The Princeton Fed Challenge team has done it again! On November 22, the Federal Reserve Board announced the winners of the 2024 College Fed Challenge competition, and Princeton took first place! Watch the award ceremony on YouTube.

This year, 119 universities from 31 states across the country participated in the national competition, with eighteen teams selected as semi-finalists, six teams selected as finalists, and one team—Princeton—winning the top national prize. Harvard College won the second place prize and the University of Virginia came in third place. University of Michigan, Pace University, and University of Miami were given honorable mentions.

This year’s team is the second Princeton team to take home the top prize (2022 was the first) in the annual competition where college teams analyze economic and financial conditions and formulate a monetary policy recommendation. Eighteen Princeton students contributed to building the team’s final presentation, with five students (and two alternates) presenting the recommendations to judges on behalf of the full team. The presenters (pictured above from left to right) were Bijaan Noormohamed ’27 (alternate), Elliot Lee ’26, Daniel Sozanski ’26 (co-captain), Bracklinn Williams ’25 (co-captain), Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26,  William Neumann ’27, and Manuel García-San-Millán ’27 (alternate).

This year’s team was advised by three former central bankers, including former Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Alan Blinder, former New York Fed President Bill Dudley, and former Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada Carolyn Wilkins. Blinder is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Both Dudley and Wilkins serve as research scholars with Princeton’s Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies. Wilkins also currently serves as an external member of the Financial Policy Committee at the Bank of England. Dudley is chair of the Bretton Woods Committee.

“As this team rehearsed and sharpened their presentation, we coaches became convinced we were looking at a superb team,” said Professor Blinder when he heard the news. “The Fed Challenge judges obviously agreed. It all reminds me of the baseball manager who, when asked the secret of producing such good teams, replied ‘get good players.’ They earned it.”

Wilkins shared this sentiment, saying “It was team work at its best! They worked together over several months to learn the subject matter, form their own views and ask us good questions.”

Almost immediately following the 2023 College Fed Challenge, the team got right to work preparing for this year’s competition, putting in months of research, study, and practice. Over the summer, the presentation team and research team worked together to collect ideas and research current conditions. They then began an intensive schedule of ten hours a week preparing for the presentation and Q&A segments during the fall semester. Team co-captain Bracklinn Williams shared that during preparation the team “likes to write out the different hawkish and dovish arguments that can be made, evaluating the merits and rebuttals of each. While we present a single final policy conclusion, we try to include as many of the other perspectives as we have time for.” Williams is a mathematics major with minors in quantitative economics and creative writing.

Looking back on the competition, team co-captain Daniel Sozanski shared, “going through the 1st round, we felt confident in following the strategy we used last year to make our script and we worked extremely hard to improve upon it as well.” He continued, “When we found out we made it to the second round… we got right back to work on Q&A. In the days before the competition, we proved ourselves in practice and solidified our preparation, feeling ready to answer any questions we could be asked.” Sozanski is an economics major with minors in finance and applied math.

Williams concluded that “no matter what the result would have been, we were really proud with what we had done. But it was still a really happy and vindicating moment when they announced that we had first place.”

“Working with our advisors has been a phenomenal experience, Prof. Blinder, Prof. Wilkins, and Prof. Dudley are some of the most knowledgeable experts on central banking and monetary policy in the world,” said Sozanski. “It was great to be able to discuss our work with them and ask questions about topics we weren’t exactly sure how to address in our work. They were really helpful and supportive throughout the whole process!” Williams added, “Some of our most educational moments as a team have come when we ask a question where our advisors disagree on the answer.”

When asked what tips they would give to students interested in joining next year’s team, Williams recommends following what’s going on in the economy. “Reading news articles on the Fed, economic data releases, and broader economic trends are a great place to start. There are a lot of places to find research relevant to monetary policy; I personally love the Liberty Street blog from the New York Fed.”

Sozanski advised, “Demonstrate a lot of interest and commitment early on! We don’t do recruiting until after spring break each year but when we do we look for students who are really interested in monetary policy and have a desire to learn more about the field.” He continued, “We have also found that our most successful members have been the most committed, from being active in the summer break and completing summer research to putting in many hours each week in the fall, commitment is one of the qualities that has helped our team reach success.”

The full team roster is included below. More information on current and past Princeton Fed Challenge teams can be found on the Griswold Center website. Congratulations to this year’s team on a well-deserved honor!

2024 Princeton Team Roster

Presentation team:
Bracklinn Williams ’25 (co-captain)
Daniel Sozanski ’26 (co-captain)
Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26
Elliot Lee ’26
William Neumann ’27
Bijaan Noormohamed ’27 (first alternate)
Manuel García-San-Millán ’27 (second alternate)

Research Team:
Christopher Bao ’27
Chas Brown ’26
Ivy Chen ’27
George (Yuchuan) Gan ’26
Tejas Iyer ’26
Daniel Jung ’26
Anna Khan-Akselrod ’26
Emmanuela Omole ’26
Jason Seo ’27
Claire Shin ’27
Michael Tsangarides ’27