California and Texas Lead the Nation in Geoscience Student Enrollments

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Date updated: 2008-02-12
Data Brief 2008-001
Written by Cindy Martinez and Christopher Keane for AGI, February 2008

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Undergraduate Students

The total number of students enrolled in bachelors’ degree programs in the United States in 2006 was 20,560. This number has been holding steady in recent years. California leads the nation in the number of students enrolled in bachelors programs in geoscience departments. Texas and New York follow closely behind with 7.4% of geoscience students enrolled in each state at this level.

Graduate Students

Enrollments for geoscience graduate students has increased slightly over the last decade, to a total of 9,257 in 2006. More than 13% of geoscience graduate students are enrolled in programs in Texas.

State-level enrollment trends tend to be linked to local factors. In some cases, a strong influence in the local economy related to geosciences, such as resources, often supports strong enrollment levels, while in other cases, secondary education systems with upper level earth science courses or states with a large number of institutions, often support a large geoscience major population.

States with the highest percentages of undergraduate and graduate geoscience students.

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