Sara Hajiamiri

Employer: RAND Corporation

Perfect preparation
After completing her EPA Master's degree, Sara moved to Santa Monica in southern California where she now works as a PhD candidate at RAND research bureau. Sara deliberately chose EPA because she wanted a course which combined 'hard' and 'soft' science and which had a multi-disciplinary structure. She opted for TU Delft because of its international student population. "I really loved the combination of applied and theoretical subjects I was taught during my degree course; such as mathematics, economics and decision-making and management subjects. I appreciated the emphasis placed on cultural differences and on the importance of working together to reach an agreement". The EPA programme was the perfect preparation for what Sara does now; she is working on a PhD in policy analysis. "I am a PhD assistant at RAND Graduate School and assistant policy analyst for RAND Corporation. RAND is an internationally renowned non-profit think-tank for policy research and analysis. As a PhD assistant I work on RAND projects to earn my fellowship. Depending on the type of project and the task which I apply for, I might be involved in collecting data, data analysis, literature research, developing models, writing or other tasks.

The TU Delft has strong links to other great universities across the world, which is also very helpful for students who want to continue studying at PhD level"