Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS) Public Use Data Files

Latest Year Available: 2022

Microdata from the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering are provided in the files below. Data are available for each survey year beginning with 1972.

The file organization makes each year's institution, school, and organizational unit data available in a single record. The files also allow researchers to link to other institutional data sources.

All data files are provided as compressed .zip files. Use an archive utility program that supports the .zip format to uncompress the files you download to your computer.

Because of the large number of columns in the Excel files, the data have been divided among three worksheets: Race, Support, and Postdoc_Nonfaculty Researcher (PD_NFR)

To improve multi-year analysis using the Carnegie classifications, the 2015 Carnegie classification has been added to prior-year public use files. Missing values within the 1994, 2005, and 2010 classifications were also filled for nine institutions.

Correction(s) Date Aug 27, 2024: The unit identification number (UNITID) for The Scripps Research Institute was corrected in the 2022 SAS and Excel public use files.

Guidance Files

Appendix B: Data Item Descriptions (XLSX 48 KB)
Appendix B: Data Item Descriptions (PDF 499 KB)
Appendix A: Data Element Availability By Year (PDF 211 KB)
Guide To Public Use Data Files (PDF 293 KB)
Year
Downloadable Files
2022
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2022 (ZIP 15.9 MB)
2021
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2021 (ZIP 15.7 MB)
2020
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2020 (ZIP 15.4 MB)
2019
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2019 (ZIP 14.7 MB)
2018
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2018 (ZIP 24.1 MB)
2017
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2017 (ZIP 23.4 MB)
2017 old
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2017_old (ZIP 6.5 MB)
2016
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2016 (ZIP 13.0 MB)
2015
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2015 (ZIP 7.8 MB)
2014
Graduate_Students_Postdocs_2014 (ZIP 7.7 MB)