phd quantitative social science

Advanced Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences PhD

Most students complete this programme in 4 years full-time.

Utilise expertise in quantitative methods from a range of disciplines to a higher level than is usually offered.

You'll benefit from insights from a number of disciplines and research groups, including social and policy sciences, economics, psychology and health.

Department of Education

• Programme structure

Most students complete this programme in 4 years. You cannot take less than 2 years to finish your research and the maximum time you are allowed is normally 4 years.

This programme is only available through the Southwest Doctoral Training Partnership. Applications open from October each year and close around January. More information is available to Study as a South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) student at Bath .

If you are interested in a PhD on this topic but not through the DTP, then please apply for a PhD in any Humanities and Social Sciences Department .

Occasionally we make changes to our programmes in response to, for example, feedback from students, developments in research and the field of studies, and the requirements of accrediting bodies. You will be advised of any significant changes to the advertised programme, in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.

Your academic progress and general welfare will be monitored by your supervisor.

Academic milestones

• Registration
• Candidature
• Confirmation
• Give notice of intention to submit a thesis / portfolio
• Submission for examination
• Examination (Viva Voce)
• Examiners report
• Final submission of thesis / portfolio
• Programme content
• Doctoral skills online
• Doctoral skills workshop
• Research project
• Supervisory team

Research content

This pathway is for social scientists who wish to learn advanced quantitative methods and apply them appropriately to answer particular substantive questions from their discipline. It's also well-suited to statistically trained researchers whose interests are more methodological.

You'll be part of a group of social scientists interested in interdisciplinary research involving the application of quantitative methods from one discipline (for example economics) to problems in another (for example politics).

Projects may involve applying statistical methods used in other disciplines to social science problems, or developing novel statistical methods for analysing social-science data.

This programme includes a significant piece of research aimed at enabling you to contribute to the academic community through a large written thesis (typically up to 90,000 words).

For interdisciplinary pathways the Lead Supervisor will be from the applicant’s home institution and the second supervisor must be from a different discipline (a different sub-discipline is not sufficient; however, the second could still be from the same institution but a different discipline). The Lead and Second Supervisors must be employed at one of the SWDTP’s partner institutions – Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth or UWE Bristol.

Professional Development

Professional development is a crucial element of doctoral study, not only in supporting your research but also as part of your longer term career development. Our DoctoralSkills workshops and courses will help you build your skills and help you succeed in your doctorate.

Read more about professional development support

Assessment methods

• Dissertation
• End point assessment

Assessment description

If you wish to study for both the MRes and the PhD (the 1 + 3) you should apply for the PhD but indicate on the Application Form, that you also wish to study for the MRes.

Progression from the MRes to the PhD stage is dependent on achievement of a current average grade Masters (at the point of application) normally of at least Merit (60%) grade. Successful applicants must ultimately achieve both an overall average of at least 60% across the taught units/modules, and at least 60% for the dissertation component as a condition of their funding.

Most research students who ‘do a PhD’ register in the first instance as probationer for the programme of PhD. Confirmation of PhD registration is subject to your passing an assessment process, which normally involves submission of written work and an oral examination.

Candidates are expected to carry out supervised research at the leading edge of their chosen subject, which must then be written up as a substantial thesis.

The final stage of the PhD programme is the oral or viva voce examination, in which students are required to defend the thesis to a Board of Examiners.

• Entry requirements

Academic requirements

• At least a 2:1 degree in a social science subject (or)
• An equivalent degree in another subject, together with substantial relevant work experience

Underlying these conditions is a belief that students must bring a minimum combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience to the programme. Marginal cases are often dealt with at interview, and it is not uncommon for relatively inexperienced students to be asked to defer entry.

English Language requirements

You will normally need one of the following:

• IELTS: 7.0 overall with no less than 6.5 in all components
• The Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic): 69 with no less than 62 in any element
• TOEFL IBT: 100 overall with a minimum 24 in all 4 components

You will need to get your English language qualification within 24 months prior to starting your course.

If you need to improve your English language skills before starting your studies, you may be able to take a pre-sessional course to reach the required level.

Two references are required. At least one of these should be an academic reference from the most recent place of study.

• Fees and funding

Fees and funding information for Advanced Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences PhD

Your tuition fees and how you pay them will depend on whether you are a Home or Overseas student.

Learn how we decide fee status

Tuition fees are liable to increase annually for all University of Bath students. If you aren't paying your fees in British pounds, you should also budget for possible fluctuations in your own currency.

Find out more about student fees

Funding options

This programme is only available through the Southwest Doctoral Training Partnership. Information on the funding is available at Study as a South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) student at Bath .

This is an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) recognised programme, suitable for ESRC-funded 1+3 awards or subsequent +3 applications (MRes and PhD).

ESRC-funded students are able to claim (during their studies) for three additional allowances:

• Overseas Fieldwork Allowance
• Difficult Language Training
• Overseas Institutional Visits

For more information on these allowances please see the ESRC Postgraduate Funding Guide . Please note that if you anticipate such activities you should outline the details in your application.

Find funding for doctoral research

Payment options

You can pay your tuition fees by Direct Debit, debit card, credit card or bank transfer.

• Application information
• Programme title Advanced Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences PhD
• Final award PhD
• Mode of study Full-time
• Course code RHSP-AFM02
• Department Department of Education as part of the ESRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) in economic and social science
• Location University of Bath Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY
• Regulator The Office for Students (OfS)

Applicant profile

Your proposal should address a problem or question with strong links to the themes of this interdisciplinary pathway.

Prior to applying, please contact and gain agreement to supervise you from an academic staff member (who will become your lead supervisor), as well as your additional supervisor(s), as their agreement to supervise is critical for acceptance into the PhD program. Your lead supervisor may be able to advise on the most suitable additional supervisor(s). Gaining feedback on your proposal from your potential supervisors prior to submission is strongly encouraged.

The proposal itself should include;

• a brief review of relevant background literature (to contextualise the issue)
• a core research question or theme
• an outline of the possible methods that could be used to address this question.
• how your research will draw on interdisciplinary perspectives

Progression from the MRes to the PhD stage is dependent on achieving an acceptable level of achievement (typically an overall average of 60% on at least the taught component of the MRes).

See our guide about how to apply for doctoral study .

Immigration requirements

If you are an international student, you can find out more about the visa requirements for studying in the UK .

For additional support please contact the Student Immigration Service for matters related to student visas and immigration.

• Programme enquiries

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Ph.D. Program

Grad student, Tamkinat Rauf, with Sociologist, William Julius Wilson, at a CASBS event. Image credit: Jerry Wang, courtesy of CASBS at Stanford

The Ph.D. program is defined by a commitment to highly analytical sociology

The program trains graduate students to use a range of methods – quantitative and qualitative – and data – survey, administrative, experimental, interview, direct observation, and more – to answer pressing empirical questions and to advance important theoretical and policy debates.

The Ph.D. curriculum and degree requirements provide students with the methodological skills, substantive knowledge, and mentorship to make important and impactful contributions to sociological knowledge. The program guides Ph.D. students to work on ambitious, independent research projects about which students are passionate. Graduates finish the program well-positioned to be leaders in the field of sociology.

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Department of statistics and applied probability - uc santa barbara, quantitative methods in the social sciences, qmss overview.

The department participates in the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) interdisciplinary PhD emphasis. The QMSS emphasis offers students an opportunity to apply cutting-edge statistical techniques to research in social science research including anthropology, communications, education, geography, political science, psychology, or sociology. The QMSS curriculum is designed to provide students with a broad interdisciplinary perspective on the use of quantitative methods in the social sciences.

We encourage any students interested in interdisciplinary quantitative research in the social sciences to consider an emphassis in QMSS.

QMSS Resources

QMSS Curriculum

QMSS Requirements (.pdf)

Directions on how to join QMSS

QMSS Website

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Institute for quantitative social science.

The mission of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science is: (1) to create, and make widely accessible, statistical and analytical tools for the social and health sciences; and (2) to use these tools for understanding and solving major problems that affect society and the well-being of human populations.

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Doctoral Program

Phd-phs in social and behavioral sciences.

