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Hello Everyone, I am looking to apply to as many Fed banks this fall as is sufficient to make my odds reasonable. In order to do so, it would be nice to know if my profile looks competitive or not. In addition to the profile, I am interested in knowing if it is a good idea to apply to all 12 banks and the board? Or should I be more selective. Hows does one distinguish between which bank is the best should one receive multiple interviews? Also, last question, how competitive is the pay for such positions? Will it cover the expenses for living near the bank? Here is my profile: University: Satellite Campus of a Big State School in NJ Major: Economics Minor: Math GPA: 3.96 Major GPA: 4.0 Honors, McNair Scholar Classes: Intermediate Micro/Macro (A/A), Basic Calc (A), Calc I-III (B/A/this fall), Linear Algebra (A), Numerical Analysis (A), Probability and Stats (A), Econometrics (A), Grad Econometrics (this spring), Math for Economics[Grad Course](this fall), differential equations (this fall), Monetary theory[Grad Course](this fall), proof writing course (this fall) Research: 2019 Undergraduate Research Fellow at Top 10 Econ Department Research with Professor at my Own School Independent Research for the McNair Program Will be writing my senior thesis this year Software Knowledge: R, Stata, Python, Latex, Microsoft Office Other Experiences Intern at Bulge Bracket Firm in Wealth Management Fed Challenge participant

Hey everyone! I was wondering about how competitive RA jobs not at the NBER and the Fed branches are; does anyone have some information on things like GPA cutoffs or how many people are applying for these jobs? Thanks.

I'm a college senior choosing between full-time RA positions for next year rn. Specifically, I can continue to work with a professor whose work I really enjoy and with whom I have a fairly good relationship, and a position at a "good" Fed branch. I've been told by others that this professor is "famous" (in the top 100 of Ideas/Respec ranking thing for the last-ten-years one), but I sort of hate my undergrad institution and the surrounding city. Not in terms of academic merit, or the people, just the environment. Working at a big city for a few years sounds incredibly nice in comparison. Also, since you are working for one professor and not with a larger team of recently graduated undergrads, staying at this job can be a little isolating, and part of the reason I'm taking a two-year break ish from academia is to do some mental health cleanup anyway. The letter of rec that would come out of the Fed job would probably be weaker than a letter written by this professor. I've been waffling a bit between what my intended field will be in the future as well, so that's not a huge dividing point. In terms of pay, time, etc. they seem similar. The professor job will probably have more interesting work associated with it. I also go a bit back and forth about whether I want to apply to a Top School, but in the end it comes down to funding issues that I'll probably encounter, so I think I will still have to strive for that. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys in advance.

I’m an undergrad currently recruiting for summer research internships within the Federal Reserve System. My ultimate goal is to work at a Fed full-time for 2-3years before applying to a PhD in economics. I recently verbally accepted an offer (without yet signing a written offer) from a bottom-5 Fed. The next day, I received an offer from a top-5 Fed. I have some questions about this: 1. Could reneging on Fed A lead Fed B to pull their offer? 2. If both Feds pull their offers, does this lock me out of full-time RA hiring next year? 3. I also have an offer from a top-tier economic consulting firm. Is interning there an option even worth considering? In general, what’s the best move here? I don’t want to underplace myself, but I also don’t want to ruin my chances at the Fed full-time. Any insights from current/former Fed RAs/interns on this topic would be much appreciated.

Hello, all. I have been a lurker, but I think it's my time to surface as my undergrad years are almost over and I now do think I have something to contribute to the forum :) First of all, I want to apologize for posting a thread that seems rather irrelevant in a time when everyone's weighing over different phd programs to go to, but I'll greatly appreciate if you could help me figure out what to do for next one or two years of my life. Well, the thing is, while I believe I have a solid transcript record (will post the profile later on), I thought I rather lack some research experience, so I've decided to get some before applying to grad schools, and so I've applied to multiple RA positions instead of grad schools in my last semester. And now, I've got two choices. One is to work as a RA for one of the Fed branches, and the other is to work as a RA at a prestigious reasearch university. I guess the Fed has the advantage in a sense that it's more systematical and that it is a very well-known institute, but I'm guessing that I can build much stronger relationship with professors if I were to join their team. By the way, that professor in the university is relatively young, so I'm not sure if they're super-famous in the field. Which one do you think I should go for? It's the question that kept bugging me, and the time to make decision is draing near. So any advice will be greatly appreciated! PS1. My apologies if I somehow posted at the wrong forum (or even in a wrong method)... It just seemed to be the most relevant one. PS2. Good luck for all those fellows who will start their marvelous year as bright future PhDs!!!