Coterminal Students
What is a coterminal student?
A “Coterminal” or “Coterm” student is an undergraduate student who has gone through a special admissions process that allows the student to matriculate into one of Stanford’s Coterminal Master's Degrees Programs. More information on Stanford's coterm program can be found here. A list of all coterminal master's degree programs as well as admissions information and degree requirements can be found here.
Use this dashboard to explore basic information on coterms. Scroll down to see the number of coterms active in an academic year as well as the length of time it takes students to graduate with their undergraduate degree and coterminal master's degree.
In recent years, the computer science master's degree has been the most popular coterminal master's program.
Roughly 30% of an incoming undergraduate cohort will start a coterm program, and about half of them will take 5 years to finish both their undergraduate degree and their coterminal master's degree. In recent years, about 20% of all master's degrees awarded at Stanford go to coterm students.
Methodology & Definitions
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Coterminal Degrees
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“Coterminal” or “Coterm” is a special admissions process that allows students to matriculate into one of Stanford’s master’s degrees participating in the Coterminal Degrees Program. Students entering graduate careers via this process are referred to as “coterms.” Coterms are both undergraduate AND graduate students at the same time for at least one quarter prior to undergraduate degree conferral. More information on Stanford's coterm program can be found here. A list of all coterminal master's degree programs as well as admissions information and degree requirements can be found here.
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Number of Active Coterms in a Year
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The number of coterms active at Stanford will vary throughout the year. Most coterms begin in the Spring quarter. The number of coterms represented in this dashboard counts any coterm that was active at any point during the academic year.
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Undergraduate Cohort
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An undergraduate cohort year is the academic year of an undergraduate student's first undergraduate degree-seeking term at Stanford. If a student enters Stanford as a transfer, their undergraduate cohort year is assigned based on their academic class (which is based on their units to graduate) rather than their first undergraduate matriculated term.
The percentage of an undergraduate cohort to have started a coterm program is updated once a year (during the summer quarter). This dashboard does not provide real-time information on the percentage of each cohort to have started a coterm program.
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Length of Time to Graduate with a Coterminal Master's Degree
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The quarter counts for finishing both a bachelor's degree and a coterminal master's degree counts the total number of quarters that have passed chronologically, not the number of quarters enrolled. That is, if a student takes a leave of absence, the quarters on leave are still counted in the length of time it took the student to finish both degrees.
Data
The data is available for download in Google Drive.
- Data Source(s): SIRIS, DSS
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