PREDOC Education

The 2023 Summer Course: Details and Application

The PREDOC summer school is a tuition-free course which, with the support of a generous gift from Goldman Sachs, provides a stipend of $2,000 to each student. A goal of the program is to diversify the pipeline of students pursuing careers in social science research, a field in which women and people from a variety of backgrounds (including Black/African-American, Hispanic/LatinX, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander) are underrepresented. This online, synchronous course is designed to introduce rising sophomores and juniors to the breadth of quantitative social science research, and to give them the tools they need to continue on in their research journeys.  By "quantitative social science," we mean fields like economics, sociology, business, public policy, and behavioral science.  We do not mean clinical fields like clinical psychology.

To be eligible for this course, you must:

• Currently be a student in a US accredited institution,
• Be a rising sophomore or rising junior (that is to say, you will be a sophomore or junior in fall 2023),
• Have a social security number or ITIN (we need this to pay the stipend),
• Have taken at least basic coursework in statistics.

You do not need to be a major in a social science field.  Students who are majoring in other fields but who are interested in quantitative social science are strongly encouraged to apply.  One of the goals of this course is to expose non-social-science students to the field.

Students will attend the synchronous remote course (June 13 – August 10, with a break the week of July 3) with an in-class time commitment of Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. EDT; professional development meetings Wednesdays 8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. EDT; and an estimated additional four hours/week outside of the class period working on a final project. There will also be coding boot camp meetings the week of June 6 for those who need some help getting up to speed on basic coding skills (in addition, we will provide access to an asynchronous course to help people learn the basics of STATA).  In addition to being tuition-free, PREDOC provides students with a stipend and access to STATA.

Applications are now closed.

Previous courses

PREDOC has offered a summer course annually since 2021.  See each year's syllabus here:

2021 Course Syllabus

2022 Course Syllabus

Students have gone on to pre-docs at the Chicago Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Yale School of Management.  Others have been hired into industry roles at Analysis Group and the Bridgespan Group.

Student research projects included the following:

• “Asymmetric Effects of increasing Beer Tax”
• “Diapers and Infant Health: What is the Connection?”
• “Does Fair Trade Coffee Play a Meaningful Economic Role for Consumers"
• “How are SNAP Benefits Spent” (SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)
• “Influence of Race, Education, and Employment Status on Food Choices”
• “The Presence of Ready-Made Foods in the Refrigerator: Convenience or Necessity?”
• “What Determines the Consumption of Ready-to-serve Food Categories? An analysis of Household Income, Household Wealth, and Work Hours in Business Cycles” (IRI and Zillow)