Master’s Exit Survey Highlighted Findings 2022-23 & 2023-24

Background

The Master’s Exit Survey is taken by graduating students in master’s degree programs at the Graduate Center. It provides information on students’ experience with their program and their post-graduation plans.

The report below provides combined results from the graduating classes of 2022-23 and 2023-24. Since the sample size is small, the past two years are combined in the report to enable more robust interpretation of the findings.

97%

of students agree that completing master’s degree was worth it.

71%

of students made long lasting friendships.

The overall response rate for 2022-24 is 31%.
Table 1 below summarizes the response rates for the 17 master’s programs.

Table 1. Response Rate
Master's Programs	Number of Graduates - 2022-23 & 2023-24	Number of Reponses	Response Rates
International Migration Studies	14	10	71%
Women's and Gender Studies	15	8	53%
Biography and Memoir	14	6	43%
Liberal Studies	67	29	43%
Digital Humanities	19	8	42%
Political Science	34	12	35%
Cognitive Neuroscience	24	8	33%
Middle Eastern Studies	9	3	33%
Linguistics	23	7	30%
Data Analysis and Visualization	29	5	17%
Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences	33	1	3%
Astrophysics	5	0	0%
Classics	2	0	0%
Comparative Literature	5	0	0%
Data Science	17	0	0%
Nanoscience	2	0	0%
Philosophy	25	0	0%
Other	0	7	-
Total	337	104	31%

Note

Please be cautious about the small sample size.
Due to rounding, the total might not equal to the sum of subtotals.

At graduation, 44% of students are employed, 30% plan to continue with further education, and 21% are seeking work. (Figure 1)
66% of respondents work while studying at Graduate Center.
Among students who continue in current job or move into a new job, 75% report that their current or new job utilizes their master’s degree.
- The types of employers are varied, from private industry, Education, and nonprofit organizations. (Table 2)
- 27% of these graduates are employed in the education/training sector. (Table 3)
Among students who are seeking a job, 59% said the master’s program made a difference in their job search.
- The types of employers graduates on which graduates focus their job search are varied, including education, project management, editorial, and self-employed. (Table 4)
- Graduates are seeking work in a variety of sectors, including Editorial/Writing, Education/Training, Project/Program Management, and etc. (Table 5)
Among students who are planning to pursue advanced degrees, 71% are intending to enroll in a doctoral program and 13% are interested in a professional degree (e.g., MD, JD). 39% of students have already been admitted to a program.
In open-ended questions, students expressed a demand for more career advising support.

Post-Graduation Plans

Students Who Continue In Current Job Or Move Into A New Job

Table 2. What type of employer are you, or will you be working for?
Type of Employer	Number of Response	Proportion
Private Industry/Business	16	36%
Education	14	31%
Nonprofit organization	11	24%
Government	2	4%
Self-Employed	2	4%
Other (please specify)	0	0%
Total	45	100%

Table 3. In which sector is your current or new job/career?
Sector of Employer	Number of Response	Proportion
Education/Training	12	27%
Editorial/Writing	4	9%
IT/Software Development	4	9%
Creative/Design	3	7%
Marketing/Product	3	7%
Medical/Health	3	7%
Administrative/Clerical	2	4%
Project/Program Management	2	4%
Biotech/R&D/Science	1	2%
Food Services/Hospitality	1	2%
Other	10	22%
Total	45	100%

Students Who Seek A Job

Table 4. On what types of employers are you focusing your job search? (Select all that apply)
Type of Employer	Number of Response	Proportion
Nonprofit organization	16	29%
Private industry	14	25%
Education	12	21%
Government	11	20%
Self-employed	3	5%
Other (please specify)	0	0%
Total	56	100%

Table 5. What sector of industries are you looking for work? (select all that apply)
Sector of Employer	Number of Response	Proportion
Editorial/Writing	11	16%
Education/Training	8	12%
Project/Program Management	7	10%
Creative/Design	6	9%
Legal	5	7%
Other	30	45%
Total	67	100%

Note

Please be cautious about the small sample size.
Due to rounding, the total might not equal to the sum of subtotals.

Quote from Students

[The Master’s program] Sets me above other candidates with less education.

