Pardee RAND Students

Pardee RAND Graduate School has approximately 100 enrolled Ph.D. students from 23 different countries around the world—about a third come from outside the U.S. Our students have a wide variety of academic backgrounds; 80% of incoming students already hold an advanced degree, and more than 40% are first-generation grad students. Approximately 35% of Pardee RAND students are married and around 10% are also parents. The median age of entering students is 29; the age range of entering students in recent cohorts extends from 22-41.

More about the Pardee RAND Student Body

Recent Student-Faculty Research Collaborations

School Districts Still Struggled in Year Three of the Pandemic

Research by student Melissa Kay Diliberti and Professor Heather Schwartz found that 90 percent of school districts changed operations in 2021–2022 because of teacher shortages. They increased substitute teacher pay and their number of staff above prepandemic levels. They also struggled with political polarization around critical race theory, student and staff mental health, and student learning loss.

Embracing Intrinsic Cultural Advantages in Innovation

The United States has long enjoyed the benefits of novel technology, but it could lose ground soon as other countries advance. Will Shumate and Tim Marler ask, could it be time for the United States to embrace the advantages in innovation that it holds relative to near-peers like China?

Rebuilding Ukraine

As Khrystyna Holynska (cohort '20) and professors William Courtney and Howard Shatz write, by leveraging better investment conditions and reforms and broad international support, Ukraine could carry out a well-executed reconstruction program. It might repair much of the war damage and help Ukraine move into the ranks of faster-growing European economies.