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Old 08-21-2011, 06:40 PM   #1
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 24
Question for someone familiar with Political Science PhD

I have considered it in the past. I love everything about political science except one thing: the raw data sets and for the most part, statistics in general. How much is statistics a part of a Political Science PhD program?

Thank you for any advice in advance.
TimothyL is offline   Reply   
Old 08-22-2011, 09:02 AM   #2
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 142
Depends what questions in political science you want to study. Look at papers and books published by political scientists on the specific research areas that interest you. How much statistics is involved?

Remember that statistics, like all tools, are a means to an end - if data analysis can help you do careful analysis of the stuff you're interested in, it is a set of techniques worth learning. Let the methods you use follow the questions you find interesting, not the other way around. The math can be intimidating, but you should reject it not because you don't "like" it, but because it doesn't help you answer the questions you find interesting.

-- a poli sci professor who only uses stats occasionally and finds myself much less hostile to them than I used to be.
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