More employment support for Master’s Students (especially as teaching assistants, an important part of considerations of further graduate studies for myself and at least several peers) would have been very appreciated.

97% of students agreed that completing the master’s degree was worth it.
71% of students made friends with classmates and others while at the Graduate Center they feel they want to keep.
54% of students would be willing to speak to current or future students about their program experiences.
In open-ended questions, students expressed their gratitude to the invaluable mentorship provided by their professors.

Note

Please be cautious about the small sample size.
Due to rounding, the total might not equal to the sum of subtotals.

Quote from Students

The MA program exceeded my expectations.

I feel like I really expanded my understanding of scholarship, research, and why it’s important to develop a strong understanding of the theoretical orientation and epistemology of one’s field/discipline.

Strengths:
- Participants praised the accessibility of courses across departments and the interdisciplinary approach of the curriculum.
- Support from professors and the overall academic community were highlighted as positive aspects.
- The curriculum’s focus on critical thinking was noted as beneficial for career preparation, with students feeling well-prepared for teaching and various public sector roles.
Areas For Improvement:
- Clearer guidance and support were desired, particularly in advising and navigating the program requirements.
- Limited funding and specific support for students with disabilities were identified as areas for improvement.

Key Findings

General Experience:
- Participants appreciated the sense of community and connections with both professors and fellow students.
- Some highlighted the need for more support for students with disabilities and additional funding for specific programs.
Advising:
- Positive experiences were reported with professors who provided valuable support across programs.
- However, participants noted challenges with MA thesis advising and expressed a need for more structured guidance from their programs.
Curriculum:
- Many participants valued the interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum and the ease of access to courses across departments.
- Some suggested expanding course options by offering specialized classes, such as those focused on New York City for the International Migration Studies and Liberal Studies programs.
COVID-19 Impact:
- Remote learning presented new challenges, particularly in terms of advising support.
- Participants expressed a need for clearer communication and guidance during the transition to online instruction.
Career Preparation:
- Many respondents valued the critical thinking skills developed during their studies, which they felt prepared them for various roles, both in academia and beyond.
- They also appreciated career opportunities like internships, particularly in state assemblies and other public sector roles.

Quote from Students

I am proud to be a graduate of the Graduate Center. It is an incredible, world-class institution with the most interesting professors.

The GC has increased my confidence as a writer and thinker, and person.

I built extremely crucial relationships for my career and development as an academic.

Technical Notes For Text Analysis On Open-ended Questions

For the text analysis, we began by tokenizing the responses into individual sentences and words. We then extracted noun phrases to focus on meaningful content.

In the first stage of analysis, we identified two primary topics of interest: “curriculum” and “advising,” labeling all other responses as neutral. Term scores were computed based on z-scores for each category, ranking terms to identify the most category-associated phrases. (Figure 3)

In the second stage, we identified additional topic clusters that were not fully captured by the initial two topics. These clusters were visualized spatially based on overlapping terms to better understand their relationships. (Figure 4)

Below are the five topics emerged from the comments

General Experience: 67 responses
Advising: 26 responses
Curriculum: 25 responses
COVID-19 Impact: 21 responses
Career Preparation: 16 responses

Figure 3 compares noun phrases associated with advising and curriculum to phrases from other categories. The top center cluster includes terms relevant to both advising and curriculum, such as research methodology and general positive experiences, while the bottom section emphasizes phrases less associated with these topics.

Figure 3: Semiotic Square

Figure 4 provides a visual comparison between topics, showing that general experiences overlap with advising and COVID-19-related feedback. This indicates that experiences during remote learning were closely tied to advising concerns, while participants appreciated the overall community and support. Career-related feedback appears more distinct, reflecting the unique career-oriented skills and opportunities valued by participants.

Figure 4: Comparative Analysis of Topic Clusters.

In assure validity, we also conduct human evaluation. Two researchers read through the comments independently to manually code the topics. Results are consistent to what we found from the models.

Resources

To conduct this analysis, we utilized the following tools:

spaCy: This library enabled sentence segmentation and word tokenization, helping to break down responses into individual words and phrases. Additionally, we used spaCy for noun phrase extraction, allowing us to focus on meaningful content.
scattertext: For visual representation of themes and trends, scattertext provided data visualization that highlighted associations between words and identified clusters of responses.