What is a Doctoral Fellow?

Doctoral fellows, though studying, still research their area of study. They are usually contracted by universities. They do not only engage in research work. They also teach while taking classes themselves. Sometimes, a doctorate fellow could be a physician that has completed his/her studies but receives a fellowship to cover expenses while completing his/her medical dissertation.

The roles of a doctoral fellow include publishing scientific results in top journals, investigating the mechanism of anti-cancer molecules in eliminating cancer cells. Also, performing chemical research is a task for a doctorate fellow. One prerequisite to qualify for this role is a master's degree in your area of study. Excellent presentation skill is also highly recommended. You should earn an average of $50,416 annually.

What Does a Doctoral Fellow Do

When it comes to the most important skills required to be a doctoral fellow, we found that a lot of resumes listed 7.8% of doctoral fellows included patients, while 5.8% of resumes included cell culture, and 4.9% of resumes included data analysis. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

Learn more about what a Doctoral Fellow does

How To Become a Doctoral Fellow

If you're interested in becoming a doctoral fellow, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 36.6% of doctoral fellows have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 16.0% of doctoral fellows have master's degrees. Even though most doctoral fellows have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Top Doctoral Fellow Jobs Near You

Doctoral Fellow Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a doctoral fellow can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as research fellow, progress to a title such as research scientist and then eventually end up with the title senior scientist.

Doctoral Fellow

Average Salary for a Doctoral Fellow

Doctoral Fellows in America make an average salary of $53,366 per year or $26 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $72,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $39,000 per year.
Average Doctoral Fellow Salary
$53,366 Yearly
$25.66 hourly
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Roles and Types of Doctoral Fellow

There are several types of doctoral fellow, including:

Researcher

Role:

A researcher is someone who studies how to apply the scientific method within their chosen field.

Their primary responsibilities can be performing systemic investigations, overseeing internal research, or serving as the lead author on reports or articles. They are often tasked with things like collecting data (either quantitative or qualitative) and using that data to solve problems.

They can work in academic settings or in areas like the industrial, government, or private sectors. They need to have exceptional attention to detail and be both accurate and specific in their findings. They also need to ensure that their research is complete and thorough.

It is also important for a researcher to have a curious mind and to question why things are the way they are. Soft skills that can be important for a researcher include communication, leadership, and moderation. They must be able to lead project teams, moderate discussions, and communicate their knowledge clearly and persuasively.

To become a researcher, you will typically need to have a Ph.D. or similar degree. Researchers can work in a wide array of areas including sociology, medicine, and psychology. There are also researchers who work in the sciences like biology, chemistry, and physics.

  • Average Salary: $67,145
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Fellow

Role:

A fellow's duties will be based on the organization or company they are engaged in. However, several times, your job will center around carrying out research and examination, leading discussions, turning up for negotiations, and taking care of lectures while regarding the principle or effort laid by supervisors. You are also to aid in different projects and events. As a fellow, you are required to stick to the company or organization rules and regulations every time, satisfy all the conditions and output involved, and cooperate with every person in the labor force.

Additionally, you are expected to take part in analyzing the standard of learning made available by the program. You must exhibit excellent observation, communication, and interpersonal skills to suit the role of a fellow. Also, you must have studied political science, law, or psychology and hold a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in them. With this, you will be able to earn a decent average salary of $66,381 per year or $31.91 per hour.

  • Average Salary: $66,364
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Research Fellow

Role:

As the name implies, as a Research Fellow, you will be conducting research and analysis of comprehensive results, literature, and data. You will be supervising research assistants and recruiting study participants for specific studies.

For the educational requirement, a Research Fellow needs to have a doctorate relevant to the discipline and should have published papers that are peer-reviewed. As a Research Fellow, you can be supervised or independent.

The top skills Research Fellow applicants include in their resumes include Molecular Biology, Data Analysis, Cell Culture, Research Projects, and Ph.D. You might want to brush up your knowledge on these things and make sure you are knowledgeable in the field you will be applying to.

You can earn an average annual salary of $49,120 with a job growth rate of 8%. You can also explore other careers like being a Research Scientist, a Scientist, and a Senior Scientist.

