Bachelor Degree Recipients’ Post-Degree Educational Attainment

This analysis is based on information from 33,553 students that received bachelor degrees from the University of Alabama between Spring 2016 and Spring 2020. Utilizing the 'Student Tracker' service of the National Student Clearinghouse, it was discovered that at least 14,231 students (42.4%) continued their education after earning their bachelors degree from the University. A large number of these degree recipients, 4,556 or 32.0%, continued their education at the University of Alabama. The current list of institutions these students attended to continue their education is available online.

Of the 14,231 students that continued their education, 8,665 or 60.9% (25.8% of the 33,553 original degree recipients) received a second degree or certificate by Spring 2023. Also, 337 received a third award, and 4 received a fourth award. Medical degrees and especially doctoral degrees are understated in this analysis, since medical degrees usually require four years of study and doctoral degrees require six or more years. Therefore, students progressing in these areas have not had sufficient time to complete their advanced degrees for this study.

The following is a breakdown of the types of second awards received by the 8,155 students.

Award Type Frequency Percent
Certificate 277 3.2
Associate 129 1.5
Bachelor 346 4.0
Educ. Specialist 7 0.1
Master 6,523 75.3
Doctorate 116 1.3
Prof (Medical) 282 3.3
Prof (Other) 200 2.3
Prof (Law) 785 9.1
Total 8,665 100.0
     

The 8,665 students received their second award from 685 different institutions. The majority of the awards, 6,764 (78.1%) came from public institutions while 1,901 (21.9%) came from private institutions. Slightly less than half of the second awards, 3,138 (36.2%), came from the University of Alabama. The current list of second-award institutions is available online.