Required courses at NYU SCPS-new student

[lili86]

GLOB1-GC 3035 Analytical Skills for Global Affairs

The study of global affairs requires more than just interest, passion or even intelligence. It also demands that students master and develop a range of crucial skills that will allow them to gather information, quickly and effectively assess data and opinion, understand how these sources may be biased or open to misinterpretation, and then marshal and present convincing arguments on paper in a range of forms. This course is divided into 2 separate units, Writing for Global Affairs and Quantitative Methods. The former covers the basics of research and formulating a research question, plagiarism and derivation, the different forms of writing (a memo, a research paper, etc) and the actual art of constructing and writing a piece. The latter accustoms students to handling data and familiarizes them with some of the basic statistical techniques used in policy analysis, in order that they may become intelligent consumers and producers of analyses.

This fall, i'll be starting the Global affairs program at NYU SCPS. There are several classes that are recommended for new students and this is one of them. Does this sound like an important course? Or is this just BS?

[wtncffts]

This would be better asked of people who are or were in that program, and it also depends on your background. If you already feel you have the writing and methods skills and the course would be a cost, by taking a spot for a course you're interested in or simply financially, it'd be fine to skip it. Since it's recommended, though, the program obviously thinks it important, so if it's not at great cost I'd say take it.

[lili86]

Thank you

[kmita]

I am currently a student at NYU and the course is relatively new. Since the program has been criticized for lacking quant, administrators decided to require the course for some students. Basic stats is a necessity even in international relations. You may work with an economist at a think-tank during your summer internship. Or you may be required to critique a theory by anayzing how the author derived it to begin with. Critiquing a theory requires one to understand multiple regression and stats. I would strongly advise you to take the class.

Kaz