Currently Skimming:
Characteristics of Doctorate Recipients
Characteristics of Doctorate Recipients
Pages 28-75
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 28... ...
citizen. The proportion varies profoundly by field: foreign citizenship is highest in male-dominated agricultural sciences (33 percent)
|
From page 29... ...
Field switching, for the doctorate-bound population, results principally in flows from mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, the agricultural sciences, and the humanities to the biosciences, the earth sciences, and education. The other fields are in relatively close balance overall, but for the women there is a particularly strong movement out of the professions1 and the medical sciences.2 In this report each field is considered in terms of its donor/receptor characteristics: the extent to which it "donates" its baccalaureate recipients to the various "receptor" fields at the doctoral level.
|
From page 30... ...
Additionally, means and medians, by cohort and sex, are given. The data on mean educational levels from this table are plotted in Figure 24, which also shows comparable data for the educational levels of the parents of PhD's, for the birth cohorts for which data are available.
|
From page 31... ...
PhD's averaged just under high school graduation as their highest level of educational attainment."4 Meanwhile, ''Parents of U.S. natives only are included here, both because of the difficulty in equating educational levels across cultural lines and because of field and cohort differences in percentage of persons of foreign origins.
|
From page 32... ...
» -- i ui ui o tr 6 The U.S. mean educational level has increased steadily; the median jumped quickly after 1900, as "typical school leaving" responded to compulsory education laws I I I I 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1938 YEAR OF BIRTH SOURCE: U.S.
|
From page 33... ...
Figure 26 shows frequency diagrams of the percentage of the population, by sex, at each educational level recorded in the census statistics, for selected birth cohorts, from those born between 1876 and 1885 to those born between 1936 and 1940. The peaks of the distributions shift, in the first 2 decades of the twentieth century, from eighth grade to twelfth grade.
|
From page 34... ...
The changes over time in educational attainment are not as easy to see in Figure 26 as in the next graphs, which show time changes in the various levels of educational attainment. The proportion of the population which has had no formal education decreases, for both men and women, from about 10 percent to about 1 percent in Figures 27 and 28, which are taken from the data of Table 9.
|
From page 35... ...
, the proportion of men is almost 10 percent; for women it is only slightly over 3 percent. The curves for all educational levels progress rather smoothly, with the exception of the very rapid shift in high school graduations after 1900.
|
From page 36... ...
PERCENTILE NORMS OF EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT Up to this point, we have considered means/ medians, frequency distributions, and growth curves of the educational levels of the general population. In order to put the data into a form that will facilitate comparison with the educational spectrum of the fathers of PhD's, Figure 27 has been recast into percentile terms, with one percentile curve for each birth cohort, in Figure 29.
|
From page 37... ...
Male Population Born 1906-1915 Equivalent birth cohorts of the general male population and the fathers of I'hD's are close together at the lower educational levels, diverge at higher levels 99.5 99 98 95 90 70 50 30 10 5 2 1 0.5 PERCENT BELOW INDICATED GRADE LEVEL (Note Normal Probability Spacing) SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources FIGURE 30 Educational attainment of fathers of PhD's, by birth cohort, compared with the norms of Figure 29.
|
From page 38... ...
SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources FIGURE 31 Comparison of educational attainment spectra of males and females in general population and parents of PhD's. SEX DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT To summarize the comparison of the data on parents of PhD's as compared to the general population, and to present data for both males and females, Figure 31 shows four percentile curves.
|
From page 39... ...
15.70 16.14 15.78 * 15.79 16.21 15.89 • 15.70 16.11 15.77 90 PCTILE 16.92 17.37 16.98 • 17.05 17.50 17.11 • 17.18 17.77 17.29 • 17.32 17.89 17.46 • 17.16 17.75 17.27 N = number of cases; VI = vertical percentage on known total; V3C = cumulative percentage; V2 » percent of grand total.
|
From page 40... ...
16.18 16.40 16.22 » 16.22 16.48 16.28 * 16.16 16.41 16.20 N = number of cases; VI - vertical percentage on known total; V3C - cumulative percentage; V2 = percent of grand total.
|
From page 41... ...
