Unsolicited RA take: more depts should copy the @MIT introduction of “research support associates” (RSAs) which are basically hybrid admin-RAs.

A great pathway for non-traditional candidates who are curious but maybe don’t have much direct econ experience to dive deeper.

MIT also obviously has traditional RAs, and those are of course very competitive as they all are. But the competition (widely) might miss out on smart, curious people who don’t have quite have the pedigree on their resume.

In the econ dept, there have been 7 RSAs (including me; three are new-ish). Only 1 went to a school in the top 30. The four not-new people are all either in or about to be in an Econ PhD program. Schools attending are:

UC Irvine
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Columbia

Not bad!

I didn’t go into the position necessarily aiming for an Econ PhD. Just wanted to see if I could dig a little deeper into things I was curious about from undergrad. I took 8 classes, almost entirely on MIT’s dime, and worked for 5 profs across a bunch of fields.

Had some great mentors. Also, importantly, there was no expectation that I’d be doing a PhD. So there’s no sense of failure for those who don’t want to go that way (a couple I think will do an MPP or maybe something in the private sector - faculty just as supportive).

Faculty also saw it as part of their job to help me figure out a path, which was something I wasn’t used to and which pleasantly surprised me. Maybe that’s just an MIT thing. My perspective is limited.

From the faculty side, RSAs are paid by the dept, not by faculty. Free research help! I think this lowers the pressure a bit, but doesn’t really take away from the sense of responsibility they feel to help you out when you need it. Pareto improvement?

This may also lead to a little more risk taking during hiring. Maybe departments will hire an interesting history major who doesn’t have much applied experience but seems smart and eager to learn. Could turn out great; could turn out bad. But no one faculty will bear that risk.

I was an English major who started getting curious about some stuff I saw in trips to visit family in India. I think things worked out great for me and for the dept/faculty.

So it seems RSAs reduce the rite-of-passage part of the RAing in favor of more purely allowing opportunities to explore the field and gain mentorship. Kind of depends on the faculty, but, again, free research assistance - have to imagine faculty would like that.