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.

For most people pursuing US policy careers, we’d advise against pursuing a traditional PhD, primarily because of (1) opportunity costs (5–7 years that could be spent gaining policy experience) and (2) misaligned incentives between academic and policy career goals. Instead of doing a PhD, you could complete a shorter, more policy-oriented degree and gain valuable policy work experience during those same years. 

But there are exceptions to this general advice, particularly if you’re targeting senior leadership positions at science-focused government agencies (e.g. NSF, NIH) or certain think tanks; can pursue specific policy-relevant or low-opportunity cost programs (like RAND’s PhD or shorter UK PhDs); or if a PhD would uniquely advance your career goals. 

This guide helps you determine whether a PhD makes sense for you and, if so, how to structure your PhD for policy impact.¹

Why we typically advise against PhDs

We’ve observed that talented people often pursue PhDs for the wrong reasons—because it’s the familiar path after succeeding in academic environments, because of the status associated with a doctorate, or simply because they’re unsure what else to do. 

But the high opportunity cost and extreme specialization of PhD programs mean PhDs are rarely the best way to keep your options open or build flexible, transferable skills. This is especially true in policy careers, where PhDs are usually unnecessary²: The highest ranks of many think tanks, most federal agencies, and almost all congressional offices³ tend to be populated by people without doctorates (master’s degrees or law degrees are typically sufficient and more common). 

While PhDs are a valued credential in government⁴, the value-add over a master’s degree or law degree is often relatively minor, and other professional development assets (e.g. your network, past policy experience, and policy skills) are often more directly useful for reaching influential policy roles.⁵ 

Any graduate program you pursue should be in service of the work you want to do. This usually means defaulting against a PhD unless you’ve confidently concluded that 1) a PhD is necessary for the policy roles or impact you’d like to have and 2) you can continue pursuing impactful work during your PhD program (more on these points later). 

The high opportunity cost of PhD programs

Whether to pursue a PhD becomes a question of opportunity cost: PhD programs typically take 5–7 years (and sometimes longer). During that time, you could instead complete a 1–2-year policy master’s degree or a 3-year law degree and then gain 2–6 years of policy work experience. We think the benefit of those additional years of experience typically outweighs the incremental benefit of having a PhD over a master’s degree.

Consider the diverging career trajectories: by year 6 after completing your bachelor’s degree, someone who pursued a master’s degree could be a mid-level Congressional staffer, agency program officer, or think tank fellow with substantial policy accomplishments and networks. Someone completing a PhD is just finishing their dissertation and entering policy work, often competing for the same positions as recent master’s graduates. Starting policy work at 27–29 (post-PhD) versus 23–25 (post-master’s) means missing critical early-career years when you build the relationships, institutional knowledge, and track record that compound later.

The switching costs are also high once you’re invested in a PhD.⁶ After 3–4 years in the program, sunk cost fallacy makes it psychologically difficult to quit even when it may be the best choice. PhD programs create strong social and professional pressure to finish, and leaving as an “ABD” (all but dissertation) can feel like failure. In practice, these factors erode some of the option value that’s nominally built into PhD programs, as students who realize the PhD isn’t serving their goals often push through to completion anyway.

If the issues you want to address with your policy career seem especially urgent—for example, addressing the issues arising from rapid progress in emerging technologies like AI and biotech—this strengthens the case against waiting 5–7 years to start working on them. Spending this much time in graduate school means potentially missing some of the most important policy windows when foundational decisions are being made.

PhDs are optimized for academic careers, not policy careers

Most PhD programs primarily prepare students for the academic job market rather than policy work. They typically offer limited opportunities to build policy-relevant skills, knowledge, and networks, and little practice with the communication styles valued in policy settings.

PhD students spend years on activities designed to prepare them for academic careers—teaching discussion sections and grading papers, mastering academic research methods, attending scholarly conferences, and collaborating primarily with other graduate students and professors. While these activities contribute to your academic proficiencies and networks, they do little to connect you with the DC policy community, teach you how policy institutions actually function, or build core policy skills (e.g. policy writing, coalition building). 

These programs also push you toward specialization rather than breadth. Academic success typically requires hyperspecializing in narrow topics to make novel contributions to a given field, while policy careers usually reward the ability to work across multiple issues and quickly understand new domains. Similarly, PhD programs train you to write academic papers for other scholars—dense, technical documents that few policymakers will ever read—rather than the accessible memos, op-eds, and policy briefs that influence actual policy decisions.

