The
field of choice for US doctor awardees are similar regard less of race. Non-resident alien accounted for almost 30% of the supply for higher
education instructors!
Observing of doctoral degree conferred in the United States provided us a unique look into the US higher education system. It provided implications for our future higher education system. For one, the doctors are the main source of future college instructors, and secondly, they are future leaders of our higher education institutions. They are also the main research talent that will continue to move the country forward. Lawyers also play important roles in the social justice of our society, especially in protecting minorities' legal rights.
The CL education center has just released a set of data processing reports based on the IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) 2011-12 completer survey - the analysis can be found under the section: United State's Doctor Production.
IPEDS survey classifies Doctors into 3 groups: The Research Doctors, the Professional Practice Doctors, and the Other Doctors. For non-legal, and non-medical field, the research doctors are the main source for college instructors. The professional practice doctors are mainly the lawyers, and the medical doctors, but also includes doctors that are mainly prepared for specialized career practices like ...
Total Doctor Degrees Awarded by Field of Study (CIP)
Figure 1, Doctors' field of study for each race (click to view the whole chart)
Table 1, major field of interest for each race (multiple and unknown race not displayed)
| CIP | Title | Native | AsianPI | Black | Hispanic | White | Alien |
| 11 | Computer and Info. Sci. | 0.3% | 0.8% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 4.2% |
| 13 | Education | 8.6% | 1.9% | 15.9% | 6.6% | 5.8% | 3.4% |
| 14 | Engineering | 1.6% | 3.7% | 1.4% | 2.0% | 2.4% | 24.8% |
| 22 | Legal Prof. and Studies | 37.5% | 21.2% | 29.1% | 38.8% | 30.5% | 5.7% |
| 26 | Bio and Biomedical Sci. | 3.1% | 4.1% | 2.6% | 3.7% | 4.0% | 11.2% |
| 40 | Physical Sciences | 1.3% | 1.5% | 0.9% | 1.5% | 2.4% | 11.3% |
| 42 | Psychology | 3.5% | 1.7% | 3.9% | 5.5% | 4.0% | 1.8% |
| 45 | Social Science | 1.1% | 1.0% | 1.3% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 5.9% |
| 51 | Health Professions related | 36.3% | 58.7% | 32.3% | 33.3% | 39.4% | 10.1% |
Figure 1 and Table 1 revealed that, for US citizen, almost all races are favoring Legal, and Health Professions roughly equally, except Asian Pacific Islander are skewed more toward Health Professions. Beside the point made above, in general, all races exhibit similar field-of-study pattern. The major disparities in the chart come from the non-residence alien, where the dominated field is the engineering. Their domination on physical science and biology is also noticeable.
Total Doctor Degrees Awarded by Race
Table 2, total doctor degree awarded by race
| Native | AsianPI | Black | Hispanic | White | Alien | Unknown | Mult.Rc |
| 0.5% | 9.5% | 6.1% | 5.5% | 58.8% | 11.5% | 7.3% | 0.7% |
Total Research Doctors Awarded by Race
Table 3, total research doctors awarded by race
| Native | AsianPI | Black | Hispanic | White | Alien | Unknown | Mult.Rc |
| 0.4% | 5.3% | 6.3% | 4.1% | 49.2% | 27.3% | 6.8% | 0.6% |
The research doctor degree, which mainly removed the lawyers and medical doctors from the total doctor count, awarded to non-residence alien comprise a whooping 27% of all the research doctor degree awarded. Research doctors are the major supply of teachers for our higher education system.
Table 4, research doctors awarded by fields(CIP) and by race
| CIP | Title | Native | AsianPI | Black | Hispanic | White | Alien | Unknown | Mult.Rc |
| 1 | Agriculture and Operation | 0.7% | 2.5% | 1.3% | 4.1% | 34.5% | 52.0% | 4.5% | 0.4% |
| 3 | Nature Resource and Conservation | 0.4% | 3.4% | 2.5% | 3.4% | 56.7% | 27.4% | 5.6% | 0.5% |
| 4 | Architecture | 0.0% | 17.8% | 4.0% | 3.5% | 29.2% | 37.1% | 6.4% | 2.0% |
| 5 | Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender Studies | 2.2% | 8.6% | 11.9% | 5.0% | 44.2% | 16.9% | 10.4% | 0.7% |
| 9 | Communication, Journalism | 0.7% | 2.6% | 5.7% | 2.1% | 56.3% | 25.3% | 6.9% | 0.3% |
