<p>I was wondering what level of competition is involved in summer internships for think tanks (namely the Cato Institute or think tanks in general if that specific information is not widely known). What aspects of one's resume would a think tank review most throughly? Is there any specific bit of information that would bolster one's chances of being accepted as a summer intern? Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>I'm interning at CSIS this summer. I think its pretty hard to get hired at the major think tanks (like Cato). CSIS got somewhere around 600 applications for about 50 spots. Basically all the interns I meet are rising seniors and have had previous internships. Also, I pretty large percentage of them come from 'name' schools. As far as things you can do to help your chances, just get relavent experience, ie. if you want to work in the national security program, try and do research related to security or non-proliferation or whatever. I don't think you will get hired by a think tank without at least one previous internship. </p>
<p>One other thing (and this goes for all DC internships), your chances will be MUCH better if you apply for the fall or spring semesters instead of the summer. DC gets flooded with interns in the summer and the competition is much tougher than during the school year.</p>
<p>In a related question: what kind of previous internship would you recommend? I've looked at places like Cato, AEI, Hoover, etc. I know there is one government/public policy think tank in my state capital. Should I pursue that before I go for something on a national level?</p>
<p>I've slowly come to realize that a person just can't expect to worm their way into a Cato Institute internship, so building up from a series of less-prestigious positions seems like the normal thing to do just like in a regular job, I just don't know where to get started. What about an internship in my state government or a state government agency?</p>
<p>Well, where you should start from really depends on how you are trying to market yourself. Are you trying to be 'domestic policy guy,' or an 'international development guy,' or is there a specific region of the world that you want to focus on? Figure out what your specific area of interest is and find something that complements it. Find yourself a niche and build your resume around it--take related classes, do something related outside of class, etc...</p>
<p>As for specific places you could intern to get you started...the smaller think tank in your state capitol sounds like a decent option. I wouldn't do the state government route unless you are really interested in the stuff your agency is doing. </p>
<p>One option might be trade associations and chambers of commerce--there are tons of them, from small local ones to the US Chamber of Commerce in DC, and they tend to be fairly conservative. Also, another way to break into the DC world is to work for an NGO. DC has thousands of NGOs focusing on pretty much everything. They're usually strapped for cash and like to use interns because they're cheap. If you tell me what you are interested in, I'll be able to give you more specific advice.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice.
I'll have to look into the options at the state level more closely.</p>
<p>Samonite, I don't know my <em>exact</em> interests yet, but I am broadly interested in education policy-- school vouchers, curriculum reform, that sort of thing. My university actually has a well-regarded 'department of education reform'. As far as gaining experience to help me get into a public policy think tank, do you think it would be worthwhile for me to try and take a class or a seminar there even though it's far removed from my actual field of study?</p>
<p>I'm also starting to get into libertarian political theory. I definitely have standards of personal behavior, but at the same time I don't believe that government should legislate morality. Hence, my interest in the Cato Institute.<br>
I'm less sure of myself when it comes to foreign policy-- I was never a convinced internationalist, and current developments in Iraq and elsewhere have only pushed me further in that direction. At the same time, though, I'm not ready to vote for Denis Kucinich and abandon the military entirely. I believe in negotiation before violence, but I also believe that diplomacy without the threat of force is useless. I'm not a pacifist, but I'm not a neo-conservative hardliner prepared to nuke Iran tomorrow. In short, I don't know where I stand in the world of foreign policy. I'm probably not hawkish enough for the Heritage Institute, and not dove-ish enough for whatever Liberal think tanks are out there..... </p>
<p>I'd really like to do something in constitutional or international law, too. I'm actually thinking about going to law school someday. I'm passionately opposed to the so-called 'Defense of Marriage' and Flag Desecration Constitutional amendments. Both of these proposals are nothing more than extremist, emotion-driven flag-waving that disregards our political history. It frightens me. I love my country, and I don't want to see it destroyed from outside or within.</p>
<p>As far as school goes, I'm taking a class on social and political philosophy this Fall, so I'm hoping to do some good work in that class and maybe get on the professor's good side in case I need a letter of reference or something..... also, the political science department offers a course on International Law taught by an actual law professor. I'm not a poli sci. major myself, but I could definitely get into the class. Would you recommend trying that as well?</p>
