I'm interning at the Cato Institute this fall!

[Terabyte]

Recognizing that this is a policy think tank and not as useful for phd admissions as, say, working at the Fed, I'm still super-freakin'-excited!

Now, to figure out how to score an apartment off craigslist...

[asquare]

Try the classified ads in the Washington City Paper.

[YoungEconomist]

Congrats!!!!!!

I am a huge fan of the Cato Institute (probably because I am a libertarian, as I imagine you are as well). Even if you're not, Congrats on an awesome internship!!!!!!

[veroniquaz]

Just a thought on this. Some time ago I was also considering applying to Cato, but then I was told it can actually hurt me instead of help me later. I am not extremely familiar with what Cato exactly is doing, but we had a similar type of Institute in the country where I studied and I think I can see why Econ adcoms would not be too thrilled about such an experience. The research they are doing is not rigorous and to a large extent affected by the ideology these people are following. After you get bit familiar with their argumentation and the works of their gurus (Hayek, Mises, Rothbard, Armentano etc.), you can predict the line of thoughts and the conclusion of the article after having read the first paragraph. Needless to say, these people are not very popular with those doing mainstream research. My expectation would be that an internship for Cato would have zero or negative effect on admission to Econ PhDs, probably with some exceptions like GMU.

Any opinions? I guess I might be wrong cause I am not really sure how exactly Cato is perceived in the US and quite curious about it.

[TruDog]

Cato has a pretty good reputation in the US, but what is most important is that one can gain research skills (and, perhaps more importantly, writing skills) by working for such a think tank. I would contend that most schools would look at a Cato internship as a wash to positive.

[economicus]

But then...which science is free of ideology? Even the way you treat outliers in an econometric analysis can be seen as a kind of ideology...

[Terabyte]

Veroniquaz, I was thinking the same thing as you when I first got the offer. However, I felt that the experience of doing professional research, working for a think tank, and more generally, picking up and moving to DC for 3 months would be a huge benefit to me, whether I choose to follow the economic policy path (or a PhD in general) or not. I'm aware that they don't do rigorous work, nor should they. They focus on policy formulation, not mathematical models.

I've already planned that if, in fact, I do go through with the PhD plan (still up in the air right now because of my ticking biological clock, LOL), then I would state clearly in the SOP that the Cato internship taught me about working professionally with others, writing skills, etc etc and make NO MENTION WHATSOEVER of political ideology (except maybe to downplay the influence it has on my academic goals). And anyway, I'm not planning on going to a top-20 school (don't have the background for it). I'm hoping that this opportunity can make my profile look more promising to a top-50 (American) school.

And if all else, there's always good old George Mason, LOL. They seem to be the factory that churns out one cato scholar after another.

(I don't mean to slam GM. It's a good program. Their specialization in policy-focused econ is just not my strongest interest.)


And youngecon: lol, I'll send you an email from my cato address, so you can (sort-of) know someone working there. I'm actually hoping they make logo hoodies, since I'd totally wear it everyday once I got back home, ha ha.

EDIT: I totally forgot, I wanted to state that I'll be working in the Health and Welfare Policy Center. Social Security reform, here I come!!!! And one question: how come female economists seem to disproportionately go into welfare economics? Some sort of "ethics-of-care," maternalistic, compulsion? IDK.

[TruDog]

Cato has a solid reputation in health and welfare policy (Cato scholars were influential in the 1996 welfare reform bill, if I'm not mistaken), so you're in the right place. If you've never been to Cato before, you'll really enjoy it. It's in a (relatively) nice part of Washington, only about a mile from the White House, and there always seems to be tons of food at every event. Have fun!!!