As I sit by my heater in my home office, it gives me time to reflect on what I'd like you to "hear" from me this semester.
Dear student,
You are being asked to decide between the quantitative and qualitative section. Try to get beyond what you think sounds less intimidating and assess your seminar topic and your research question. It will serve you best to make your decision based on whether the question you want to answer can best be answered with qualitative or quantitative methods (or a little of both). Ofira and I are here to discuss this option with you. Please don't opt for qualitative because you struggled with POL 345. This is the semester to revisit R and get a better grasp on statistical methods. We promise we are here to support you throughout.
Regardless of which section you take, the goal is to learn enough about research methods that you never take the results of research you read without some degree of skepticism. This semester will help you learn about the challenges of doing research. Every published study has had similar challenges. Caveat Emptor.
Let us know how we can help.
Datasets
Data repositories
Statistical Abstract of the United States 1878+
Statistical Abstracts of the World
For a select list of countries, contains recent yearbooks. Tables are available in Excel format and have been converted to English.
