Getting out of a graduate school has never been more popular at MSU.

Graduate School graduation rates are higher than in the past and some officials say it can only add to MSU’s climbing academic reputation.

“I think it’s great that we’re graduating more students than we ever have in the past,” said Karen Klomparens, dean of the MSU Graduate School. “It’s good the students are getting things done and graduating and getting out of here.”

Graduation rates have increased from 2,264 students receiving degrees in 1999 to 2,356 students receiving graduate degrees in 2000.

Four-year undergraduate graduation rates also increased this year, going from about 26 percent to about 32 percent in the last few years.

The reasons for the increased rates are plentiful, Klomparens said.

Graduate programs are filling the needs of employers and students, and the job market is fairly strong, enabling many graduate students to find employment.

“I can’t point to any one of those and say it’s any one reason,” Klomparens said. “It’s probably a whole set of reasons.”

But the large numbers of graduate students graduating means less graduate students in school at MSU. Klomparens said university officials aren’t making any plans to admit more than the usual number of graduate students.

Each year the graduate school admits about 1,500 new students. This year it admitted 1,530. MSU has about 8,500 total graduate students.

With the recent trend in higher graduation rates, Klomparens said she’d like to sustain an adequate number of students in the school.

“I’d like to have more graduate students on campus,” she said. “But there needs to be more discussions on campus with the faculty. The faculty really need to decide how they can adequately mentor graduate students.”

She said faculty members are concerned enrolling too many students into the Graduate School could put a strain on programs. Klomparens said she’s undecided as to how many graduate students MSU should enroll.

“At this point I think it would be nice if we had more graduate students,” she said. “But I don’t think we should be taking on students that we can’t support or we can’t mentor.”

Sustaining a graduate community is important to university officials, however.

The higher graduation rates go hand in hand with new graduate programs being added at MSU and the work professors and students have been putting in, said MSU Provost Lou Anna Simon.

“It’s a good indicator of some things that are happening underneath,” Simon said. “Time towards degree is a national indicator for quality.”

And increasing graduation rates are beneficial to the students too, Simon said.

“For graduate students, for time towards degree, you don’t want a graduate student stuck in their program forever,” she said.

Some student leaders also say that the larger graduation rates are positive.

Samuel Howerton, vice president of graduate welfare for the Council of Graduate Students, said when he first heard about the increased graduation rates, he was surprised but pleased.

COGS is MSU’s graduate student government.

“I think it’s good not only for graduate students, but good for Michigan State University,” Howerton said. “I think that it helps all academic departments and colleges to say (that) ‘we are graduating’ is a good sign.”

The rising number could be attributed to an increased class of students entering graduate school three years ago, he said, although the time it takes to graduate in any program varies.

Other graduate students offered some additional reasons why graduation rates are climbing.

Alison Steiber, a graduate student in human nutrition, said she’s known graduate students who take anywhere from three and half years to seven years to get their degrees.

“I don’t think the department encourages you to finish too rapidly,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a rush to finish too fast.”

However, students may have some personal reasons why they feel pushed to get out of graduate school, Steiber said.

Some students are attending school on limited incomes while others have families to attend to along with classes, she said.

Steiber is in the latter scenario with a husband and two children, ages 5 and 2, to look after.

“That encourages me to want to get done faster because of my children,” Steiber said.

“It’s a very demanding program.”

Pamela E. Spencer can be reached at spencerp@msu.edu.