The proportion of doctorate recipients who had attended community college has been gradually increasing in all broad areas of study in the past 4–5 years (figure 26). It is measured as the proportion who had earned college credit from a community or 2-year college. Doctorate recipients in non-S&E fields are slightly more likely to have attended community college than those in S&E fields. Only a fraction of the doctorate recipients who attended community college had earned an associate’s degree (figure 27).

Doctorate recipients in the health sciences and in education were the most likely to have attended community college (26% and 25%, respectively) and also the most likely to have earned an associate’s degree (10% and 9%, respectively). Doctorate recipients in engineering and in mathematics and computer sciences were the least likely to have earned college credit from a community college (12% each) or an associate’s degree (2% and 3%, respectively).

U.S. citizens and permanent residents are more than three times as likely as temporary visa holders to have attended a community college (figure 28). Among U.S. citizens and permanent residents, nearly a third of Hispanic or Latino and nearly half of American Indian or Alaska Native doctorate recipients had earned college credit from this type of institution. Asian doctorate recipients were the least likely to have attended community college (19%).

Community college attendance among U.S. citizen and permanent resident doctorate recipients varied by the educational attainment of their parents. Generally, community college attendance was higher at the lower parental educational attainment levels. For doctorate recipients whose parents had completed some college or less, about a third attended community college, compared with 27% for doctorate recipients whose parents had earned a bachelor’s degree and 22% for those whose parents had earned an advanced degree.

Both U.S. research institutions and foreign institutions play important roles in the baccalaureate education of U.S.-trained doctorates (table C). In 2019, about 91% of doctorate recipients who were U.S. citizens or permanent residents had earned their bachelor’s degree in the United States. In turn, nearly 90% of doctorate recipients who were temporary visa holders had obtained their baccalaureate abroad.

Among S&E doctorate recipients who earned their bachelor’s in the United States, universities with very high research activity and baccalaureate colleges were the most frequent baccalaureate institutions of doctorates recipients, when adjusted by the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in all fields by different types of academic institutions—the institutional yield ratio, see glossary^{​Figure 29 presents the institutional yield ratio, which adjust the number of S&E doctorate recipients by the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in all fields by different types of institutions 8 years earlier, given that 8 years is the median time in S&E fields to the doctoral degree since the bachelor’s degree. Time to the doctoral degree from the bachelor’s degree varies within S&E fields; however, explorations of the data with 7- and 9-year lags produced similar results.} (figure 29). For example, for every 100 individuals who earned their bachelor’s degree in 2011 from a very high research activity university, 2.8 of them are estimated to have completed an S&E doctorate in 2019; the number is 1.9 from baccalaureate colleges and 1.4 or fewer for other types of institutions.

Although the number of Black or African American doctorate recipients who had earned a bachelor’s degree from a U.S. institution grew from 1,575 in 1999 to 2,210 in 2019, the number of those with a baccalaureate from a historically Black college or university (HBCU, see glossary) only grew from 493 to 508 in the same period (figure 30). As a result, the proportion of Black or African American doctorate recipients with baccalaureate degrees from HBCUs declined, both in S&E and non-S&E fields. The number of HBCUs is determined by law and generally constant over time while the overall number of Black or African American undergraduate students has increased.^{​For data on the increase of Black or African American undergraduate students over time, see National Science Board, National Science Foundation. 2019. Higher Education in Science and Engineering, table S2-7 . Science and Engineering Indicators 2020. NSB-2019-7. Alexandria, VA. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20197/. Or National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. 2019. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2019, table 5-3. NSF 19-304. Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf19304/.}

In the past 20 years, the number of Hispanic or Latino doctorate recipients who had earned a bachelor’s degree from a U.S. institution more than doubled to 2,578, and the number of those with a bachelor’s degree from a high-Hispanic-enrollment institution (HHE, see glossary) more than tripled to 939 (figure 31). Consequently, the proportion of Hispanic or Latino doctorate recipients with baccalaureates from an HHE increased, both in S&E and in non-S&E fields. Unlike HBCUs, the number of HHEs has increased over time, parallel with Hispanic or Latino undergraduate enrollment.

In most fields, the majority of doctorate recipients earned a master’s degree before their doctorate (figure 32). Doctorate recipients in the biological and biomedical sciences are the exception; 41% of those graduating in 2017–19 had earned a master’s degree on their path to the doctorate. In contrast, more than 80% of doctorate recipients in psychology and social sciences and in non-S&E fields had earned a master’s degree.

In most fields, the proportion of doctorate recipients who had earned a master’s on their way to their doctorate remained similar when compared with the proportion in the late 1990s. However, in engineering and in agricultural sciences and natural resources this proportion declined by 10%.