Report

The parents of recent doctorate recipients are better educated than the parents of earlier doctorate cohorts. The proportion of doctorate recipients from families in which neither parent has earned more than a high school diploma declined in the past 20 years, and the proportion of those with at least one parent with some college stayed flat. In contrast, during the same period, the proportions of doctorate recipients with at least one parent holding a bachelor’s degree or at least one parent holding an advanced degree both increased (figure 13).

Between 2001 and 2021, the pattern of rising parental educational attainment is visible among all races and ethnicities for doctorate recipients who were U.S. citizens or permanent residents (figure 14).

Nonetheless, a smaller proportion of doctorate recipients who are underrepresented minorities—Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and American Indian or Alaska Native—had at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree than did Asian or White doctorate recipients. In 2021, 78% of Asian and 75% of White doctorate recipients had at least one parent who held a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with between 47% and 59% of doctorate recipients who were Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, or American Indian or Alaska Native.

In 2021, 35% of doctorate recipients were primarily supported by research assistantships or traineeships; 24% by fellowships, scholarships, or dissertation grants; and 21% 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, such as employer reimbursement and foreign support (figure 15).

Doctorate recipients’ primary sources of financial support vary by field. In 2021, research assistantships were the most common primary source of financial support for doctorate recipients in engineering, computer and information sciences, physical sciences, and agricultural sciences and natural resources. In mathematics and statistics, teaching assistantships were most frequent. Fellowships, scholarships, or dissertation grants and research assistantships or traineeships were the most common for doctoral students in biological and biomedical sciences. Over a third of doctorate recipients in health sciences and a third of those in psychology relied on their own resources as their primary source of financial support. In social sciences, doctorate recipients most commonly reported their primary source was either fellowships, scholarships, or dissertation grants (32%) or teaching assistantships (32%) (figure 16).

The amount of education-related debt incurred by doctorate recipients during graduate school is an indicator of the availability of financial support and the affordability of graduate education.^{​For a detailed discussion on other aspects of education-related debt, see “Education-Related Debt” in National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). 2019. Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities 2018. NSF 20-301. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf20301/report.} In 2021, large majorities (73% and above) of doctorate recipients in physical sciences; computer and information sciences; mathematics and statistics; engineering; geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences; multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary sciences; and agricultural sciences and natural resources reported holding no debt related to their graduate education (figure 17). These are also fields that tend to receive the support of the federal government and academic institutions in the form of research assistantships or traineeships; fellowships, scholarships, or dissertation grants; or teaching assistantships.^{​For more data on the primary sources of financial support of doctorate recipients by field, see figure 16 in this report and SED 2021 related detailed table 4-1.} In social sciences, health sciences, and in non-S&E fields, the proportion of doctorate recipients with no debt ranged between 53% and 63%; in psychology, it was 48%.

Within each broad field of study, 5%–8% 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 psychology (38%), health sciences (33%), and non-S&E fields (29%).

In 2021, doctorate recipients in three of the S&E fields with the lowest median education-related cumulative debt—computer and information sciences, engineering, and physical sciences—had the highest median expected annual salaries. In these fields, median expected salaries at graduation were more than triple the median cumulative debt (figure 18).

In contrast, doctorate recipients in psychology and non-S&E fields reported among the lowest median expected annual salaries. In psychology, the median cumulative debt was $22,000 higher than the median expected salary at graduation. And in non-S&E fields, the median cumulative debt was $2,500 higher than median expected salary.