4 Things to Consider Before Applying to a Doctorate
By Josh Farris, Leadership Brainery
Dr. Robert W. Fernandez, Ph.D., Executive Director of Cientifico Latino, Inc. & 2024-2025 Obama USA Leader
Ph. D.s (Philosophical Doctorates) are a common graduate degree that has been granted by many colleges and universities for nearly two centuries. Beginning with the first non-honorary Ph.D conferred in 1861, Ph.D’s are now a staple of graduate education. In 2022 alone, the U.S. conferred almost 204,000 doctoral degrees (including Ph.D and professional degrees such as Medical and Law Degrees), of which approximately 57,000 were research doctoral degrees (largely Ph.D.s). Second only to Master’s degrees, Doctoral degrees have increased significantly over the past 6 decades, with almost two and a half million research doctoral degrees conferred since 1958.
A PhD in the sciences is the entryway for advanced scientific careers. Having a PhD makes you an expert in the specific subfield, which opens up the path to various scientific careers, ranging from academia to non-academic careers (biotech, consulting, science policy, patent law). For example, academic professors who lead research laboratories are required to have PhDs, those in the biotechnology industry in research positions have PhDs, and even those in the consulting sector, a PhD helps you become a proficient consultant . Furthermore, those with a PhD have higher earning potential than Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree.
Obtaining a PhD is a significant financial and time investment, starting with the costs associated with applying to PhD programs. A typical PhD application costs $100, and students reported applying to an average of six graduate schools, according to a 2023 scientific publication on graduate school admissions. This results in a total of $600 that students must pay for one graduate school application round. Lastly, while universities offer fee waivers for financial hardship, they are not guaranteed.
For example, Yale University's fee waiver focuses on providing waivers to individuals with special program status, such as AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, US Federal Pell Grant Recipients, and US Veterans or Active-Duty Personnel, as well as those under financial hardship. Given the current political climate, universities have adjusted their criteria for granting fee waivers, previously offered to groups serving students of color.
In addition to application fees, students must also consider the costs of taking standardized tests, such as the GRE ($220), as well as the cost of sending GRE scores to six universities ($240 for six schools). That is a ~$1000 investment to apply to graduate school programs in the sciences. In this current academic landscape, entry to a PhD has become more challenging with universities cutting PhD program spots, such as University of Southern California, University of Chicago, Harvard University, universities may start to require the GRE again as the case of the University of California, San Diego Bioscience PhD Program, which may be comply ahead of time with the current administration’s compact call although the GRE is no indicator of graduate school success.
Thus, while pursuing a PhD can be rewarding, it is a long-term commitment, both in terms of time and money. In this article, we analyze data from the 2024 Survey of Earned Doctorates, a census of approximately 58,000 research doctoral (Ph.D. and Ed.D.) graduates. Our findings reveal several challenges or barriers that students may encounter in pursuing a research doctoral degree and that they should consider before applying.
Finding One: Doctoral Degrees Take A Long Time with Low Pay
As seen in the graph of median time to research doctorates, the median time is 8 to 15.6 years since starting graduate school and 5 to 5.9 years since starting their doctorate. Furthermore, graduate students have a low salary, as seen by this dataset of Biology PhD stipends, showing that the graduate student stipend is lower than the living wage in some areas. Having a low living wage also has adverse health outcomes. Thus, it may contribute to the increase in mental health problems in PhD students, as shown by this review of poor mental health in PhD students. It is no surprise that PhD students report an increase in mental health care utilization. Finally, graduate students also do not have access to employer-based retirement plans, as mentioned in the Stanford Daily and a MIT blog post. The time they spend in graduate school is time they lose out on employee-based retirement plan benefits.
Finding Two: Doctoral Degrees Can Be A Costly Financial Investment
Another barrier to entry into a PhD program is the cost of relocating to the PhD program, as different universities in the sciences offer varying relocation packages, such as those at Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University. However, this varies per PhD program. Considering the low PhD stipends, relocation costs, and other educational expenses in graduate school, pursuing a PhD requires a significant financial investment in pursuing a PhD.
As seen in the graph below, doctorate recipients in science and engineering reported no education-related debt. This may be due to the primary sources of funding for doctoral recipients, which include teaching and research assistantships, fellowships, their own resources, and employer support. This is true across all fields, not just the sciences. However, if we examine education-related debt by race in the third and fourth graphs below, a different story emerges.
Graduate education-related debt for domestic research doctorate recipients is greater than $30,000 and $70,000, which disproportionately affects Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native recipients, compared to White and Asian groups. This finding is supported by a report from RTI International that reported that “Black or Hispanic STEM PhDs borrowed more than $40,000 in federal loans for their graduate education”. Furthermore, the primary source of financial support for research doctorate recipients, including those who are Black or African American, is their own resources.
Even after obtaining a PhD, it is generally recognized that postdoctoral training is required for most faculty positions, which lasts around 3-5 years. However, even as a postdoctoral scientist, the median annual salary in the sciences is $63,000, as seen by the graph below. It is no surprise that there has been a decline in scientists moving towards postdoctoral positions in neurosciences and moving to non-academic careers.
It is no surprise that PhD students have low graduation rates, as reported in the Reporting of Doctoral Student Attrition. These financial and time commitments play a role in the disparity in research doctorate recipients, as evidenced by the low numbers of Black or African American (8.1%) and Hispanic or Latino doctorate recipients (10.2%) in 2024, as shown in the figure below.
Finding Three: Those who complete a Doctoral Degree are More Likely to Have Parents with Graduate Degrees
Ph.D. recipients are more likely to come from families with advanced degrees. The first chart below shows that, among those surveyed in the 2024 Survey of Earned Doctorates, nearly 44% had at least one parent with a graduate degree, compared to over one-quarter of recipients who had at least one parent with a bachelor's degree. The remaining 29% of respondents were first-generation college students.