Prospective doctoral students interested in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences should apply to the Doctor of Philosophy ( PhD ) Program in  Population Health Sciences  and choose  Social & Behavioral Sciences as their Field of Study.

The PhD in Population Health Sciences is offered under the aegis of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and is awarded by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Students in this program will gain broad, interdisciplinary knowledge in quantitative and qualitative methods of enquiry for understanding the health of populations, and developmental approaches to population health science. In addition, students will belong to one of the following Fields of Study associated with the departments of: Environmental Health , Epidemiology , Global Health and Population , Nutrition , or Social and Behavioral Sciences .

For further details on the PhD program, please visit this website .

Curriculum Guide

2023-24 SBS-PhD Curriculum Guide

What are the admission requirements for the PhD program?

For applicants that are applying into the PhD in Population Health Sciences check out this admission requirement  checklist .

I’m applying to the PhD program in Population Health Sciences, do I need to secure an advisor? Do faculty make advising commitments before applying to the program?

Advisors for PhD students in the PHS program are chosen after we know who will be joining us in the new cohort. Generally, the assignment takes place in early to mid-May. An essential part of the PhD admissions process is the consideration of appropriate mentoring faculty for the applicant. Therefore applicants do not get prior advising commitments from a potential faculty mentor prior to applying to the program. We recommend listing up to three faculty members of interest in your personal statement, articulating how your current research interests align with the faculty listed.

I’m applying to the PhD program in Population Health Sciences, do I need to have prior quantitative coursework?

Our program has a strong emphasis on quantitative methods so showing preparation in this area is strongly recommended. The doctoral program in SBS is very quantitative-focused and we do require students to take a year of Quantitative Research Methods in Population Health Sciences (PHS 2000 A + B). Although the committee looks at the application holistically, some emphasis is placed on how well applicants do in specific course areas such as Biostats, EPI and the social sciences.

It’s always helpful to the admissions committee to be able to assess quantitative skills in an applicant’s background and that is usually demonstrated through coursework, professional experiences and letters of recommendation.

What are you looking for in applicants to the PhD program?

While applications are looked at holistically, the admissions committee does place an emphasis on prior coursework in biostatistics, epidemiology and the social sciences, so highlighting these types of courses in your application will be useful.  Additionally, it could be helpful if one of your recommenders is a professor from your last degree program who can comment positively on your quantitative abilities.  Your statement of purpose is a chance for you to tell the committee about your motivation for pursuing doctoral work in SBS and to describe yourself as a researcher. A key part of the admissions review process is making sure there is appropriate mentorship, so we suggest naming up to three SBS faculty whose interests align with your own. You can read about the faculty here .

You may find the information on this page helpful as you prepare your application.

Will graduate course work from my master’s degree be accepted for some of the coursework required in the PhD (e.g. statistics courses etc.)?

You can submit a substitution form with the course syllabus for courses you have taken in your Master’s program. Substitution requests are carefully reviewed by the instructor of the required HSPH course to determine if the course is truly equivalent.

Where can I find out more information on the research in the SBS department?

You can get some information on faculty research by viewing their profiles on the department website.

You can read about the research areas of current students here .

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Jorge joined the Sponsored Finance team at IQSS in July 2023 as a Sr. Sponsored Research Administrator. Jorge supports several principal investigators affiliated with IQSS... Read more about Jorge Dasilva

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Philip Durbin

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Farhan Ghrairi comes to us from the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, as well as Harvard Global Support Services, and David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Students... Read more about Farhan Ghrairi

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Jeffrey Hanson

Jeffrey Hanson, PhD, is a senior philosopher for the program. He received his PhD from Fordham University in 2005... Read more about Jeffrey Hanson

Cameron Harvey

William Horka

Devika Kakkar

Devika Kakkar is a Project Manager at CGA where she leads the area of Geospatial Data Science and Big Data. She has more than a decade of experience in Geoinformation Science and has been instrumental in building several high-impact geospatial solutions... Read more about Devika Kakkar

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Keri Lemasters

Ally Madden

Maria Martins

Liz Salazar

Gabrielle Stone

Josaba Uribe

Stephen Kraffmiller

Dwayne Liburd

James D Myers

Dr. Myers is an independent software architect, designer, and developer currently working in the Dataverse community through the Global Dataverse...

Don Sizemore, II

Don Sizemore became involved with IQSS through the Dataverse project when he joined the Odum Institute in 2015. He is the primary author of the Dataverse-...

Juan Pablo Tosca

Juan Pablo Tosca is a talented software developer who joined IQSS in 2023 as a Senior Software Developer on the Dataverse project....

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Steven is working on the Dataverse Project.

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Mike Reekie

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Bailey Moore joined IQSS in 2024 as an IT Client Services Support Specialist. She went to school for Computer Networking at Lamar Institute of Technology...

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• PhD Quantitative and Computational Social Science

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PhD Quantitative and Computational Social Science

Duration: 3-4 Years Full Time Entry to the programme is in September only. 

Programme Overview

We offer a PhD programme in Quantitative and Computational Social Science (QCSS). The structured PhD programme includes (2) extensive training in cutting-edge research methods, (2) regular contact with a Research Studies Panel composed of academic staff with expertise related to the student’s interests, and (3) the writing of a doctoral thesis based on original research. 

This programme is built around quantitative and computational social science methods and tools applied to substantive and methodological research questions in the social sciences. The programme brings together the perspectives and research methods of various disciplines such as Economics, Politics, Sociology and Statistics. The QCSS programme provides students with rigorous training in quantitative research and methods, including quantitative text analysis, machine learning, computer vision techniques, agent-based modelling, network analysis, and causal inference. Students will apply these methods in their PhD thesis to answer substantive research questions in Social Sciences. 

Successful candidates are invited to join the Connected_Politics Lab , an interdisciplinary hub for researchers using computational methods to study politics and society, the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy , and/or the (opens in a new window) UCD Behavioural Science and Policy group, a centre for research and collaboration on integrating behaviourally-informed ideas into public policy. 

Students with a quantitative background in any area can undertake the programme. They will undertake various quantitative social science modules offered by the UCD School of Politics and International Relations, the School of Sociology, and the School of Economics. They may also choose modules that are relevant to their own research interest in other UCD Schools. 

The PhD QCSS programme is a thematic, structured programme. Doctoral studies at UCD comprise two stages:

• Stage 1 is a period when you define your research plan, develop your research skills and initiate original research work for your doctorate.
• Stage 2 is primarily dedicated to continuing your original doctoral research but may also include some advanced education and training. 

Some general information on UCD Structured PhDs is available here .

Entry Requirements

For the structured PhD programme in Quantitative and Computational Social Science, applications are welcomed from applicants with a Master’s degree in data science, computer science, quantitative political science, economics, statistics, and other social science subjects. Applicants to our research degree programmes must have completed and earned a minimum of a 2.1 grade (GPA: 3.6) in a taught Masters (MA, MSc, MLitt, etc.) programme.

General Information for Incoming Students

A Welcome Note from the Dean of Graduate Studies, with information on registration, fees, support services and orientation, can be found  here.

When Can I Apply?

There are three application deadlines for the Quantitative and Computational Social Science programme:

• Applicants to the  Iseult Honohan Doctoral Scholarship : 9th February 2024
• IRC Government of Ireland Doctoral Scholarship 2025 applicants: 8th September 2024
• All other funded applicants: a rolling deadline between 1st October 2023 and 31st July 2024 (for non-EU applicants the deadline is 30th June 2024 )  

Note: The Quantitative and Computational Social Science PhD programme only accepts students who have a Honohan Doctoral scholarship, an IRC scholarship or alternative external funding, to include a full fee remission and appropriate living expenses. Self-funded applicants are not eligible.

Programme Structure

As set out by the requirements of UCD Graduate Studies, QCSS students are required to complete a minimum of 35 credits of course works in Stage 1, followed by a programme of original research leading to the award of Doctoral degree by research. More information can be found here .

Note: the modules listed here are for 2023-24. These may change for 2024-25.