Figure 32 shows the data on fathers' education for a set of these fields; Figure 33 shows corresponding data with respect to the educational levels of the mothers. The general average of all fields is shown for reference, as a heavy line in each figure.
|
From page 42... ...
An exception to the convergence of field lines is that for education. Both the fathers and the mothers of those who attain doctorates in education are at a much lower educational level than the parents of doctorate recipients in the sciences and humanities.
|
From page 43... ...
nor are the trends as chaotic Education 9 1935 I I I I I I I 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1964 1967 1970 1973 YEAR OF GRADUATION SOURCE: NRC. Commission on Human Resources FIGURE 33 Field differences in educational level of mothers of PhD's.
|
From page 44... ...
02 13.53 13.62 13.07 13.31 Medical sciences Male 11.36 11.38 11.94 11.75 12.10 12. 10 12.35 12.48 12.02 12.02 Female 12.75 12.32 12.44 12.57 12.53 12.
|
From page 45... ...
. TETRAD PATTERNS Figure 34 illustrates the pattern of mean educational levels of parents of PhD's, that is, of fathers and mothers of male and female PhD's; hence the brief term "tetrad patterns." The overall pattern, for all fields combined, is rather constant across the four cohorts illustrated, but it is definitely not the characteristic pattern for each field separately.
|
From page 46... ...
There does not appear to be any intergenerational point at which one can say that aspiration to the doctorate is triggered, but rather there seems to be a regular tendency for a higher proportion of the children to seek further education as the educational level of the parents rises. As noted earlier, the time lag of the general educational level of the population
|
From page 47... ...
CITIZENS AMONG U.S. PhD's, 1960-1974, BY FIELD AND COHORT Hen Women Both Sexes Combined 1960-1964 1965-1969 1970-1974 Total 1960-1964 1965-1969 1970-1974 Total 1960-1964 1965-1969 1970-1974 Total Mathematics 16.3 15.0 20.4 17.8 15.0 21.1 21.0 20.2 16.2 15.3 20.4 17.9 Physics 14.3 15.3 21.2 17.6 29.6 29.3 40.8 35.9 14.5 15.6 21.9 18.1 Chemistry 12.1 13.1 17.0 14.4 21.6 24.9 29.4 26.5 12.6 13.9 18.2 15.3 Earth sciences 16.0 18.4 20.5 18.8 16.7 20.4 16.7 17.8 16.0 18.5 20.3 18.7 Engineering 21.4 23.7 34.0 28.0 58.1 43.8 45.8 47.1 21.6 23.8 34.1 28.1 EMP TOTAL 16.3 18.2 25.2 20.9 22.7 25.3 29.2 27.0 16.5 18.4 25.4 21.1 Agricultural sciences 25.9 32.0 36.0 32.6 67.7 61.4 51.6 55.5 26.5 32.5 36.6 33.1 Medical sciences 19.3 22.2 22.6 21.9 23.9 22.6 16.9 19.1 19.7 22.3 21.6 21.5 Biosciences 16.8 16.7 15.4 16.1 15.6 15.2 14.3 14.8 16.7 16.4 15.2 15.9 LIFE SCIENCE TOTAL 19.4 20.7 21.1 20.6 17.9 17.1 16.4 16.8 19.2 20.2 20.4 20.1 Psychology 4.7 4.5 5.2 4.8 6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2 4.9 4.9 5.4 5.2 Social sciences 18.6 19.9 19.4 19.4 12.3 11.3 11.8 11.7 18.1 19.0 18.2 18.4 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE TOTAL 12.7 13.8 14.0 13.7 8.3 8.2 8.6 8.4 12.1 12.9 12.9 12.8 SCIENCE TOTAL 16.2 17.8 21.3 19.1 14.5 14.9 14.7 14.7 16.1 17.6 20.5 18.7 Humanities 5.8 8.0 8.9 8.0 6.7 8.4 9.1 8.6 6.0 8.1 8.9 8.1 Professions 12.3 14.0 15.6 14.5 15.1 15.6 10.1 12.6 12.7 14.2 14.9 14.3 Education 5.0 4.9 5.8 5.4 6.3 6.1 5.0 5.5 5.2 5.2 5.6 5.4 NONSCIENCE TOTAL 6.2 7.2 8.1 7.5 7.2 7.8 7.0 7.2 6.4 7.3 7.8 7.4 GRAND TOTAL 13.0 14.3 16.4 15.1 10.4 10.9 10.2 10.5 12.7 13.9 15.3 14.4 SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources.
|
From page 48... ...