<p>I think I'm probably going to need some kind of academic work to illustrate my philosophical leanings on the applications, so I thought these two classes would be useful in that respect. Now, I never expect to published (although that would probably benefit me immensely), but right now I think writing a series of good political philosophy papers, advocating a libertarian/classically liberal stance whenever possible, might be the best way to get started. </p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>I think your ideas sound very well developed. I would take the education policy class. Hopefully, the professor in the class will make you write a longish research paper. If he/she does, than you can put on your resume 'researched....(whatever the topic was),' and use the paper as your writing sample when you apply to internships. That way, you might get to talk about your education views during interviews. If you are applying to some education advocacy group or education policy program in a think tank, that would look great. Instead of just being the guy that is interested in education policy (or whatever), you are the guy that has done research on a specific issue in the field, has some concrete ideas about it, and can talk about them fluidly. See what I mean about carving out a niche for yourself. </p>
<p>You could do the same sort of thing with the international law class, or the philosophy papers, or anything really. </p>
<p>Now, as for specific places you could intern with your interests...</p>
<p>Based on what you've said, you don't seem like you would want to work for a highly partisan organization. That being the case, I would avoid right wing places like Heritage, American Enterprise Institute, and the Hudson Institute, and also liberal ones like Center for American Progress and Progressive Policy Institute. </p>
<p>Cato obviously sounds perfect for you, but also check out the Cascade Policy Institute, another free market type place. A couple places where you might be able to work in education are the Urban Institute and Center for Policy Analysis. Some of these may lean a bit left of center...I'm not entirely sure. Also one other place to check out is the RAND corporation. It's pretty famous and very quantitative. It also figures prominently in a number of conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>If you want to do more international based stuff (including international law), the big international affairs think tanks are the Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, CSIS, and the Woodrow Wilson Center. </p>
<p>One other idea, check out the website <a href="http://www.idealist.org%5B/url%5D">www.idealist.org</a>. It has tons on public sector internship listings. If you want to find an internship in DC or NYC with an NGO, you can probably do it there. </p>
<p>Let me know if there are any other questions I can answer.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. I appreciate it very much!</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I got an offer for a phone interview with the South Asia department at CSIS.
What can I expect?! Does anyone with past experience applying to CSIS have any advice?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My D works for a DC-based think tank. 500 applications for 10 summer internship slots. Minimum GPA of the semi-final pool was around 3.7. Looked for match in areas of interest and experience. Rising college seniors had the best luck. In some cases, the shadings were very nuanced, e.g., one applicant’s background might be more towards theoretical, another more towards applications. </p>
<p>An interesting observation from D: they don’t screen or give preference to “top schools” per se. But the applicants from top schools wrote better applications. Successful applicants from places like Amherst, Swat, Wellesley, Smith, Penn, Brandeis, William & Mary. LAC applicants did very well as a group. If you can do very well in 10-1 odds against, that is.</p>
<p>This may be a little late but I have interned at the CATO Institute before. I did it during the school year so it was easier to get in. I loved the experience because CATO lets you do whatever you want, so like while you can concentrate on like education policy you can also help out in healthcare and constitutional law, or even government affairs when you are free. This really gets you educated and exploring things.</p>
<p>Also, CATO unlike a lot of the other places ends up hiring their interns. Basically, many interns stay on for another semester or so or even a year or even more. They work one-on-on with scholars and when research assistant positions are open they usually take them and work their way up.</p>
<p>The only downside is that CATO strongly stands by their principles, so if you don’t agree with all of them, or half of them, which a lot of the interns held a bunch of diverse views on a lot of things, then you may not like it. You also may not like the research seminars which try to teach you their philosophy and viewpoint which you may not agree with in everything and only in most things, etc.</p>
<p>I am tired of think tanks. I worked at CATO and another think tank and I found that while it was directly applied to policy unlike a college for instance, there are a lot of downsides compared to the academy (but the academy has a lot of downsides too). I don’t know.</p>
<p>Basically if you want to get into one of these places, intern first at any think tank to see if you like it because you may not (I thought it was my “life mission” until I actually worked at them even though I really liked how CATO treated us and taught us). They don’t always take big name schools, I didn’t go to a big name school, and basically try to do it in the Fall and Spring.</p>