Yale Methods

[packrat]

I'm looking to get some candid feedback on Yale's methodology offerings. I know they had a few key faculty depart w/in the past few years in this area, and I'm curious as to how the department has responded, and how the training there is now perceived by other departments.

 

Yale has incredibly young faculty for the most part, so it's a bit difficult to discern who's really leading the charge these days and where the department sees itself going forward given its more qualitative roots.

 

Would appreciate anyone who can shed light on this. I will ask the same of profs and grad students there with whom I speak, but wanted to get some less biased responses as well

 

 

Thanks! 

[cjalpha]

It would be quite unfair to say that Yale missed the boat on the quantitative revolution.  There are people at Yale who do work at a level of rigor roughly on par with what we see out of the rest of the discipline (Jason Lyall comes to mind, and Deborah Beim's dissertation is another fine example), so it's not like the research that they produce is all that different.  However, with the exception of Peter Aronow (who is very young and was trained at Yale, which raises its own set of questions), they do not have any pure methodologists.  This, by extension, means that they do not have any seasoned methodologists teaching their quantitative courses.

 

Granted, these courses very well might be well taught, but in my experience taking courses with someone who really knows the ins and outs makes a huge difference.  Effective use of quantitative methods revolves around knowing where your assumptions are likely to go awry.  A good deal of this comes from experience, and full time methods people (as opposed to substantive people who dabble in methods) have an advantage in that much of their research requires scouring the empirical literature for problematic violations of model assumptions.  Studying statistics under an experienced methodologist gives you access to this kind of intuition, and a kind of sixth sense as to where danger might lurk.

[DKSL]

cj obviously knows more than me about methods training, but I believe you can do coursework in the economics department. I think they recently placed someone at Chicago (doing a postdoc at Princeton at the moment I believe) who received an MA in economics while there. That is a great way to go. I don't think ruling out Yale because they lack experienced methodologists (I am basing this on what cj has said, I honestly don't know the situation) is a smart idea (unless, of course, your main focus is Methods and not a substantive area like IR). I don't know what your interests are, but if someone can take courses in the econ department, I am sure you will be allowed to take courses in the Stats department. Yale has a fantastic program. Congrats on being admitted. 

* I did not apply to Yale, so I have no horse in this race. 

Edited February 26, 2014 by DKSL

[packrat]

cj,

 

I am out of up-votes for today, but thanks very much for your response. I guess the question then would be whether they plan to bring in any other full-time methodologists going forward. I suppose that would be a question for the department. 

 

I am aware of Dr. Lyall's work and agree that it is very good. My understanding is that he is on leave this year while writing a book in preparation for tenure. Will look into Dr. Beim's more thoroughly -- thanks for the heads-up.

 

 

Thanks again for the candid and helpful response. 

[packrat]

cj obviously knows more than me about methods training, but I believe you can do coursework in the economics department. I think they recently placed someone at Chicago (doing a postdoc at Princeton at the moment I believe) who received an MA in economics while there. That is a great way to go. I don't think ruling out Yale because they lack experienced methodologists (I am basing this on what cj has said, I honestly don't know the situation) is a smart idea (unless, of course, your main focus is Methods and not a substantive area like IR). I don't know what your interests are, but if someone can take courses in the econ department, I am sure you will be allowed to take courses in the Stats department. Yale has a fantastic program. Congrats on being admitted. 

 

This is a very valid point. I'll inquire with my POI about the feasibility of this (the prof you mention who was recently placed at Chicago had the same POI as I do, which makes this even more relevant). Yale seems very welcoming and encouraging of cross-disciplinary study, which is a huge plus for me. I am IR btw, and my research is at the confluence IR and international law.

 

I am curious as to how long the PhD takes if doing the MA in a different discipline, though? (apologies if this is a totally stupid question. I'm just not that familiar with getting an MA in one field while simultaneously pursuing a PhD in another). Would that be an extra year+, or is it all included in the same general coursework typically?

 

THANK YOU! 

Edited February 26, 2014 by packrat

[AmericanQuant]

Alan Dafoe is pretty tech'd up too, but I agree, not the best place for methods, esp. if you don't do experiments.

 

Also, Peter Aronow's work is really good and a great fit with the department.  Peter would be a great hire anywhere, Yale is lucky he decided to stick around.