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Posted (edited)

1) I am a math major seeking to apply my skills to something relevant and useful. What fields of political science are the most quantitative? What sort of math is used in those fields?

2) In my remaining six terms I will choose between classes in political science, history, economics, and applied math/statistics/programming. I will probably take only two humanities classes a term. How should I distribute my course load? Which classes should I take before senior year? Which classes should I take during senior year? (I have already taken statistics and introductory classes in political science and economics.)

3) Grad students: what do you do on a daily basis? What methods do you use in your research? (This is the most important question.)

4) Grad students: what topics are you working on?

5) Grad students: what are your plans for after grad school?

Edited by 142857
Posted

1: Math can be used in just about any field- as can qualitative methods (except maybe for theory).

2: That's a question for a DGS, not grad students.

3: I read a lot, construct hypotheses, test them. I use almost exclusively quantitative methods- the type depends on the relevant research topic. Lately, I've been using logits and event history models.

4: Mostly topics related to the judiciary.

5: Tenure track job somewhere.

Honestly, you need a strong foundation in political science. The math background helps, but it is not worth anything if you don't ask interesting questions. With a lot of the math, I never really have to look under the hood to see how it works... the statistical packages we use handle all of that. You might want to go chat with someone in the political science department at your university.

1) I am a math major seeking to apply my skills to something relevant and useful. What fields of political science are the most quantitative? What sort of math is used in those fields?

2) In my remaining six terms I will choose between classes in political science, history, economics, and applied math/statistics/programming. I will probably take only two humanities classes a term. How should I distribute my course load? Which classes should I take before senior year? Which classes should I take during senior year? (I have already taken statistics and introductory classes in political science and economics.)

3) Grad students: what do you do on a daily basis? What methods do you use in your research? (This is the most important question.)

4) Grad students: what topics are you working on?

5) Grad students: what are your plans for after grad school?

Posted (edited)

1) I am a math major seeking to apply my skills to something relevant and useful. What fields of political science are the most quantitative? What sort of math is used in those fields?

2) In my remaining six terms I will choose between classes in political science, history, economics, and applied math/statistics/programming. I will probably take only two humanities classes a term. How should I distribute my course load? Which classes should I take before senior year? Which classes should I take during senior year? (I have already taken statistics and introductory classes in political science and economics.)

3) Grad students: what do you do on a daily basis? What methods do you use in your research? (This is the most important question.)

4) Grad students: what topics are you working on?

5) Grad students: what are your plans for after grad school?

1) It can get relatively technical. Formal and statistical analysis is used throughout the discipline, though some substantive areas are more technical than others.

2) Take more political science if you feel good about your training in probability and statistics. If you are so inclined, taking any proof-based courses or real analysis might help with preparing for formal work.

3) On a daily basis? MY DAD ASKS ME THE SAME THING. I work. Today, for example, will be spent finishing up a long constrained optimization problem for a formal paper I'm writing. Last week was spent programming for a monte carlo analysis for an estimator I've been working on. During classtime, much of the time is devoted to reading history or informal political science. What methods? Um, that's kind of a broad question. Some formal theory. Some statistics. Some programming.

4) Topics: I am in international relations, particularly international security.

5) Tenure track job at a good university, if only I weren't so stupid.

You don't NEED a good background in political science. I was an English major, and I have friends that were math majors, economics majors, engineering majors, etc. The comment about asking good questions is true, but substantive training in your department is just as, if not more, important than technical training. Many math majors have gone on to ask pretty interesting questions---see for example some guy named Robert Axelrod.

I also slightly disagree about the "under the hood" comment. It is good to know what is going on under there as much as possible (I certainly don't have anything close to a full understanding!), as it allows you to be a bit more flexible. Canned packages are nice, but they don't do everything.

Edited by coachrjc

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