If you pursue a PhD for policy work, you’ll need to actively resist these incentives, which can be difficult when your advisors, peers, and institution are all pulling in a different direction.⁷ 

When a PhD makes sense for policy work

The above considerations won’t apply to everyone, and a small minority of our readers will reasonably decide to do a PhD. This section lays out the circumstances when completing a PhD could make sense for people interested in policy work.

You’re targeting institutions that prize PhDs

PhDs are sometimes necessary (or at least very helpful) for certain policy positions, especially at senior career levels. Because PhDs signal strong expertise, when policymakers seek advice on certain (usually highly technical) topics, having the clear credential of a doctorate can help you stand out. For example, a PhD may be required to advance to senior leadership positions in these institutions: 

• Science-focused parts of the executive branch⁸: Many senior officials in science and technology agencies have PhDs, including program managers in the Advanced Research Project Agencies (ARPAs) and leadership in the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Department of Energy (DOE), along with most staffers at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).⁹
• Many economist roles: Staff of the Council of Economic Advisors and the Federal Reserve often hold PhDs in economics, though many other economic policy roles don’t require PhDs (e.g. at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Treasury, Commerce, and Congress). Certain “economist” roles can even be filled by graduates of relatively quantitative master’s degrees. 
• Old-school think tanks: Particularly in think tanks that could best be described as “universities without students,”¹⁰ PhDs are often necessary to reach senior roles.¹¹ These organizations tend to produce long-form, technocratic analyses and lean away from advocacy or strong partisan ties. 

Before committing to a PhD as a step in your policy career, research the specific offices or roles you’re targeting. Look up the backgrounds of people currently in those positions (e.g. via LinkedIn)—if most have PhDs, it’s a strong signal that a doctorate may be valuable for your goals. Speaking with those people will usually be even more informative (even if you need to send many carefully crafted cold messages to do so). 

Several tech policy fellowships can help PhD holders transition into these types of roles, including the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship and the Mirzayan Science & Tech Policy Graduate Fellowship Program, which specifically recruit PhD scientists for policy roles. We advise against completing a PhD specifically to access these fellowships, but if you’re pursuing a PhD for other reasons, these programs could help you transition to policy later. 

You want to keep the option of an academic career open

If you’re genuinely undecided between a career in policy or in academia, pursuing a PhD enables you to keep your options open. But keep in mind that the skills, knowledge, and networks you need to succeed in each path differ substantially. Academic success as a tenure-track professor typically requires publishing in top journals, developing deep expertise in a narrow area, and building relationships with other academics. Policy success depends more on understanding how government works, communicating clearly to non-expert audiences, and building networks with policymakers and practitioners in DC. 

This means that what you should prioritize during your PhD—from publication strategy to where you spend your time to which professional relationships you cultivate—depends heavily on which career path you’re optimizing for. If you want to prepare for policy work while completing a PhD, you’ll need to make deliberate choices that differ from the standard academic track (we offer guidance on how to structure your program for policy impact below).

You want to specialize deeply in a technically complex topic (and alternatives to PhDs are insufficient)

PhDs are more valuable when the policy problems in your domain of interest are technically complex (e.g. developing highly technical AI policy) and you aim to specialize deeply. In such cases, you may need deep expertise that you can’t easily access from outside advisors—which may be true in classified or sensitive government contexts—or the field requires rigorous technical knowledge that takes years to build (e.g. economics, certain STEM fields).

But technical complexity alone is rarely sufficient justification for a PhD. Even for highly technical policy topics, there are often less costly alternatives to develop necessary expertise, such as completing a relevant master’s degree followed by think tank or agency work where you can deepen your knowledge while gaining practical policy experience. Additionally, policy windows shift constantly, making it unlikely you’ll spend your entire career working exclusively on the narrow topic of your dissertation. Most policy professionals do specialize to some extent (becoming experts on the budget process, semiconductor policy, etc.), but these specializations are typically much broader than most PhD research areas.

You aim for specific high benefit-to-cost PhD programs

Not all PhD programs are created equal. Some are designed to have a lower opportunity cost or specifically prepare you for policy research rather than academia. Some of the programs listed in the next section take only 3–4 years to complete, offer part-time options (allowing you to simultaneously work in policy), or even allow you to do policy-relevant work as part of your doctorate (e.g. RAND’s PhD in Policy Analysis).

