Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with studies

MA in Politcal Science v. M Public Policy

brakiwi — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:29:26 -0800

¿Master in Political Science or Master in Public Policy? I'm an Spaniard that wants to study a Master in the US next year. After a lot of research my final list of universities I'm applying, is this one:
1.Georgetown
2. U. of Chicago
3. Columbia
4. NYU
5. GWU
6. Northeastern
7. American University
8. Loyola University of Chicago

My question is: ¿Master in Political Science or Master in Public Policy?

Most of this universities has both Masters programs and mainly I know the differences between them, but maybe you can give me more information so i can make my decision with more criterion.
In thinking in applying one program or the other, depending in which university.
Maybe you know someone who took some of this masters...
As you can see the cities and departaments I'm interested are Chicago, Washington DC, NYC and Boston. Do you think this are the most interesting universities in this cities to apply for? (for an MA because others have only PhD).

Thanks in advance,

Is a bachelor of general studies useful

Upon Further Review — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:15:31 -0800

I am a nontraditional student who has gone back to school and completed an AA degree.I work all kinds of messed up hours and I have found that pursuing a bachelors of General studies (over the internet) at the university of Missouri will work for me.I can have the tests sent to a local library or school for finals etc. I was wondering what the Meta filter community thinks about a bgs. Has it helped or hindered them.

Cause Britney Spears just CAN'T be good for you!

howiamdifferent — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:26:57 -0800

Looking for studies on the negative effect of music. Is there any scientific studies on the negative effect of regularly listening to (some types, or all types of) music on people's psyches/lives/relationships etc.?

There must be a study somewhere to prove that prolonged listening to, for example, pop music can affect you negatively.

Google results include only studies on music's positive effects on depressed people, exam-takers, learners, etc.

Prizes for competitions

lilyflower — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:08:30 -0800

How does prize money effect entry to free to enter competitions? I would like to know how prize money effects entry rates on free to enter competitions.

Are there studies which compare entry rates on competitions where everything is the same except the prizes that are on offer?

Does the style of competition effect entry rates regardless of the prizes available? Will someone enter something they aren’t interested in because there is a prize available (prize motivated), and will someone enter something they are interested even if there is no prize available (motivated by the thrill of getting something right and winning)?

How do entry rates for competitions (such as the ones listed below) vary due to the effort involved in entry? If a prize is subsequently factored in how does that affect the entry rates?

1. Picking numbers like the lottery, low effort
2. Answering a simple multiple choice question where the wrong answers are meant to be clearly wrong, low effort
3. Picking the winner of a sporting tournament, low effort
4. Picking the winner and runners up of a sporting event, medium effort
5. Picking the winners of every match in a sporting tournament, high effort

Are people only interested in the first prize or do they also like to see runner up prizes? Do prize amounts affect their interest in entering the competition?

To summarise:

Do prize funds affect people’s motivation to enter competitions?

Are people motivated by 1st prizes only or do they want to have runner up prizes and what ratios should the prize amounts be?

Do prize funds affect people’s motivation to enter high effort competitions?

Do prize funds affect people’s motivation to enter high effort competitions that they are already interested in (a game where getting something right is a reward in itself)?

I would prefer to receive information on studies, scientific experiments, and research into the psychology of entering competitions and how the effort to enter, prizes involved and motivation to play affect people.

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Give me a career direction!

Phire — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:36:00 -0800

What kind of job can I get with this business degree that would let me have a degree of autonomy over my work, interact with my coworkers, and provide a measure of stability in this unhappy economic climate? I'm going into my third year of undergrad at a Canadian university in Ontario, currently working towards a Bachelor of Commerce with a BA Minor in Sociology. My tentative plans after graduation include getting a CA (Chartered Accountancy), working a few years, and then maybe studying law if I'm still interested at that point. I don't think that I want to stay in Canada indefinitely, mostly because of the climate, and I'm toying with the idea of either working in the States or going to Australia.

For the past two summers I've worked at a federal government job. The department I'm working at is related to my field in name, but not so much in practice. Mostly I've been doing clerical and documentation type work - writing procedures, updating files, translating, etc.

I am a very risk-averse person. I picked a Commerce degree in favour of the traditional liberal arts education that I probably would've enjoyed a lot more because I was concerned about my future job prospects. I'm also not your typical "passionate" person - not to say that I'm wholly emotionless, but I tend to subscribe to the philosophy that you can find enjoyment and misery in any job, no matter what it is, and I figure I don't really love one thing enough to give up stability in order to pursue that one thing wholeheartedly for 30+ years. That's also the main reason I would be getting the CA designation. I haven zero interest in investing and trading, but I don't mind accounting and find the policy kind of interesting. I think I might genuinely enjoy law, but the high cost of tuition makes me want to wait and see for now. I will be taking two business law courses next year to give me a better sense of what the field is actually like.

