While pre-doctoral programs are not optimal choices for everyone, they do benefit a significant number of aspiring doctoral students and we believe they are far too often overlooked. We thought we would use this blog post to share our insights into some of the potential benefits of pre-doctoral programs.
Pre-docs are paid positions at universities that work directly with faculty on research projects for a period of one to two years. Accordingly, the two biggest benefits of a pre-doc program are often the ability to clarify their specific research field and evaluate whether a Ph.D. is the ultimately the right path to pursue.
Pre-docs also gain research experience and have opportunities to impress faculty that can write helpful letters of reference for their future Ph.D. applications. The pre-docs we have worked with also report an increased confidence in faculty interactions from their acquired knowledge of the brainstorming, research, and publication processes.
Once again, just because pre-docs benefit some prospective Ph.D. applicants doesn’t mean it is best suited for your particular profile. So, as always, we are happy to have a complimentary phone call to help you determine if a pre-doc is the right choice for you.
