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Why go to graduate school if you want to work in policy?

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This article is part of our general graduate school advice, complementing our in-depth, degree-specific guides on policy master’s programs and law school.

There are several reasons why you might want to attend graduate school if your goal is to work in policy. First, completing a graduate degree—such as a policy master’s, law school, or PhD, etc.—is often (but not always) necessary for advancing in a policy career, depending on the specific institution and role. Second, it helps you develop professionally, including the policy-relevant credential, network, knowledge, and skills you gain. Third, graduate school can help you explore your fit for different policy areas and institutions, whether through relevant classes, work experience, or research projects. If you’re highly uncertain about working in policy, you should likely explore more first before committing to graduate studies.

Do you need a graduate degree to work in policy?

Whether you need a graduate degree for policy work depends on where you work and on your role. Still, getting a graduate degree is generally very beneficial if you aim for senior policy positions long-term.

First, some policy institutions care more about formal credentials like graduate degrees than others. In particular, think tanks1 and the executive branch2 are generally more credentialist than Congressional staffing roles3 (see the footnotes for context and data on degree requirements in these institutions). But many policy professionals switch between the executive branch, think tanks, Congress, and lobbying throughout their careers. So, holding only an undergraduate degree limits your options outside of Congress/advocacy-type roles if you might want to switch tracks later. Here is a highly simplified breakdown of the typical education level in different policy institutions:

Typical education level by institution and seniority (highly simplified)
InstitutionJunior rolesMid-career/senior career
Executive branchBA / MA
(don’t need JD / PhD)		MA / JD
(don’t need PhD4)
Think tanksBA / MA
(don’t need JD / PhD)		MA / JD / PhD
CongressBA
(don’t need MA / JD / PhD)		BA / MA / JD
(don’t need PhD)

Second, not having a graduate degree may limit your ability to advance to senior positions—especially in the executive branch and think tanks. The paths to impact from working in policy often depend on rising to senior policy positions over time. One easy heuristic is to look at senior policymakers you admire and google their educational background; they likely have a graduate degree.5

Third, while entry-level positions are less likely to require a graduate degree, many policy positions are very competitive, and graduate degrees can help you stand out. If you only hold an undergraduate degree, you may face difficulties getting exciting positions since you’re competing with graduate degree holders. This is especially true if you don’t have prior policy experience, such as relevant internships, to compensate for lacking formal education. (This is an unfortunate effect of degree inflation, and probably socially suboptimal, but it’s important to be aware of.) 

While the case for getting a policy-oriented graduate degree is strongest if you want to work in policy, the professional development from your policy degree may still benefit you in a variety of non-policy sectors and roles (though it depends on the specifics). For example, many companies and nonprofits may value your policy experience and networks.

Professional development from a policy-oriented graduate degree

A policy-oriented graduate degree is one great way to invest in your professional development for policy work. Graduate school provides value primarily through credentialing, networking, learning, skill-building, work experience, and exploration. The importance of these factors depends on your background and goals and may impact what degree to get (e.g. subject, location, type of graduate degree). We briefly discuss each of these factors below.

Alternative ways to get some of the benefits of a graduate degree include internships, fellowships, and junior positions. But these options are better seen as complements to graduate school rather than substitutes—for example, doing a policy internship in undergrad may help you get into a top policy master’s or law school, which together may help you get a selective policy opportunity like the Presidential Management Fellowship.

Credentialing

A graduate degree is a credential making it more likely you get hired and for people to listen to you. The credential from a graduate degree is generally useful and often necessary to get policy jobs. This is especially true for mid-career and senior positions, which come with more responsibility and opportunities for impact. 

A graduate degree’s credentialing value depends on many factors, including the type of degree; the school’s reputation; the subject, academic concentration, and specific classes; your performance; and the preferences of the hiring manager evaluating your application. The value of the credential is relative to the position you’re applying for: whether you’re applying for a role to work on AI governance, biosecurity policy, or something else entirely, it helps if you’ve taken (and done well in) relevant classes to signal your interest and knowledge.

Networking

Public policy, like many other sectors, is highly network-driven. Many policy job opportunities are never advertised publicly but are filled with trusted contacts from the organization’s network—both inside and outside government. Having a strong network makes it more likely you will get valuable advice, hear of relevant job openings, be successful when you apply, and excel in your job (e.g. by collaborating with your professional contacts).

