RAND School of Public Policy

The RAND School of Public Policy was founded in 1970 as one of the eight original graduate programs in public policy in the United States. RAND School of Public Policy is the only public policy program that focuses exclusively on the Ph.D., and the only program that is part of a think tank, in our case the RAND Corporation, where policy analysis was born. Although RAND School of Public Policy is not part of a university, per se, it is nonetheless committed to the same openness and support of independent inquiry that characterize graduate study in university settings.

The aspiration of the RAND School of Public Policy is to be the world's leading Ph.D. program in policy analysis. The School's overarching goals are:

• To produce Ph.D. graduates whose dissertations make important intellectual contributions to practical issues and whose careers distinguish them as powerful intellectual influences on public life.
• In conjunction with RAND, to develop new lines of teaching and research on some of the world's most difficult challenges in security, poverty, and justice.

For the profession as a whole, to help rethink what public policy means in a time when we no longer automatically turn to government to solve all problems but increasingly rely on partnerships between government, business, and civil society. The vision of RAND School of Public Policy is a place where some of the world's ablest graduate students come each year to work on some of the world's most important problems, with the rigor, interdisciplinary, and flair that characterize RAND. RAND School of Public Policy aims to give students the best in analytical and strategic tools. It also provides the unique dimension of part-time policy research with RAND mentors. We liken the RAND School of Public Policy experience to that of a great arts academy. Graduates leave with a fully accredited, highly prestigious Ph.D. and also with a diverse and creative portfolio that ranges from proposals to briefings, from technical reports to memoranda, with experience in multidisciplinary teamwork with a variety of clients in the public, private, and non-profit sectors.