  • Average Salary: $53,823
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Doctoral Fellow Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active doctoral fellow jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where doctoral fellows earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Doctoral Fellow Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California2,002$67,278
2Massachusetts1,464$55,828
3New York1,257$52,069
4New Jersey677$63,142
5Washington598$50,051
6Texas591$42,741
7Pennsylvania413$51,769
8Maryland399$52,727
9Illinois394$52,103
10Georgia344$40,967
11Florida323$45,746
12North Carolina319$47,451
13Colorado316$51,111
14Virginia314$45,841
15Minnesota276$57,846
16Oregon247$52,349
17Missouri241$40,263
18Ohio236$45,414
19Tennessee202$63,666
20Michigan180$48,957
21Wisconsin157$51,697
22Arizona153$57,586
23Indiana137$55,165
24Connecticut120$60,056
25New Mexico115$43,534
26Iowa110$45,724
27Louisiana85$39,513
28Kansas80$43,993
29Nebraska79$46,026
30Kentucky77$45,651
31Utah67$40,055
32Alabama66$42,373
33South Carolina62$37,305
34Delaware56$54,623
35West Virginia55$37,426
36Oklahoma53$52,750
37Maine51$67,807
38New Hampshire44$54,119
39Idaho42$45,777
40Rhode Island39$58,557
41Mississippi38$38,836
42Montana37$47,090
43Vermont28$53,466
44Alaska27$52,270
45Nevada25$57,066
46Arkansas24$48,414
47North Dakota24$38,559
48South Dakota21$42,447
49Wyoming17$52,608
50Hawaii16$72,630

Doctoral Fellow Education

Doctoral Fellow Majors

Chemistry
18.2 %
Biochemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Biology
16.0 %
Biology
13.7 %

Doctoral Fellow Degrees

Doctorate

46.4 %

Bachelors

36.6 %

Masters

16.0 %

Top Colleges for Doctoral Fellows

1. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,695

Enrollment

6,596

2. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

3. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

4. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

5. Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$59,430

Enrollment

8,216

6. University of California - Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$13,226

Enrollment

31,568

7. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,987

Enrollment

18,946

8. Yale University

New Haven, CT • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,430

Enrollment

5,963

9. Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,740

Enrollment

5,567

10. Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,816

Enrollment

6,840

Top Skills For a Doctoral Fellow

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 7.8% of doctoral fellows listed patients on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and observation skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Doctoral Fellow Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Doctoral Fellow templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Doctoral Fellow resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Doctoral Fellow diversity

Doctoral Fellow Gender Distribution

Male
Male
55%
Female
Female
45%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among doctoral fellows, 44.7% of them are women, while 55.3% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among doctoral fellows is White, which makes up 47.6% of all doctoral fellows.

  • The most common foreign language among doctoral fellows is Spanish at 22.8%.

Online Courses For Doctoral Fellow That You May Like

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Learn about the technologies underlying experimentation used in systems biology, with particular focus on RNA sequencing, mass spec-based proteomics, flow/mass cytometry and live-cell imaging. A key driver of the systems biology field is the technology allowing us to delve deeper and wider into how cells respond to experimental perturbations. This in turns allows us to build more detailed quantitative models of cellular function, which can give important insight into applications ranging from...

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The past 15 years have been exciting ones in plant biology. Hundreds of plant genomes have been sequenced, RNA-seq has enabled transcriptome-wide expression profiling, and a proliferation of "-seq"-based methods has permitted protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions to be determined cheaply and in a high-throughput manner. These data sets in turn allow us to generate hypotheses at the click of a mouse. For instance, knowing where and when a gene is expressed can help us narrow down the...

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Risk factors, how cancer grows, and how to treat it...

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Best States For a Doctoral Fellow

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a doctoral fellow. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Maine, California, and Tennessee. Doctoral fellows make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $72,630. Whereas in Maine and California, they would average $67,807 and $67,278, respectively. While doctoral fellows would only make an average of $63,666 in Tennessee, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Maine

Total Doctoral Fellow Jobs: 51
Highest 10% Earn:
$95,000
Location Quotient:
0.86

$67,807

Avg. Salary

View 51 Doctoral Fellow Jobs In ME

2. New Jersey

Total Doctoral Fellow Jobs: 677
Highest 10% Earn:
$91,000
Location Quotient:
1.9

$63,142

Avg. Salary

View 677 Doctoral Fellow Jobs In NJ

3. California

Total Doctoral Fellow Jobs: 2,002
Highest 10% Earn:
$95,000
Location Quotient:
1.52

$67,278

Avg. Salary

View 2,002 Doctoral Fellow Jobs In CA
Full List Of Best States For Doctoral Fellows

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Top Doctoral Fellow Employers

Most Common Employers For Doctoral Fellow

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory$70,080$33.69424
2Univ Of Colorado-Colorado Spgs$58,308$28.03233
3Northwestern University$57,595$27.691,536
4New York University$57,017$27.41740
5University of California Press$55,453$26.66195
6Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets$54,883$26.39397
7Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai$54,235$26.07264
8Univ. Of Texas Cancer Ctr.$53,887$25.911,884
9UAB Medicine$52,655$25.31256
10Emory University$52,473$25.23406
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Updated April 6, 2023