My rationale for working in the public service involve finding a job that I can leave at the office once I do get off work, leaving me enough disposable income to enjoy my hobbies without too much concern about financial shortcomings. In my spare time, what little there is currently, I read, draw, write, play and listen to music, and get too invested in reading interesting online debates. At school I'm part of a debate team, an auditing committee, an international affairs club, and some volunteer gigs. I have a pretty solid social circle, but we're the nerdy video game type, and don't go out much - I've always also considered myself a fairly introverted person. Being in Commerce and fielding the associated networking events I find that I've gotten much better at staying calm in unfamiliar circumstances and talking to people I wouldn't otherwise have talked to, but I don't thrill at these situations by any means.

However, recently I've realized that as much as I like my alone time, the cubicle-farm environment of your typical office job kind of depresses me. Things are very much isolated in my current work environment, and apart from giving me assignments and receiving my finished products, I don't interact much with other people in my office. I've tried to reach out and chat to a few of the younger workers, but while they're always friendly, there's been no overt reciprocation of friendliness. Everyone is pretty much content keeping to themselves.

I had an interview with an ad agency earlier this summer and I really liked the casual, friendly atmosphere at that office, and I feel (perhaps mistakenly) like that type of atmosphere is mostly prevalent in the private sector. I think I would like a job that allows me control over my final output and the quality thereof, but still lets me interact with other people on the team/in the office. The Canadian government has a system of bridging in summer students, and this is most feasible if they worked at that department summer between third and fourth year. My questions are as follows:

1) Given the above back story, what type of work is out there? I'm sure there are tons of jobs I haven't even thought of, beyond "accountant", "investment banker", and "office drone".

2) Would it be unwise to give up a two-summer history with this department right before my final summer (and thus potentially crucial bridging term) and try to go for a private sector job for next summer, when the private sector is unstable and will in no way guarantee me a position after graduation?

Any input is appreciated. Thanks very much!

Studies re racism, memory, age

ClaudiaCenter — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:26:10 -0800

ISO studies re differing perceptions of racism among same-race witnesses. I am looking for studies or case studies to explain why two different black witnesses, both female but one in her 40s, one in her 60s, might perceive or remember incidents of workplace racism differently. We're set for logical explanations and/or explanations specific to our fact pattern -- right now I'm looking for psychological or other sorts of studies about memory, race, and age.

"So who's your doctor?" "I like tacos!"

curagea — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:59:56 -0800

Who treats kids with ADHD? Child psychiatry, general psychiatry, family practice, ??? Where can I find info about who children with ADHD see? One study I found listed them under Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Family Practices, and Other, but I'd like to get more specific than that. Specifically, what percentage of kids see a child psychiatrist? General psychiatrist? Neurologist? Other providers? The more specific the data, the better.

What software is helpful for writing a masters thesis?

metricfan — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:30:12 -0800

What software is helpful for writing a masters thesis? I'm working my thesis for my M.A. and I have a non-tablet PC and use OneNote a lot. What are some helpful computer programs or tips for doing research?

Here are the things I need right now:

I really need a program to allow me to take notes on PDFs directly. It seems like most of my reading is on here, and I need to be able to write in the margins like I do with actual printed things. I am broke, so I was hoping for a free program/under 30-ish dollars. Someone asked this question like two years ago, and there was not real answer.

Also, how can I import a PDF in OneNote? Actually, any tips for OneNote would be amazing.

I need a good citation program or something because Refworks has turned out to be a bust.

Is Evernote really good?

Any advice or tips are welcome.

About my thesis: I'm a communication studies ma student, and I'm writing about popular culture and politics. Specifically, I am using Barry Brummett's mosaic method in his book Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture to analyze TDS and other news media surrounding Obama's race speech.

SO! If you have any research suggestions for that, that's cool too. Though, as a masters student I've taken the fundamental classes like classical rhetoric, so really abstractly related things like Aristotle's On Rhetoric (unless with a specific link to my project) I don't really need to hear.

I appreciate the help, thanks in advance.

What current rhet/comp issues are you into?

hpliferaft — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:04:45 -0800

Describe some current issues in English Rhetoric and/or Composition that are interesting to you. I'm a part-time composition instructor who's been out of grad school for a few years. I'm looking for research ideas with some currency in the field.

Also, an overlapping question: what noteworthy works have you read or written about the rhetoric or composition of new media lately?

Help with colleges/universities offering bachelors degrees in "Interdisciplinary Studies".

