Social Sciences Math Boot Camp

The social science math boot camp is organized by the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the Departments of Political Science and Mathematics & Statistics. It is intended as a math refresher to better prepare graduate students for courses such as PO 841: Quantitative Research Methods, which is required for Ph.D. students in political science and assumes that students have completed the math boot camp or mastered the equivalent skills elsewhere. In past years, we had great success with the math boot camp, and the students who participated found it very valuable. The boot camp is a not-for-credit, ungraded course, taught by a Math graduate student, which runs for one week prior to the start of the fall semester. This year’s schedule is August 26–30, 10 a.m.—3 p.m. The format consists of a two-hour session, a one-hour "working lunch" when students can work on problem sets and chat informally with each other and the instructor, and another two-hour session. The boot camp is offered at no charge to current or incoming BU graduate students of any degree program.