UK PhDs can also be attractive because they typically take 3–4 years full-time (compared to 5–7 years for US programs), though they usually expect you to already hold a master’s degree¹² or have equivalent knowledge. Unlike almost all US PhDs, many UK PhDs also lack guaranteed funding. 

If your primary goal is US policy work, domestic programs generally offer significant advantages: the knowledge, credentials, and networks you gain transfer more directly to US government contexts, and being based in or near DC makes it easier to build policy relationships during your program. UK programs make most sense if you’re already based in the UK for other reasons or can pursue a part-time, remote program while working in the US on policy issues (e.g. via Oxford’s Technical AI Governance PhD or King College London’s War Studies PhD).

PhD programs optimized for policy careers

If you’re still interested in pursuing a PhD to advance your policy career after weighing the considerations in the sections above, this section offers advice on how to choose the right program and recommends particular ones.

Key criteria for policy-focused PhD programs

When evaluating PhD programs for policy careers, consider these criteria:

• Time to completion: Shorter programs (3–4 years) reduce opportunity cost compared to typical 5–7-year programs, getting you into policy work sooner.
• Part-time or remote options: Flexibility to complete your dissertation remotely or study part-time allows you to work in policy roles while finishing your degree, building experience and networks simultaneously.
• Applied policy research opportunities: Programs like RAND’s PhD allow you to conduct actual policy research for government clients as part of your dissertation, rather than purely academic work.
• Location: DC-based programs offer the best access to policy events, work opportunities, and networking with policymakers. Programs at schools like Harvard, MIT, and Princeton also have strong policy connections despite being outside DC.
• Program alignment with policy goals: Choose a program structure that matches your specific policy career goals. Policy-oriented PhD programs (like those in the subsequent section) generally provide more policy-relevant career capital than (pure) STEM PhDs. But if you’re targeting technical policy leadership roles (e.g. OSTP, ARPA program management, or senior roles at science agencies), a relevant technical PhD paired with intentional policy skill-building may be more valuable than a policy PhD.
• Guaranteed funding: You’ll rarely have to self-fund a US PhD, and we strongly discourage participating in programs that don’t offer a comprehensive funding package (stipend plus tuition remission) for the duration of the program.
• Reputation: Foreign Policy magazine has a ranking of the top PhD programs for students seeking “to pursue a policy career in international relations.” Informed by a survey of US-based international relations faculty, policymakers, and think tank staffers, the top-rated PhD programs are offered by these schools (% of those surveyed who put a school in the top five):

Policy-oriented PhD programs to consider

The programs listed below have structural features that make them particularly valuable for policy-focused students:

• RAND School of Public Policy, PhD in Policy Analysis: This program can be completed from DC and has several features that make it appealing for policy careers:
  • Applied policy research: Unlike traditional PhDs where your dissertation is a purely academic exercise, RAND PhD students can perform applied policy research for RAND that count toward their dissertation; PhD students complete at least 200 days of “on-the-job training” (OJT) as part of their degree. 
  • Structure and time: Students complete a 2-year course phase followed by dissertation research. The program can be completed in 4–5 years (with a technical minimum of 3 years, though very few students finish that quickly). There are no teaching obligations, freeing up time for policy-relevant work.
  • Funding: Students may pay up to $20,000 in tuition each year, but typically are compensated well beyond that cost by taking on paid RAND project work. Scholarships may also be available for highly qualified applicants. 
  • Networking and security clearance: The program provides extensive collaboration with government clients through RAND projects. Students often obtain security clearances through this project work, which is valuable for defense and national security careers.
• Oxford University: Oxford offers both a fully-funded, 4-year Technical AI Governance PhD with the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative¹³ (including part-time and remote options) and the 3-year DPhil in Public Policy¹⁴ at the Blavatnik School of Government. 
• MIT Security Studies Program: This program was started by the CIA in the 1950s and has long-standing relationships with the US government. While not in DC, MIT’s proximity to Boston-area defense contractors and research institutions provides some policy networking opportunities, particularly in national security.
• Georgetown University: Georgetown is DC-based and offers multiple policy-relevant PhD programs, including a PhD in Government. Our understanding is that the program itself is primarily academic-focused rather than practitioner-oriented, but Georgetown’s institutional stature in DC means its students are often well-supported in pursuing policy careers.  
• Harvard Kennedy School (HKS): Harvard offers PhDs in Public Policy and Political Economy and Government. These are prestigious programs with strong networking value, despite being outside of DC. HKS PhDs are more practitioner-oriented than typical political science programs, though still more academic than most DC-based options.
• Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA): Like HKS, SPIA’s PhD offerings are based outside of DC, though they’re prestigious and relatively practitioner-oriented—the faculty culture is very supportive of policy-focused tracks. They may also offer more opportunities to specialize in emerging technology policy; SPIA’s PhD in Public Affairs includes concentrations in Security Studies and Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy.  
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH): JHSPH is ranked as the #1 School of Public Health, and its Health Policy and Management department is highly policy-focused. The PhD in Health Policy and Management is particularly relevant, offering concentrations like Health and Public Policy and Bioethics and Health Policy.
• American University and George Mason University offer PhD programs that are less prestigious than the programs above, but often aimed at working professionals and more feasible for part-time study while working in DC. For government positions, agencies often care less about the specific school’s prestige, making these viable alternatives. Both are in the DC area, facilitating networking and part-time work.
• King’s College London: KCL’s War Studies remote-friendly program offers a 6-year part-time option, though it may be completed faster depending on your research progress. The program is popular among part-time distance students in the military and national security fields and is reputable in national security policymaking circles. 