As seen in the graph below, parents with graduate degrees were more prominent in both science and engineering fields, as well as in non-science and non-engineering fields. The only exception among the fields we studied was in Education, where the number of doctoral recipients who were first-generation college students exceeded those who had at least one parent with a graduate degree.
Interestingly, when we disaggregate by citizenship status, we find that the distribution of parental education attainment is much more even amongst temporary visa holders. Doctoral Recipients who are also U.S. Citizens or permanent residents, on the other hand, show a significantly higher level of parental education attainment. Amongst this group, almost half of doctoral recipients come from graduate-educated families.
When examining parental education attainment by race, we find that Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic/Latino doctoral recipients were more likely than the overall average to be first-generation college students compared to their White and Asian counterparts. Over half of White recipients had parents with graduate degrees, and only ~22% were first-generation college students.
The dominance of doctoral recipients coming from highly educated families is not surprising. Recent research has suggested a correlation between a child's graduate school enrollment and their parents' educational attainment level, particularly among Ph.D. and professional degree students (e.g., Law & Medicine). Data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates support this research, at least showing that those who complete a Ph.D. are more likely to come from parents with a graduate degree.
AccessLex released a report (pages 10-11) that also has data that shows the overrepresentation of students who have parents with a graduate degree in many graduate fields (including Ph.D’s), most prominently in Law and Medicine. Interestingly, they also show data on the number of Pell recipients (a proxy for low-income status) who enter into various fields. Looking at Ph.D and other doctoral degrees, only 37% received a Pell degree in 2019-2020.
Faculty (a common career path for those holding a Ph.D.) are up to 25 times more likely to have a parent with a Ph.D than the general population. Moreover, almost 52% of faculty members have at least one parent with an advanced degree.
Taken together, the data suggest that having a parent with a graduate degree may be advantageous in enrollment and/or completion of a Ph.D.
Finding Four: Surprisingly, A For-Profit University Dominates the List of Doctoral Degree Recipients for Students of Color
Among the top-10 doctorate-granting institutions in 2024 (by number of Ph.D. recipients conferred), all but one were public universities. Walden University, an online for-profit university, was the 6th highest producer of doctorates overall in the U.S., ranking just below the University of California, Berkeley.
While it ranks 6th overall, when we disaggregate by race, we see that this university ranks high among Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Black Doctoral Recipients (U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents only). These graphs are all 5-year aggregates (2020-2024).
The most striking graph is for Black recipients. From 2020 to 2024, Walden University was the top doctorate-granting university in terms of the number of Black Ph.D. students, outnumbering the prominent HBCU, Howard University, by almost a factor of six.
It should be noted that Walden settled a $28.5 million lawsuit last year over allegations that the university misled students (particularly Black and female students) over the cost of one of its doctoral programs.
Where you attend your program can impact your costs (and thus overall outcomes post-graduation). Many Ph.D. programs offer full funding, but overall, attending a public university (particularly for in-state students) is generally more affordable than attending a private university. As seen from the litigation with Walden, attending a for-profit university can pose additional challenges for doctoral students, and the institution itself can pose as a barrier.
Overall, pursuing and obtaining a Ph.D. can be a very rewarding experience. Doctoral holders have an expertise in a field, gain strong research, writing, and critical thinking skills, hold status as faculty at many universities, and generally earn strong wages.
However, obtaining a Ph.D. is not without its risks. As seen in some of the data we reported from the 2024 Survey of Earned Doctorates, there are many factors to consider before pursuing a Ph.D. Of all the graduate degrees, they are the longest to complete, can be very isolating, and can be financially costly to pursue. The outcomes can be based on a variety of factors, including Race, Citizenship, Socioeconomic status, and the type of institution attended.
With these factors combined with the high attrition rate of Ph. D.s, we offer some recommendations based on the data presented here to help bolster the outcomes of Doctoral Recipients (and completion rates):
Remove Pre-Enrollment Barriers-Considering that Ph.D. recipients come from highly educated families with more resources, we recommend universities make Ph.D. applications free, provide test fee waivers (or not require them), support students with relocation for their programs, and consider factors beyond research experience for low-resource students who did not have access to research opportunities. Alternatively, fund post-baccalaureate or graduate-readiness programs that help students gain research experience before enrolling in a graduate program.
Provide Adequate, Livable Stipends-Enrolling in a Ph.D. is a long-term commitment, one in which individuals are foregoing wages or salaries for a significant period. Student stipends should be adequate and sufficient for those who take the risk of enrolling. Without adequate financial support, a Ph.D. will remain accessible only to upper-income families or those with parents who can support them during this arduous process.
Oversight of Programs-We also recommend that policymakers provide guidance and oversight of doctoral programs to prevent institutions (particularly for-profits) from misleading students (who often come from less educated families).
Fund Federal Graduate Access Programs-Providing information for students before they begin their search is ideal. One option could be to expand TRIO McNair grants or similar programs at more institutions (and thus more prospective students). This federal program provides students with guidance and support as they navigate the Ph.D. admissions process.
Taken together, these findings make it clear that the path to a doctorate is shaped long before a student ever sets foot on campus. When nearly half of Ph.D. recipients come from graduate-educated families, the system is signaling who it was built to serve. Add in the outsized role of institutional type, including the risks posed by for-profit providers, and the picture becomes even sharper: access, affordability, and informed decision-making profoundly influence who completes these degrees and thrives beyond graduation. Strengthening oversight, lowering pre-enrollment barriers, and ensuring meaningful financial support aren’t optional tweaks; they're essential steps toward making doctoral education a genuinely accessible opportunity.