What influences the path to the doctorate?
Some paths to the doctoral degree are less traveled and some are more difficult to navigate, owing to a variety of influences that shape doctoral study. These paths may lead to different postgraduate destinations.
Parental education
Doctorates awarded, by highest parental educational attainment: 1998–2017
Overview
The parents of recent doctorate recipients are better educated than the parents of earlier cohorts of doctorate recipients. The share of doctorate recipients from families in which neither parent has earned more than a high school diploma declined in the past 20 years. Meanwhile, the share from families in which at least one parent has earned a bachelor’s degree or at least one parent has an advanced degree continued to climb.
Note(s)
Percentages are based on the number of doctorate recipients responding to the item on the highest educational attainment for either parent. Percentages may not sum to 100% because of rounding and because of doctorate recipients who reported "not applicable" for both father's and mother's education beginning in 2004.
Parental educational attainment of U.S. citizen and permanent resident doctorate recipients, by race and ethnicity: 1998–2017
Race and ethnicity
The pattern of rising parental educational attainment is visible among all races and ethnicities for doctorate recipients who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Nonetheless, doctorate recipients from underrepresented minority groups are less likely to have at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree than are Asian or white doctorate recipients.
In 2017, more than 70% of doctorate recipients who were Asian or white came from families having at least one parent who had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to just over half of doctorate recipients who were black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Hispanic or Latino.
Note(s)
Hispanic or Latino may be any race. Percentages are based on the number of doctorate recipients who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Sources of financial support
Primary source of financial support for U.S. doctorate recipients: 2017
Overview
Research assistantships are the most frequent primary source of financial support for all doctorate recipients, followed by fellowships or grants and teaching assistantships. Sixteen percent of doctoral students rely primarily on their own resources—loans, personal savings, personal earnings, and the earnings or savings of their spouse, partner, or family—to finance their graduate studies, and 5% relied on such other sources as employer reimbursement and foreign support.
Note(s)
Percentages are based on the number of doctorate recipients responding to the primary source of financial support item. Research assistantship includes other assistantships, traineeships, and internships or clinical residencies. In 2017, the survey response option was changed from "grant" to "dissertation grant." Own resources include loans, personal savings, personal earnings outside the institution sources listed, and earnings or savings of spouse, partner, or family. Other sources include employer reimbursement or assistance and foreign support.
Source(s)
National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2017. Related detailed data: table 35.
Primary source of financial support for U.S. doctorate recipients, by broad field of study: 2017
Field of study
The primary sources of financial support used by doctorate recipients vary by field of study. In 2017, research assistantships were the most common primary source of financial support for doctorate recipients in engineering, physical sciences and earth sciences, life sciences, and mathematics and computer sciences. In mathematics and computer sciences, teaching assistantships were almost as frequent as research assistantships. Both fellowships or grants and teaching assistantships were the most common sources for doctoral students in humanities and arts. Nearly half of the doctorate recipients in education relied on their own resources as their primary source of support. In psychology and social sciences, similar proportions of doctorate recipients reported fellowships or grants, teaching assistantships, and their own resources as their primary source of financial support.
S&E = science and engineering.
Note(s)
Percentages are based on the number of doctorate recipients responding to the primary source of financial support item. Research assistantship includes other assistantships, traineeships, and internships or clinical residencies. In 2017, the survey response option was changed from "grant" to "dissertation grant." Own resources include loans, personal savings, personal earnings outside the institution sources listed, and earnings or savings of spouse, partner, or family. Other sources include employer reimbursement or assistance and foreign support.
Time to degree
Median time to degree of U.S. doctorate recipients, by broad field of study: 1998–2017
Over the past 20 years, the time between entering graduate school and earning the doctorate has fallen in all fields of study, particularly in education. On average, it takes years longer to earn a doctorate in non-S&E fields than it does to complete doctoral training in S&E fields.
