The number of graduate students enrolled in science and engineering disciplines at U.S. universities reached an all-time high of 455,400 in fall 2002, according to the National Science Foundation. Following a downward trend from 1994-98, science and engineering enrollment in graduate programs has increased every year since 1999. NSF attributes the 2002 gain to an increase in U.S. women and minority students, but the number of new foreign students fell nearly 8 percent that year.