Ignore Artificial Intelligence at your peril. While expansive news coverage might make it seem like another tech fad, our graduate admissions data shows sustained interest from universities and graduate students.
What The Data Says
Graduate admissions data from The GradCafe shows the percentage of graduate applications related to artificial intelligence makes up about 0.3 percent of all graduate applications on record. That’s more than double the rate we’ve seen in the past, where AI programs (including natural-language processing and machine learning) made up less than a tenth of a percent of applications.
Here’s the full data from applicant surveys. Note the surge of applications in 2016, the spike in 2018, and the ongoing increase through 2023. This is the most recent data available as of May of 2024. The GradCafe will release new data as it becomes available.
To put this in context, psychology grad programs make up between two and three percent of applications each year. Econ programs also have some of the highest average application rates, usually between 5 and 7.5 percent.
Here’s the data for economics grad programs.
Artificial intelligence programs, often requiring a background in statistics and some programming knowledge like Python, are not included in the overarching computer science degree programs. This wide categorization usually makes up six to 10 percent of annual graduate applications.
As always, you can review live graduate admissions results at The GradCafe.
The Changing Landscape of AI Grad Programs
It’s also important to consider how these graduate programs have changed. Their names provide one insight into each program’s focus, and a trend in naming conventions shows how the industry has evolved.
Over the past ten years, the conversation shifted away from the popular “machine learning” label into the more general title of “artificial intelligence”. And note that computer vision spiked in 2015.
Here’s the data.
How Graduate Admissions Data Affects the Working World
When we evaluate graduate admissions data, we always consider the working world. Consider self-driving cars. In a 2016 report, Stanford cited transportation as one of the most salient industries for artificial intelligence. The GradCafe’s graduate admissions data reflects that.
Tesla’s first “autopilot” feature rolled out in late 2015. (Note the spike of interest in “computer vision” grad programs that coincides with Tesla’s announcement.) And in 2016, graduate admissions for AI programs surged. That number continued to climb well before the release of chat-GPT, which launched in 2022.
The surge of applications for artificial intelligence graduate programs mirrors a real-world drive to enhance every industry. After all, artificial intelligence isn’t a monolith. It encompasses machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and many other intricacies.
Conclusion
As interest in artificial intelligence has grown, so too have graduate admissions in related programs. For years, universities have offered courses on natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision. Now we’re seeing a trend where more applicants apply to graduate programs focused specifically on artificial intelligence.
Have you applied to a grad program this season? Please remember to submit your survey when you hear back with an acceptance, rejection, or waitlist.
Dr. Johns is the Technical Editor for Hackr.io. He has two PhDs (structural and blast engineering) and worked for years as a data scientist.
Thanks for your clear explanations and for covering all the bases. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without your guide. Thanks a million!