Eligibility
Please read the information below in order to prepare your application. Then you may proceed to the Application Form. [We are currently not accepting applications for summer 2018. Please return in early 2018 to apply for the summer 2018 program.]
You will need to upload the following documents in the application. For your ease, please assemble them beforehand.
Create a single pdf document consisting of:
- An up-to-date CV
- A list of relevant courses taken in population studies and statistics
- A paragraph explaining your research interests that are relevant to this program, in 150 words or less. For graduate students, this topic could be part of your dissertation.
- Optional: One feature of the Workshop is a year-long mentored research project, which will be presented as a poster session in the subsequent Population Association of America (PAA). There are limited slots for this opportunity, and it is completely optional. If you wish to be considered for this project, include a one-page abstract of your proposed project. The description should have a basic research question and hypotheses, and to the extent that you know them, specify which data you might use, and the kind of analysis you think would be appropriate. Explain how would the mentorship benefit you.
Prerequisites
This program is most suitable for trainees with a reasonable familiarity with statistics, including multivariate techniques, and the knowledge of a software language.
R Language
Instruction will be in R. Those unfamiliar with R are strongly encouraged to complete the R module below. Trainees are expected to have already taken basic statistics and calculus courses. The hands-on exercises will use the R computer language. Prior to attending the course, students should install R on their laptops and work through the 12 page "A (very) short introduction to R" by Torfs & Brauer available by googling or at: Short R Intro. The information about texts and pre-workshop preparatory exercises in R can be found here.
Demography
The training lectures will assume some familiarity with demographic measures and notation. Students who have never taken a demography course should be familiar with the concepts in either Chapters 1-3 of Kenneth Wachter's Essential Demographic Methods or Chapters 1-3 of Preston, Heuveline, and Guillot's Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes. An overview of demographic history and processes can be found in A Concise History of World Population, by Massimo Livi-Bacci, and a very brief introduction in McFalls, Joseph A., Jr. (2007). "Population: A Lively Introduction." Population Bulletin 62(1): 1 31 (Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau). In addition, all supported trainees must have completed an acceptable form of Human Subjects/Responsible Conduct of Research instruction, and provide us a copy of the certification.
After your acceptance into the program, you will be provided (if requested) this textbook, Wachter, Ken (2014), Essential Demographic Methods, Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
Responsible Conduct of Research
One of the following trainings must be completed and submit the certificate with your application:
- NIH Online Training. This course takes about 2 hours to complete. (When you are done, a blue and white certificate will appear on the screen. Print this to a pdf file, or do a ‘print screen to jpeg’.)
- CITI Training. Your institution likely has a relationship with CITI. If you aren’t sure which module to take, take the Group 2 Social and Behavioral Research Investigators, Basic Course. This unit takes about 4-5 hours.
- An in-person course of at least 6 hours of classroom instruction.
TERMS & CONDITIONS: We will provide lodging for trainees: please note that if you do not show up, we will still have to pay for your expenses. Should you be accepted into the program, we ask that you be committed to attending. Other details about lodging and transportation will be provided elsewhere
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