The International Context for Becoming an Academic Celebrity with Political Science and Math!

Find out what others are doing, and then do something different ...

Mathematical and scientific illiteracy is the largest problem facing America's educational system today. Believe it or not, you can turn this to your advantage by becoming a mathematically fluent social science professor superstar. Read closely.

If you want, try using LexisNexis online to read the Thomas Friedman's opinion piece in The New York Times, "Losing Our Edge?" Thursday, 22 April 2004. If you have not used LexisNexis before, go to the reference librarian in Emory's Woodruff Library and ask how to access it online. Mr. Friedman's basic argument is that we have ruined our educational system by failing to teach our nation's children how to love science and math. The result is that we produce great writers, philosophers, lawyers, and even doctors, but we produce very few competent scientists who understand and enjoy math, science, and technology. Moreover, our post 911 fear of foreigners has made it increasingly difficult for foreign students to obtain visas to study in the United States. The result is that mathematically, technically, and scientifically talented youth are turning to excellent universities in India, China, England, Western Europe, and elsewhere. These other countries are pouring their national treasuries into math, science, and technology educational programs. This trend is likely to continue, even accelerate. In ten years, America may very well be a country that no longer holds any significant edge in these areas. The evidence is already plain to see. For example, in India right now, the best scientific and engineering education available can be found in any one of the numerous campuses of the India Institute of Technology. Indian students who fail to get into one of these campuses as a first choice pick American Ivy League universities as distant backup schools. No Joke.

How does all of this relate to you? Think about it. What are these foreign schools NOT producing. They are not producing social scientists who have the same level of mathematical proficiency as is available from within their technical programs. Moreover, America's social science educational programs are still first rate from a substantive point of view. However, our nation's mathematical proficiency in the social sciences is very weak relative to what it could be. The result is that there is a tremendous need for social scientists who have the most advanced mathematical skills. Such scientists have great job prospects since the competition is slight and the need is tremendous.

Remember, most social scientists who use numbers work primarily with statistics, and they learned most of their math in graduate school. That means that they spent a lot of time getting up to speed with basic math skills, and then specialized in a limited set of methodologies. Read between the lines. If you have an undergraduate academic focus in math, then you already have eclipsed the formal mathematical training of many of the most sophisticated users of numbers in the social sciences. You can do advanced applied work not only with statistics, but also with differential equations, linear algebra, numerical methods, and all sorts of cool and neat stuff! In just a few years, you could leave the existing competition in the dust. You can become an academic star, and this is sure a lot better than following a pre-law fast-track to chasing ambulances.

While America is losing its edge, you can gain yours.

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