Optimizing your PhD for policy impact

If you do pursue a PhD to work in policy, the standard academic path won’t prepare you well. You’ll need to make deliberate choices throughout your program to build policy-relevant skills, knowledge, and networks. Here are key strategies to boost your policy professional development during your PhD:

1. Build relationships with policy practitioners, not just academics. Seek opportunities to collaborate with policy practitioners on your dissertation (e.g. by working on research questions that practitioners identify as important, using data from government agencies or think tanks, or co-authoring work with policy experts). Attend policy-focused conferences rather than only academic ones, request virtual coffee chats with policy professionals whose work interests you, and seek opportunities to present your research to policy audiences. If you spend your PhD in exclusively academic circles, it will be difficult to make up for the policy connections you missed developing along the way. 
2. Pursue part-time policy affiliations during your program. To ease your transition to policy work after graduation, consider part-time policy fellowships or non-residential positions with DC think tanks while completing your PhD. Some think tanks may allow you to work as an (often unpaid) fellow which can be a helpful bridge to policy work.
3. Relocate to DC after your course phase. After completing your mandatory, 2-year course phase, many PhD programs allow you to complete your dissertation remotely. If your program permits this, strongly consider relocating to DC while maintaining nominal enrollment at your university. Being physically present in DC makes it much easier to attend policy events, build relationships, and potentially work part-time at think tanks or agencies. To make this work, you’ll need to pick a dissertation conducive to remote work (e.g. archives available online, interview-based work with policy practitioners). If you can’t relocate to DC full-time, visit frequently.
4. Choose the right advisor. Look for advisors who are former government officials or have strong policy connections and can leverage their networks on your behalf. We’d suggest speaking with their current students to verify that the advisor still maintains active professional contacts in policy circles and is willing to make introductions—some high-profile former officials are too busy or too disconnected from their government days to be effective policy mentors. Additionally, ensure your advisor explicitly supports a streamlined PhD timeline (if applicable) and your participation in external policy career-building activities.
5. Rethink your publication strategy. Don’t optimize for top academic journal publications, which often require addressing narrow methodological questions only tangentially related to policy. Instead, aim to complete your graduation requirements as quickly as possible and, if possible, research policy questions directly and publish your findings in policy-focused outlets. Writing op-eds, policy briefs, and articles for publications that policymakers actually read will build your policy credentials more effectively than academic journal articles that few outside your subfield will ever see (though be mindful of partisan signaling¹⁵).
6. Pursue external funding to buy time for policy work. Apply for funding opportunities and fellowships to buy out of teaching obligations (if applicable) and free up time for policy-relevant activities. Opportunities sponsored by the US government, such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, can open doors to government work during and after your PhD. These fellowships are competitive and typically require applying in your first year with a research proposal. While reducing your teaching load can be frowned upon if you’re pursuing an academic career, it’s the right move if you’re optimizing for policy work.
7. Remember you can leave early (or take a pause/sabbatical) if the PhD isn’t serving your goals. Most PhD programs allow you to leave after 2 years with a master’s degree. If you realize the PhD isn’t advancing your policy career, exiting early cuts your losses substantially. But don’t overweigh this option value—social and professional pressures make quitting difficult in practice. One intermediate option is taking a year-long leave of absence from the PhD to do policy work, which leaves open the possibility of resuming the PhD later if you don’t decide to transition to policy permanently.

Footnotes

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