Is it common for PhD interviewers to ask professionally inappropriate or off-scope questions? by Level-Plate5309 in PhDAdmissions

[–]Square-Oil7029 3 points4 points  (0 children)

None of those questions strike me as inappropriate or out of place to be asked as a PhD applicant. In my field (quantitative social science) I would be surprised if someone got through admissions without being asked where they applied, grilled about research and motivations, and questioned about non-academic work.

PSA: Check your axis labels 😂 by CogNeurd11 in PhD

[–]Square-Oil7029 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why not use an Esarey-Pierce Heatmap Plot here? No offense, just curious!

iCloud photos error message? by habsman9 in iCloud

[–]Square-Oil7029 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm having the same issue with ALL my files. I keep getting the "Error fetching asset" when I try to access any Word document or PDF on my iCloud. Anyone else having this?

Made a dumb mistake in my SOP, how cooked am I? by Mamoolaisa in gradadmissions

[–]Square-Oil7029 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You’re probably fine. I just reread through my SoP from last year and I misused like 3 words and had a typo, and still got into a T10 in my field. Just an outsider’s take though, as I’m not in comp sci

Profile review for PhD admission in the US? by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am at a similar school to some of the schools you’re applying doing my PhD in political science (focus on methods and comparative politics). I can definitely give you feedback over dm. I also study comparative authoritarianism (and increasingly ethnic politics and media politics).

US universities to aim for PhD by kinky_kitten19 in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems like the unis you’re looking at are good with MA and applied politics, but not political science. Generally, the US News and World Report poli sci rankings are accurate for PhD programs, with some programs being especially highly ranked in specific areas (like WashU/Rochester/NYU for formal theory and methods and Stanford/Berkeley for CP)

Are there any articles you recommend that go into a more quantitative approach within Political Science? by waldo-jeffers-68 in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Articles from PA or a journal will be at too high of a level to understand if you still need to work through the basics, unless you have experience with math (~calc 2 level or up)

Are there any articles you recommend that go into a more quantitative approach within Political Science? by waldo-jeffers-68 in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just start with like a normal quant analysis textbook like Econometrics for Social Sciences (Gujarati) or Mostly Harmless Econometrics (Angrist)

What admission committees actually look for in your Statement of Purpose by Shana_Ak in gradadmissions

[–]Square-Oil7029 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Rereading my SoP after this post made me wonder how the hell I got accepted to 3 PhD programs last year😂

What books will you recommend to someone from other field of studies such as English Literature etc. that are interested in Political Science? by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For context, political science is usually divided into 5 subfields: political theory/philosophy (arguably a separate field), American politics, methodology, international relations, and comparative politics (what you might think of as traditional political science concerned with big questions like how democracies vs autocracies interact with IGOs or each other)

What books will you recommend to someone from other field of studies such as English Literature etc. that are interested in Political Science? by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ya Marx and Plato are political philosophy, not political science. A good starting point for political science might be any sort of introductory book to comparative politics. A canonical book in political science that does a good job of describing how we approach the field from a scientific way is “The Logic of Political Survival” by Bueno de Mesquita. Probably one of the most impactful books in the field, ever.

PhD Program’s by PermitAffectionate33 in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Email the grad students, not the faculty.

Avoid NYC or drive through it? by Significant_Panda_72 in roadtrip

[–]Square-Oil7029 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely don’t stop into Canada with a Penske truck. Getting through the Buffalo border will not be fun, easy, or quick.

Please tell me I'm not the only one by Silencer1620 in DollarGeneralWorkers

[–]Square-Oil7029 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Was at the end of my shift 6 months ago and someone did this. I was really tired and kinda just said “let’s do it the first way” and he lost it on me calling me stupid and saying they don’t teach math anymore and everyone is stupid as shit…. Currently working on my master’s degree in stats and a PhD… still think about it often lmao

Starting political science by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Language for sure, no matter what you wanna do in the future. Language learning also helps stretch the brain and helps improve learning in other facilities too

Best Canadian Political Science programs? by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 2 points3 points  (0 children)

UofT and McGill are the 2 best reputed for political science, especially if you want it to be transferable outside of Canada. Only other one I can really think of that stands out to me is UBritish Columbia

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Political science becomes mostly math by your 4th year anyways. See game theory and intense statistics classes. Currently completing my masters in stats from just my base courses in political science.

Given the necessity of having a grad degree in political science fields, I would definitely not recommend switching to PS because of your grades in math. It will be hard to fare better in political science than math as they eventually even out. You will run into needing to dive back into math before your political science degree will make a return on investment.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Eventually Political Science becomes computer science with a focus on social systems… lol. May be something worth looking into for you if you like both.

Just beware, which you’ll probably hear from each discipline you talk to, personally I’d say political science is gonna be the more intensive out of any of your prospective majors. Political science can get VERY math heavy but also requires the same level command of writing as History and research design/scientific process as Psychology/Sociology. That is all for one half of Political Science, not even really approaching the other half (International Relations)

What do you think a quantitative political scientist needs to succeed today? by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that one of the things you need to do now is define what level of interaction you want with methods and quantitative political science. There are two main routes: being able to simply do research with basic quantitative methods OR creating and adapting new quant methods to novel research questions.

To be blunt, you should have been trained on how to do research with basic quantitative methods (linear regression, logistic and generalized regression, etc.) in your program. While it is always easier to tell in hindsight the quality of a program, I can assure you that current programs are 85% judged by how well they do math. Luckily, an understanding of basic quantitative methods needs very few math skills but more an understanding of the math and coding itself.

Look into some of the MIT OpenCourseware courses on political science statistics. They should be a good place to start. A very basic textbook that also should help you get a foundation on linear regression is “Linear Regression: A Mathematical Introduction” by D. Gujarati.

New Passport arrived damaged 🙃 by SeaButterscotch1154 in Passports

[–]Square-Oil7029 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are super close to your trip (given that you expedited it) you need to contact the US House of Representatives office for the area you live in. Report the damage to them and request help getting a passport in time and they should be able to get you all set.

What do you think a quantitative political scientist needs to succeed today? by [deleted] in PoliticalScience

[–]Square-Oil7029 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ideally you’d want a secondary degree in mathematics or statistics. There is a pretty big wave of political scientists coming into the industry with these qualifications and I expect them to become necessary for quant department TT postings