RSS Matters

By Kyung-Tae (Austin) Kang , Ph. D. candidate, Department of Political Science

My Best Summer at the ICPSR

There may be many ways for UNT students or faculty to kill a hot Texas summer: travelling overseas, going to the beaches, visiting families or taking courses at UNT. Another way of having a unique experience during the summer is taking courses at The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), located at the University of Michigan.

How much does it cost?

In terms of costs at studying at Ann Arbor, tuition and fees are quite diverse. One credit hour for Michigan non-residents is approximately $1,072 (this may not be changed next year) and fees for registration without academic credit per week are $850 and $2,000 for five-eight week courses. Since I took a one-week course, I had to pay $850. Actually, I didn't have to pay the fee personally because I was sponsored by UNT. I received $400 from the ICPSR through the University's membership and about $500 from the Department of Political Science. All I had to pay by myself was for airfare ($210), food ($300), boards ($230), and others ($100) during nine-day stay.

What about the courses?

ICPSR has many different kinds of statistical or methodology courses that are very useful for quantitative studies in social sciences -- lasting one to eight weeks. Students learn six to eight hours a day in longer courses or two to three hours in shorter courses. Courses offered last summer included: Latent Trajectory/Growth Curve Analysis, Mathematics for Social Scientists, Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis, and Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Generalized Linear Models.

Prospective participants can choose a course that is convenient for their specific summer situation. Since I had been interested in LISREL programs, I took Structural Equation Model (SEM) II that was open August 2-6 (you need to register early, the classes fill up quickly). The class was composed of lectures in the morning and hands-on computer practice in the afternoon. There were ten students in the class, five or six of them were professors. Some were teaching methodology courses and aimed to improve their knowledge on SEM specifically.

How about the instructors?

One excellent benefit of studying at ICPSR during the summer is the instructors. It is is not uncommon for them to be well-known scholars in the country (sometimes coming from overseas). My instructor was Kenneth Bollen from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has published many books and articles related to SEM and he has also created several tests used in SEM for goodness of fit models. He was very kind and nice as well as knowledgeable. During a reception on the first day of the program and later at a luncheon he talked about his family, his former job at GM and current research projects and so on.

Of course, there were lots of articles and books to read for assignments. I could not sleep more than five hours a day. There were several libraries on campus. The Graduate Library had only several tables and looked like only a place for looking for books and articles. I studied at the Undergraduate Library that had many tables and chairs, like many other regular libraries. The facilities looked good. I usually studied until 2 a.m. and went back to my dorm and then went to bed.

How were the accommodations?

The dorm (Helen Newberry) was not equipped with air-conditioners. I thought summer in the northern part of the U.S. might be cooler, especially at night. Yet, my first night at the dorm was horrible! It was as hot as Texas and humid as well. My room was small with only one window. I could not sleep at all. I went outside the dorm and had to buy something to overcome the hot night: beer and cigarettes. The next day, I asked administrators in the dorm to change my room. They hesitated at first, but later gave me a new room. It was bigger and had two windows facing two separate directions, giving me more air circulation through the windows. The next day, the weather suddenly became cool and was like fall already. The weather was nice and there were many new, valuable things to learn. That was the best summer in my whole life!

More Information

For more information on the ICPSR, you can visit its homepage at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu, or contact the RSS office (565-2140, 565-4066) or UNT's Official Representatives. They are Dr. Philip Baczewski in Academic Computing Services (565-3886) and Dr. Jim Meernik of the department of Political Science (565-4233).

* As a member of the ICPSR, the University of North Texas receives an annual stipend from the consortium in the form of tuition for summer courses. Please check with the RSS office or one of the UNT ICPSR Official Representatives for more details.