Nillocsoc — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:28:49 -0800

Help with colleges/universities offering bachelors degrees in "Interdisciplinary Studies". I am basically looking for a place of learning where I have the ability to build my own major. Prefer not distance learning. Open to abroad.

Any personal experience with these programs would also be helpful.

Open plan offices: Do they suck?

Mike1024 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:06:01 -0800

ArchitectureFilter: What evidence supports the use of open plan offices, from a worker productivity perspective? I recently went on a tour of a newly constructed office building. It's very open plan (picture) with several hundred people in one contiguous area spanning multiple floors.

Most of my past experience has been in shared enclosed offices (2-7 people in an enclosed space) and when touring the building, it struck me that the wide-open environment would be noisy, which would present a distraction that would negatively impact upon workers' productivity.

However, if the negative effects were as bad as they intuitively seem, the building would not have been built in this style. Clearly, there must have been rigorous studies performed demonstrating that open plan designs do not have a substantial negative impact on productivity.

Where can I find these studies?

GradStudiesFilter: Best place for an education studies PhD?

meso — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:21:16 -0800

I'm 21, living in London, UK. I just got a first class BA in sociology of education with philosophy. I'm already starting to think what to do after my Master's degree (still in the sociology of education). If the planet's the limit, what are the best places to do a PhD in the sociology of education? (And is my envy to do it at somewhere like Harvard or Stanford worth pursuing?) Bonus points if you've been there yourself and share a slice of your experience!

What is the current state of African-American studies in universities?

Jason and Laszlo — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:49:39 -0800

What is the current state of African-American studies in universities? I'd like to know what the most important topics are for those studying African-American history, culture and society. What are the academics discussing? What have they recently thrown out? What's the best and most important new literature (books or scholarly articles, even newspaper articles) on the subject? Both US and internationally.

Help me find a post-grad program in applied statistics

lord_yo — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:54:15 -0800

Can you recommend me post-grad / continuing studies in Applied Statistics? Either at Swiss universities, or via good e-unversities. I love statistics; my MS in psychology gave me a solid statistics base, and I'm applying a lot of it during my work (business analyses in HR). However, it's not enough; I want to get a formal education and degree in applied statistics.

I live in Switzerland, and would be open for studies at a local university (I've found one program at Uni Bern, and one at ETH Zurich). Alternatively, there might be good e-university programs out there.

Any recommendations?

How can I best involve myself in the Social/Political cause against Water Privatization?

albernathy0 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:05:30 -0800

How can I best involve myself in the Social/Political cause against Water Privatization? I am 20 years old, a junior at the University of California San Diego. I am an International Studies Sociology major, but over the last couple of months I've been thinking about important issues that I want to work in and the world's water crisis has been at the top of my list. I was thinking originally about finishing my sociology degree while taking math/science/bio courses so that I could be eligible for a Hydrology graduate program. As I was looking into Hydrology programs, to see if this would cut it, it seems that they generally prefer pure science majors, such as Geology/Bio/Chem/Engineering. I am not particularly math/science oriented, I am much more of a humanities sort of person, so I am very confused about what I ought to do.

Another question I'm facing is if getting a Hydrology Degree is the best way I can address this problem. I want to be apart of the solution, but I want to be able to be apply my particular strengths to the cause, which I feel are not mathematical or scientific.

If I were to finish my sociology degree are their career possibilities involved in this?

Please help.
As I am supposed to pick my classes at the University of Chile soon...tomorrow. But I will have a month to alter my schedule.

University of California Davis has an undergraduate hydrology program, and I was thinking of possibly transferring. But that obviously is a step ahead.

Thank you all for the helpful comments. I would especially love to hear from actual hydrologists.

I took statistics, and I learned I'd better go to law school.

moxiedoll — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:14:34 -0800

What does it mean when they "adjust" statistics? I promise I've tried to find the answer, but I don't understand what it means to "adjust" in statistics. Particularly since it seems to happen in connection with studies where the answer seems obvious.... Like, I'm always reading articles that say something like, "People Who Consume Champaign and Caviar Are Less Likely To Face Foreclosure!" That seems like a dumb conclusion, but then it'll always say.... "even adjusted for socioeconomic status..." Does "adjusted" mean to throw certain data out? Is it like handicapping the data? Why don't they just do the study on a specific group that *doesn't* include the adjusted people and title it accordingly? Etc.

Where can I find statistics about open source software?

jackofsaxons — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 02:29:23 -0800

Where can I find comparisons of the time it takes for an application to become relatively mature (in feature set, and bugs) in comparison to its status as open or closed source?

