Participants
Who can apply?
We are looking for extremely motivated individuals who want to apply to graduate programs at top institutions worldwide and eventually pursue a PhD in economics and other social sciences. The program is open to students from all countries across Africa. We strongly encourage top-performing African students in their final year or recent graduates of a Bachelor’s or Master’s in economics or related fields to apply.
Accepted participants will attend our free, biweekly webinar series, where guest speakers will discuss different aspects of graduate school admissions and careers in research or policy. After completing the webinar program, participants may apply for the second part of the program, the mentoring program. Please note that participation in the webinar series is a mandatory component of the application to the mentoring program. Promising participants will have to go through a 3-months GRE bootcamp and take the GRE.
Applicants with a sufficient GRE score will be officially accepted to the mentoring stage and will be matched with an experienced mentor to guide them through the graduate school application process. For more information about our program, please see the about page and the FAQ section.
To apply to our program, participants must meet the following minimum requirements.
Applicants must be in their final year or have completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in economics or a related field.
The applicants we are looking for are seeking to pursue a PhD in economics or related fields, or a Master's program in economics with the intention of pursuing a PhD in this field thereafter.Applicants must be willing to study abroad and commit the necessary time to participate in the GAIN Webinar Series. Typically, participants dedicate 3-5 hours per week to the program from March to December.
Additional requirements for the Mentoring Program will be communicated during the Webinars!
How can I apply?
Applications for the GAIN Program 2025/26 cohort are closed. Applications for the GAIN Program 2026/27 are expected to open up around January 2026. Sign up to the reminder list if you would like to receive a reminder once they open.
GAIN Information Session
On January 29th, 2025, we hosted an information session open to anyone interested.
In this session, we introduced our organization and our curriculum, and invited successful GAIN alumni to share their experiences and answer your questions.
The recording of last year’s information session can be found under “Resources”. We will upload the recording of the 2025 information session shortly.
Still have questions? Please read through our FAQ page or get in touch.