Pardee RAND Graduate School

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

We offer a full-time Ph.D. program in policy analysis — the first and largest of its kind in the country. And we’re backed by the brainpower and resources of the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.

The Pardee RAND Graduate School was founded in 1970 as one of eight graduate programs created to train future leaders in public policy. Named for Frederick S. Pardee — benefactor, board member and former RAND researcher — the school has the distinction of being the only policy school based at a public policy research institute.

Our course catalog includes 14 required courses and a rotating selection of 75 electives in a wide range of areas, including new and emerging topics. Electives cover specific policy areas and emphasize analytic tools and methodologies drawn from mathematics, economics, statistics, political science, operations research, and the behavioral and social sciences.

Students also undertake hands-on project-based research and complete a Ph.D. dissertation that tackles a pressing policy issue.

In our nearly 50 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.