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Monody

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Everything posted by Monody

  1. Is it normal that manuscripts stay in the "Awaiting final decision" limbo for two weeks? It has been out for review the two months before New Years Eve and I am wondering whether they are working on the backlog or whether it may be something else.
  2. Very enlightening and heartening response. Thank you very much. Maybe just to add, I think that the progress is field and probably path-dependent. For example, I would argue that the progress on this front in my area (intrastate conflict research) is far less than in IPE for example, at least from what Ive read in the recent years. But coming back to my original question, what did you learn in your undergraduate method courses and what would you say is the average methodological knowledge they expect an undergraduate to have? Also in which program are you if I may ask?
  3. I dont really mean the heavy duty math as you call it. It is more the kind of stuff like: using an estimator with 200 observations that is known to be inconsistent with fewer than 500, assuming no auto-correlation in pooled models, using fixed effects plus a lagged dependent variable without clustered standard errors, not considering selection effects, using control variables that are determined in the model, etc. Then I usually look at the replication file and attempt to correct for those things just to find out that the results change and don't support the paper's argument anymore. I find that severely annoying and I think that a more in-depth training could alleviate these issues.
  4. I wasn't serious, but thank you for calling them.
  5. Are you sure? I can see why they may reject someone whose top choice wasn't MIT. -.-
  6. Well, if you see it like this, of course you are right and I see that there are other strenuous commitments. On the other hand, I have problems seeing how the community's knowledge should advance if half of it is built on sand, no matter how ingenuous they research idea. That is not to say that there isnt great work out there, just that a lot of published work disappoints more than it has to.
  7. I thought more about set and measure theory and matrix algebra. I am also currently working through Econometrics by Hayashi and Ive to say that I feel that I need this kind of training to understand what I should do to get the correct results without just proclaiming "I follow x (xxxx) by applying estimator y". Maybe that's just the area I am interested in, but there appears to be so much bad work (method wise) that is being published that I think that I would like to get all the training and knowledge I can get to avoid that kind of stuff simply for knowing that I am not going to be a part of the problem.
  8. Wow, I am jealous. I realized a while ago how great it would have been to have the really substantive knowledge a BA in Statistics would have been able to provide. I am currently somewhat frustrated as it feels like the more I learn the more I am missing the underlying Math to accurately relate everything to each other. Now I am working through Mathematics for Economists by Blume, but Ive to juggle all the other projects at the same time so it will probably take the next few weeks to get through it. Maybe someone also can share his or her experiences with undergraduate method courses for PoliSci majors?
  9. I see. Ive applied based on both, substantive research areas and methodological training. Out of interest and because you mentioned it, what kind of method training have you received so far as an undergraduate in the US and how much does it relate to the underlying Math? Formally, I only did OLS, some MLE, and factor analysis and am now basically abusing the Econ department (causal inference, time series, VAR models, panel methods, SEM), the latter of which made me realize how comparatively shoddy the PoliSci method training was with regard to the mathematical processes.
  10. Thanks. Have you applied to PennState as well?
  11. I didn't want to imply that it wasn't a good program as I surely would not have applied otherwise, but I find that impressive compared to the length of the process for the other programs. I mean 2 1/2 months for Stanford compared to roughly 3 weeks. Are they receiving such fewer applications?
  12. Thanks. Penn's results are expected at the end of January, aren't they? Ive to say that this is interesting considering that their deadline was only recently and much later than those of universities who publicize their results much later.
  13. I have to say that I am a little surprised that most (maybe all) of mine only say "submitted" instead of "under review" or anything similar. Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, NYU, PennState, MIT, and Duke for that matter. I guess that this is normal, isnt it?
  14. Well, maybe I am projecting, but I don't see why they should be nearly a month early this year.
  15. I now checked it again and indeed the earliest I found was the 9th of February so that the assumed observation that there will be results at the end of January was indeed wishful thinking. Sorry.
  16. Not foolish/suicidal enough... It's particularly damning as my reference manager now has over 1500 annotated papers and this feeling still persists. On a positive note, I noticed yesterday that Princeton seems to post some results at the end of January already.
  17. Well more stupid in terms of knowledge as a percentage of what you know is out there. That percentage is precipitously shrinking. I also have to say that there are days on which I am unsure about what I should work on. Should I attempt to find every possible literature that is related to my field to be aware of it. Should I put more work into methodology? Should I hone what I know first before venturing into other areas (particularly Economics, Psychology, Criminology, etc)? Should I just focus on current working papers or is this a dishonest thing to do if I am not 100% sure about every possible connection out there?
  18. Anyone else feels like s/he is getting more stupid by reading more? I am starting to feel like I should take courses in basically every social science research area and beyond to get a comprehensive understanding of the substantive issues and methodological opportunities to create the best possible research. When I am reading Wooldridge (2010) I feel like I should really take courses in Mathematics and in extension in Microeconomics. Alternatively, there is such a rich literature in Psychology or Geography that I want to tap into but it all takes so much time to really understand the complexity and avoid creating shallow research that is not sufficiently grounded and aware of all necessary implications and assumption that undergird the methodology, just to take one example. I even caught up on links to evolutionary biology and physics...
  19. I am only waiting for the 11th of February. None of my schools seems to send out results earlier than that based on previous results. I am also preparing alternative MA applications just in case. Regarding your question, I am situated between IR and CP and am interested in micro-processes in civil wars. I recently thought about beginning to work on a dataset, but the librarian at my university seemed to be quite annoyed when I asked her whether it would be fine to download several thousand articles from Factiva. Licensing agreements are quite a hassle. :/
  20. I would also recommend to look at Europe for the kind of work you are interested in. I wouldnt bet on a "qualitative" turn in the US while this kind of work is quite prevalent in Europe (mainland).
  21. Judging from your profile, you are already too late. The application season for international/non-EU student was the 15th of December. I applied in case that nobody in the US takes me (also for the scholarship) and I found the information they provide on their website quite extensive actually. -->(http://www.cis.ethz.ch/education/MACISnew.html). If you have any questions on the application procedure for the next season I may be able to provide you with some answers.
  22. The original statement is not recorded still. It only states the date of the original submission but it said on the top of the checklist before the deadline that they keep the date of the first submission but change the file. It is different from Columbia's process where you explicitly upload an updated version.
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