Career Outcomes data

Bren graduates (MEDS & MESM only) are prompted to fill out a job placement survey (hereafter referred to as the "Career Exit Survey") between graduation (June) and ~6 months post-graduation (January). The Career Exit Survey requests a report on their current job status and details about their first post-grad position (if applicable). Surveys are distributed by the Bren Career Team via email, and graduates are reminded to complete it in the months following graduation. Not all graduates complete the survey (it's not mandatory), and those that do are not obligated to report all requested details. The number of survey respondents (almost) always is less than the number of graduates. The results of this Career Exit Survey feed the Career Outcomes tab of the Bren Student Data Explorer.

There are four data sets (two for MEDS, two for MESM) that are generated from this survey, pre-processed, cleaned, then used throughout the dashboard:

• initial career placement (also referred to as "placement" or "initial placement") data: includes details about first job position taken upon completion of a Bren graduate degree program; only includes data for individuals who report accepting a job offer, but not those who are still searching for a job, are taking time off before searching for a job, or are pursing an additional advanced degree; includes variable types that describe employer names and job titles, sector, location, compensation, job satisfaction, etc.; MEDS & MESM alumni are represented in separate data sets; these data sets are read into the dashboard's global.R file and saved to objects named, meds_placement & mesm_placement
• active career placement (also referred to as "active placement" or "status") data: includes name, year, and job status; includes individuals who report taking time off from the job search, those who are actively searching (but have not accepted an offer yet), those who are pursing an advanced degree, and those who accepted a job; MEDS & MESM alumni are represented in separate data sets; these data sets are read into the dashboard's global.R file and saved to objects named, meds_status & mesm_status

We share career placement data for the three most recent graduating classes to ensure the information reflects current salary trends and career trajectories. Salaries can vary significantly over time, and many graduates move into new roles as their careers progress.

Applicant / Demographics data

All data represented in the Demographics tab are drawn from Bren application/admissions/enrollment data, which are provided by UCSB Graduate Division. We share application / demographics information for the five most recently admitted classes for Bren's PhD, MESM, and MEDS programs.

First, some important terms & definitions:

• Applicants: All individuals who submit an application for Bren's PhD, MESM, or MEDS programs
• Admitted students: All individuals who were offered admission to a Bren graduate program
• Enrolled students: All individuals who SIRed "yes" and ultimately attended a Bren graduate program in it's entirety
• SIR (Statement of Intent to Register): a form used by admitted students to formally accept an offer of admission and indicate their intent to enroll at a particular university(o
• Student melt: = applicants who SIR "yes" but reverse their decision, fail to register for classes / attend, drop out of their program after attending for some period of time
• URM (Underrepresented Minority): refers to U.S. citizens who identify as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, or American Indian. Individuals who identify with multiple races are still considered URM if at least one of those identities falls within a URM category.
• IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System): A two-step process for applicants to postsecondary educational programs to report race and ethnicity. First, individuals indicate whether they are “Hispanic or Latino” or “Not Hispanic or Latino”. Second, they may select one or more of the following racial categories: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White.

The raw admissions data is cleaned and wrangled to produce five different data frames, which are read into the dashboard's global.R file:

• admissions: summary statistics on the number of applicants, admitted students, enrolled students, and admissions rate by program (PhD, MESM, MEDS) and year (5 most recent years)
• enrolled: detailed information about each enrolled students' demographics (e.g. gender, residency, race/ethnicity, etc); includes name application ID (though neither of these pieces of information will appear on the dashboard, it can be helpful for identifying / understanding anomalies in the data
• ipeds: wrangled data which uses applicant-reported racial and ethnic background information to assign individuals to defined IPEDS categories
• diversity_stats: summary statistics on a variety of demographic classes, aggregated across the five years of available data, for each program; presents the following as a percentage of total enrolled students (within a program) who identify as: CA residents, non-CA residents, international students, female, age 25+, military, first generation, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, 2+ races, Unknown race and ethnicity, URM
• ug_geoms: a summarized data set containing the number of enrolled students over the past five years, categorized by U.S. state and international country where they completed their undergraduate degree; also includes geographic geometries for mapping; these data are saved to file and read in (rather than processed within the application) to improve load times