This is a guide to a “top” pre-doctoral research position in social science, intended for Middlebury College students. Admission to these programs, similar to other competitive employment options, suffers heavily from information asymmetry. This document aims to reduce this barrier for aspiring Middlebury students relative to their counterparts at top research universities.

Expressed are my personal opinions. Many of them will not be the optimal advice for you, depending on your personal circumstances. This guide is solely to maximize your chances of getting into the most competitive predocs, and many suggestions may be “excessive” if you are a “star” or shoot for less competitive programs. I strongly recommend reading in consultation with your faculty mentors who know your situation, before acting on any of my advice.

“Top” Predoc Programs?

Definition: What is “top” is subjective - the optimizing solution depends on your objective function and constraints. Here I mean to discuss the pipeline programs to “top-7” economics departments - some of the predoc programs have median placement in top 7 Economics PhD programs. These predocs are quite competitive and thus require extensive effort, preparation, skills, and observables on your part.

Examples of top predoc programs may include but are surely not limited to:

  • MIT Blueprint Lab
  • MIT: Amy Finkelstein
  • MIT J-PAL
  • Dartmouth: Heidi Williams
  • Harvard: Melissa Dell, Claudia Goldin, Jesse Shapiro, David Yang
  • Harvard Opportunity Insights (OI)
  • Federal Reserve New York City
  • Microsoft Research
  • Stanford SIEPR: Matthew Gentzkow
  • Stanford GSB: Susan Athey, Guido Imbens
  • Princeton Industrial Relations Section
  • Chicago Booth: Pascal Noel
  • Chicago BFI: Magne Mogstad, Alexander Torgovitsky

Many other / non-top predocs also place researchers into top economics PhD programs, albeit potentially less frequently.

Why a “top” predoc program may NOT be for you

  • If you are not committed to pursing an Economics PhD yet, you may prefer some general-purpose programs
    • Examples include research positions at think tanks, law schools, economic consulting firms, quantitative positions at banks or hedge funds, and data science positions in tech / retail industry
    • In these positions, those who end up not pursing an Economics PhD still land on other good graduate programs / think tanks / law school / data scientist / economic consulting / other industry jobs
    • On the other hand, some top predoc programs are solely for placing into Economics PhDs; they may fare badly as springboards to other positions
  • A “top” predoc does not necessarily maximize your learning / you-specific treatment effect, due to both selection bias and treatment effect heterogeneity
  • A “top” Economics program may not matter as much to you in life.
    • Many do great work without going to a top school
      • John List went to U Wisconsin for undergrad and U of Wyoming for PhD
      • My mentor at Middlebury, Akhil Rao, one of the smartest people I know, went to CU Boulder for PhD
    • By contrast, many graduates of MIT/Harvard PhD programs quit academia or even quit PhD.
    • It all depends on what your goals are in life.