Tobin Center / Economics Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program

The Tobin Center / Economics Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program puts research trainees to work alongside Yale faculty on policy-relevant economics. Each fellow is supervised by one or more faculty mentors and works full time on their projects.

The program describes a community of roughly 70 scholars from around the world. Every position is on campus in New Haven, Connecticut, and most fellows sit in shared workspaces so the cohort learns from one another.

It is built for people who already hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree and are weighing a PhD in economics or a closely related discipline. Beyond the research work, fellows take or audit one course each semester, attend a weekly professional development seminar, and sit in on department research seminars. Alumni who go on to doctoral study have landed at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Northwestern, the London School of Economics, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Toronto, Wisconsin and Yale; others move into law school or into private, public, non-profit and non-governmental roles.

Benefits & funding

A salaried full-time Yale appointment. The program states only that pay is competitive with comparable programs elsewhere; it publishes no figure.
Standard employee benefits, including health insurance.
One course per semester: auditing any Yale course is free with the instructor’s permission, and a course taken for credit cost about USD 3,200 in the 2025-26 academic year — a cost the program says it factors into fellow salaries.
A weekly professional development seminar, plus access to Yale department research seminars.
Close mentorship from one or more faculty supervisors on a live research project.
Visa sponsorship for accepted international fellows: the program sponsors J-1 status, and fellows eligible for F-1 Optional Practical Training may use that instead.
A multi-day orientation and training at the start of the appointment.

Eligibility

Open to holders of a bachelor’s or master’s degree who are considering a PhD in economics or a closely related discipline.
No nationality or residency bar. The university sponsors visas for accepted international candidates, unless an individual project description says otherwise.
Coding ability is required in practice: every applicant submits at least one code sample in R, Stata, Python or a comparable language.
Research experience is asked about in the cover letter, but no minimum number of years is set.
Fellows must be able to work on campus in New Haven; all positions are in person.
Individual project postings may add their own requirements, and some faculty supervisors ask for materials directly on top of the common application.

Can you apply?

Here's who can apply

Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.

Education required
Bachelor · Master

Check my eligibility — free

Circlebreaker is a free database of global fellowships, scholarships and programs — every one decoded like this.

We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.

Application process

1
Read the open pre-doctoral positions on the Tobin Center opportunities page. Each names its faculty sponsor and is marked once it has been filled.
2
Complete the common application form, which collects personal and educational background and a ranking of preferred faculty supervisors.
3
Upload a single PDF containing, in order: a cover letter, a resume or CV, an unofficial undergraduate transcript, an unofficial graduate transcript where applicable, a writing sample of any length, and one or more coding samples. A link to a GitHub repository counts as a coding sample.
4
In the cover letter, name the specific faculty projects of interest, state available start dates and preferred length of tenure, list programming languages and prior research experience, and give two to three references with contact details.
5
Where a faculty supervisor also asks for materials directly, follow those instructions and still submit the common application.
6
Applications are read as they arrive; positions close as they are filled. Questions go to tobinpredocs@yale.edu.

Program timeline

Rolling
positions are posted on the Tobin Center opportunities page and reviewed until filled
July
most appointments begin, timed to a multi-day orientation and training; other start dates may be negotiable
End of the first year
fellows may renew for a second and final year