Naoki Egami

Mathematical and statistical techniques used in major analytical methods in the social sciences (the course is a political science class, but the techniques taught are also applicable to many other social science fields) - these techniques give a basic understanding into the mathematics and statistics that really happen "under the hood" when applying analysis like regression or formal behavioural modelling

I learned the basic mathematical topics used in statistical analysis

Learned a tremendous amount of math. An excellent review of prevalent topics in Political Science.

Basics of calculus and optimization for regression, probability, and expectation, foundations for statistical inference - .

This class taught me a large number of concepts from multivariate optimization to probability and statistics. We learned a lot of the math and intuition going behind the research process and formal methods.

The course covered linear algebra, single and multivariate calculus, optimization, probability, and statistics (estimation, inference, and hypothesis testing). In six problem sets, we learned how those mathematical concepts are used in political science research. Professor Egami’s explanation is very clear, and each class is extremely organized with very informative slides. I’d never taken a course that was as organized as this course. Most importantly, his class is very inclusive. Political science graduate students who did not take even a single math course in their undergraduate years gained the mathematical foundations for the future methods courses, while math-oriented undergraduate majors gained a more solid understanding and learned how math is used in political science. Regardless of your math background, you will learn a great deal. You can ask him an advanced question, or you can ask him a very basic question. He does not judge students. Whether students just started their graduate program, have been at Columbia for many years, or just came to the US from a different country, I am sure they all will feel included and heard in his class. Very inclusive. He is a truly inspiring political methodologist, and he is a great asset to Columbia.

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest working in statistics or going into something research related, although I would probably recommend they do a math camp beforehand if they have not been exposed to some of the mathematical concepts before.

Smaller homework assignments more consistently.

I’d highly recommend this course to every political science MA or first-year PhD student who is interested in quantitative methods.

Would recommend this course to someone with math skills and statistics background.