The Graduate Advisor-Advisee Relationship: What Both Parties Should Expect

Between 2000 and 2016, postsecondary enrollment at Unites States universities increased at a rate of 28% (McFarland, et al., 2018). The report comes from the National Center for Educational Statistics stating that enrollment increased from 13.2 million to 16.9 million peaking at 18.1 million in 2010 (McFarland, et al., 2018). Over the last decade, graduate student enrollment across the Unites States has been increasing significantly (Okahana & Zhou, 2017). According to the 2017 report from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), graduate applications increased on average at a rate of 5.7% from the years spanning 2006 to 2016 (Okahana & Zhou, 2017). The report also enumerated the increase in graduate degrees awarded and conferred between 2006 and 2016. In the span of that decade, doctoral degrees conferred within the United States increased at an average rate of 4.7% per year and master’s degrees awarded increased at an average rate of 2.4% (Okahana & Zhou, 2017). The number of master’s degrees awarded is of course far in excessive of the number of doctoral degrees conferred but the percentages show a larger increase in the rate of growth of doctoral degrees.