Statistical Question

kenberkun — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 19:19:15 -0800

(1) When doing an inter-rater reliability study, does Rater A always have to be paired with Rater B, and Rater C with Rater D, etc? Or can Rater A be paired with Rater B sometimes and Rater C other times? (2) When trying to determine the appropriate sample size for this kind of study, is the N based on the total number of subjects rated, or on the number of subjects each pair of raters rates? This is required for determining the number of subjects to rated in a study that is currently being designed.

Learning how to teach according to development level of students

peripatew — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:45:53 -0800

I'm interested in learning about curriculum development. More specifically on understanding what types of information different age students can understand and be challenged by, without "going over their helmet". In religious circles, and maybe others, there is the idea of spiral curriculum. Which is where the entire body (all age groups) is learning the same material, just at different levels. So while elementary students are learning the basic stories, and important factual information necessary to establish a foundation upon which to learn, the college student is learning the deeper theological issues associated, and how this story connects with the Bible at large (more abstract thinking).

What I'm wanting to know, or begin to understand, is what are the best ways of assessing whether certain "Students" will be able to comprehend the depth of the content being taught.

So, to continue with the religious example, say someone is teaching through the book of John. What is the best way to go about determining the level and the depth and the breadth of the teaching?

I'm looking for books, artciles, websites, personal experience.

And I'm also thinking more generally than just 1,2,3,4...10,11,12 grades. More in these groups: 7th and 8th, 9th and 10th, and 11th and 12th grade groups.

I also know that development comes down to individual students, but generally most students are within a similar developmental stage.

Visual, I see having some paradigm of questions in a staircase diagram. I want the students to progress to their goal. So the goal of public education perhaps would be to be adequately prepared to attain and maintain a job, or be prepared for college.

Sorry to ramble, developmentally I'm at the stage where I think more words = better post. :D Thanks MeFi.

(The helmet reference was from Spaceballs... in case anyone was wondering)

Good usability books

|n$eCur3 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:44:59 -0800

I'm looking for books dealing with usability for web and software applications. Not so much books that focus on coding or theory, but instead books that primarily relate to usability methods and the execution of usability studies Most of the books I've read on the subject either deal to heavily with coding (I am not a programmer) or devote too much time to theory (why usability is cost effective, necessary or otherwise grand). I don't need these types of books.

What I want are books that are nuts and blots. For instance, those that deal with methods, best practices, collecting data, consolidating data and finding agregate usage patterns across multiple users. Also, any book that focuses on how to correctly utilize collected data to appropriately inform design would score high marks.

Basically, google and amazon searches yield too much information, many of which do not focus on my area of interest. So which books would you recommend?

(By the way, Nielsen and Norman are a little bit on the whiny side for my tastes fwiw, but go ahead and recommend whatever you feel fits.)

Find a list of available 8th grade Social Studies Textbooks

allthewhile — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 07:45:27 -0800

8th Grade Social Studies Textbooks - I'm trying to compile a list of all available Social Science textbooks from major publishers. Does anyone know of a definitive list, or where to start? Most of the publishers don't seem to delineate between 7th and 8th grade textbooks. I would welcome any help!

Mid life crisis at 23

Napierzaza — Fri, 05 May 2006 23:42:47 -0800

I'm sort of in a crisis right now... Basically I am halfway through a bachelor in Film Studies and I realize it's garbage. I want to change my major to something that is useful. I previously thought that there weren't any useful degrees that I could take, at least ones that were not long and expensive (I have no support and have to work full-time while at school). At this point I realize I have nothing, I'm working full-time for a degree I don't even want.

What I want to be: Architect.

How easy is it to become one? What will I have to do to prepare to take schooling in this? I have barely any maths to speak of and would not have a portfolio that involves architecture, just some general arts.

I live in Montreal Quebec, Canada.

Museum Studies programs?

ananas — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:10:42 -0800

I'm considering an MA degree in Museum Studies. Can anyone offer any insider information on North American programs - which offer the best training, which are considered reputable by Museum professionals, etc. Thanks! My areas of interest include collections management and curatorial studies. If you are a former student of a museum studies program and have any additional advice, I would be very appreciative!

The science of being gay

repoman — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 10:07:51 -0800

Are there any reliable resources/studies that address the issue of being gay? (MI) I was astonished to learn that a freind of mine thought being gay was entirely nurture, and not at all nature. I disagree and want to present someting to him that is not just the opinion of family or freinds. Thanks.

Graduate Programs in Media Studies

ChasFile — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 19:44:34 -0800

[GradSchoolFilter] Anyone know of any good progams in Media Studies out there? Similar to, for instance, MIT's Comparative Media Studies program? I've found this list at Vassar's website, but I was hoping some denizens of the Mefiverse might know of some more.