Ph.D. TRAINING

Now inviting Doctoral Fellow applications
for academic year 2008-2009

:: Download brochure (12 pages) :: Download application (7 pages) Application deadline: Friday, May 23, 2008 (noon)

Eligibility

The Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality & Social Policy is open only to Harvard Ph.D. students, who apply in late spring of their first or second (G-1 or G-2) year of graduate study.

The program is designed principally for Harvard Ph.D. students from Economics, Government, Political Economy and Government, Public Policy, Sociology, and Social Policy. Students from other Harvard Ph.D. programs with an appropriate background in a related social science discipline are also eligible to apply so long as their program confers the Ph.D. (i.e., Doctor of Philosophy). Unfortunately, these fellowships are not open to students pursuing other forms of the doctoral degree in Harvard's professional schools.

Both U.S. and international students may apply to the program, although only U.S. citizens and permanent residents can be supported from the Inequality program's National Science Foundation grant. Some funding from other sources is available to support international students, as outlined more fully in the fellowship awards section.

Application timing issues

Although students may apply in late spring of either their first or second year (G-1 or G-2) of doctoral study, the additional coursework and other training activities are best fulfilled at an early stage in students' graduate careers. The Multidisciplinary Program encourages students to apply at the end of their first year whenever possible.

Applicants selected for the program will be notified in June and begin the proseminar sequence and other training activities the following September. Once selected for the program, Doctoral Fellows generally maintain an affiliation with the program through the dissertation stage of their work.

Recommended preparation

The proseminar sequence will require some facility with quantitative methods, and it is strongly recommended that all applicants have taken two graduate-level courses in quantitative empirical research methods by the application stage.

In the application itself, much weight is placed on the statement of purpose. In general, the strongest applications will outline a compelling research agenda, with a clear question or set of questions that might form the basis for the student's empirical research in the Inequality program. While the selection committee recognizes that most applicants are still at an early stage, applicants are advised to approach the statement much like a research proposal, outlining with as much specificity as possible why this is an important question or area of inquiry, what preliminary ideas or hypotheses they have, and how they might go about investigating them.

A final note: relationship to departmental programs

The Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality & Social Policy is a National Science Foundation graduate training program that is designed to enrich and extend the work of Harvard Ph.D. students in their disciplinary fields. Doctoral Fellows and Inequality Scholars remain doctoral candidates in their home departments, firmly grounded in their home discipline and subject to all the usual requirements of their home Ph.D. program. The Multidisciplinary Program will coordinate closely with departments to minimize the number of additional obligations, while still providing meaningful training opportunities in the form of seminars, research experiences, and a productive network of scholars.

What the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality & Social Policy does provide is an extra-disciplinary complement to the traditional program of study. It aims to enrich students' understanding of the complexities of inequality and social policy and to strengthen their capacities to carry out sophisticated research in this domain.

Doctoral candidates drawn from different disciplines gain opportunities they might not otherwise have to interact and learn from each other, from Harvard faculty drawn from across the University, and from the program's extensive network of National Fellows and European Network on Inequality partners.