| 10 | Communication Technologies | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 11 | Computer and Info Sci. | 0.2% | 8.3% | 2.0% | 1.2% | 33.0% | 50.4% | 4.7% | 0.2% |
| 12 | Personal and Culinary Services | ||||||||
| 13 | Education | 0.8% | 3.1% | 16.6% | 6.1% | 58.3% | 7.0% | 7.5% | 0.6% |
| 14 | Engineering | 0.2% | 7.0% | 1.7% | 2.2% | 28.2% | 56.2% | 4.2% | 0.4% |
| 15 | Engineering Technologies | 0.0% | 5.5% | 1.8% | 1.8% | 49.1% | 34.5% | 7.3% | 0.0% |
| 16 | Foreign Languages, Literatures | 0.1% | 3.6% | 1.7% | 6.6% | 47.0% | 32.4% | 8.4% | 0.3% |
| 19 | Family, Consumer Sci. | 0.3% | 3.4% | 9.1% | 2.2% | 57.2% | 25.3% | 2.2% | 0.3% |
| 22 | Legal Prof. and studies | 0.0% | 1.6% | 0.5% | 2.1% | 11.0% | 77.0% | 7.9% | 0.0% |
| 23 | English, Literature | 0.4% | 3.4% | 4.0% | 3.8% | 70.8% | 8.5% | 7.9% | 1.1% |
| 24 | Liberal Arts, Sci. General Studies | 0.0% | 4.5% | 3.4% | 1.1% | 56.8% | 12.5% | 20.5% | 1.1% |
| 25 | Library Sci. | 0.0% | 2.0% | 2.0% | 2.0% | 48.0% | 42.0% | 4.0% | 0.0% |
| 26 | Bio. Biomedical Sci. | 0.3% | 8.2% | 3.3% | 4.3% | 49.8% | 27.2% | 6.3% | 0.6% |
| 27 | Math. And Statistics | 0.3% | 5.7% | 1.4% | 1.8% | 39.4% | 46.5% | 4.7% | 0.1% |
| 28 | Military Sci. Leadership | ||||||||
| 29 | Military Tech. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 83.3% | 16.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 30 | Interdisciplinary Studies | 0.5% | 5.3% | 10.0% | 4.8% | 52.3% | 20.2% | 5.6% | 1.4% |
| 31 | Recreation, Leisure Studies | 0.4% | 1.2% | 7.0% | 2.1% | 62.8% | 24.8% | 1.2% | 0.4% |
| 32 | Basic, Remedial Education | ||||||||
| 33 | Citizenship Activities | ||||||||
| 34 | Health Knowledge and Skill | ||||||||
| 35 | Social Skills | ||||||||
| 36 | Leisure, Recreational Activities | ||||||||
| 37 | Self-Improvement | ||||||||
| 38 | Philosophy and Religious Studies | 0.1% | 2.6% | 5.4% | 2.9% | 62.5% | 18.1% | 7.5% | 1.0% |
| 39 | Theology, Religious Vocations | 0.0% | 4.7% | 10.8% | 3.3% | 61.0% | 12.6% | 7.3% | 0.2% |
| 40 | Physical Sciences | 0.2% | 4.6% | 1.7% | 2.6% | 43.7% | 40.6% | 6.2% | 0.5% |
| 41 | Science Tech. | 0.0% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 66.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 42 | Psychology | 0.6% | 4.7% | 6.7% | 8.0% | 63.1% | 6.9% | 9.0% | 0.9% |
| 43 | Protective Services | 0.0% | 3.8% | 11.5% | 3.1% | 63.4% | 12.2% | 5.3% | 0.8% |
| 44 | Public Administration | 0.4% | 4.7% | 15.1% | 5.3% | 47.2% | 17.0% | 9.7% | 0.7% |
| 45 | Social Science | 0.3% | 4.5% | 3.8% | 3.9% | 47.4% | 32.2% | 7.2% | 0.7% |
| 46 | Construction Trades | ||||||||
| 47 | Mechanic, Repair Tech. | ||||||||
| 48 | Precision Production | ||||||||
| 49 | Materials Transportation | ||||||||
| 50 | Performing Arts | 0.4% | 6.1% | 1.9% | 3.5% | 57.8% | 22.1% | 7.8% | 0.5% |
| 51 | Health Professions | 0.3% | 5.9% | 7.7% | 3.3% | 60.9% | 13.3% | 8.1% | 0.5% |
| 52 | Business, Marketing | 0.4% | 5.2% | 12.5% | 4.4% | 41.2% | 26.0% | 10.2% | 0.2% |
| 53 | Secondary Diplomas | ||||||||
| 54 | History | 0.5% | 2.6% | 4.5% | 4.5% | 64.7% | 12.3% | 9.6% | 1.2% |
| 60 | Residency Programs |
Figure 4 further breaks down the research doctors by field of study (CIP) and by race. The engineering stand out. 56% of the engineering doctor degrees were awarded to non-resident alien. Other non-resident alien heavy fields include Agriculture(52%),
Architecture(37%), Computer Sci.(50%), Engineering Tech(35%), Foreign Languages(32%), Library Sci.(42%), Math. And Statistics(47%), Physical Sciences(41%), Social Science(32%). All of these fields displayed a non-resident alien rate that is higher than the 27.3%, the average rate held by non-resident alien.
Total Research Doctors Awarded by Gender
Men(51%) and women(49%) held roughly the same share of all the research doctor degrees awarded by US institutions. The lowest fields with women recipients are Military Tech(17%), Theology(19%), Computer(20%), and Engineering(22%).
Professional Practice Doctor Degrees Awarded by Gender
In this category, men(53%) held a slightly larger share in the Legal Profession while women(57%) hold larger share in the Medical Doctor field.
