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 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, the proportions of doctorate recipients with at least one parent holding a bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree increased in the past 20 years (figure 13). Between 2020 and 2021, there was an uptick in the proportion of doctorate recipients with a parent holding an advanced degree and a decrease among those whose parents either earned no more than a high school degree or earned a bachelor’s degree. However, by 2022, the proportions reverted to proportions closer to 2020.

Between 2002 and 2022, the pattern of rising parental educational attainment was visible among all races and ethnicities for doctorate recipients who were U.S. citizens or permanent residents, with the largest increases among Black or African American (12 percentage points) and White (10 percentage points) doctorate recipients (figure 14). While parental educational attainment increased over the past 20 years, as of 2022 it was still uneven across groups. In 2022, 78% of White and 76% of Asian doctorate recipients had at least one parent who held a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with between 51% and 56% of doctorate recipients who were Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, or American Indian or Alaska Native.

Most doctorate recipients received some type of funding in the pursuit of their degree. In 2022, 35% 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—such as loans, personal savings, personal earnings, and the earnings or savings of their spouse, partner, or family—to finance their doctoral studies; 4% relied on other sources, such as employer reimbursement and foreign support (figure 15).

Doctorate recipients’ primary sources of financial support vary by broad S&E field. In 2022, research assistantships were the most common primary source of financial support for doctorate recipients in engineering; computer and information sciences; agricultural sciences and natural resources; multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary sciences; physical sciences; and geosciences, atmospheric, and ocean sciences (figure 16). In mathematics and statistics, teaching assistantships were the most frequent source of financial support. Fellowships, scholarships, or dissertation grants and research assistantships or traineeships were about as common for doctoral students in biological and biomedical sciences. About a third of doctorate recipients in health sciences and in psychology relied on their own resources as their primary source of financial support. For social sciences doctorate recipients, the most reported primary sources of financial support were teaching assistantships or fellowships, scholarships, or dissertation grants.

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 2022, large majorities (80% and above) of doctorate recipients in mathematics and statistics; computer and information sciences; physical sciences; geosciences, atmospheric, and ocean sciences; engineering; biological and biomedical sciences; and multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary sciences reported holding no debt related to their graduate education (figure 17). Over 85% of the doctorate recipients in these fields received support 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 2022 related detailed table 4-1.} In agricultural sciences, natural resources, and conservation; social sciences; health sciences; psychology; and in non-S&E fields, the proportion of doctorate recipients with no debt ranged between 51% and 73%. Within each of these broad fields, between 4% and 8% of doctorate recipients had incurred low levels of graduate debt ($10,000 or less). The shares of doctoral recipients with graduate debt burdens over $30,000 were greatest in psychology (36%), health sciences (29%), and non-S&E fields (27%).

In 2022, 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.^{​This statement refers to debt-holding doctorate recipients with definite non-postdoc employment commitments in the United States.} In these fields, median expected salaries at graduation were more than four times 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 $18,000 higher than the median expected salary at graduation. In non-S&E fields, the median cumulative debt was $5,000 lower than the median expected salary.