The mathematically-gifted sociologists over at Permutations are discussing what sorts of math a prospective graduate sociology student should enroll herself in? The author and commenters agree that a working knowledge of at least one programming language, mathematical statistics, (Basic) differentiability and integration (I said this by the way), and Linear Algebra are important.
But, even with the emergence of advanced statistics, network analysis, and agent-based modeling in sociology, I doubt that mathematical sociology and mathematical statistics will become required courses for graduate students. I doubt, moreover, that a math “pre-fresher” course, as offered in many political science and economics departments, will be offered to graduate sociology students in the weeks prior to the commencement of the fall semester. A pre-fresher course, at least, will highlight to a student, interested in formal modeling, where s/he can ameliorate their mathematical deficiencies.
But without these, how will sociology retain students interested in formal modeling and social mechanisms?
Brian A. Pitt
Our program offers a “pre-fresher” course through the inter-disciplinary statistics center on campus available prior to the year-long statistics sequence that first-year graduate students are required to take.
However, I think you’re assuming that greater interest exists in formal modeling amongst graduate students than actually does; mathematical sociology is a perennially small section of the ASA. Motivated graduate students are always welcome to take additional mathematics and statistics in other departments (there is no formal modeling course for political scientists here, either).
Finally, one needn’t study formal modeling to be interested in social mechanisms.
One needn’t study formal modeling to be interested in social mechanisms. While this is true, it just appears difficult to intuit, for example, “stochastic processes” and “collective action problems” without a working understanding of the mathematics behind them. The same is true for correlation and regression coefficients.
Thanks for the feedback!