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RA-ing between undergrad and PhD


jonthawk

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There was a profile evaluation not too long ago where somebody mentioned being an RA as preparation for getting into top PhD programs.

This isn't something I know much about/ had considered before, and from the looks of the original thread, I wasn't alone in this.

 

What is being an RA like? What are the advantages vs. going straight to grad school? How do you get a good one? Stuff like that.

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I don't know. I may have just made that up because in my town you can get an RA job through the University's (Top 30) career page, but I haven't seen one in econ. I've also seen RA jobs at a policy lab I am linked to, where the lab's website has a career page with jobs posted and a straightforward application. I don't know why they couldn't have similar placements for econ, but it may not be a real thing. Since so many people are trying to study econ that they might only give jobs to current students.
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Disclaimer: I never held a full-time RAship. So what you see below is based on my experience reading some RA ads and/or posts on this forum.

 

The advantage of doing an RAship is to improve your profile. An RAship would give you research experience and potentially one (or more) very good letters, both highly valued in PhD admissions. But I suppose if you already have three strong letters and some research experience, then the benefits of an RA gap year are diminishing to nonexistent from the POV of the application process. An additional benefit might be that such an experience would expose you to contemporary economic research. So if you're unsure whether a PhD is for you, you might wanna give an RAship a shot.

 

How do you get a good one? Most RAships include some empirical work. So it pays off to be handy with standard econometric software and to have decent computer skills. I suppose Stata skills are the most sought after, but MATLAB, R, Excel and some programming can definitely help. It's also nice if you have practical experience in econometrics (like a thesis or some similar research project). They usually wanna take a look at your transcripts, so I guess you need reasonable grades and important courses (like metrics). And they quite often ask for references, so in the end you will need letters (most ads I've seen asked for less than 3 though).

 

The very best RAships can be found on the NBER's website.

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If you're interested in a research assistantship at a think tank, feel free to shoot me a private message and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

 

I've been here for about 10 months and I really enjoy it, especially after spending about 1.5 years in industry in a research position. To me the main advantage of working as a research assistant after undergrad is learning what professional "research" actually is and whether or not you enjoy it. If you do enjoy it, it's a fantastic opportunity to begin building your interests in a particular research area before heading back to school. There are of course plenty of other advantages such as getting your name on publications, various networking opportunities, getting paid, and building research skills (like working on your STATA chops, becoming increasingly comfortable synthesizing a huge amount of literature in a short period of time, etc). To the extent that it matters to you and your career outlook, one potential drawback is that you'll be getting a later start to your post-grad school career. But for the reasons I mentioned, I think (hope) it's worth it for me and I'm really enjoying the work I do.

Edited by TheTemp
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Personally I took time to RA because I was really burned out from the pressures of being in school and focusing on taking exams. In my case I was able to learn/be in an academic environment, but it was much more relaxing than being in school and usually 9-5 hours so I could have evenings and weekends free (while in school the studying always bleeds into nights and weekends). I am glad I took the time to RA because I felt so much readier for grad school after taking a break. But that is just what was best for me, not necessarily what is best for everyone.

 

I agree w/the post above that if you already have some research experience and letter writers that are strong (both in terms of being very positive and being from credible people), the returns to improving you profile might be diminishing and from a pure strategic perspective it might not add much, although at the same time if you think you'd enjoy a break from being in school it certainly is unlikely to hurt either.

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Here are some quotes from people in the know.

...every student considering graduate school in economics should take at least one research assistant (RA) position either

as an undergraduate or after graduation (or both)....I advise almost every student interested in PhD work at Columbia to apply for ...full-time research positions.

-Susan Elmes, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Columbia University

 

Many, but certainly not all, of our applicants have work experience with economics professors or at consulting firms (e.g., Brookings Institute, Urban Institute, Boston Federal Reserve Bank or NERA). We believe that students learn a great deal through such experiences, at least in part because this work allows them to gauge whether a PhD in economics is something they really want. Having salient job experience is particularly important for applicants with little exposure to their undergraduate professors, which is often the case for students from large research universities. It is also important for those applying from second-tier schools within the United States or abroad. Strong and convincing references from known economists at either firms or universities are helpful in bolstering applications.

-John Bound, Director of Doctoral Admissions, University of Michigan

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I somehow feel like the direction posts have been heading is whether working as an RA is 'worth it' in terms of getting into top Ph.D positions.

 

Generally speaking, this isn't really something this forum feels is debatable, and I don't think that was the intent of any of the previous posts. Adcoms have to receive some signal that indicates that applicants have experience in research, would be able to succeed in it, and to some degree, whether they like it. This serves as a signal that students can succeed in a Ph.D program that rests on research. This is usually conveyed in two ways: having actual research experience beyond papers in traditional coursework, and the words of wisdom expressed in LoR's. These are usually the same thing - people take an RA position, get experience, and get a LoR from the professor(s) that they are an assistant for. -But it's not just how adcoms view your profile, it's about the signals that you send compared to others. It's hard to argue that if they have two profiles in front of them, ceteris paribus except RA experience and LoR from said RA experience, that they shouldn't choose the one with RA experience. Afterall, it should be a safer bet. A quick look at the profiles, and profiles and results threads will show you just how common some type of RA experience is.

 

There are a select number of students that don't 'need' RA experience to compete. Such anomalies are hard to discuss, and I won't attempt this here.

 

Aside from RA experience in terms of competing, it has practical value. If you are unsure whether you can 'get into' research, it provides a way to judge whether you think you'd like graduate school. Additionally, as other students have mentioned, it can be a good 'break' from the slaug of undergraduate academia and graduate academia. Some people need some type of 'break' to recharge. If you can get a paid RA position, it's a great way to 'take a break.' Conversely, if you aren't 'busy' during the summer, it's a great time to RA between years as an undergraduate (especially your junior year). Finally, Some students RA during the semester-these are sometimes more information arraignments but are not inherently less valuable.

 

Personally, I had a summer paid RA position between my Junior and Senior years. It reassured me that I wanted to go to graduate school in Economics, and that I would be good at it. It was also reaffirming with respect to my ability to compete, intellectually, with my peers, since I worked with fellow research assistants daily. I didn't feel as though they were outpacing me, which was an initial concern for me (because I had a more modest undergraduate background than my peers where I RAd).

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You essentially have to have some sort of research experience, and an RA position is a great way to build on your resume. Alternatively, you may do faculty-mentored individual research or some coauthored work with a professor, especially an honors thesis or a research experience for undergrads. You don't have to feel cornered into a RA job, but you should know that a lot of your competition at the upper levels will have both RA'ed as well as written a thesis of their own.
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You essentially have to have some sort of research experience, and an RA position is a great way to build on your resume. Alternatively, you may do faculty-mentored individual research or some coauthored work with a professor, especially an honors thesis or a research experience for undergrads. You don't have to feel cornered into a RA job, but you should know that a lot of your competition at the upper levels will have both RA'ed as well as written a thesis of their own.

 

I absolutely agree with this. Exposure to research is very important but RA work is not the only way to go about it. Especially, if you want to do theory - then an RA experience might make you look good in the eyes of adcoms but it will not give you valuable experience or teach you anything worth knowing for your future research work. Yes, if you want to do theory you should be able to read empirical papers and be familiar with the findings, but the first year of grad school will provide you with this skill set, there is no need to waste a year cleaning data sets.

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