On Friday, May 29, PER will be hosting the inaugural PER Predoctoral Conference, designed to introduce students to the predoctoral research experience in economics and provide insight into the academic and professional opportunities that may follow a predoc appointment.
While some predocs come from MA programs, the majority come directly from BA programs, and our predocs have historically placed exceptionally well into top PhD programs. Our current departing cohort, for example, will be continuing on to Economics PhD programs at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and Duke, among others. We have also had a number of predocs pursue industry and policy careers following their appointments, and we will have representation from both academic and non-academic pathways reflected in the conference programming and discussions.
Because predoc applications for many institutions typically begin opening between July and August, we thought this conference might provide a particularly timely opportunity for BA students to learn more about the predoc pathway before application season begins. I have also been in contact with predoc program managers at several peer institutions, and we intentionally designed the conference programming to be broadly informative and applicable to predoc programs beyond Columbia’s specifically.
The conference will include:
- Presentations on the work predocs actually do, the skills they gain, and pathways into PhD programs and research careers
- An open Q&A panel with current predocs
- Academic research presentations delivered in the style of a formal economics conference
Additionally, we unexpectedly had a discussant opening become available for one of the academic panels, and the predocs specifically suggested that it could be a valuable opportunity for a BA student interested in research or graduate study. The discussant would review one predoc paper/presentation and provide brief commentary during the panel (approximately 5–10 minutes), typically summarizing the paper’s contributions, discussing methodology and implications, and offering constructive feedback. We would, of course, provide the paper materials in advance.
If anyone comes to mind who you think might be interested, I would be very grateful for any recommendations. More generally, I would greatly appreciate your help sharing the conference with BA students who may benefit from learning more about the predoc path.
I’ve attached the flyer and tentative schedule, which should be updated with presentation titles over the next 24 hours, and I’m happy to provide any additional information if helpful.
P.S.: While there is a QR code on the flyer that links to the RSVP, I’ll also put the physical link here.
Predoc Mini Conference Tentative Public Agenda