The same is true, although to a lesser extent, in the other fields of physical science and medical sciences. Another sex difference is the fact that, except for physics and chemistry, the proportion of foreign citizens among the women has increased slightly, or not at all, and in some cases has decreased.
|
From page 49... ...
One of the factors to be remembered in all of these data is that there is a correlation between racial/ethnic identification and foreign citizenship: the foreign citizen PhD's include a lower percentage of whites and higher percentages of the minority groups, with the exception of American Indians. This affects particularly those applied science fields of engineering, agricultural sciences, and medical sciences, which are relatively more important to the developing countries; these countries also have a smaller percentage of whites than does the United States.
|
From page 50... ...
The American Indians are low in the EMP fields, except the earth sciences, and high on education, although not to the extent that characterizes the black population. The fourth column combines Spanish Americans, Mexican Americans, and Chicanos, and the fiftii column the other Spanish-speaking group, Puerto Ricans.
|
From page 51... ...
The natural sciences combined claim over threefourths of the Oriental group; the remaining fields are correspondingly depleted in terms of percent as compared with the total of all racial/ ethnic groups, particularly in psychology and education -- two fields in which the cultural component is very high. The column labeled "other" usually does not deviate very far from the total of all groups, but is a bit high in mathematics, physics, engineering, agricultural sciences, and medical sciences and relatively low in the fields most closely tied to the American culture.
|
From page 52... ...
1 I N on sciences, Total GRAND TOTAL OF ALL FIELDS . t 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 20 25 30 35 40 45 a AGE AT GRADUATION SOURCE: NRC, Comm.ss.on on Human Resources FIGURE 36 Age distributions at baccalaureate and doctorate.
|
From page 53... ...
Dev. 25th Percentile 50th Percentile 75th Percentile 90th Percentile Men Women Men Women Men Women Mm Women Man Women Men Women Mathematics 29.7 30.6 4.37 5.64 26.6 26.7 28.6 28.9 31.5 32.9 35.2 38.5 Physics 29.8 29.7 3.87 3.85 27.2 26.9 28.9 28.8 31.3 31.2 34.6 34.6 Chemistry 29.1 29.7 3.86 4.78 26.5 26.6 28.1 28.3 30.6 31.1 33.8 36.0 Earth science 31.8 32.3 5.09 6.02 28.2 28.0 30.6 30.4 34.1 36.0 38.6 41.8 Engineering 31.1 30.8 4.89 4.73 27.7 27.7 29.9 29.4 33.2 32.8 37.5 37.0 EMP TOTAL 30.2 30.1 4.52 5.00 27.1 26.7 29.1 28.7 32.1 31.7 36.1 37.0 Agricultural science 32.5 32.1 5.34 5.85 28.6 28.2 31.2 30.7 35.1 34.1 39.8 39.1 Medical science 32.5 35.4 5.44 8.12 28.6 28.7 31.3 32.8 35.2 41.1 39.8 47.8 Biosciences 31.0 31.3 4.71 6.07 27.7 27.1 29.8 29.3 33.0 33.5 37.1 40.1 LIFE SCIENCE TOTAL 31.5 31.8 5.00 6.42 27.9 27.3 30.3 29.5 33.7 34.3 38.2 41.5 Psychology 31.1 33.1 5.33 7.53 27.3 27.5 29.5 30.5 33.2 37.1 38.2 44.7 Social science 33.0 34.6 6.14 7.74 28.6 28.7 31.5 32.2 35.8 38.9 41.8 46.4 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE TOTAL 32.3 33.7 5.92 7.65 28.0 28.0 30.7 31.2 34.9 37.9 40.5 45.6 SCIENCE TOTAL 31.0 32.4 5.09 6.96 26.7 27.9 30.2 30.5 33.6 35.8 38.2 39.0 Hunanities 33.6 35.5 6.26 8.11 29.1 29.3 32.1 33.1 36.6 40.0 42.4 47.6 Professions 35.2 39.3 6.82 8.58 30.1 32.1 33.5 38.8 38.9 45.4 44.6 51.2 Education 37.6 40.5 6.93 8.50 32.2 33.6 36.6 39.9 42.1 46.6 47.4 52.3 NONSCIENCE TOTAL 35.8 38.3 6.93 8.69 30.5 31.0 34.5 36.9 39.8 44.3 45.6 50.8 GRAND TOTAL 32.7 35.8 6.22 8.51 28.1 28.9 31.0 33.4 35.6 41.4 41.7 48.5 SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources.
|
From page 54... ...