Consequently, networking is among the most valuable benefits of a graduate degree. The connections you make in graduate school among your professors, classmates, and your school’s alumni are highly valuable for your career in the long-term. You might also get to see and interact with senior policy professionals and other high-profile speakers at the university or even as guest lecturers in your classes. As a graduate student, outside policy professionals typically also become more willing to connect with and support you. 

The networking benefits for DC policy work are likely highest among the major DC policy schools—Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins SAIS, George Washington University, and American University.6 In these schools, your professors are mostly adjunct faculty with policy jobs and decades of experience7; your classmates often work in policy alongside graduate school; your school’s alumni network consists of thousands of graduates across all DC policy institutions and levels of seniority; and your school’s career services are experienced with supporting policy-interested students. The major DC policy schools have thousands of alumni working in DC policy institutions who may support or favor you when you apply to their institution.8 

Knowledge

Policy graduate degrees equip students with valuable knowledge for various policy-related careers. There are three main types of relevant knowledge that you may build during a policy-oriented graduate program, including (1) acculturation, (2) structural policy knowledge, and (3) domain-specific policy knowledge. 

(1) Acculturation: The DC policy world has its own culture and language. A policy-oriented degree makes you learn “policy speak”, including many words, phrases, and acronyms common in DC but uncommon elsewhere.9 You also learn to understand the intellectual frameworks, reference points, and historical examples that provide shared context in the policy community. Acculturation makes it easier for you to communicate with policy professionals and for them to take you seriously. 

(2) Structural policy knowledge: Building your knowledge of relevant policy structures and processes is essential for becoming an effective policy professional. A graduate degree can be a great way to learn about these, especially in classes relevant to your policy areas of interest. This may include knowledge of: 

  • the US federal government: what are its different parts? How do they work and intersect? How are different agencies structured?
  • relevant policy institutions: what are the most important executive agencies, think tanks, and Congressional offices/committees in your policy areas? What are their mandates and areas of competence?
  • relevant processes: what are Congressional appropriations? What needs to happen to pass legislation in the House or Senate and what majorities are needed? How do you get a security clearance? What are the main barriers to progress? 
  • leverage points: which parts of the policy-making process seem most/least promising to intervene to improve policy outcomes? How can think tanks or Congressional staffers have an impact?

(3) Domain-specific policy knowledge: Policymakers often lack time to engage deeply with policy issues, such as by reading reports or books and having extended discussions. Graduate school thus offers a valuable opportunity to develop expertise before becoming a busy policy professional, especially if your degree offers relevant classes. 

Being knowledgeable about your policy areas helps in many ways: you become better at developing more effective policy proposals, distinguishing between good and bad policy ideas, and appearing (and being!) more competent, all of which help you make better impressions on domain experts and get hired. Consequently, domain-specific knowledge can help you advance your career, make you more impactful, and make you less likely to cause accidental harm by lowering the average quality of analysis or launching ill-considered projects due to a lack of experience or understanding.

Here are some examples of domain-specific knowledge you may develop through relevant graduate school classes or that you could research:

  • How do export controls work and how effective are they?
  • What tools does the US government have to accelerate scientific innovation?
  • How do international treaties work and how can they be reformed?
    • Application: What are the most promising ways to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention in light of failed previous reform efforts, or to prevent the militarization of space?
  • How much influence does the government have over what gets published in scientific journals?
    • Application: What regulatory instruments are available to the government to restrict the access to scientific findings that pose severe information hazards?

While you can build some of this knowledge through self-study, it is hard to know from the outside which information is relevant. You also often don’t know what you don’t know (“unknown unknowns”), and lots of policy analysis benefits greatly from understanding social context, informal coalitions, and personalities, which are hard to learn about through desk research. In graduate school, the structured curricula and guidance from professors help you gain relevant knowledge, get accountability for learning, and establish shared context with other policy professionals.

Professional skills

Graduate school lets you develop and hone valuable skills for your future policy career, often through dedicated professional skills classes. Most importantly, you get to practice and improve your writing, an essential skill in most policy roles and institutions. Learning to write policy memos is particularly helpful for policy work, as their format differs significantly from academic writing. You also have opportunities to improve your public speaking and presentation skills in policy contexts as well as research and information synthesizing skills through writing various (short) research papers. 

Finally, you can often take classes on technical skills, including research methods, data analysis, and coding. While these technical skills aren’t necessary for most policy roles, they can be very helpful, especially for academic-style or quantitative think tank research. They also improve your ability to read technical reports and talk to researchers. 

