Indicator 30Cumulative Indebtedness of Ph.D. Student Borrowers at Graduation, by Discipline, Universitywide and UC Campuses, 2007-08
The cumulative indebtedness of doctoral students who graduate with student loan debt varies by campus and by discipline.
Universitywide, doctoral students in the social sciences, arts and humanities who have taken out student loans to finance their education graduate with more debt than students in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.
This may, in part, be due to the fact that time-to-degree rates are longer for doctoral students in the social sciences, arts and humanities than for students in STEM fields.
Source: UCOP Corporate Student System.
Figures represent the average cumulative UC borrowing of academic Ph.D. recipients who took out at least one student loan while they were enrolled at UC. Ph.D. students who also earned other graduate degrees at UC were excluded, as were Ph.D. students in professional disciplines - i.e., students completing programs with two-digit Classification of Instruction Programs (CIP) codes 04, 13, 22, 25, 39, 44, 51, 52 or four-digit CIP code 09.04.
Disciplinary categories were based on the two-digit CIP codes as listed below.
- Physical Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics: 11, 14, 27, 40
- Life Science: 01, 03, 06
- Social Science: 42, 45, 52
- Arts and Humanities: 10, 16, 23, 24, 38, 50, 54
- Other Disciplines: all others
Figures do not include student loan debt that students may have incurred before they enrolled at UC or interest that accrued while students were enrolled at UC.
Average cumulative borrowing is expressed in constant 2008 dollars. Inflationary adjustments relied on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage-earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).