RAND’s Summer Associate Program graduate students

RAND’s Summer Associate Program introduces outstanding graduate students to RAND, an institution that conducts research on a wide range of national security problems and domestic and international social policy issues.

The program receives about 600 applications each year for the 40+ positions. The selection process is based on matching Summer Associates and their specific skill sets with researchers and their project needs. Given the ever changing research climate, RAND often do not know which projects may require Summer Associates until the beginning of the year.

The program runs in the summer months only. Summer Associates work at RAND full-time for a 12-week period. Positions are available in RAND’s major U.S. offices — Santa Monica, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, and Boston. All Summer Associates are collocated with project mentors.

• The program is designed for full-time students who have completed at least two years of graduate work leading to a doctorate (e.g., PhD, EDD, DRPH, SciD, etc.) or professional degree (e.g., law or medical degree, professional engineer certificate).
• Students must be enrolled full-time in a graduate degree program during the spring and fall of 2018 to be considered for the program.
  Students graduating prior to September 2018 are encouraged to look at the full-time positions d.org/jobs.html.
  U.S. citizenship is not necessary except for positions that require security clearances.

RAND accepts applications only through the website. Applications mailed directly to RAND or emailed to the Summer Director will not be considered. Current Summer Associate positions include:

In order to submit a complete application, please be prepared to provide two documents, answer three short answer questions, and a few additional program/credential/skills specific questions:

The Short Answer questions are as follows:

• Briefly describe your substantive interest and past experiences in those areas
• Briefly describe your skills and methodological expertise and how you have used those tools in previous research experiences
• Briefly describe why you are interested in the RAND Summer Associate Program and what role you see this experience playing in your career development

The RAND’s Summer Associate Program is spearheaded by the RAND Corporation, a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.

Contact  or visit the official website of the Graduate Student Summer Associate Program.