Work experience

Graduate school offers some early-career opportunities only available to graduate students, including research or teaching assistantships (“RA” or “TA”) with professors working in relevant areas—one great way to cultivate strong mentor-mentee relationships. 

Also, many policy institutions in DC either only accept graduate students as interns or have a strong preference for them, including federal agencies and contractors, think tanks, advocacy groups, and Congressional offices.10 The same is true for some policy fellowships like the Virtual Student Federal Service, the Boren Awards, and the State Department’s Rangel Graduate Fellowship. Many graduate students conduct part-time work or internships alongside their studies. This gives them valuable experiences with relatively minor time investment, which is often essential for subsequent policy work.

Why not do a graduate degree for policy work?

Despite the many benefits of graduate studies, there are several arguments against doing a graduate degree and circumstances where it makes less sense.

  1. You’re unsure if policy is right for you: If you’re highly uncertain about working in policy, you’ll likely want to explore the space and seriously consider your personal fit for policy roles. While a policy-oriented graduate degree is often a positive even in non-policy jobs, the case for getting such a degree is much stronger if you’re confident you want to work in policy. Many non-policy organizations care less about traditional credentials like graduate degrees relative to just working in the field itself (especially if you can credibly demonstrate your ability to do excellent work). But keep in mind that “policy” is a vast and diverse field with opportunities for people with very different skills and personalities, including both government work in agencies, Congress, or the White House, and work outside of government in think tanks, advocacy organizations, and in the private sector in government contractors or other companies (e.g. as a policy expert or lobbyist for a technology company).
  2. Time cost: For someone doing impactful work, the opportunity cost of their time is substantial. Graduate degrees are generally time intensive, though their opportunity cost varies greatly—some graduate degrees take much less time to complete than others. At the low end, policy master’s are relatively time-efficient, requiring 1-2 years of part- or full-time work, depending on the degree (some programs can even be compatible with holding a job). Law school generally takes three years to complete and often involves a higher workload than policy master’s degrees. On the high end, PhDs in the US typically take around 6 years (and often up to 8 years) to complete, depending on the subject and whether you’re optimizing for an academic career. While UK PhDs typically only take 3 years to complete, they generally expect you to already have a master’s degree when you apply. That said, opportunity cost can vary over time—for example, those with strong partisan affiliations might pursue graduate degrees when their party is out of power, as job opportunities and advancement can wane during those periods.
  3. Monetary cost: The price of a graduate degree includes both the direct costs (tuition, living costs, books, etc.) and the foregone income from (partially) leaving the workforce. The monetary cost of graduate degrees is often substantial but also varies widely. Top policy master’s programs typically charge $31,000-66,000 per year in tuition fees, not accounting for financial aid (see financing tips). The top law schools are even more expensive, typically charging nearly $70,000 per year (see financing tips). In contrast, US PhDs are often more financially attractive since PhD students, instead of paying for their degree, usually (but not always) receive a small salary. But PhD students often need to perform some work in return, like teaching classes. Also, many UK PhDs, while less costly time-wise, charge their students. When considering the monetary cost of the different degree options, keep in mind that graduate degree holders usually receive a higher income afterward.11
  4. Urgency: Related to the “time cost” point above, if you believe working on some policy issue is especially urgent, this pushes against completing any graduate degree. Holding such beliefs pushes most strongly against doing a ~6-year US PhD, especially if your PhD research isn’t directly relevant to solving the urgent problem. But we believe it’s rare for this argument to be a decisive reason for someone not to get a policy master’s or law degree who otherwise would like to work in AI policy.
Footnotes
  1. Think tanks tend to be fairly credentialist, though the required education level depends on the seniority of the role and the type of think tank. Many think tanks offer internships and junior positions for bachelor graduates, but more senior positions usually require at least a master’s degree and often a PhD. Our guide notes that “PhDs are common among mid-level or senior research roles (e.g. senior fellows, program directors). They are sometimes required for those roles (especially at older think tanks) but a master’s degree plus several years of policy/government experience is often treated as a roughly equivalent qualification.”

