POL S 501 A: Advanced Political Research Design and Analysis

This course offers a graduate-level introduction to quantitative methodology in the social sciences. If you plan to collect and analyze quantitative data, critically assess articles that present data analyses, and/or explore the relationship between theory and real-world empirical applications, this course will provide the foundational knowledge and skill set necessary to do so effectively. This course focuses on the concepts necessary to understand how the basic regression models that have become ubiquitous in the social sciences function. The course assumes no prior training and will work towards this objective from the ground up, starting with the principles of probability and statistics and simultaneously incorporating the computing skills necessary for specifying and estimating models in your own research. As this is the first of many courses offered in the department (and broader university) on quantitative research methods, another primary goal is to prepare students with the fundamentals that will allow them to take advantage of more advanced and technical training.