Does a summer internship at a think-tank count as research experience?

[kevin1297]

Hi,

I'm a sophomore majoring in International Relations and Economics with a minor in math at a small top 40 liberal arts college in Southern California. I am considering a PhD in Economics (hence the math minor) and was wondering how work experience factors into admissions decisions. I know that research is important too, and I just have a couple of questions.

Disclaimer: I am primarily interested in getting a PhD to go into economic policy making (WB, Fed, IMF, etc) specifically in developing countries. A Master's in Public Policy is also an option for me.

Work Experience (relevant to Economics PhD/ Public Policy)

1. Last summer, between my freshman and sophomore year of college, I worked as an intern in DC for a Congresswoman, and wrote memos, did research into upcoming legislation, and wrote and edited speeches for the Congresswoman.

 

2. I recently got a research assistant position for this upcoming summer (between my sophomore and junior year of college), at the Economic Policy Research Institute located in Cape Town, South Africa. I will be working with Stata and other statistical packages, among other things to help with my research assistantship. Some other things that other past inters have done, and that I will do, include:

• contributed to a large-scale impact evaluation of South Africa’s child support grant;
  
• provided research assistance to a feasibility study on expanding the developmental impact of social security payments mechanisms for grant beneficiaries in South Africa;
  
• analysed national data-sets to determine the reach of various HIV-sensitive social protection programmes to vulnerable households within five African countries;
  
• explored viable policy options for the “vertical expansion” of the South African Child Support Grant (CSG);
  
• helped research, write and edit a 20 year review of social protection programmes in South Africa;
  
• worked with South African Members of Parliament enrolled in EPRI’s Parliamentary Capacity Building Programme
   
  How will the Economic Policy Research Institute internship, and the Congressional internship, look when applying to econ PhD programs? Will it count as relevant work experience, or research experience, or both, or nothing? I know that the think-tank is way more important than the Congressional internship, but I thought that I would throw it in the post for good measure.
   
  Thanks for your feedback.
  

[sulebrahim]

I think the Congressional experience would probably not count much for econ programs, the think tank will count. I believe both experience will be positives if you go the MPP route as an MPP is more of a professional degree than a research degree.

[illogic]

If you don't want a career in academia, you probably shouldn't consider econ phd. You can do a lot better in these 5 years of your life.

[Odysseus56]

From what I heard from other members and my advisors, the professional experience counts little for PhD admissions in general (unless it is on a specific academic (!) paper). But if you can show that during it you acquired skills that will be useful for PhD (Stata e.g.) that could be a plus. Anyway, I would suggest to do those internships - they may help you significantly later on when applying for jobs.

 

If you don't want a career in academia, you probably shouldn't consider econ phd. You can do a lot better in these 5 years of your life.

 

I am not sure why some people keep insisting on it. If he wants to work in WB/IMF/Fed/think-tank/central bank and has an ability to do a PhD (i.e. good math skills), then getting an econ PhD is a very solid way to get in and build his career. Many people have mentioned on this forum that without a PhD it is possible to hit a glass ceiling in all of these organizations fairly soon, apart from the fact that getting in is easier done with PhD anyway.

[Econhead]

I am not sure why some people keep insisting on it. If he wants to work in WB/IMF/Fed/think-tank/central bank and has an ability to do a PhD (i.e. good math skills), then getting an econ PhD is a very solid way to get in and build his career. Many people have mentioned on this forum that without a PhD it is possible to hit a glass ceiling in all of these organizations fairly soon, apart from the fact that getting in is easier done with PhD anyway.

 

Indeed.

 

Additionally, going back to the OP, Kevin indicated that he is considering a Ph.D in Econ or a Master's in Public Policy. I won't tout the differences (it's not only not my specialty, but searching on this forum will likely be more fruitful), but I will say that these are drastically different options. Given the type of work you're interested in, there is definitely some overlap where a Econ PhD can do some things that a policy degree can also do, but the opposite is not true. Additionally, you're generally looking at two separate types of jobs-you won't be doing the same thing regardless of which degree you get. Research your options heavily before making a decision, and make sure you're making the right choice for what you want to do.

[sulebrahim]

A policy PhD from a prestigious school could also be optimal based on your interest.

First of all, you get a PhD which prevents the glass ceiling that an MPP may face, and secondly, this may not true but from personal and anecdotal experience, a policy PhD while rigorous (if you take the more rigorous option) , is not as stressful as economics when it comes to prelims (no weeding out here) and job market (although some policy phds go on the econ job market, if you don't want an academic career, then you don't have to go to the AEA and deal with the JMP stress).

But more importantly the placements from the top policy schools are still solid. And the Congressional experience may count here.

[Mathew952]

There's also a practical consideration- There's a greater number of Econ PhD programs, with a lot of diversity in terms of size, structure, location, etc, and the funding tends to be better. That research experience plus good math grades and some good letters from your econ profs (make sure you participate a lot! Your letter depends a lot more on how well the prof knows you than just on your grade. A letter that says "Jimmy got an A in my class" is useless) Means you're most likely going to get some funded offers. Even "low ranked" econ PhD programs still place pretty well in terms of organizations like World Bank, IMF, Fed, etc. My school has a completely unranked program, and even we manage to place people at the Fed and the like.

[dog]

OP-- since you're still early in your academic career, the internship is especially good as a launching pad to even stronger research experiences that will help when it comes time to apply. Especially if you get very good at Stata or other programming languages, that will open up all kinds of doors to work for a longer period of time as an RA for a professor during or after undergrad or even to do your own research/thesis. Congrats!

[kevin1297]

OP-- since you're still early in your academic career, the internship is especially good as a launching pad to even stronger research experiences that will help when it comes time to apply. Especially if you get very good at Stata or other programming languages, that will open up all kinds of doors to work for a longer period of time as an RA for a professor during or after undergrad or even to do your own research/thesis. Congrats!

 

 

Thanks for the congrats. How will admissions committees see my internship at the think-tank? Will they count it as research experience?

[illogic]

I am not sure why some people keep insisting on it. If he wants to work in WB/IMF/Fed/think-tank/central bank and has an ability to do a PhD (i.e. good math skills), then getting an econ PhD is a very solid way to get in and build his career. Many people have mentioned on this forum that without a PhD it is possible to hit a glass ceiling in all of these organizations fairly soon, apart from the fact that getting in is easier done with PhD anyway.

 

For starter, there are many people other than researchers in these places. And a PhD training is basically all about doing research (and probably not the same type of research you will do in thinktank/policy-ish place). So it is really a good idea for OP to limit him/herself in only the research department of these organisations? Further, stories about grad student loses support from advisor and the department once (s)he declare (s)he wants a career in public/private sectors are all over the place. So it is really nice to persuade someone to go to a possibly unfriendly environment?

 

A PhD is a really, really, really big commitment. You will spend possibly the best 5 years of your life in doing something that might have nothing to do with your dreams and ambitions. A MPP is clearly enough if you just want to get into one of these places (maybe not Fed). So I strongly recommend you to take Econhead's advice of researching before you make any decision.