All students must take the following module:

• POL50220 Social Science Methodology (Core)

All students take at least one of the following three modules:

• SOC40640 Social Simulation: Methods and Models
• POL42050 Quantitative Text Analysis
• ECON50580 PhD Econometrics 

In addition, all students take at least three modules, totalling to at least 15 credits. Students with a technical background (computer science, engineering, statistics) take these modules from relevant offerings in the social sciences, while students with a social science background (incl. business and law) take these modules from relevant offerings in computer science, mathematics, and/or statistics. 

• ACM40290 Numerical Algorithms
• COMP40730 High Performance Computing
• PLAN40220 Geographical Information Systems
• POL42340 Programming for Soc Scientists
• STAT40400 Monte Carlo Inference
• STAT40680 Stochastic Models
• COMP47670 Data Science in Python
• COMP40610 Information Visualisation
• COMP41680 Data Science in Python
• COMP47470 Big Data Programming
• SOC40690 Demographic Analytics: T & A
• SOC41030 Sciences, Technologies & Societies
• STAT30270 Statistical Machine Learning
• STAT40150 Multivariate Analysis
• SOC41070 SocThinking in the Digital Age
• SOC41130 AI and Society
• SOC30380 Social Dynamics and Networks

  The range of modules is subject to change.

The students may register for other modules depending on their research theme with permission from their Supervisor and the Module Coordinator.

The College of Social Sciences and Law schools also make a range of modules available to graduate research students outside their school each year. For a sample of such modules, click here .

Please see this page for PhD module registration information. 

A formal Stage Transfer Assessment (STA) takes place in order to progress from Stage 1 to Stage 2 of the PhD. The STA should be completed within 5 trimesters for a full-time student or 7 for a part-time student. Students must submit a body of written work to a review panel, who will conduct an interview on the work submitted, and must also complete a Research and Professional Development Planning (RPDP). For more information on the RPDP click here . 

The PhD may take the form of a traditional thesis, or a collection of papers (including published papers or papers submitted or prepared for submission) describing a coherent programme of research that has been published or prepared for publication in peer-reviewed journals of international standing, accompanied by a critical and theoretical overview of the work presented in the papers.

UCD/TCD Collaboration

SPIRe collaborates with the Department of Political Science in Trinity College Dublin (TCD). We currently share modules on quantitative and qualitative research methods. In addition, TCD operates a Coding Camp for incoming students, as a preparatory course for Quants I. Students enrolling on the QCSS programme are welcome to attend this camp. It usually takes place prior to the start of term. Ask the PhD Administrator for more information.

Application Procedure

Applications will be considered when the documentation below, including references, has been emailed to  (opens in a new window) [email protected]

• Application Form (fillable word doc) ' page"> Application Form (fillable word doc)
• Cover letter , stating reasons for interest in QCSS programme.  
• Research proposal (1,500-2,000 words maximum) which should include:
• a statement of the research question;
• a brief literature review that points to research gaps the PhD project could address;
• an outline of theoretical approaches considered;
• a brief discussion of the proposed methodology.
• Copies of ALL  Academic Transcripts (Undergraduate and Postgraduate)
• CV or Resume (2 pages maximum)
• Evidence of English language competence , where non-native English speaking applicants have NOT obtained previous university degrees from a university in an English-speaking country. Click on the link for further details on UCD English Language Requirements ' page"> English Language Requirements . The language proficiency certificate should be no more than 2 years old.
• Two academic references: These should be sent directly by the referees to [email protected] with the applicant's name in the Subject field. Actual letters (on headed institutional paper) preferred. If sent by email, they must be from an institutional email address. The QCSS programme reserves the right to verify all references. Sending only the contact details of referees is not sufficient.  
• If you have had contact with a potential supervisor prior to application, please indicate this clearly in the application form and in the cover letter, including detail on the extent of engagement

This documentation should be emailed to Ms Dara Gannon (PhD Administrator) at  (opens in a new window) [email protected] 

The submission of original academic transcripts and other documentation will be required as a condition of the final award of a place on the programme.

How does the application process work?

• Once all documents, including references, have been received, the application will undergo an initial evaluation by the review committee to assess that it satisfies the minimum requirements in terms of academic achievement and language skills 
• Once it has been confirmed that the applicant is, in principle, eligible to join the QCSS PhD programme, the application gets circulated among the relevant academic staff to determine if a potential supervisor is available and interested in taking on the applicant. 
• If someone is potentially interested in supervising / co-supervising, a Zoom/Skype call is usually arranged between the potential supervisor(s) and the applicant so that further questions on the project can be asked. The Programme Director will often sit in on the call to ask general questions and/or provide more information on the programme. 
• Following the call, if the potential supervisor(s) is willing to take on the applicant as a student, the registration process is initiated by the programme’s PhD administrator.
• If an application is not deemed suitable, a letter will be sent to the applicant informing them of the decision. The programme does not provide individual feedback.

Please note that the application review process does not take place until after the the relevant application deadline. For Honohan Scholarship applicants the application deadline is 9th February 2024 and for 2025 IRC candidates the deadline is 8th September 2024. There is a rolling deadline for other, externally-funded students.

Honohan Scholarship Applicants The Honohan Doctoral Scholarship covers a full EU/non-EU fee remission, plus an annual stipend of €25,000. The deadline for applications is 9th February 2024.  

IRC Applicants The  (opens in a new window) Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme , funded by the Irish Research Council (IRC) covers EU fees plus a stipend. The 2025 call will open in September 2024. The application process is highly competitive so collaboration with a local supervisor to develop the application is recommended. See this page for more information. If the IRC fee/stipend allowance does not match that of the school's Honohan scholarship, the school will provide a 'top up' payment.

Please note:   If you wish to work with a SPIRe supervisor and use that supervisor's name on your IRC application, you must go through the school application process first , even if the SPIRe academic has indicated his/her willingness to work with you. 

Note: The Quantitative and Computational Social Science PhD programme only accepts students who have either a Honohan Doctoral scholarship, an IRC doctoral scholarship or alternative external funding to include a full fee remission and appropriate living expenses. Self-funded applicants are not eligible. 

The FT fee for 2024-25 is €7,130

The PT fee for 2024-25 is €4,710

EU Graduate Research Fees for the Academic Year 2024-25 

Non-EU Fees

The FT fee for 2024-25 is €13,730

The PT fee for 2024-25 is €9,200

Non-EU Graduate Research Fees for the Academic Year 2024-25

Further information relating to fees      

Fees published are inclusive of a Student Centre Levy (€254) which must be paid by all students. Note: The Honohan or IRC scholarships do not cover the Student Levy.

Helpful Links

• Information on estimated living costs in Ireland can be found on the UCD Global website ' page"> UCD Global website
• Specific information for international students can be found at UCD Global ' page"> UCD Global

Scholarships and Funding

Spire scholarships.

SPIRe operates an Iseult Honohan Doctoral Scholarship , which provides a fee remission of the scheduled EU or non-EU fee plus a tax-free annual stipend of €25k.  The 2024 application round is now open, with an application deadline of 9th February 2024.

Click here for more details

There are also  UCD Graduate Scholarships  available.  

IRC Scholarships: Call for 2022 now closed.

The (opens in a new window) Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme , funded by the Irish Research Council (IRC) covers EU fees plus a stipend. The current round is closed. The application process is highly competitive so collaboration with a local supervisor to develop the application is recommended.

If the IRC fee/stipend allowance does not match that of the school's Honohan scholarship, the school will provide a 'top up' payment.

• (opens in a new window) Employment Based Postgraduate Programme
• (opens in a new window) Enterprise Partnership Scheme

Please note: If you wish to work with a SPIRe supervisor and use that supervisor's name on your IRC application, you must go through the school application process first, even if the SPIRe academic has indicated his/her willingness to work with you. The SPIRe application deadline for the 2025 IRC round is 8th September 2024.

