Reply to what quantitative skills are needed for social sciences jobs (political science, IR)

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[quote=Anonymous]I went to a SLAC that feeds a lot of grads into IR and public service in DC.  The program I graduated from was probably overkill but it required 2-3 semesters of statistics and/or statistical analysis, and one of those had to be specific to political science (ie polling).  I don’t remember the specifics as it was a long time ago.  There was also an economics requirement beyond the 100 level, and I don’t recall if it was by requirement or choice, but some of my classes got into quantitative coursework, though I never took econometrics for my statistics requirement.  In addition, there was a requirement to go through a public policy analysis class which involved quantitative work as it had a special focus on Medicare.

From all of that coursework, I started out on 2nd base relative to peers entering public service.  The work that most benefitted me (to this day) is the Econ work and that I developed a good understanding of study design, results, and how to interpret and apply this to my work, how to boil down complex concepts from studies into accurate but easy to understand sound bytes, etc.  You can’t really get that without some practical experience.

So, I would say to answer your question:

Start with statistics and economics, then move into coursework that applies statistics and economics to international relations and/or public policy. If your child is good at math, this should be a breeze.

Too many people in my field repeat statistics, findings, etc without actually understanding the results, limitations, or study design and it shows.  An oversimplified example of this was in 2016 when everyone thought Clinton was absolutely going to win and 538 gave her a 70% chance. You can hate or love Nate Silver, but I am astounded to this day by the number of people who didn’t understand that a 30% chance of winning for Trump was substantial.

I’ve been very successful and I think in part it’s because I can have semi-informed conversations with subject matter experts across a range of specialties and actually understand what I’m hearing, which helps me learn the material and apply it to my work.  I credit a lot of that to the foundational work I had across disciplines, but especially in the quantitative world.

That said, it’s never come up in an interview.[/quote]

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