11 Colleges That Often Lead to Graduate School

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or graduate school search.

College graduates looking for an edge in the job market often turn to graduate school to gain extra skills and credentials.

Schools are expected to award 802,000 master's degrees during the 2015-2016 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Students from certain undergrad programs make the leap to grad school very quickly. At the College of St. Mary in Nebraska, 69 percent of graduates pursue an advanced degree within one year of graduating. It had the highest percentage of graduates who pursued an advanced degree within one year out of 400 colleges and universities that submitted data to U.S. News in an annual survey.

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Among the 11 schools with the highest percentage of students who quickly head to graduate school, the average was 58.5 percent.

Only one National University made the list: Wayne State University in Michigan. National Universities offer a full range of undergraduate degree programs, as well as master's and doctoral programs, and are committed to research.

Wayne State University, which has 54 percent of graduates pursuing an advanced degree within a year, is also the only school listed whose rank is not published. Schools labeled RNP are ranked in the bottom one-fourth of their ranking group. U.S. News calculates ranks for these schools but has decided not to publish them.

[Don't let low grades or test scores stop you from getting into graduate school.]

One historically black college is also among the top schools where alumni quickly go to graduate school. With 66 percent of alumni pursuing an advanced degree within a year after graduation, Tuskegee University in Alabama is second on the list.

Below is a list of the 11 schools where the highest percentage of graduates pursue an advanced degree within one year of getting their bachelor's. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

Don't see your school in the top 11? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find data on alumni, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2015 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The data on alumni above are correct as of Feb. 9, 2016.

Delece Smith-Barrow is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering graduate schools. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at dsmithbarrow@usnews.com.