Other Scholarships

Information on a selection of the top institutions currently funding graduate students at UCD can be found  here

Other UCD scholarships   

International Students

• Specific information for international students planning to attend UCD can be found at UCD Global ' page"> UCD Global
• Supports for students and general information about the campus and the student experience can be found here ' page"> here
• Further information on estimated living costs and grants can be found here ' page"> here . Please visit the Irish Dept of Justice website ' page" target="_blank" rel="noopener" tabindex="0"> (opens in a new window) Irish Dept of Justice website for information on obtaining a visa
• Further visa information can be found on the Citizen's Information website ' page" target="_blank" rel="noopener" tabindex="0"> (opens in a new window) Citizen's Information website
• And information regarding working in Ireland can be accessed here ' page"> here

SPIRe Seminars and Events

Throughout your time in SPIRe, you will have access to a variety of university and school events, workshops and seminars to choose from. Some of the school offerings are below:

The SPIRe Seminar Series offers a variety of seminars from both school faculty and external speakers.

The SPIRe Early Career Researcher Forum provides guidance to early-career researchers and facilitates informal discussions between SPIRe faculty and PhD students.  

The Connected_Politics Laboratory has a series of events and seminars throughout the year.

As does the Dublin Political Theory Workshop

Information on university workshops can be found here

UCD Career Support

Career support.

Current and recently graduated, UCD Graduate Researchers (PhDs and Research Masters students), can book a  60 minute  appointment with a dedicated Career & Skills Consultant to discuss:

• Individual Career Planning
• Academic and non-Academic Career Options 
• Job Applications
• Interviews and Presentations

More detail can be found  here

UCD School of Politics & International Relations Room G301 Newman Building University College Dublin Belfield Dublin 4 Ireland

PhD Administrator Ms Dara Gannon (School Manager) Email:  (opens in a new window) [email protected]

Programme Director (opens in a new window) Dr Joshua Alley ' page" target="_blank" rel="noopener" tabindex="0"> (opens in a new window) Email:  (opens in a new window) [email protected]

UCD School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe)

Ph.D. students interested in acquiring substantial advanced training in social statistics may elect to complete a CSSS Track through their home department (if available) or through the Individual Concentration in Social Statistics. CSSS Tracks typically involve successfully completing at least four advanced courses in social statistics and attending the CSSS seminar for a minimum of one quarter. Several tracks also help students meet internal departmental requirements. Completion of a CSSS Track helps prepare graduate students for independent research and teaching careers in quantitative social sciences. Close to 300 Ph.D. students have completed CSSS Tracks since they were established; a majority of these students now hold tenure track faculty positions.

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Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences

A Practical Introduction with Examples in R

• © 2023
• Latest edition
• Daniel Stockemer   ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3502-6828 0 ,
• Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau 1

School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

• 2nd revised and extended edition
• Offers an essential introduction to survey research and quantitative methods
• Shows how to conduct empirical tests in R

Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Political Science and International Relations (STPSIR)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

Daniel Stockemer, Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau

The Nuts and Bolts of Empirical Social Science

A short introduction to survey research, constructing a survey, conducting a survey, introducing r and univariate statistics, bivariate statistics with categorical variables, bivariate statistics with two continuous variables, multivariate regression analysis, back matter.

• Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences
• Statistics in Social Sciences
• Practical Approach to Survey Research
• Introductory Statistics
• Statistical tests in R
• Statistical Research Methods
• Multivariate statistical tests
• Multivariate regression analyses
• Survey Methodology for the Social Sciences
• Univariate statistics
• Survey research

About this book

This textbook offers an essential introduction to survey research and quantitative methods with clear instructions on how to conduct statistical tests with R. Building on the premise that we need to teach statistical methods in a holistic and practical format, the book guides students through the four main elements of survey research and quantitative analysis: (1) the importance of survey research, (2) preparing a survey, (3) conducting a survey and (4) analyzing a survey. In detail, students will learn how to create their own questionnaire on the basis of formulating hypotheses; sampling participants; disseminating their questionnaire; creating datasets; and analyzing their data. The data analytical sections of this revised and extended edition explain the theory, rationale and mathematical foundations of relevant bivariate and multi-variate statistical tests. These include the T-test, F-test, Chi-square test and correlation analyses, as well as bivariate and multivariate regression analyses. In addition, the book offers a brief introduction to statistical computing with R, which includes clear instructions on how to conduct these statistical tests in R. Given the breadth of its coverage, the textbook is suitable for introductory statistics, survey research and quantitative methods classes in the social sciences.

Authors and Affiliations

About the authors.

Daniel Stockemer  is Konrad Adenauer Research Chair in Empirical Democracy Studies and Full Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His main research interests are political participation, political representation, populism, as well as quantitative and qualitative research methods. In his career, Dr. Stockemer has published 4 single or co-authored books, 2 edited volumes, 1 textbook and more than 140 articles in peer reviewed journals. Daniel has several editorial commitments. He is editor of the International Political Science Review (IPSR) and the Springer Book Series in Electoral Politics.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences

Book Subtitle : A Practical Introduction with Examples in R

Authors : Daniel Stockemer, Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau

Series Title : Springer Texts in Political Science and International Relations

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34583-8

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Political Science and International Studies , Political Science and International Studies (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-031-34582-1 Published: 13 September 2023

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-34583-8 Published: 12 September 2023

Series ISSN : 2730-955X

Series E-ISSN : 2730-9568

Edition Number : 2

Number of Pages : XVI, 141

Number of Illustrations : 11 b/w illustrations, 22 illustrations in colour

Topics : Political Science , Social Sciences, general , Statistics for Social Sciences, Humanities, Law , Statistics and Computing/Statistics Programs

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Prior to Quantitative Social Science, Dr. Torelli taught econometrics at Harvard (where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow) , worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and was an economic consultant in Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York City.  He holds MA and PhD degrees in economics from Harvard and a BA in economics and pure mathematics from UC Berkeley, where he graduated as the top student in the economics department.  Today Dr. Torelli continues to serve the economics profession by acting as a referee for academic journals, and locally, he enjoys teaching economics and statistics as well as volunteering at law school mock trials.  His recent book International Economics: Understanding the Forces of Globalization for Managers is featured by Harvard Business Publishing as part of their online digital catalogue.

The Graduate School

• Home ›
• Degree Programs ›

Advanced Quantitative Social Science: Minor

Graduate Program in Psychology

Program Handbook

The minor in Advanced Quantitative Social Science (AQSS) provides doctoral students at Notre Dame advanced training in the application of psychometrics, social science data modeling, and state-of-the-art statistical and (big) data analysis techniques.  The minor capitalizes on the expertise of Notre Dame’s outstanding faculty who specialize in computing, data analytics, methodology, psychometrics, and statistics to provide graduate students with a thorough basis of advanced data analytical techniques and social science data modeling that will improve the quality of research in their substantive areas. AQSS also equips students with the statistical credentials that facilitate favorable placements in academic or industrial positions upon graduation.  

AQSS is housed in the Department of Psychology to capitalize on its strong faculty in quantitative psychology, statistics, and social science data analytics. This graduate minor is open to all doctoral students at Notre Dame.

• Refer to program site for pre-requisites

G. A. Radvansky Director of Graduate Studies Phone: 574-631-6650 Email: [email protected]

https://psychology.nd.edu/graduate/

Computational Social Science

Using data science to understand changes in human interactions

The Center supports research in the overlapping areas of the social sciences and computer science.

The field of computational social science exists because advances in technology have generated an unprecedented volume of digital data that can be used to research traditional social science topics like democracy, security, economic growth, and inequality. Computational methods include:  

• Data mining
• Natural language processing
• Text analysis
• Web scraping
• Data visualization
• Machine learning

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Recent News

Stanford IRiSS opens expanded Federal Statistical Research Data Center

Conference on Educational Data Science provides researchers and practitioners lasting resources

CSS Fellowships yield cross-disciplinary insights

See More CSS News

CSS Fellowships

The IRiSS Center for Computational Social Science runs a competitive grant proposal program that awards five Computational Social Science Fellowships per year. The funding assists graduate students conducting computational research to acquire data, pay RAs to process and validate data, and other research activities.

The 2019-2020 CSS Fellows conducted innovate computational research that pushed disciplinary boundaries and yielded a trove of rich insights. The research reports provided by the fellows describe their groundbreaking findings and the impact of the fellowships on their research. Read the  2019-2020 research reports .

