Survey of Earned Doctorates

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 shares from families in which at least one parent has earned a bachelor’s degree or at least one parent has an advanced degree increased (figure 13).

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 2018, about 75% 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 between 51% and 57% of doctorate recipients who were black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Hispanic or Latino (figure 14).

In 2018, doctorate recipients reported research assistantships or traineeships as the most frequent primary source of financial support, followed by fellowships, scholarships, or dissertation grants and teaching assistantships. A third of doctorate recipients were primarily supported by research assistantships or traineeships; 25% by fellowships, scholarships, or dissertation grants; and 22% by teaching assistantships. About 15% of doctorate recipients relied 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 (figure 15).

The primary sources of financial support used by doctorate recipients vary by field of study. In 2018, research assistantships were the most common primary source of financial support for doctorate recipients in engineering, physical sciences and earth sciences, and life sciences. In mathematics and computer sciences, teaching assistantships were slightly more frequent than research assistantships. Fellowships or grants and teaching assistantships were the most common source of support for comparable shares of 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 (figure 16).

The amount of education-related debt incurred by doctorate recipients during graduate school is an indicator of the availability of financial support. In 2018, large majorities (71% and above) of doctorate recipients in physical sciences and earth sciences, mathematics and computer sciences, engineering, and life sciences reported holding no debt related to their graduate education when they were awarded the doctorate. In psychology and social sciences, humanities and arts, and other non-S&E fields, that proportion dropped to just about half.

Within each broad field of study, 6% to 10% of doctorate recipients had incurred low levels ($10,000 or less) of graduate debt. The shares of doctoral graduates with graduate debt burdens over $30,000 were greatest in education (36%), psychology and social sciences (30%), other non-S&E fields (27%), and humanities and arts (24%) (figure 17). For more details on debt levels of doctorate recipients, see the section Education-related debt.