About the Pardee RAND
Graduate School

The Pardee RAND Graduate School is a selective, multidisciplinary graduate program with a focus on policy analysis and the ways it can shape our world.

Founded in 1970, the school is named for Frederick S. Pardee—benefactor, board member, and RAND researcher who passed in June 2022. Our faculty is drawn from members of RAND’s research staff. Our students come from diverse personal, cultural and academic backgrounds. To date, more than 400 alumni have graduated with the theoretical and applied skills that enable them to tackle hard issues around the globe.

Pardee RAND is transforming itself, harnessing its renowned strengths into a new model for public policy graduate education, not only to fashion its pedagogy for challenges of the 21st century but also to provide a new thought center at the heart of RAND’s activities.

JIM LOVELACE
Partner, Capital Group Companies, Inc.

Pardee RAND receives more than 1,500 pre-applications and 150 applications each year, of which we accept and welcome 20–30 students. All of them are supported by a combination of fellowships and scholarships that cover tuition, include a living stipend, and can enable them to graduate debt-free.

Students undertake rigorous program requirements that include courses in policy analysis, economics, quantitative and qualitative analysis, social and behavioral sciences, technology and society, and ethics. They also follow one of three policy engagement streams-focused on analysis, community-partnered policy, or technology—and choose from a rotating selection of 75 electives in a wide range of areas, including new and emerging topics.

Experiential learning projects let students work with RAND mentors to research and help to solve real-world problems of direct concern to decisionmakers and communities, while providing a foundation for their Ph.D. dissertation.

Students hone their research skills on a vast range of intersecting policy research projects. Additionally, through our initiatives and innovative Methods Centers and the Tech + Narrative Lab, we prioritize our commitment to taking lessons outside of the classroom and into the field.

In our 53 years, more than 400 alumni have graduated from Pardee RAND with the theoretical and applied skills that enable them to tackle hard issues around the globe. Pardee RAND alumni careers cross boundaries and disciplines in every sector—public, private, academic, and nonprofit. And perhaps most importantly, our alumni are making a difference and changing the world.

More about Pardee RAND

Facts and figures: Pardee RAND by the numbers >

Research and impact >

Pardee RAND Dean’s Report >

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