Social Science MPhil/PhD

London, Bloomsbury

The MPhil/PhD at the Social Research Institute provides a route for students to carry out their own research project within a multidisciplinary and multi-method environment. Our research students engage with the academic community within UCL and benefit from a comprehensive research training programme. This programme is available to study both face-to-face and online.

UK tuition fees (2024/25)

Overseas tuition fees (2024/25), programme starts, applications accepted.

• Entry requirements

The normal minimum requirement is a Master’s degree from a UK university in a subject appropriate to the programme to be followed, or a qualification of equivalent standard appropriate to the programme to be followed awarded by a university (or educational institution of university rank) outside the UK. The majority of our successful applicants hold a Merit at Master’s level, and may have additional relevant experience.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 4

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website .

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

The Social Research Institute is one of the largest multidisciplinary social science research and teaching centres in London. Our staff include sociologists, psychologists, social scientists and economists. We have research-active staff able to supervise research in our key areas of expertise.

Who this course is for

We welcome candidates who have a commitment to social research. They are expected to identify two potential supervisors prior to applying. Overseas applicants also need to satisfy the English Language requirement.

What this course will give you

IOE is a world-leading centre for research in education and related social science. We host the UK's largest doctoral cohort in these areas. We are home to many prestigious research centres and projects. In the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2023), the Institute was ranked first for education for the tenth year running, ahead of Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge. In the UK's recent Research Excellence Framework (2021), we were ranked first for research strength and research power in Education, according to the Elsevier REF 2021 Results Analysis Tool. We attract extensive research funding each year and host many prestigious research centres and projects.

Doctoral students at IOE have access to the wider UCL community as well as the education cluster constituting the ESRC  UBEL Doctoral Training Partnership . The Institute's programme has been designed to provide comprehensive and broadly based research training and to meet the requirements of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the UK Researcher Development Framework.

The foundation of your career

Students develop general and specialist skills in research methodology, academic writing and presentation, as well as experience of engaging with a wide range of practitioners across different social science sectors.

Employability

Social Science doctoral graduates are found in a variety of occupational fields and a wide range of career paths including social research, media research, marketing research, human resources, government, health, policy development, charities, education, NGOs, youth work and managerial posts in business and retail.

The Social Research Institute has a wide range of research seminars where students can join discussion of our ongoing projects, and IOE is the base for national and international conferences. The Centre for Doctoral Education holds two annual conferences for doctoral students. There are also opportunities for students to offer specialist reading groups and workshops and to act as facilitators on courses within the research training programme.

Teaching and learning

Our PhD students work closely with a principal supervisor and subsidiary supervisors. At SRI, we have expertise on a wide range of topics. Students will have opportunities to engage in research activities and seminars. In addition, the UCL Doctoral School also offers a range of skills development courses for PhD students.

In addition to UCL's Doctoral Skills Development Programme, IOE's Centre for Doctoral Education provides a comprehensive Research Training Programme.

The Core Course aims to meets the needs of early stage doctoral students.

There is also a wide range of introductory, advanced methods, advanced theoretical, and generic academic skills courses, as well as student-led workshops and reading groups.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) consists of a piece of supervised research, normally undertaken over a period of three years full-time or five years part-time. Assessment is by means of a thesis, which should demonstrate your capacity to pursue original research based upon a good understanding of the research techniques and concepts appropriate to the discipline. It must also represent a distinct and significant contribution to the subject, whether through the discovery of new knowledge, the connection of previously unrelated facts, the development of new theory, or the revision of older views. It should reflect the exercise of critical judgement with regard to both your own work and that of other scholars in the field.

For those who decide not to pursue the full PhD, or are unable to do so, the degree of Master of Philosophy (MPhil) consists of a piece of supervised research, normally undertaken over a period of three years full-time or five years part-time. Assessment is by means of a thesis, which should represent a contribution to the subject, either through a record of your original work or a critical and ordered exposition of existing knowledge.

You must ensure you have adequate time to devote to this research, at least six hours a day (2-3 days a week part time).

Research areas and structure

Our expertise at the Social Research Institute covers the following specialising fields:

• Children’s rights and advocacy; childhood studies; child development; children in care; maternal and child health; reproductive health; health behaviours; health promotion
• Families; family formation; parenting; work and family life; fatherhood; motherhood; food practices
• Gender; sexualities and intimate lives
• Longitudinal analysis; cohort studies cross-cohort and international comparisons
• Lifecourse transitions; intergenerational studies; demography; youth and young adulthood
• Social inequalities; intergenerational and intragenerational social mobility 
• Education; skills and employment; labour market behaviour
• Migration; transnational families; sociology of religion; culture and ethnicity
• Cultural and social psychology
• Political sociology and the study of social movements
• Advanced qualitative and quantitative methods; mixed methods and visual methods
• Systematic reviews of research evidence; study of how research evidence is used in policy, practice and decision making 
• Time use research; time use data to study social life, gender, work/family balance, family and economics

Research environment

The Social Research Institute (SRI) is one of the leading centres in the UK for multidisciplinary teaching and research in the social sciences. With more than 180 academic, research and professional staff, we work to advance knowledge and inform policy in areas including gender, families, education, employment, migration, inequalities, public health, health and child/adult wellbeing. At SRI, our postgraduate research students from all over the world work alongside supervisory teams, staff and current students. Students work closely with their supervisor(s) to develop each stage of research; supervisors also help put together a programme of additional courses and activities to support progress towards completion of the final thesis. We offer a wide range of seminars and teaching opportunities. As research students, you will have opportunities to organise your own reading groups, workshops, and seminars, working with other research students in other departments in IOE and UCL.

In addition to the campus-based mode, we offer the option to study online in a distance-learning mode. Choosing the distance-learning mode means that there are no residency requirements and it is not necessary to attend during doctoral study, the viva examination take place in-person at UCL or online. However, you are welcome to visit and use campus facilities including the library, attend seminars etc. In the first year of full-time study (and first two years of part-time study), distance learners take a series of compulsory research methods modules that are studied online. This typically involves provision of materials (articles, eBooks, videos etc.), forums to facilitate discussion of various tasks, and synchronous sessions to discuss the activities. Alongside these you will work with your supervisors on your research (e.g., using Teams/Zoom and email). In addition, there are other resources and training opportunities to support distance-learning students, e.g., sessions to develop generic skills.

The length of registration for the research degree programmes is 3 years for full-time.

You are required to register initially for the MPhil degree with the expectation of transfer to PhD after successful completion of an upgrade viva 9-18 months after initial registration.

The Centre for Doctoral Education at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society provides an extensive Research Training Programme. A mandatory core course is provided that aims to meet the needs of early-stage doctoral students. There is also a wide range of introductory, advanced methods, advanced theoretical, and generic non-credit bearing academic skills courses, as well as student led workshops and reading groups which you can attend.

Full-time MPhil/PhD students are required to fulfil minimum 20 ‘points’ of training activity in their first year, and are encouraged to fulfil the same in their subsequent years of study. This training can be selected from the UCL Doctoral Skills Development Programme, IOE faculty’s Research Training Programme, the multi-institutional Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network, and from other sources. Each point is worth approximately a half-day of face-to-face training, or an online equivalent. Other activities such as attending and presenting at conferences also count towards research training. Students may undertake additional training beyond these minima, as relevant to their research and/or as agreed with their supervisors.

You are expected to upgrade from MPhil to PhD status towards the end of your first year of study if full-time. Students whose performance is satisfactory will transfer from MPhil to PhD status.

Processes aimed at assisting you during your course of study include the Research Student Log (an online project management tool), and periodic reviews of students’ progress.

Upon successful completion of your approved period of registration you may, if necessary, register as a completing research status (CRS) student while you finish writing your thesis.

The length of registration for the research degree programmes is 5 years for part-time.

IOE Centre for Doctoral Education provides an extensive Research Training Programme. A mandatory core course is provided that aims to meet the needs of early-stage doctoral students. There is also a wide range of introductory, advanced methods, advanced theoretical, and generic non-credit bearing academic skills courses, as well as student led workshops and reading groups which you can attend.