    Generally, graduate degrees are more important for older, traditional think tanks often described as “universities without students.” In contrast, education matters less for younger think tanks focused on pushing a specific agenda rather than conducting open-ended research (“advocacy tanks”). These differences can be large:

    “differences among think tanks are evident, for instance, in the proportion of scholars at different institutions who hold PhD degrees. A review of publicly available data…suggests that those think tanks that were founded earlier [and thus more likely to be “universities without students”] tend to have significantly more scholars with PhDs today than do younger institutions. Among a representative group of think tanks founded before 1960, for instance, 53% of scholars hold PhDs. Among a similarly representative group of think tanks founded between 1960 and 1980, 23% of scholars have such advanced degrees. And among those founded after 1980, only 13% of scholars are as highly educated.” (Drezner (2017), The Ideas Industry.) ↩︎
  2. Federal agencies generally care a lot about educational credentials. Many agency employees do a master’s degree eventually (often funded by their agency) for professional development and career advancement. For instance, this report on the federal government workforce shows that in many agencies more than half of all employees have a graduate degree, and up to almost 90% for the Office of Management and Budget in the White House. Note that these figures underestimate the importance of graduate degrees: many agencies have less highly educated employees doing a lot of administrative work, but the positions with policy influence are more likely to require graduate education.

    It is also instructive to consider the General Schedule (GS), which most agencies use to rank positions on a scale from GS-1 (lowest) to GS-15 (highest). Higher-ranked positions have higher salaries and come with more managerial responsibility, a crude indicator for the amount of influence (and thus impact potential) you have in the position. The GS levels have education and experience requirements: bachelor’s degree (GS-5), master’s degree or JD (GS-9), and PhD (GS-11) (or equivalent work experience). This site explains that often “you can substitute specialized experience, or experience related to the work to be performed in the job, for education or to qualify for a higher grade.” ↩︎
  3. Congressional positions are the least credentialist among the major policy institutions, but there is much variation between different parts of Congress (committees are more credentialist than personal offices). Despite the lax educational requirements, competition for Congressional staffer roles can be fierce.

    This book (Ch. 5) surveys DC-based staffers in the US House and Senate, finding that 39% only have a bachelor’s degree while 38% have a graduate degree (23% master’s, 13% JD, and 2% PhD). (Most others don’t report their education.) This article also considers Congressional staffers’ education, finding that in the most educated House and Senate offices about one-third to half of staffers have a graduate degree. Relatedly, our Full-Time Roles in Congress Guide explains:

    “If you have several years of experience and/or a terminal degree, you can be a mid-level staffer…there are two paths into roles at this level: Internal…you’ve proven yourself through performance in past jobs, and you come in with a good understanding of Congressional process. Therefore, your formal credentials (degrees, etc.) matter less…External: They will typically have worked in such jobs for at least several years, and many have a relevant graduate degree.” ↩︎
  4. There are exceptions to this. Many senior officials in science and technology agencies have PhDs, such as DARPA/IARPA program managers and the leadership in the NSF, NIH, etc. Most staffers at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) also have a PhD or similar terminal degree (e.g. MD), though this is not a hard requirement. ↩︎
  5. But remember that correlation doesn’t equal causation: the educational backgrounds of successful policymakers are partly explained by selection effects—their education may not have caused them to be successful, but they were more likely to get a good education due to having success characteristics (e.g. intelligence, funding, parental support). ↩︎
  6. One policy master’s student who reviewed this post states: “For me, one of the most powerful benefits of networking through [my DC-based graduate school] has been learning which institutions are even relevant to me because they are working in biosecurity policy + are well-regarded + have opportunities for someone at my career level. I just can access that info much more easily through my network than public info sources.” ↩︎
  7. In contrast, outside DC more professors will be academic political scientists, economists or similar without much direct policy reach. Faculty background—e.g. have they ever worked in government or spent significant time in DC—is often a good proxy for program focus and network strength. ↩︎
  8. Each of these schools has hundreds of policy graduates every year, many of whom stay in DC for policy work (see here for some incomplete data). ↩︎
  9. Whether in conversations or in writing, policy folks will often throw around acronyms like OSTP, CISA, ASPR, DTRA, IARPA, and NDAA; or terms like appropriations, interagency, and filibuster.  ↩︎
  10. One DC-based policy master’s student writes: “Of the two internships I’ve landed while in my master’s, for both, the hiring managers conveyed enthusiasm that I was a grad student specifically, and when I asked about referring more students their way for future internships, they showed particular interest in referrals of grad students.” ↩︎
  11. For instance, staffers in Congress with a master’s degree earn on average about $15,000 more per year than their colleagues with undergraduate degrees (source, Figure 12, page 41). Similarly, the Office of Personnel Management reported in 2014 that “median salary for employees with a post-bachelor’s degree ($106,846) is 19% higher than those with a bachelor’s.” ↩︎
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