GPPI -- 3 semesters of quant

[Minerva473]

For all the GPPI-ers out there, what do you think about the 3 semesters of quant? The student I spoke with seemed to indicate that you can be a lot more critical of empirical studies after you've done that much quant, yet no other MPP that I know of requires 3 semesters of it. Does this mean that the GPPI sequence goes more slowly than other programs or is it really that much more rigorous?

The third semester of the sequence is described as follows:

"Topics to be covered will include: Maximum Likelihood Estimation; Limited Dependent Variables (Linear Probability, Logit & Probit Models); Truncated/Censored Dependent Variables (Tobit Models); Panel data; Instrumental Variable methods; and Time-Series analysis."

Edited April 4, 2010 by Minerva473

[briepea]

For all the GPPI-ers out there, what do you think about the 3 semesters of quant? The student I spoke with seemed to indicate that you can be a lot more critical of empirical studies after you've done that much quant, yet no other MPP that I know of requires 3 semesters of it. Does this mean that the GPPI sequence goes more slowly than other programs or is it really that much more rigorous?

The third semester of the sequence is described as follows:

"Topics to be covered will include: Maximum Likelihood Estimation; Limited Dependent Variables (Linear Probability, Logit & Probit Models); Truncated/Censored Dependent Variables (Tobit Models); Panel data; Instrumental Variable methods; and Time-Series analysis."

I spoke with one of the GPPI professors last week and he said that the only school that covers as much quantitative ground as Georgetown (accordig to him) is the Harris School, but they cram it into one year at Harris, rather than 3 semesters.

[Minerva473]

I spoke with one of the GPPI professors last week and he said that the only school that covers as much quantitative ground as Georgetown (accordig to him) is the Harris School, but they cram it into one year at Harris, rather than 3 semesters.

Interesting -- that sounds crazy at Harris since they are on the quarter system and they do it in two quarters (though I guess they take 3 instead of 4 classes at a time).

[briepea]

Interesting -- that sounds crazy at Harris since they are on the quarter system and they do it in two quarters (though I guess they take 3 instead of 4 classes at a time).

Well, to be fair, I believe he said they cover the same ground in 3(?) quarters at Harris -- but I don't really know how the quarter system works so I was taking a guess. Basically, the point he was making is that he thought the only program that's as quantitatively rigorous at GPPI is Harris, but he said they rush through the material at Harris and pack it into a shorter amount of time. (You're probably better equipped than me to say specifically what that amount of time would be.)

[Minerva473]

Well, to be fair, I believe he said they cover the same ground in 3(?) quarters at Harris -- but I don't really know how the quarter system works so I was taking a guess. Basically, the point he was making is that he thought the only program that's as quantitatively rigorous at GPPI is Harris, but he said they rush through the material at Harris and pack it into a shorter amount of time. (You're probably better equipped than me to say specifically what that amount of time would be.)

Ah I see -- that makes more sense, though from the Harris website it seems that they take two quarters of stats (autumn goes from end of September until 2nd week of December, and winter goes from beginning of January to late-mid March). Two quarters is a little under 6 months, three quarters would be 9 months and I think 3 semesters at Georgetown is about 12 months. I didn't apply to Harris so no point worrying about the differences for me, it's just interesting to compare the two.

I wonder if the stuff covered in that 3rd semester at GPPI would be covered in a standard econometrics class.

[34d]

I asked my friends who have taken econometrics before to look over the quant course descriptions when I was researching GPPI , and it seems like most of the material they covered before is in the 2nd quant class, though the 3rd semester class, at least based on its description, has some topics that would also be covered in most standard econometrics classes (like time-series analysis). One friend said that it just looked like they took one semester of econometrics and stretched it into two; then again, the econometrics class at his school was apparently a lot more rigorous compared to others. To be fair I haven't asked anyone at GPPI itself about the quant classes. Even though I was planning on at least testing out of the first quant class I decided I'm going to take all of the quant classes because they train you to use SAS. Having only used SPSS and Minitab before, there's enough of a difference between stat programs that knowing how to use a third one can be really useful.

[Minerva473]

I asked my friends who have taken econometrics before to look over the quant course descriptions when I was researching GPPI , and it seems like most of the material they covered before is in the 2nd quant class, though the 3rd semester class, at least based on its description, has some topics that would also be covered in most standard econometrics classes (like time-series analysis). One friend said that it just looked like they took one semester of econometrics and stretched it into two; then again, the econometrics class at his school was apparently a lot more rigorous compared to others. To be fair I haven't asked anyone at GPPI itself about the quant classes. Even though I was planning on at least testing out of the first quant class I decided I'm going to take all of the quant classes because they train you to use SAS. Having only used SPSS and Minitab before, there's enough of a difference between stat programs that knowing how to use a third one can be really useful.

Cool. It sounds like they want to be rigorous without losing people who don't have a strong quantitative background.