Tobin Center Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program
We run one of the largest pre-doctoral research training programs in the United States
The Tobin Center’s Pre-doctoral Fellows Program trains the next generation of social science leaders.
Since its inception, the Tobin Center Pre-doctoral Research Fellows Program has helped prepare more than 254 young researchers for doctoral programs and other roles at leading research institutions.
A vibrant and diverse community that supports dozens of scholars from around the world annually, the program provides young researchers with the opportunity to work for one to two years as full-time research trainees supervised by Yale faculty.
Fellows also have the opportunity to engage in additional education and professional development activities, including taking for credit or auditing one course per semester, participating in a weekly professional development seminar, and attending department research seminars.
Pre-Doctoral Fellows in the News
For Clara Chambers, the opportunity to produce policy-relevant research came in her first year as a Tobin Center Pre-doctoral Research Fellow.
Clara’s work on the decline in marriage rates among women without college degrees was featured in Axios, and she had the opportunity to write about the research for the American Institute for Boys and Men and present it at a conference hosted by the National Bureau for Economic Research. The process of producing the research helped Clara see first-hand how timely, policy-relevant research can drive conversation and influence decisionmakers.
“Tobin encouraged me to pursue questions that excited me beyond my day-to-day work, and my faculty advisors gave me the guidance I needed to turn those ideas into real research. Their support, from early drafts through public communication and the publication process, made the project possible.”
From Pre-Doctoral Fellow to Yale Phd
Working under Professors Cormac O’Dea and John Geanakoplos to study Social Security and the 401(k) system, Jackson Howell developed news skills that proved invaluable as he began doctoral studies at Yale.
Through the mentorship he received in the Tobin Center Pre-doctoral Fellows Program, Howell—who is now in his second year of the economics Ph.D. Program at Yale—says he learned to come up with interesting and precise questions, how to go about answering them, and how to communicate those answers in a clear and concise way.
“These sorts of things are often not teachable in a classroom, and the Tobin Center program is a unique opportunity to build a relationship with an experienced researcher–someone directly invested in the success of your work–whom you can learn these skills from.”
“The personal and professional relationships I made in the program were the most important part of my experience,” Howell said. “Not only did I receive productive advice from my faculty advisors, but exposure to graduate students and other pre-doctoral fellows greatly helped me develop my knowledge and skills as an economist. The collegiality among the fellows and close relationships between the fellows and their advisors is a huge strength of the Tobin program.”
Photo Credit: Chuck Croi