Part-time students are required to fulfil minimum 12 ‘points’ of training activity in each year of study. This training can be selected from the UCL Doctoral Skills Development Programme, IOE faculty’s Research Training Programme, the multi-institutional Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network, and from other sources. Each point is worth approximately a half-day of face-to-face training, or an online equivalent. Other activities such as attending and presenting at conferences also count towards research training. Students may undertake additional training beyond these minima, as relevant to their research and/or as agreed with their supervisors.

You are expected to upgrade from MPhil to PhD status at around 18 months if part-time. Students whose performance is satisfactory will transfer from MPhil to PhD status.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble accessable.co.uk . Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing team .

Fees and funding

Fees for this course.

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees .

Additional costs

Students should take into account any travel, accommodation and expenses involved in their thesis.

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at Accommodation and living costs .

Funding your studies

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding webpage: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/funding-students-postgraduate-research-courses

UCL's Research Excellence Scholarships (RES) are available annually to prospective and existing UCL research students from any country: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/research-excellence-scholarship . The UCL, Bloomsbury and East London Doctoral Training Partnership offers studentships annually. More information is found here: https://ubel-dtp.ac.uk/

UBEL, RES and other funding programmes are not available to online and non-resident students.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website .

Applications for this programme are accepted throughout the year. It is highly recommended that students start their programme at the beginning of the academic year (usually the end of September-beginning of October). Two supervisors must be identified and agreed upon prior to submitting a formal application. To identify potential supervisors, check the areas of research interest of staff from the departmental staff lists https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/departments/ucl-social-research-institute/

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2024-2025

Got questions get in touch.

Social Research Institute

[email protected]

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Quantitative Social Science

Program in quantitative social science.

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Qss honors theses presentations, spring 2024.

Benjamin Aronson (top left), Ramsey Ash (top right), Karim Khalil (bottom left), and Emma Johnson (bottom right)

Samson O'Donnell (top left), Joanna Olagundoye (top right), Devontae Lacasse (bottom left), and Akshay Kelsiker (bottom right)

William Bryant (left), Samuel Winchester (top right), and Kai Zhou (bottom right)

All students writing honors theses in the Program in  Quantitative Social Science  (QSS) at  Dartmouth College  are required to publicly defend their research prior to completing  their projects .  In the first three weeks in May, 11 students presented their theses.  Each QSS thesis is guided by a primary faculty advisor, and in addition a second reader is assigned to evaluate each thesis. Professor  Michael Herron , who is the Chair of QSS, worked with all of the QSS thesis students over the course of the 2023-24 academic year.

This year's QSS theses are as follows:

Kai Zhou:   Social Contact as a Conditional Factor on the Effects of Disclosing an Invisible Identity: The Case of Zainichi Koreans

Akshay Kelshiker:   Social Determinants of Health and Clinical Text Patterns in Electronic Health Records

Karim Khalil:   Chat GPT 4: Mental Health Diagnosis

Benjamin Aronson:   Using Social Media to Promote HPV Vaccination Among American College Students

Devontae Lacasse:   Media Priming Effects on Non ‐ Jurist Sentencing Recommendations

Samuel Winchester:  Investigating the Instagram Comments of Professional Soccer Players: The Impact of Social Media on Athlete Performance

William Bryant:   Drought, Credit, and Consumption Smoothing: Evidence from Tanzania

Joanna Olagundoye:   Measuring Crisis Response on Social Media and Impact on Stock Performance

Samson O'Donnell:   Edgeworth Cycles and Consumer Welfare: Competitive Phenomenon or Tacit Collusion?

Emma Johnson:   Comedy Tonight? Maximizing Theater Audiences Using Game Theory & Information Sharing

Ramsey Ash:   Building Trust: The Role of Place based Consciousness in Vaccine Hesitancy

Honors Thesis Presentation Schedule Spring 2024

• The Minor in Quantitative Social Analysis
• QSA Approved Courses
• QSA Courses 2023-2024

2024 QSA Graduating Seniors

• 2023 QSA Graduating Seniors
• 2022 QSA Graduating Seniors
• 2021 QSA Graduating Junior/Senior

Congratulations to our fourth cohort of graduating seniors in the Quantitative Social Analysis Minor Program! 

Elena Gilbertson Hall

Additional Minor : Creative Writing

Reasons for pursuing the QSA minor : I’ve always enjoyed math, and although I decided not to pursue it as a major in college, I knew I wanted to keep developing quantitative skills. The QSA minor felt like it perfectly combined my public policy/other social science interests with my enjoyment of quantitative methods.

How will the minor aid/carry through to future pursuits : The QSA minor allowed me to build really tangible quantitative skills, like using R software and conducting statistical analyses, which I expect to be useful in many jobs moving forward.

Post-graduation plans : After graduation, I am moving to DC to work as an Associate at Boston Consulting Group. Long term, I hope to engage in social impact work, both in the public and private sectors, as well as pursue my creative writing interests.

Favorite minor class : Conflict: Root Causes, Consequences and Solutions for the Future was my favorite “applications” class because I was able to learn a lot about how conflict is studied empirically, and Professor Dube was wonderful. My favorite “skills” course was Applied Regression Analysis, because I built really tangible skills, and Professor Burbank did a great job of making the challenging material accessible.

Things to share with future minors : I recommend planning out your minor classes as far ahead as possible, because there are often classes only offered once a year, and doing some planning helps so that you can slowly complete the requirements over time rather than racing to the finish as a fourth year.

Christine Jonglertham

Additional minor : Statistics

Reasons for pursuing the QSA minor : I enjoyed being able to understand the methodology behind the journal articles and papers we read in class and wanted to build upon these studies. I loved how the QSA minor encouraged me to take classes in other departments and see how they each connected.

How will the minor aid/carry through to future pursuits : Even if I don’t use hard quantitative skills in the future, the minor exercised how I break down concepts, contextualize results, and build evidence-backed arguments. Being able to understand applications of quantitative analysis in different fields is also helpful in learning how to communicate research, which is valuable for any field.

Post-graduation plans : After graduation, I’ll work as a paralegal for a DC firm’s nonprofits practice. Did you have a favorite minor class? One of my favorite classes was Public Opinion with John Brehm. We connected theories of public opinion to survey methodology, which turned out to be relevant for my internship the following summer working on foreign policy surveys.

Things to share with future minors : Explore the classes! The QSA minor works with a lot of different majors and uniquely encourages you to explore different departments.

Zachary Leffel

Annabel Mendoza

Reasons for pursuing the QSA minor : The QSA minor sits right at the intersection of my two majors, giving me the opportunity to take classes that delve deeper into social science topics I’m interested in while sharpening the quantitative methods I learned in the data science major.

How will the minor aid/carry through to future pursuits : I think the minor is helpful for everyone, regardless of their future plans. The courses develop critical thinking across disciplines and teach important quantitative skills that can be useful for analysis in any field.

Post-graduation plans : I’ll be working as an investment banking analyst.

Favorite minor class : My favorite class was STAT 36900, Applied Longitudinal Analysis. This graduate-level class introduced me to more advanced statistical concepts and applied the theory to real-world examples in public health, a very interesting field that I didn’t have much experience with prior to the course.

Things to share with future minors : As the QSA minor is very interdisciplinary, everyone can tailor it to their own interests. I’d encourage students to not be afraid to take classes in new fields, to explore multiple areas and see how experiences in one discipline can inform others.

Juliana Mothersbaugh

Additional minor : Romance Languages & Literatures (Spanish)

Reasons for pursuing the QSA minor : After taking Social Science Inquiry my very first quarter, I became fascinated by the task of designing empirical research strategies to address the questions that I was interested in. QSA was an excellent way for me to specialize in learning how to conduct quality social scientific research as an undergraduate.

How will the minor aid/carry through to future pursuits : The skills I focused on developing in the QSA minor – the programming languages, statistical methods, and experimental design abilities – have been essential to my internships and research experience as an undergraduate, and will serve as the foundation of my future career in research.

Post-graduation plans : Pre-doctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of American Politics at Yale University before going on to graduate studies.

Favorite minor class : If I had to choose only one, Public Opinion with John Brehm!

