How to Prepare

Take courses to bolster your quantitative analysis and coding skills. The exact courses will vary based on the fields you're interested in. We have some that will be a strong foundation for research generally. If you're not sure what fields you're interested in, check some of these out. To find out more, you may want to apply to attend one of the IDDEAS informational workshops (see below).

Seek out research opportunities early on from the faculty at your institution and elsewhere. Below, you'll find several paid summer research assistance programs, like Leadership Alliance, the Federal Reserve Internship Program, and others. Take advantage of these opportunities to learn what research is all about. Past research assistant experience is one of the most powerful indicators of success for a pre-doc.

Attend a summer school to expand your toolkit, supplement your coursework, and meet other researchers. Summer schools are often free of cost, as tuition is included with admission (and some may even include a scholarship). Predoc.org offers an annual summer course. You can check out this page for more information about our organization's asynchronous and synchronous programming. Other excellent summer school options can be found here.

Learn to code, developing strong proficiency in at least one statistical programming language, like R, STATA, Python, or MATLAB. The precise platform isn't as important: you can always gain facility in another language as long as your coding fundamentals are strong.You can find our free coding course here!

Plan to apply early, typically the fall preceding the summer during which you'd like to start work. For many, this means applying to positions during the last year of your degree program. Most programs recruit and make offers in the fall for positions that start the next summer, though many also have recruiting seasons in the spring.

We run a general job board for paid full-time research jobs on our opportunities page. These are post-BA positions, but many institutions allow graduating seniors to apply. If you're earlier in your undergraduate career, consider applying for a part-time opportunity, which can be a great stepping-stone along the way to a pre-doc. You can find more information here.

In addition to asking for standard materials like a CV, cover letter, and transcripts, many positions will ask applicants to complete a data task to demonstrate their quantitative abilities, including data visualization, economic intuition, and some specific technical skills. These tasks can take time to complete (from a few hours to a full day), so be prepared to budget your time. We provide customized data tasks here with suggested solutions so that you can practice. The data tasks are longer and more involved than the typical data task for a pre-doc position, to give you the chance to practice more skills. 

• Data Task 1
• Data Task 2
• Data Task 3