The latest data on physics enrollments in US universities are out. The latest survey came from 2008 and looks at not only the number of students at the undergraduate and graduate level in physics, but also the number of US universities providing Bachelor, Masters, and Ph.D degrees in physics.
In terms of enrollments, there is a clear trend in the increase in the number of US students in physics graduate programs during the last 10 years of the survey, whereas the population of international students have been either flat, or slightly decreasing over the last 4 years of the survey. This could be directly due to a delayed effect on visa restrictions after Sept. 11, 2001.
Zz.
Figure 5 is sort of interesting. There seems to be an anti-correlation between the percentage of women going to grad school for a masters versus a PhD. Seems to suggest (very loosely) that there is a constant pool of women grad students. Also, I wonder what is behind the decision for women to choose a PhD versus a masters program.
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