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Undergraduate Origins of Recent (1991-95) Science and Engineering Doctorate RecipientsCONTENTS |
 National Science Foundation, Undergraduate Origins of Recent (1991-95) Science and Engineering Doctorate Recipients, Detailed Statistical Tables, NSF 96-334 (Arlington, VA, 1996).
Availability of PublicationsSingle copies are available free of charge from the Division of Science Resources Studies, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA 22230. SRS data are also available through the World Wide Web (http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm). If you are a user of electronic mail and have access to Internet, you may order publications electronically. Send requests to pubs@nsf.gov. In your request include the NSF publication number and title, your name, and a complete mailing address. Printed publications may also be ordered by fax (703-644-4278). Please allow 3 weeks for delivery.
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Foreword
Jeanne E. Griffith
Director
Division of Science Resources Studies
December 1996
Acknowledgments
Tabulations and charts from the Survey of Earned Doctorates were prepared for the National Science Foundation under contract by Delores H. Thurgood and Mary Reynolds, National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. Editorial services were provided by the SRS Publications Manager, Anne M. Houghton and from Julia H. Harriston of the Publications Management Group. Andy Black provided composition and page layout services.
Currently, only about 325 universities in the United States provide doctorate-level education in science and engineering (S&E), but other institutions provide students their foundation in science or engineering:
- Almost 2,200 4-year colleges that offer undergraduate S&E degrees;
- About 1,400 2-year schools that offer S&E instruction and/or training in S&E technologies;
- Over 23,000 high schools that provide mathematics and science courses; and
- Numerous high schools, colleges, and universities in foreign countries that educate the many students who came to the United States for their graduate degrees.[1]
Given their significance, these institutions have been studied and reported on for over 50 years (see Appendix C, Bibliography). [2] This report provides additional knowledge, focusing particularly on those institutions that awarded baccalaureates to students who later received doctorates in S&E fields.
Overview
Because undergraduate education is the foundation for graduate studies, it is important to know where our Nation's S&E doctorate recipients are receiving their undergraduate training. Specifically, this report addresses the following broad questions:
- What are the undergraduate origins of S&E doctorate holders? What role do foreign institutions play?
- Which educational institutions contribute most to the undergraduate education of recent S&E doctorate recipients?
- What proportion of S&E doctorate holders had earned their baccalaureate at a doctorate granting institution?
- What roles do the various types of baccalaureate origin institutions play in S&E predoctorate education?
- What role do 2-year colleges play in the undergraduate education of persons who later earn an S&E doctorate?
- Are the top-ranking baccalaureate institutions of women and racial/ethnic minorities the same as those of men and whites?
These and related questions are explored in this report.
Definitions
Recent doctorate recipients are defined as persons who earned doctorates in S&E fields from U.S. universities in the academic years ending in June 1991 through 1995. Doctorate recipients in these five years were combined into one cohort, or unit of analysis, to minimize the possibility of overemphasizing any unusual circumstances from any single year.
The S&E fields of study, as defined by the National Science Foundation (NSF), include the natural sciences (physical sciences, biological sciences, mathematics, computer sciences), social science/psychology, and engineering. The specific fields are listed in table 1 in Appendix B, Detailed Statistical Tables. Note that engineering technology and medical degrees are not included.
A baccalaureate-origin institution is defined as the college or university from which an S&E doctorate recipient had earned a bachelor's degree. Excluded are any other undergraduate institutions that the student may have attended before receiving a baccalaureate.
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions was used to group types of institutions for this analysis. The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education has periodically (1970, 1976, 1987, and 1994) classified institutions of higher education in the United States by the range of programs and/or degrees offered, enrollment size, and amount of Federal funds received for research. The 1994 Carnegie Classification is used in this report to study the baccalaureate origins of scientists and engineers who recently received their doctorate from U.S. institutions. The changes to the 1994 Carnegie Classification were such that this analysis is not comparable to the earlier data by Carnegie Classifications in the earlier report, Undergraduate Origins of Recent Science and Engineering Doctorate Recipients(NSF 92-332). See Appendix A, Technical Notes, for more detailed information.
Source of Data
The source of the data used in this report is the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), awarded in the United States. The survey questionnaires are completed by approximately 94 to 95 percent of all doctorate recipients as they finish the requirements for their degree. A detailed description of the survey and possible sources of error are provided in Appendix A, Technical Notes.
Footnotes
[1] Data on numbers of institutions are from the National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 1995 (Washington, D. C.: Supt. of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995) p. 14.
[2] Many of the reports cited in the Bibliography focus on the "productivity" of baccalaureate institutions (i.e., the proportion of the total bachelor's degree recipients from that institution, or group of institutions, who go on to earn doctorates within a certain time frame). This approach adjusts for institutional size to some extent.
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