Bachelor Degree Recipients’ Post-Degree Educational Attainment

This analysis is based on information from 34,537 students that received bachelor degrees from the University of Alabama between Spring 2017 and Spring 2021. Utilizing the 'Student Tracker' service of the National Student Clearinghouse, it was discovered that at least 14,605 students (42.3%) continued their education after earning their bachelors degree from the University. A large number of these degree recipients, 4,831 or 33.1%, 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 14,605 students that continued their education, 8,909 or 61.0% (25.8% of the 34,537 original degree recipients) received a second degree or certificate by Spring 2024. Also, 340 received a third award, and 15 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 8,909 students.

Award Type Frequency Percent
Certificate 307 3.4
Associate 111 1.2
Bachelor 358 4.0
Educ. Specialist 6 0.1
Master 6,767 76.0
Doctorate 112 1.3
Prof (Medical) 287 3.2
Prof (Other) 216 2.4
Prof (Law) 745 8.4
Total 8,909 100.0
     

The 8,909 students received their second award from 687 different institutions. The majority of the awards, 6,930 (77.8%) came from public institutions while 1,979 (22.2%) came from private institutions. Slightly less than half of the second awards, 3,287 (36.9%), came from the University of Alabama. The current list of second-award institutions is available online.