Bola Ogbara

Reasons for pursuing the QSA minor : I was first interested in the Quantitative Social Analysis minor because I wanted more experience with data analysis. After taking my first class in the minor, I was fascinated to learn about the many means of data analysis in subjects I previously thought only had qualitative analysis, and was inspired to continue by the real-life impact of these quantitative findings.

How will the minor aid/carry through to future pursuits : The QSA minor required me to think critically about how studies are conducted, what types of analyses are appropriate in different situations, and how to extract relevant statistics (and interpret them). These skills will be useful as I pursue research but are also valuable in many other spaces.

Post-graduation plans : At the moment, I am looking for research positions in neuroscience/psychology labs, but I am still open to other positions and am eager to use the skills I’ve gained.

Favorite minor class : I really enjoyed all of my QSA classes, so I can’t say that I have a favorite!

Things to share with future minors : There are so many areas where the skills you gain from this minor may be useful. Don’t be afraid to explore several subjects when choosing your classes!

Songyang Zhang

Reasons for pursuing the QSA minor : I decide to take QSA minor because I want to learn more quantitative & statistical methods to psychological research.

How will the minor aid/carry through to future pursuits : Having more quantitative background and data analysis skill.

Post-graduation plans : I am going to pursue PhD in Management & Organizations at Duke University Fuqua School of Business, continuing research in micro organizational behavior.

Favorite minor class : My favorite minor class is Principle and Method of Measurement!

Things to share with future minors : Plan the minor early so you don’t have to worry about course requirement before graduation

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May 23, 2024

By Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science staff

Over the past week, Mayo Clinic celebrated the achievements of new physicians and scientists at graduation ceremonies in Florida, Arizona and Minnesota.

Students from   Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science   celebrated their academic achievements this past week at commencement ceremonies in Florida, Arizona, and Minnesota. Graduates will take their next steps as residents and researchers at Mayo Clinic and across the country, pioneering discoveries, easing the physician shortage, and becoming healthcare leaders.

Fredric Meyer, M.D. , Waugh Executive Dean of Education for Mayo Clinic, shared remarks on the importance of education and the accomplishments of graduates at each ceremony.

"Today, we celebrate the future of healthcare," Dr. Meyer said. "As you graduate and go out into the world, you have the responsibility to care for patients and carry forth Mayo Clinic values, to advance the betterment of society, instilled throughout your training. My advice is to do good — make the world a little better."

Leigh Griffiths, Ph.D. , dean of   Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences , encouraged graduates to pursue their dreams.

"Following my passion has led me halfway across the world to work at an amazing institution with incredible people," Dr. Griffiths said. "I am confident that if you follow your passion, your journey will be just as rewarding."

Florida ceremony

Thirteen students graduated from Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and five students graduated from Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Florida on Saturday, May 18. 

This marked the first commencement ceremony for students in the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Florida, where students earned their Ph.D. degrees. Medical school graduates earned their M.D. degrees as part of an innovative program that allows students to complete their first two years of classroom study in Arizona or Minnesota and then finish the final two years of clinical study in Florida.

Jannifer Lee, Ph.D.,   was the first Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences student commencement speaker in Florida. Dr. Lee spoke about what it means to be a Ph.D. student at Mayo Clinic and said many people don't understand all that goes into a graduate's education.

In the routine grind, it's so easy to lose sight of our unique role as doctorates-in-training at Mayo Clinic. We had the privilege of working alongside the world's leading scientists and doctors, pioneering discoveries that can directly impact patients' lives. What an important position to be in.

Jannifer Lee, Ph.D. 2024 graduate, Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

The Future is Now: Graduates Awarded M.D., Master’s, Ph.D. Degrees at Mayo Clinic Commencement

Yeonsoo Sara Lee, M.D., gave the student remarks for Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and expressed her gratitude for her classmates' support.

"I think it's safe to say that we were all there for each other during some of our most challenging moments in medical school, both inside and outside of the hospital," said Dr. Lee. "That element of community is something that we all have benefitted from — from not only taking care of patients as part of a team but also supporting and celebrating each other." 

Arizona ceremony

Forty-seven medical students graduated from Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Arizona, on Monday, May 20. 

Jewel Kling, M.D. , the vice dean of Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and Suzanne Hanson Poole Dean of Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Arizona, commended students on their unwavering commitment to excellence and thanked those who supported students in their academic journeys.

"Behind every successful graduate stands a village of support," said Dr. Kling. "To the families and loved ones who have stood by your side throughout this journey, offering encouragement, love, and understanding, we owe a debt of gratitude."

Christopher Allen, M.D., was the student commencement speaker and, as a graduate and soon-to-be physician, spoke about where graduates came from and what the future has in store.

It began when we decided to follow that calling to serve we all innately share. Some always knew they would be doctors. Others discovered their calling after a first career. Some of us are living the immigrant family dream, and all of us are here because of the sacrifices made by the generations before.

Christopher Allen, M.D. 2024 graduate, Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine

Minnesota ceremony

In a combined ceremony in Rochester, 44 new physicians and 40 new biomedical scientists received doctoral degrees. In addition, 36 students received master's degrees.

Jeffrey Woods, M.D., was the student speaker from Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. He reflected on how the unique circumstances of this medical school class shaped their experience.

"Despite many challenges, we are a class of truly outstanding medical school graduates and physicians," said Dr. Woods. "I invite you to take a moment now to call to mind, yes, the joys and triumphs of the last several years, but also any incompleteness around experiences missed. The power of a rite of passage like today is it can help transform us."

Danielle Beetler, Ph.D., the student speaker from Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, urged graduates to celebrate the moment.

"We represent so many different journeys to get to this moment, a host of individual experiences," said Dr. Beetler. "I challenge all of my peers to say 'thank you' again today to as many people as you can remember that have been a part of this journey for you. This achievement is not your own, but one to share with all of them."

Commencement

Learn more about Commencement for Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Commencement 2024

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CISS Announces 2024 Summer Mini-Grant Recipients

• By: Shannon Landis
• May 22, 2024

In April 2024, the   Center for Innovation in Social Science   invited proposals for mini-grants intended to help foster new research or enhance in-progress projects among faculty, full-time lecturers, and graduate students. The Center received more than three times as many high-quality proposals as they could fund. They awarded grants to 25 graduate students and 4 faculty members working across a range of academic disciplines. Grants are awarded in four categories: travel; training; undergraduate research assistance; and research supplies. 

Grant Recipients

Zara’s CISS mini-summer grant will support the presentation of her dissertation research at the 2024 American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting in Philadelphia in September. The paper, titled “When the Big Dogs Fight: Small State Foreign Policies in Great Power Competition,” is based on the theory chapter of her dissertation and highlights the roles of interest group politics, discursive frames, and state identity in the construction of foreign policies. 

Laura will use her CISS summer mini-grant to be part of the 2024 NOVAFRICA Conference on Economic Development at the Nova School of Business and Economics in July 2024. She will present her research titled “Can I get that in writing?” Lessons from a Contracting Field Experiment in Urban Malawi. This paper studies the effects of introducing a formal contract on outcomes related to compliance, levels of effort exerted, and service quality in contexts where informal contracts are the norm.

Tianyi will use their CISS summer mini-grant to partially support their anthropological dissertation field research.

Andrea’s CISS summer mini-grant will support the creation of a novel database of extradition cases from Colombia to the United States. This research aims to uncover the bureaucratic foundations of this expansion by employing data science techniques to analyze over 4,000 administrative and judicial records.

During summer 2024, Luisa will use CISS funding for travel support to conduct   interviews with plastic surgeons and individuals who had undergone cosmetic plastic surgery procedures in Mexico.

Alison Duncan

Professor Harris’  CISS summer mini-grant will support his work on valuation and pricing in collectibles markets, exploring the factors that explain price variation for cultural artifacts that form the basis of much of the popular cultural we know today.

John’s CISS summer mini-grant will support his research, a joint project with fellow BU PhD student Laura Aquino, which studies the implementation of gender quotas for political candidates in local Mexican elections, the effect of these quotas on the proportion and ranking of women in government, and the differences in policymaking behavior between men and women. Preliminary results show that strategic behavior by political parties prevents quotas from creating full parity between male and female elected officials, but despite this there is evidence that women mayors change the focus of policymaking in areas like gender-related legislation and municipal budgeting.

