Junchao Tang

Junchao Tang is a PhD student in Sociology whose research interests lie at the intersection of inequality, social stratification, political sociology, and economic sociology, with a regional focus on contemporary China.

My paper, which will hopefully be part of my dissertation, is about the cause and effects of schooling on academic achievement and whether schooling mitigates or expands achievement inequality. For that project I needed some knowledge of causal inference and sensitivity analysis, and that's where ICPSR helped me the most.

I have also been a Summer Program TA for Categorical Data Analysis for two years and the teaching experience I got from that is invaluable. From that I have an idea of how to teach the course, and I have an idea how to design the assignments and also I know the latest developments in that area. So I am now much more confident that I can teach a course like that in the future.

High-quality instructors

What I feel is special is that the Summer Program instructors are top-tier. They are people who have a very good publication record using the methods they're teaching, so they can teach you the most cutting-edge methods in the field. There are instructors here who are very energetic and very passionate about teaching. A lot of faculty members will come back again and again just to teach at ICPSR. They love teaching here.

I've taken courses in introduction to regression and math review, mostly to prepare myself in the future as a teacher. The instructors in those classes are very hands-on and prepare tons of materials that are very well formatted. I really appreciate that kind of effort, which makes the methods much more approachable to students. It’s also very important to our DEI commitment, which is making quantitative methods available to a wider range of audiences.

His favorite experience at the Summer Program

For me it was working with a student for almost half an hour and us finally fixing a problem in the code; we were collaborating. I enjoyed the process of helping the student familiarize themselves with the tools, the knowledge, and the skills. Together we learned something.

How he would describe the Summer Program

I think this is the most comprehensive and affordable program to receive specialized training in general social science in the world. I have attended a lot of methodological workshops, but ICPSR stands out. ICPSR does not require you to have a solid background in stats or quant methods, which is very different from other specialized workshops. Combined with the intensive in-person interactions and social events, I would say that ICPSR is the iconic quant workshop. It is the first workshop I recommend to any of my students.

"There are instructors here who are very energetic and very passionate about teaching."