ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research), which owns the world’s largest archive of research data on social sciences, holds an annual summer program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research at the University of Michigan, where it is headquartered. The ICPSR Summer Program, which has continued since the 1960s, was held in person in Ann Arbor with three weeks of intensive lectures on more than 40 courses.
The Center for Positive/Empirical Analysis of Political Economy subsidizes its program fees every year for graduate students participating in this program. This year, with the Unit’s support, three graduate students from the Graduate School of Political Science and the Graduate School of Economics dived into this three-week program at the University of Michigan. Below is one student’s report on his experience.
QIMO ZHU
Affiliation: M2, Graduate School of Economics
Research interest: comparative politics
Destination: The University of Michigan (6/19/2023 – 7/7/2023)
INTRODUCTION
A week has passed since I came back from Michigan. The gentle breezes, the pinky orange hue painted by the resting sun on the canvas of the sky, the challenging classes, the thought-provoking discussions, and the beautiful people I met along the way have constituted an alluring summer song that will influence me and be kept in my heart for years to come.
As a 2nd year master student at the Graduate School of Political Science in Waseda University, I have always had a passion for quantitative methods in social science, and I have applied several regression models in my previous projects and studies. As soon as I saw the e-mail introducing the ICPSR program and the subsidies offered by the university from my Waseda mailbox, I opted to apply for it without any hesitancy.
As a Chinese citizen studying in Japan, the visa application was a time and energy consuming process and because of it I almost thought of giving up the opportunity. However, the U.S. Embassy was not as stringent as people would say and once the material gathering work was done, the whole process was rather smooth. 14 hours of flight sounded long but with the excitement of my first visit in the U.S., it was just a blink of eyes.
The Ann Arbor Campus, Univ. of Michigan
STUDYING DURING THE PROGRAM
As I had tons of fun there, I also immersed myself in three major courses and did all the homework for them. It is usually recommended to take 1 or 2 courses at maximum and to do homework for only 1 due to the heavy loads of study. However, I wanted to receive grade letters and EITM (Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models) certificates, so I decided to study Machine Learning, Multi-level Modeling, and Regression Analysis III. Note that physically we could only take two classes since there were only two periods for courses – a 3-hour morning class and a 3-hour afternoon class – but I was undaunted and reviewed the material myself for Machine Learning. It is also important to know that we could sign up for up to 4 courses and as many lectures as we wanted, and the class recordings and materials are available until December, so I signed up for the maximum amount and have a lot to study further on.
The teachers were great in general. Some were very engaging and humorous; some were very passionate. There were numerous discussions and questions initiated by students, and the professors were always happy to acknowledge a student’s curiosity.
I did not attend any early-morning or late-night lectures because I also wanted to have a life outside of classrooms. But the courses I took were high-level and difficult. There were mathematic equations which I still do not fully understand, exhaustive interpretation guidance which I found the most useful for a researcher in social science, and real data examples with R codes to help us cope with real analytical tasks.
The load of assignments depended on the course, the most difficult one – Regression Analysis III, had a much smaller amount of homework compared to the other two classes courses I took. I often ended up reviewing and writing R codes for assignments until 1 am on some days.
Multilevel Modeling Class
Law Library at University of Michigan
LIVING A LIFE IN ANN ARBOR
I booked my residence and meal plan at on-campus housing, and thanks to whatever mighty being there might be, I got distributed to South Quadrangle (South Quad), and it was in that cozy dorm that I spent one of the best periods of my life.
The dining hall was just upstairs, and it offered a wide variety of food accommodating vegetarians, religious people, etc. The meal plan was prepaid – 20 dollars a day with 3 meals. Although I had doubts since I intended to explore local restaurants and socialize with fellow students in my program, the dining plan was a very good choice because of the cheap price and the buffet style. Besides, I still got many chances to talk and dine with friends in the dining hall. Moreover, we only had small windows for meals due to the tight schedule, so it would be very unlikely for me to eat out anyway. The only complaint I had was that the dinner entry was until 6:30 pm. Considering the sun only sets after 9 pm, the closing time was too early. However, I later learned that you could take out, so it was totally a legit option to pack some food up and eat later whenever you feel hungry.
The dorm was also equipped with a game room and several music practice rooms, although the music rooms were being renovated during my stay. In the game room, there was karaoke, a ping-pong table, and a billiard table. I sometimes played billiards alone and people would join me or talk to me. There was also a big kitchen, but I never used it.
I did eat out several times. My recommendation would be Plate Sushi & Chicken if you are not easily offended by non-authentic Japanese food; also, Frita Batidos, a locally famous Cuban cuisine inspired restaurant. In the night, there were some nice pizza restaurants and some great jazz bars in the town.
Other activities I did was attending a friend’s church event on Sundays, where we studied the Bible, had free lunch, and played sports – tennis, pickleball, volleyball and frisbee. I also went to some bars with fellow students, and I had a friend drive me to Detroit and had a wonderful time there.
A Summer Festival on Campus
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- Around Campus
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- Around Campus
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- Around Campus
FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
As I wrote in the beginning, I spent one of the most beautiful periods of my life in Ann Arbor thanks to the movie-like American experiences I had as well as the kind and lovely people I encountered there. Many of my friends I made there were also from other parts of the world, so it is astounding and amazing that this opportunity brought us together at one place on earth so that we could connect and build a potentially life-long relationship – as I intend to keep it so. The knowledge I learned and the ties I made with the professors were also undoubtedly invaluable and beneficial to both my master thesis at hand and the academic journey ahead of me. I am more determined to pursue my Ph.D. degree in the U.S. after graduation thanks to everything that has happened during the ICPSR Program.
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- Around campus
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- Hanging Out with Friends
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- Somewhere in Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market
A group photo of the participants