In developing countries, women often lack decision-making autonomy due to entrenched patriarchal norms, hindering their ability to make crucial choices. Using his CISS summer mini grant, Kazi plans to conduct fieldwork to better understand the mechanism through which women navigate their empowerment status in the face of structural inequalities in day-to-day life that shape their health-seeking behavior in Bangladesh. He will conduct in-depth qualitative interviews of 60 married women of reproductive age (18-49) who qualify for educational and employment criteria.

Esra’s CISS summer mini grant will support her project investigating young children’s capacity to reason about mutually exclusive possibilities. By assessing their choices in a controlled setting with reduced physical demands, we aim to explore the developmental onset of possibility reasoning related to uncertain object identities.

Xuan’s CISS summer mini grant will enable him to hire two research assistants.

Allison’s CISS summer mini grant will support her travel to the 2024 American Sociological Association’s Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada, where she will be presenting her preliminary dissertation findings in a roundtable on “Culture and Environment.” The funds will also support travel to the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, where she has been accepted as a 2024 Munson Fellow. At the Munson Institute, Allison will be conducting archival research on commercial fishermen and maritime histories.

Katie will use her CISS mini-grant this summer to travel to archives in the UK where she will conduct research for her current project examining the Independent Labour Party (ILP) during the Boer War. Specifically, she is investigating the ILP’s concerns about disinformation and the quality of democracy in Britain at the turn of the century amidst the proliferation of sensationalist, profit-motivated print news.

Peiran will use his CISS summer mini-grant to support his project on the optimal design of performance or product ratings to motivate individual performance or firm investment in quality.

Zidi’s CISS summer mini grant will enable her to present my accepted paper titled “The Doctors’ Practices and Discourses of Suggesting Non-reproduction in Pro-natalist China” at the conference EASST-4S in the summer of 2024. This is the quadrennial joint meeting of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies (4S). Based on her doctoral dissertation, this paper explicates how and why the national demographic anxiety and the pro-natalist call propagated by the state are rarely translated into IVF doctors’ clinical reasoning and practices in contemporary China, even though medical professionals are often the active agents of the state’s reproductive governance.

Mel’s CISS summer mini-grant will support her efforts in collecting genetic data by sequencing mitochondrial DNA (maternally inherited genetic information) and a fragment of the Y chromosome (paternally inherited information). Having data representative of female and male lineages will give an in depth insight into population structure present in the species in comparison to potentially fragmenting landscapes. It was also reveal if there is sex-specific bias in the migration patterns of this species, and which, if any, sex is contributing more to gene flow between populations.

Using his CISS summer mini-grant funding, Caoyifu will take some courses on Coursera to increase his knowledge in research methods and hone his academic writing skills, preparing himself better for his dissertation.

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Data Analytics Major Jobs and Graduate School Acceptances 2024

Thomas Sniezek

• Montgomery College in Rockville, Md., analytics and insights intern.
• Dickinson College, Department of Chemistry, the Rathbun Lab, undergraduate researcher.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry, the Movassaghi Lab, research assistant.

Cole Jennings

• USADATA , analytics intern; New York, N.Y.   
• Parsley Health, data intern, remote.

Billy Wilkerson

• Hebert lab.
• MedNews Week, manager and codirector of research.

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MOU with University of the West Indies will contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goals

UB President Satish K. Tripathi signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sir Hilary Beckles, vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies, on May 20 at a celebratory event at the president’s home. The MOU will help achieve the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Photo: Nancy J. Parisi

Agreement will also create new opportunities for UB faculty and students in sustainable development leadership

By Laurie Kaiser

Release Date: May 21, 2024

Satish K. Tripathi

BUFFALO, N.Y. — University at Buffalo President Satish K. Tripathi signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with leaders of the University of the West Indies (UWI), on May 20 to help achieve the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals .

The MOU, which connects UB with the five campuses in the Caribbean university system headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica, will foster collaborations between faculty and students, encourage more research and study abroad opportunities, and create a new shared graduate program.

Tripathi met with Sir Hilary Beckles, UWI vice chancellor, and Audrey Marks, Jamaica’s ambassador to the United States, on May 20 during their visit to UB and Western New York. Delegates from UWI, the National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organizations, and university and community leaders helped celebrate the partnership.

“With this memorandum of understanding between UB and UWI, we formalize our commitment to build upon our shared strengths, harness our disciplinary expertise and foster collaborations in service of the greater good,” Tripathi said. “As we work together to foster global sustainability and resiliency, our endeavors will be that much more impactful by virtue of our shared contributions.”

This MOU follows a previous partnership formed between UWI and the State University of New York (SUNY) in 2013. One of the top goals was to create a SUNY-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development (CLSD) that would attract future global leaders and catalyze transformative research collaborations across SUNY and UWI campuses relevant to democratic participation, leadership and governance.

The focus was to find solutions to specific problems that are hindering individual countries from achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, explained Gene Morse, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, who also serves as an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI Mona Campus.

Morse was named executive director of the CLSD last fall. This development helped create the pathway for the university-wide MOU. Morse also directs UB’s Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences (CIGBS), which will serve as the new UB home for CLSD.

“The mission of the CLSD remains focused on addressing the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and this MOU provides the roadmap to strengthen our partnership and pursue plans for a global leadership hub,” Beckles said. “The CLSD will assist countries to develop implementation plans through the research conducted by graduate students and their CLSD mentors, along with in-country business and government advisors.”

Her Excellency,   Audrey Marks, Jamaica’s ambassador to the United States, speaks during the celebration recognizing a partnership between UB and the five campuses in the Caribbean university system headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica. The two universities will work together to address the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and will soon offer a new graduate program in sustainable development. Photo: Nancy J. Parisi

CLSD to be housed at UB

In 2024, the UWI International School for Development Justice was created with funding from the International Development Bank to establish a master’s program focused on training individuals who could, in turn, build a global workforce in pursuit of the 2030 goals.

The CLSD, which came to fruition in 2016, is currently housed in Empire State University, SUNY’s online institution. Plans are underway to transition CLSD to UB for the 2024-25 academic year. Once finalized, the CLSD will offer a new graduate program in sustainable development using UB and UWI Central as the operations centers for its programs.

“Students, regardless of location, who want to work toward sustainable development initiatives, can participate in this graduate program,” Morse said. “We envision it having endless opportunities.”

In addition, he noted, the CLSD is the strategic center that will mobilize SUNY, UWI and other invited faculty to provide mentorship for the master’s candidates enrolled in the UWI International School for Development Justice, creating a solid research foundation to guide sustainable development projects around the globe.

A slate of dignitaries from Jamaica and Buffalo gathered at the home of UB President Satish K. Tripathi on May 20 to celebrate the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the University of the West Indies. This MOU follows a previous partnership formed between UWI and the State University of New York (SUNY) in 2013. One of the top goals was to create a SUNY-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development (CLSD) that would attract future global leaders and catalyze transformative research collaborations across SUNY and UWI campuses relevant to democratic participation, leadership and governance. Photo: Nancy J. Parisi

Potential CLDS growth at UB and UWI

CLSD will continue to be the organizational home for the SUNY-UWI Health Research Consortium and will maximize the SUNY-UWI faculty collaborations that have resulted in the emergence of many new leaders and will leverage funded grants to grow the financial foundation for CLSD.

Recent program development efforts include planning for a UWI School of Public Health, focusing on the intersecting issues of climate change, alternative energy and agricultural innovation. Many of these collaborations also have natural interactions with business development and new economic development, Morse noted.

“We also anticipate that both institutions will benefit from this partnership by becoming more competitive for funding, which can lead to job creation through sustainable development initiatives in the future,” Morse said. “I view the collaboration as leveraging our wealth of core facilities and resources at UB and SUNY to help low- and middle-income countries grow and become more economically independent.”

Media Contact Information

Laurie Kaiser News Content Director Dental Medicine, Pharmacy Tel: 716-645-4655 [email protected]