For students starting August 2023 and later:
Completion of at least NINE courses. The Methodology field does not have a comprehensive examination. Students must earn a grade of 3.3 or above in all courses counting toward the requirements.
For students starting August 2022 and earlier:
Completion of at least EIGHT courses. The Methodology field does not have a comprehensive examination. Students must earn a grade of 3.3 or above in all courses counting toward the requirements.
Requirements for the MA
1. Students starting Autumn 2023 and later - Five Required Courses:
- SOC 504 - Applied Social Statistics (3 credits)
- CS&SS 508 - Introduction to R for Social Scientists (1 credit)
- SOC 505 - Applied Social Statistics (3 credits)
- POLS 500 Political Research Design and Analysis (5 credits)
One Course from the Qualitative and Mixed-Method List (see below)
1. Students starting Autumn 2022 and prior - Four Required Courses:
- Pol S 500 Political Research Design and Analysis (5 credits)
- Pol S 501 Advanced Political Research Design and Analysis (5 credits)
- Pol S 503 Advanced Quantitative Political Methodology (5 credits)
- One Course from the Qualitative and Mixed-Method List (see below)
Requirements for the Ph.D.
2. Four additional courses from the Political Methodology list.
Qualitative and Mixed-Method List
These courses have been approved and new courses may be added. Additions must be approved by the Graduate Program Coordinator and the Methods Field Coordinator. If you wish to approve a course not currently on the list, please apply before the relevant quarter begins and before you register for the course.
- POLS 502 Qualitative Research Methods (5 credits)
- POLS 504 Multi-Method Field Research, joint with CS&SS 504 (5 credits)
- POLS 559, Special Topics in Political Methodology (5 credits). Approved Topics only:
- "Text as Data" - John Wilkerson
- "Qualitative & Mixed Methods" - Geoffrey Wallace
- GEOG 525 Advanced Qualitative Methods in Geography (5 credits)
- COM 511 Content Analysis (5 credits)
- COM 513 Fieldwork Research Methods (5 credits, max 10)
- COM 518 Cultural Studies Methods (5 credits)
- COM 519 Visual Cultural Studies Methods (5 credits)
- COM 528 Designing Internet Research (5 credits)
- GWSS 503 Feminist Research and Methods of Inquiry (5 credits)
- SOC 555 Methods in Macro, Comparative, and Historical Sociology (3 credits)
Political Methodology List
Any 500-level class taught through the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (with the exception of CS&SS 590) as well as the Economics and Sociology classes listed below. Additional courses will be approved on an ad hoc basis. Submit a petition for course review – course description and syllabus, if available – to the Political Methodology Field Coordinator. The course will be evaluated for inclusion in the Political Methodology Course List. In cases where the course is applicable to the student but not to the program in general, the course will be approved only for the student who submitted the petition. Courses offered through the Department of Statistics will typically be approved.
- POLS 559, Special Topics in Political Methodology. Topic: "Text as Data" (5 credits)
- POLS/CS&SS 510 Maximum Likelihood Methods for the Social Sciences (5 credits)
- CS&SS 512 Time Series and Panel Data for the Social Sciences (5 credits)
- CS&SS 536 Analysis of Categorical and Count Data, joint with Soc 536/STAT 536 (3 credits)
- CS&SS 560 Hierarchical Modeling for the Social Sciences (4 credits)
- CS&SS 564 Bayesian Statistics for the Social Sciences (4 credits)
- CS&SS 565 Inequality: Current Trends and Explanations (3 credits)
- CS&SS 566 Causal Modeling (4 credits)
- CS&SS 567 Statistical Analysis of Social Networks (4 credits)
- CS&SS 569 Visualizing Data (4 credits)
- CS&SS 594 Special Topics in Social Science and Statistics (1-5, max 30)
- CS&SS 600 Independent Study or Research
- SOC 525-529 (Courses in the Sociological Methods Sequence)
- ECON 516 Noncooperative Game Theory (3 credits)
- ECON 580, Econometrics I: Introduction to Mathematical Statistics, joint with CS&SS 509/STAT 509 (4 credits)
- ECON 581 Econometrics II (4 credits)
- ECON 582 Econometrics III (4 credits)
- ECON 583 Econometric Theory I (3 credits)
- ECON 584 Econometric Theory II (3 credits)
- ECON 585 Econometric Theory III (3 credits)
- STAT 516 Stochastic Modeling of Scientific Data (3 credits). Prerequisite: STAT 342 or STAT 396.
Comprehensive Field Exam Structure:
No exam required for the Methodology field.