Graduate Degree Attainment
Survey of Earned Doctorates: Science & Engineering
Every year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) conducts the Survey of Earned Doctorates. Each person earning a research doctoral degree that year is surveyed, and among the questions asked are: 1) the field in which the doctorate was earned and 2) the baccalaureate institution that the recipient attended. The doctoral-granting institution is responsible for submitting the surveys, and NSF maintains a very robust dataset. These data are made available to the public through publications and online via the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).
The table1 below presents data for research doctorates awarded in science and engineering fields between 2010 and 2020. Graduates of each baccalaureate institution are presented as a proportion of the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in a lagged (by nine years — 2001-11) period.
Once the data are normalized in this way, Harvey Mudd College emerges as the second highest producer of doctorates in science and engineering, with a rate of 28.7%. This means that it is estimated that 28.7% of HMCs graduates from 2010-2020 went on to earn a research doctorate in a scientific or engineering field 9 years later.
| Rank | Institution | S&E Doctorate Recipients Number | S&E Doctorate Recipients Institutional Yield Ratio2 | Institutional Control | 2018 Carnegie Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California Institute of Technology | 977 | 40.9 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 2 | Harvey Mudd College | 535 | 28.7 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2309 | 17.8 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 4 | Swarthmore College | 628 | 15.7 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 5 | Reed College | 494 | 15.0 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 6 | Carleton College | 768 | 14.7 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 7 | Grinnell College | 478 | 12.1 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 8 | University of Chicago | 1462 | 12.0 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 9 | Haverford College | 367 | 11.3 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 10 | Pomona College | 471 | 11.3 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 11 | Rice University | 924 | 10.9 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 12 | Princeton University | 1353 | 10.8 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 13 | Williams College | 586 | 10.3 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 14 | Case Western Reserve University | 881 | 9.7 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 15 | Harvard University | 1864 | 9.5 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 16 | Stanford University | 1716 | 9.1 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 17 | Cornell University | 3262 | 9.0 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 18 | New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | 177 | 8.6 | Private | M3: Masters smaller |
| 19 | Yale University | 1226 | 8.4 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 20 | Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art | 183 | 8.4 | Private | Bacc Colleges: Diverse |
If we look at the baccalaureate origins of doctoral recipients from 2010-2020 by broad field of science and engineering doctorate, again HMC often appears near the top of these ranked lists in every field of study in which we offer a major. This means that HMC graduates a relatively high number of students who go on to earn doctoral degrees. The tables below break down the findings for research doctorates awarded by broad science and engineering field.
| Rank | Institution | Doctorate Recipients | Institutional Yield Ratio2 | Institution Control | 2018 Carnegie Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvey Mudd College | 137 | 7.4 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 2 | California Institute of Technology | 173 | 7.2 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 322 | 2.5 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 4 | Swarthmore College | 70 | 1.7 | Private | Bacc Colleges: A&S |
| 5 | University of Chicago | 199 | 1.6 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 6 | Carnegie Mellon University | 227 | 1.6 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 7 | Princeton University | 200 | 1.6 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 8 | Carleton College | 71 | 1.4 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 9 | Williams College | 77 | 1.3 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 10 | Reed College | 43 | 1.3 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| Rank | Institution | Doctorate Recipients | Institutional Yield Ratio2 | Institution Control | 2018 Carnegie Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California Institute of Technology | 257 | 10.7 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 2 | Harvey Mudd College | 153 | 8.2 | Private | Bacc Colleges: A&S |
| 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 834 | 6.4 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 4 | Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art | 122 | 5.6 | Private | Bacc Colleges: Diverse |
| 5 | Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | 178 | 4.2 | Private | Sp. Focus 4yr Eng |
| 6 | Case Western Reserve University | 319 | 3.5 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 7 | Colorado School of Mines | 213 | 3.4 | Private | R2: Doctoral univ. |
| 8 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | 448 | 3.4 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 9 | Illinois Institute of Technology | 142 | 3.1 | Private | R2: Doctoral univ. |
| 10 | Rice University | 225 | 3.0 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| Rank | Institution | Doctorate Recipients | Institutional Yield Ratio2 | Institution Control | 2018 Carnegie Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California Institute of Technology | 350 | 14.6 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 2 | Harvey Mudd College | 155 | 8.3 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 3 | Carleton College | 221 | 4.2 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 4 | Reed College | 111 | 3.4 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 421 | 3.2 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 6 | New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | 59 | 2.9 | Private | M3: Masters smaller |
| 7 | Haverford College | 81 | 2.5 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 8 | Swarthmore College | 98 | 2.4 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 9 | Colorado School of Mines | 148 | 2.4 | Private | R2: Doctoral univ. |
| 10 | Whitman College | 92 | 2.3 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| Rank | Institution | Doctorate Recipients | Institutional Yield Ratio2 | Institution Control | 2018 Carnegie Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California Institute of Technology | 163 | 6.8 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 2 | Reed College | 170 | 5.1 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 3 | Swarthmore College | 200 | 5.0 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 4 | Grinnell College | 188 | 4.8 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 5 | Carleton College | 242 | 4.6 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 6 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 566 | 4.4 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
| 7 | Haverford College | 132 | 4.1 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 8 | Pomona College | 169 | 4.1 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 9 | Harvey Mudd College | 72 | 3.9 | Private | Bacc Colleges:A&S |
| 10 | University of Chicago | 456 | 3.8 | Private | R1: Doctoral univ. |
1Source: Gordon, J. Einaudi, P, Kang, K: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). 2022. Baccalaureate Origins of US Research Doctorate Recipients. InfoBrief NSF 22-321. Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation.
2Because R1 doctoral universities confer so many bachelor’s degrees, rankings of baccalaureate-origins based solely on number of doctorate recipients reporting their undergraduate institutions overemphasizes larger institutions and underemphasizes smaller baccalaureate colleges. The Institutional Yield Ratio addresses this disparity. The ratio is calculated as the number of baccalaureate graduates who earned a doctorate in a given period by the number of graduates from that institution in the same time period. It is multiplied by 100 to express the term as a percentage.