Ten Critical Junctures in the Path to Becoming a Professional Economist

The Pipeline Project, in combination with the Summer Minority Program in Economics and other projects of the CSMGEP, seeks to address difficulties that minority students face at ten critical junctures in the path to becoming professional economists. Minorities may be less likely to become interested in academic careers in economics, and less likely to clear each of the hurdles toward completion of a Ph.D. For minority students, surviving the critical junctures can be made more difficult due to feelings of isolation, a chilly campus racial climate, a lack of role models, and less support for their areas of interest.

  1. The decision to go to college. This decision involves many complicated financial and cultural aspects of the student’s family situation. The decision is also based on mathematical and other preparation in high school.
  2. Establishing and maintaining an interest in economics. Many undergraduates know little if anything about economics as a profession. Even those who have taken a principles' course may have only the sketchiest ideas about academic careers, much less about the many other opportunities open to those with Ph.D.s in economics. Further, many introductory courses do a poor job of showing how the tools of the profession can be applied to interesting real world concerns.
  3. Preparation for graduate school in economics. Before students decide whether to get a Ph.D. or other graduate degree, they can benefit from good advice about what kind of course-work might best prepare them for each of these possibilities. In particular, they can benefit from courses that are geared specifically to enhancing the analytic skills required in economics Ph.D. programs. Failure to take the necessary course-work may preclude the option of graduate study -- or make it extremely difficult for even the most determined student to succeed.
  4. The decision to apply and to attend graduate school in economics. Most students have only a vague idea about how the professional training in graduate school differs from the undergraduate experience. In addition to better information about what graduate school in economics entails, they also need information about how to apply, where to apply, what criteria will be used in admissions, and how financial aid is obtained.
  5. Taking micro and macro theory courses and passing the core exams. For better or worse, almost all economics Ph.D. programs require difficult first year courses and separate core exams at the end of the first year. Sometimes these exams differ in certain respects from the courses that the students just finished, and sometimes these exams reflect the idiosyncrasies of the particular professors who are making up the exam. Students who have not passed core exams within two tries are typically not allowed to continue in the doctoral program.
  6. Choosing fields and passing the field exams. Most Ph.D. programs include basic requirements (namely, microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics), together with a choice of fields (such as labor economics, monetary economics, international trade, or industrial organization). The student usually must choose two fields from the list of fields offered. The student may make these choices based on fields of interest, on which professors have good teaching and research reputations, or on which professors have been available to discuss economic issues.
  7. The transition from course-work to research. Course-work involves sitting, listening, reading others’ papers, and completing problem sets and exams that have well-prescribed answers. In contrast, research may involve formulating a new question, designing a new model, locating relevant data, and writing. These two sets of activities are very different, and often students are not sure whether, and if so how, the former has prepared them for the latter. The transition is not usually formalized in any explicit way, but relies on informal discussions with faculty (and peers) and establishing a relationship with an adviser. Difficulty in making the transition to research can significantly extend the time to completion of a degree.
  8. Completion of the dissertation and job search. Many students run out of steam while working on a dissertation, especially if they see no clear road to completion. They also may see no point in it, if they do not have a clear enough idea about where and how to get a job that would make full use of a Ph.D. degree.
  9. Getting research submitted and accepted for publication. Many young scholars undertake excellent original research that never gets published. In some cases, the research question is not sufficiently well motivated in terms of the broad issues that are understood only with more years of experience. In other cases, the individual is a perfectionist who continues to "improve" the work endlessly without ever submitting it. Experienced scholars can help young scholars determine how to carve out the right niche, how to frame their question, where to submit the paper, and generally how to play the game.
  10. Promotion, tenure, and other career moves. Everybody can use advice from senior colleagues. Some good scholars drop out of academia, or even out of economics.