What's Hot in Grad School Degrees?

What are the hottest graduate education tracks around? According to the Council of Graduate Schools, there have been recent enrollment surges in the areas of public administration, health sciences and education. On the flip side, engineering graduate degrees are losing scholastic steam.

What's the deal? Experts presume students have recently been shunning away from engineering degrees in the United States partly because of outsourcing to other countries. As more English-speaking engineers from overseas come forward to work for lower pay, demand for U.S.-based engineers has declined. And, with the rise of Internet and communication systems, this pattern is only projected to continue.

So what does that mean for you, since you're looking for a new start in a stable -- actually sizzling -- field? For starters, find out about the hype for government, medical and education careers.

What's hot?

Public Administration
Out with the old and in with the new -- as baby boomers who dominate the public service sector retire, there's a high demand to fill their newly vacant spots. As a result, government organizations around the country are developing succession plans to address this both at the local and federal levels. They plan to recruit, train and retrain professionals -- including insurance agents, social workers and telephone operators -- to fill positions as they become available.

"The demographics are at work," explains Dr. Marion Angelica, dean of Walden University's (Minneapolis, Minn.) school of public policy and administration. "With many government workers from the baby boom starting to retire, the government needs new employees."

Today's public sector is becoming more and more attractive to young people as well, encouraging them to enroll in graduate programs. It's more diverse and vibrant than ever before with the influx of advanced in technology, globalization, internationalization and homeland security.

In addition to the high demand in fairly new areas like homeland security and public safety management, Dr. Angelica also notices increasing enrollment in educational programs that foster careers with nonprofits and non-governmental organizations. Those that work hand-in-hand with the government during crises and help solve social problems are particularly popular.

"Crises like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina brought the need for highly skilled people," Dr. Angelica points out, "and [students] are responding to fill this need."

Health Sciences
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are currently 2.7 million registered nurses in the nation. But that's not nearly enough with projections indicating more than one million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2012.

Filling that need are students responding in droves. So many, that nursing schools turned away 32,944 qualified applicants to bachelor's and graduate nursing programs in 2004 due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space and clinical preceptors. That's why a growing number of colleges and universities are implementing online degree programs to help accommodate nursing education shortages.

In 2004, for example, Texas A&M University and Del Mar College (Corpus Christi, Texas) teamed up to develop eLine (Electronic Learning in Nursing Education). With eLine, students can complete all the necessary curriculum on the Internet in order to receive a degree in nursing. Even better, the flexible program enables students to customize their schedules to keep other commitments intact and eliminates the problem of nursing teacher scarcity.

In addition, school administrators are putting programs in place to establish more teachers in the field. For instance, Walden University's master of science in nursing leadership trains undergraduate nurses to become managers of nurses and trainers of nurses. "By having more trained nursing teachers," explains Ana Sanchez, director of public relations for Laureate Education, which owns Walden, "the school is helping other colleges around the country have more faculty and [ultimately] accept more nurse candidates into their nursing programs."

What's making the health science field one of the hottest graduate degrees out there? Sanchez says it has a lot to do with demand and earnings. Remember the baby boomers retiring from the public sector? They're also retiring from the health industry, illuminating the need for younger employees to take the reigns.

On top of that, the U.S. Department of Labor has placed registered nursing on the top of its list for having one of the largest job growth projections between 2002 and 2012. With median annual earnings at $48,000 in 2002, the highest paid 10 percent earned over $69,670.

Education
With millions of children in need of an education, it's no wonder that teaching is almost always a hot career field. "We have enrollment surges in education and counseling, especially in the fields of math, science, and foreign language education," notes Dr. Connie Titone, associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Education & Human Services at Villanova University (Villanova, Pa.). "We're recognizing more and more that young people's mental and emotional state have an impact on their academic achievement."

To combat such concerns, Pennsylvania invoked a movement to appoint at least one guidance counselor at every school to work with students on issues regarding their mental health. On top of that, some schools are establishing ratio requirements, such as three counselors for every 500 students.

"The need for teachers at the secondary level is also on the rise," notes Dr. Titone. "Enrollments on all fronts are high, and salaries are becoming more and more competitive."

The No Child Left Behind Act and President George Bush's new push on American students' improved achievement in math and science is also a contributing factor to the demand for education professionals. So much in fact, that Dr. Titone believes there will be more funding to hire in areas concerning education.

So there you have it -- the "what's hot" and "what's not" of industries today. The good news is that whatever career you choose, you can set yourself apart from the pack with a solid education, whether it's with a bachelor's, master's or higher. And keep in mind the advantages of entering a hot industry: From an educational standpoint, that means more opportunities and options -- both classroom and online ones -- will follow the demand.