Pardee RAND Graduate School

[clim8phd]

What do you guys know about the RAND Graduate School ? They offer a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis and offer $48K in fellowships per year to all incoming students. Besides the great location in Santa Monica, CA (a block away from the beach) RAND also has a great reputation, but what about this Ph.D. program ?

[clim8phd]

What do you guys know about the RAND Graduate School ? They offer a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis and offer $48K in fellowships per year to all incoming students. Besides the great location in Santa Monica, CA (a block away from the beach) RAND also has a great reputation, but what about this Ph.D. program ?

Wow it really is $48K in fellowships (pre-tax)

[ipsqq]

There are many pluses and minuses to this program but a consideration for some is that it is very difficult to get an academic job out of it.

[clim8phd]

There are many pluses and minuses to this program but a consideration for some is that it is very difficult to get an academic job out of it.

Is this because the work at RAND is mainly applied (practice versus theory) ? It seems like the Ph.D. students there are publishing in peer-reviewed journals though, so perhaps it's a matter of reputation???

Here are some published stats I found for the 2009 entering class

2009

Applicant Pool

Applications Received 178

Accepted 21%

Class Size 22

Academic Profile

Students with Advanced Degrees 50%

Average GRE 1401

Quantitative 758

Verbal 644

General

Average Age 26

Women 55%

International students 27%

Scholarships Awarded 81%

Undergraduate Majors

Econ & Business 30%

Social Science and Humanities 26%

Science 13%

Mathematics 12%

Engineering 11%

[ipsqq]

Here are some published stats I found for the 2009 entering class

I never claimed that admissions were not highly competitive, only that it may be difficult to end up with an academic job.

[PeterQuince]

Wow it really is $48K in fellowships (pre-tax)

I think it's up to $50k now (this thread is a bit old). The key difference between this fellowship and other graduate packages is that often students receive a fellowship that pays their tuition and fees (health insurance, etc.) and then receive a stipend for living expenses. This fellowship is *not* on top of tuition and fees, but rather provides funding to students all in one place, from which their tuition and fees are deducted. Tuition is $25k a year. After taxes (which presumably one would get back with a tuition credit), the end-of-year take-home for living expenses is still in the $11-12k range if I did the math right. Am I making some incorrect assumptions here?

For ipsqq, if you're still on these boards, what are some of the pluses and minuses in your mind? Thanks!