanics/Latinx applicants. Those who intend to enroll was up 31.5 percent among Black students but only 1 percent among Hispanic/Latinx students.
Applications by Black students were up 6.5 percent from last year to this year, and up 8.5 percent among Hispanic/Latinx applicants across that time span. While admission rates increased 17 percent for Black applicants and 3.2 percent for Hispanic/Latinx applicants.
Godley noted that race is recorded on applications because, while it is not allowed to be seen or considered by admissions committees, it still needs to be reported to the federal government. The University is sharing best practices among all its colleges in light of last year’s Supreme Court decision disallowing race-based admissions policies at U.S. colleges.
Pitt also is offering guidance about “what equitable holistic admissions might look like,” Godley said. “We’re reviewing the types of questions with guidance from our peers” for graduate applications, she said, and considering asking, for instance, whether graduate applicants were first-year college students or Pell Grant recipients (a marker of lower-income level) as undergraduates.
She said her office also has partnered with undergraduate admissions to hire a new graduate recruiter, especially to help the smaller Pitt programs that don’t have their own full recruiting programs.
“Our undergraduates tend to go to graduate school at a higher rate than our peers, so we’d like to encourage them to stay at Pitt,” she said.
Other enrollment issues
Marc Harding, vice provost for enrollment, and Kellie Kane, associate vice provost for enrollment and executive director of admissions, reviewed the ongoing trouble with the federal financial aid form, FAFSA, and current application levels.
“We’re keeping an eye on where we’re getting our international students,” Kane also said. She reported that India and China are still tops among international Pitt enrollees but that the University is targeting more countries for applicants. “We’re actually going out and doing more in-country recruiting,” she said, particularly in countries with a concentration of Pitt alumni, but also South America and Africa in general.
Harding noted that Pitt has tripled its international student population since 2012 but would still like to double it again. “That is a heavy lift, but we’re up for it,” he said. “But we’re going to have to be creative, given the marketplace.”
Asked whether that would require Pitt to increase its residence hall spaces, Harding replied: “We meet with the auxiliary services, residence life, dining halls all the time” to make certain such student services can work for student numbers, since that can affect student retention. He noted that the Plan for Pitt anticipates 2,000 more undergraduate students by 2028, “so housing issues are certainly a part of that.”
He also said that Pitt’s aim to increase transfer students would be helped with an increase in housing: “We’ve been pushing for transfer housing for a number of years.”
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.