BACCALAUREATE-TO-DOCTORATE TIME LAPSE As we have seen, the primary determiner of age at doctorate is the time lapse between the baccalaureate and doctorate degrees, although age at BA is also a contributing factor. This time lapse, and that portion of it represented by time registered in graduate school, has been the subject of a number of studies, including the previous volume in this series, Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities, published by the NAS in 1967.
|
From page 55... ...
The fourth period is the most recent 15 years, which has been examined in some detail in previous sections. As in the previous tables relating to age, sex differences are evident, and time trends in these differences are of some interest.
|
From page 56... ...
w 40 o z cc o a: 20 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 YEAR OF DOCTORATE GRADUATION SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources FIGURE 38 Isochrons of BA-to-PhD time lapse: chemistry.
|
From page 57... ...
The Life Sciences Similar data are provided for the life sciences in Figures 39 and 40. The life sciences as a group have been slower than the EMP fields and faster than the behavioral sciences in time lapse and were powerfully affected by World War II.
|
From page 58... ...
Commiiiion on Human Resources FIGURE 42 Isochrons of BA-to-PhD time lapse: education.
|
From page 59... ...
In the EMP field group, engineering PhD's with 89.5 percent for men and 87.1 percent for women is highest in percentage of master's degrees, followed by mathematics (78.9 percent and 85.3 percent) , earth sciences (78.0 percent and 74.5 percent)
|
From page 60... ...
Higher percentages of women than men have master's degrees in mathematics, physics, and chemistry; in the earth sciences and engineering, a higher percentage of women have master's degrees. Within the life sciences group, the agricultural sciences lead by a wide margin, 90.3 percent of the men and 86.7 percent of the women having master's degrees.
|
From page 61... ...
Over the past 15 years mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, the agricultural sciences, and the humanities have been donor fields, inasmuch as a substantial portion of those who earn baccalaureates in these fields switch to other fields for their doctorate degrees. Receptor fields include the earth sciences, biosciences, and education.
|
From page 62... ...
Thus, physics, chemistry, mathematics, the biosciences, and psychology show declining trends. The fields with ascending curves are the earth sciences, the agricultural sciences, and the medical sciences; perhaps the employment and career opportunities in these fields have been relatively better than in the remaining groups.
|
From page 63... ...
Commission on Human Resources FIGURE 45 Relative frequency of PhD field at discipline destinations for various BA field sources. better.
|
From page 64... ...
fs. IX rH rH • 41 Ul ^ O 00 in Oft r: >hD FIELD SWITCHING, 1960 a (M rn m o rn number of cases; H = horizon CE: NRC, Commission on Huma £ m rH Ul 0)
|
From page 65... ...
but the patterns are varied Bio Hum Hum Chem Hum SS Engr Bio Chem Hum Engr -- Phys -- Engr Agr Prof Engr SS Psy Phys SS Prof Math Engr Chem Educ SS Educ Educ Math Bio Math Math Educ Bio Med Psy ~ Chem Agr Educ Hum Prof ^ Educ Prof Med Math Phys Hum Bio P.T Math Hum Hum SS eauc SS Math Chem Chem Chem Med P«V Engr Engr Math Agr Hum Bio Agr Engr f'°' Engr Chem -Math M*
|
From page 66... ...
A certain degree of ambiguity attends this finding, however, since the coding of foreign pre-PhD degrees in this field involves some uncertainty and in the early 1960's MD degrees were coded here in a combined "baccalaureate and first professional" category. The biosciences have a high retention rate, but still about 8 percent go into education at the doctorate level, followed by 5 percent each to the agricultural sciences and the medical sciences, and 2 percent to psychology.
|
From page 67... ...
