Good idea! May be worth reaching out to the LSE Econ PhD programme (I see you're attending!), who trialled something similar last year for underrepresented backgrounds (in order to get some feedback on what applicants want).
I think a good addition to this would be providing help to people applying for pre-docs as well, given how important they have become in the profession.
Hello, this sounds like a nice idea. Is this program interested in potential Economics PhDs who don't have many EA related research ideas yet? I'm planning on putting together a PhD application this year, but most of my potential research ideas are currently focused on more typical areas such as Labour (I only got properly interested in EA a few months ago, so maybe some will come).
Yep, there's no requirement to have EA-related research ideas yet (and I'd expect that to be the case for a decent number of EA-interested and aligned people who participate in the mentoring programme)
Thank you for the response.
Hi everyone,
We’re happy to announce that the first round of mentee applications for our new mentoring program at the Global Priorities Institute is open! The program is intended for people in the EA community (or sympathetic to EA) who plan to apply to economics PhD programs in the upcoming application cycle (for PhD starts in ~Sep 2022). Through this program, we want to support you during the stressful application process and help you establish relationships with like-minded aspiring economists.
We will send every applicant some application advice materials and we will offer one-on-one mentoring with current and past PhD students to a subset of applicants. Those offered one-on-one mentoring will receive
The mentors are themselves current or past economics PhD students who have placed in some of the top US and European programs. They are Forethought Fellows or have participated in GPI’s Early Career Conference Program.
Since this is the first time we’re running the program, it’s hard for us to gauge interest and anticipate how many applicants we’ll be able to offer one-on-one mentoring to. We will select applicants based on who we think will benefit most from our mentoring. We will take into account factors like what other opportunities they already have and will also give priority to under-represented demographic groups.
If you’re interested, please fill out this short questionnaire by 8 August.
Please pass this info on to anyone who might benefit from this!
John, Evie and Luzia (GPI predocs)
Nice idea. If this works out, we (some part of the AIS community) should do the same with AI safety. Maybe also for other EA-adjacent fields!