Hi everyone! How have you been? It’s been a while since my last blog. This time I want to share my course experience of studying the Master’s program of Computational Social Science at Linköping University! 

 

Firstly, let me introduce the subject a little bit. Computational social science is a very new subject. It combines the knowledge of the two fields: sociology and data science. Overall, it is a trendy subject intensively integrated with the theoretical study as well as the application of programming. When applying for a master’s degree, I looked up the sociology program of various universities around the world. I found that there are still very few master’s programs that focus on the use of data science methods to study social issues, and Linköping University is a pioneer in this subject. Especially, the Institute for Analytical Sociology of the university is quite influential in the academic world. Back then, I was strongly attracted by the project topics of the IAS Research Center and the course content of this program,  so I chose Linköping University.

 

I enrolled in August this year. I have completed two courses in the past two months. One is the Logic of Social Inquiry, which introduced various sociological research methods, including traditional quantitative research methods such as survey research as well as new methods such as experimental methods and computer simulations; The other course is Statistics and Data Science 1, which is a technical course, mainly including probability theory and statistics, with emphasis on the use of R software to apply these mathematical theories.

 

The teaching methods vary by different courses. The Logic of Social Inquiry is mainly lectured, followed by seminars in the afternoon, once a week, where theoretical knowledge is discussed in the form of small groups. Statistics and Data Science 1 is composed of lectures and labs. We learn theoretical knowledge in the lecture, then practice R software in the lab completing various small tasks given by the teacher. In addition to these two parts, our teacher also added extra hours this year. Extra hours were not included in the course syllabus originally, but because some students in the class reported that the content was too difficult to keep up with the progress, extra course time was added. This time is mainly used to talk about topics and do exercises. I personally think it is a very helpful way to study courses like statistics.

 

Some of you may be concerned about the difficulty of the courses. I think the course experience of this program will vary from person to person. The admission requirements for this program are very general. Anyone from humanities, social sciences, or computational sciences background can apply for it. If you are a student with a background in humanities and social sciences, you may have to work harder in the study of programming courses. Of course, for students with a background in computing science, theoretical courses may be more difficult. All in all, I suggest that before enrolling, it’s better to learn some basic programming languages by yourself. As for the study of theory courses, it is more about the ability to read and communicate in English. Therefore, reading more English materials and using more English expressions will help future studies.

 

If you want to know more information about this program, here are some useful links:

 

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