The ambiguities in the medical sciences as a first-level field do not apply at the doctorate. This field includes veterinary medicine, parasitology, pharmacology, pharmacy, pathology, environmental health, public health and epidemiology, hospital administration, and nursing, as well as "other" and "general." It is not surprising, therefore, that the source fields for the medical sciences are diverse: 11 percent come from chemistry, 23 percent from the biosciences, 3 percent each from the agricultural sciences and the humanities, 2 percent each from psychology, the social sciences, and education, and 1 percent each from physics, engineering, and the professions.
|
From page 68... ...
1970 Population by Census Region (in thousands) New England Middle Atlantic East North Central West North Central South Atlantic 11,842 37.199 40.252 16.319 30.671 12.803 19,321 8.282 26^23 203,212 SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources FIGURE 47 The nine census regions of the United States.
|
From page 69... ...
That is, the tendency to "donate" relatively more men than women is stronger in the central regions and the Pacific Coast, while the East Coast and the Rocky Mountain States have a stronger tendency to "donate" women destined for the doctorate degree. This may be in part a result of field differences that have not been examined, since there are substantial sex and regional differences in the field mix at both the baccalaureate and doctorate levels, and they may be related in such a way as to produce the sex differences that have been noted in the donor/receptor ratios.
|
From page 71... ...
Mtn WSC Mtn WSC WNC MA SA WNC SA Mtn WNC WMC WSC NE WNC PK NE NE NE -- Mtn Mtn Mtn Mtn WSC ESC WSC WSC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources FIGURE 48 Graph of baccalaureate regional "donor" percentages. REGIONAL DONOR PERCENTAGE DIAGRAMS To provide a visual picture of the regional interchanges.
|
From page 72... ...
are heavier then from BA to PhD IMtn) -- but have similar patterns -- MA ENC SA WSC Pec -- WNC ESC Mm NE ENC ENC MA ENC Pec MA SA Pec MA ENC ENC ENC ENC ENC ENC Pec SA NE SA PAC MA WSC ENC NE SA Pec SA WNC PK Mm WNC NE MA WNC Mtn MA Pec WNC SA WSC NE Pec SA WSC MA ESC Pec MA WNC MA NE WSC Mtn NE 5A ESC WSC Mm WSC Pec WNC SA WNC SA WNC WNC NE WNC NE MA NE Mtn ESC Mtn Mm WSC Mtn Mtn NE WSC WSC WSC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC SOURCE: NRC.
|
From page 73... ...
p SA Pac WSC WNC WNC MA WNC Pac WSC ESC Mtn Pac Pac SA WNC NE SA Mtn NE SA - wsc Mtn ESC NE NE WSC Mm WSC. Mtn Mtn Pac ESC ESC Mtn ESC ESC SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources FIGURE SO PhD regional "receptor" percentages from each region of baccalaureate.
|
From page 74... ...
each region's NE ^ F hD'j originate primarily in its own high schools MA MA Foreign Foreign Foreign Foreign MA Foreign ENC Foreign SA Foreign WNC ENC ENC Foreign Pac Foreign MA ENC ENC WSC ENC Foreign MA WNC -- MA Pac -- ENC WNC ENC MA WNC SA NE ENC WSC -SA Pac ESC MA ESC WSC WNC Mtn NE SA WSC Pac MF SA Pac NE WSC WNC - WNC WNC Mtn Pac Mtn SA NE ESC WSC SA WNC ESC SA Pac Pac Mtn NE WSC WSC Mtn NE NE Mtn ESC Pac NE ESC WSC Mtn ESC Mtn Mtn ESC ESC SOURCE: NRC, Commission on Human Resources FIGURE 51 PhD regional "receptor" percentages from each region of high school. fourth of their number to the East North Central region, one-fifth to the Middle Atlantic, onesixth to the Pacific region, and less than 10 percent to each of the other regions.
|
From page 75... ...
New England receives 35 percent of its PhD's from New England undergraduate sources, 20 percent from the Middle Atlantic colleges and universities, 15 percent from foreign sources, a bit over 10 percent from the East North Central region, and so on down the column. The Middle Atlantic States, shown in the second column, get half their doctorates from Middle Atlantic undergraduate schools, 15 percent from foreign sources, and less than 10 percent from any of the other regions.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.