Diversity in Graduate School

Considering that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I figure that it is only appropriate that I pay a small homage to the man, and post a little about graduate school diversity. I mean, this is technically the Girls Guide, and by being female and in graduate school, we are technically increasing the diversity of the institution :) (Although, actually, males in graduate schools are actually shrinking in numbers, so I'm not sure what this means today...)

Anyhow, in poking around on the net some, particularly on the Council of Graduate Schools website there is a wealth of information about the diversity of graduate students across the county. The most recent report they have posted there (a 114pg behemoth of a thing) notes this:

"Over the latest one-, five-, and ten-year periods, growth in first-time graduate

enrollment among U.S. citizens and permanent residents has been greater

for racial/ethnic minorities than for Whites.... Between fall 2008

and fall 2009, Asian/Pacific Islander first-time enrollment increased fastest at

9.3%, compared with 5.3% for Whites. Over the last five-year period,

Blacks/African Americans had the greatest average annual growth and

Whites the least, and over the last ten-year period, Hispanics/Latinos had the

greatest average annual growth and Whites the least."

Interesting, right? Now, I'm not going to get into what I think about the actual categories that they mention (I mean, I do teach Human Biological Variation and we always are talking about how these categories are seriously arbitrary--I mean, just for example, what is "white"? It actually encompasses almost as much diversity as the Asian/Pacific Islander group. Does. Not. Make. Sense.), but over all what we're seeing is that most schools are seeing many more minority students apply, which in my book is a really great thing. If we need diversity anywhere, it's in graduate school and in the academic community, which has seen the old-boy mentality for far too long.

More specifically for women, we see this:

"As described earlier, first-time enrollment growth has been stronger for

women than for men over the last ten-year period. This pattern held true for

most broad fields between fall 1999 and fall 2009, with the average annual

increases for women outpacing those for men in all but four broad fields

over the ten-year period: arts and humanities, mathematics and computer

sciences, public administration and services, and ‘other’ fields (Table 3.10

and Figure 3.10). For women, the average annual rates of increase were

greatest in health sciences (6.5%), engineering (6.4%), and business

(6.0%). Average annual growth was smallest in arts and humanities (1.9%),

physical and earth sciences (2.5%), and ‘other’ fields (2.8%) over the

decade."

Okay, so I know these are kind of data heavy quotes, but they note the trends of where women and minorities are picking up speed. Pretty interesting. Now, there's always the question of diversity for diversity's sake: something that I found quite a few articles on while hunting around on google, but I don't think this is the case for graduate school. Sure, there are a lot of diversity-oriented grants and stuff, but to even get considered for graduate school, you have to have a pretty outstanding record, which isn't going to be oriented around your background as much as around your accomplishments.

Anyhow, this is an interesting trend, and something I'd love to hear your thoughts on!