The Peeking Order of the Elite: America's Leading Professional Schools

Abstract

Advanced professional education is assuming ever-increasing importance in our post-industrial society. Enrollment in American colleges and universities has doubled every 15 years since 1870. The expansion of graduate and professional training has been even more rapid than that of undergraduate education While the number of undergraduates today is 10 times as large as it was half a century ago, the number of graduate students is no less than 50 times as large Of the 9.2 million college students today, over 1 million are now engaged in postgraduate work, with the number of PhD degrees awarded rising at a faster percentage rate than master's degrees, which in turn are increasing faster than the first bachelor's degree.