Report on Incoming Doctoral Students

The 2016-2017 APSA Graduate Placement Survey: Incoming Students Report analyzes incoming doctoral students in the 2016-2017 academic year. It includes the characteristics of job candidates, reported levels of funding, and the years of guaranteed funding these incoming students received.

Incoming doctoral students in 2016-2017 display more diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, and home country than doctoral students currently on the market. The proportion of incoming doctoral students receiving full funding in 2016-2017 was 88.2%, with 4.3% receiving partial funding and 6.6% receiving no funding. The median guaranteed years of funding for incoming students was 5-years. Funding appears to vary by a number of contributing factors, with notable findings including that female students and students at private institutions receive greater levels of funding and for longer. Underrepresented minorities were found to be less likely to receive full funding and more likely to receive no funding than non-underrepresented minorities.

For more information on APSA’s research program and to view other reports, including the 2016-2017 Graduate Placement Report, visit the Data on the Profession page.

Click here to view the full report.