As of Fall 2022, the former Social Science major is being replaced by a newly developed major, Quantitative Social Science, or QSS. Professor Kowal of the Computational Social Science department defines QSS as the “convergence of new innovations in data, computation, and statistics with a focus on how these tools can be better used to understand the broader society around us.”
In more simple terms, QSS combines data, programming, and statistics with an understanding of how society works. Professor Kowal says that these skills are becoming highly sought after in the job market as large companies, such as Meta, are looking for people who can navigate the intersection of society and technology, to have enough technical skills to work with software engineers but also communicate with social scientists. He hopes that in “5 years we will see our graduates working as researchers and analysts at big companies like Facebook or Google, at high-profile agencies like the World Health Organization or CDC, or whatever it is they want to do.”
The old social science major is being retired, but students already enrolled in the program can choose to complete this degree. Incoming students will be eligible to major in Quantitative Social Science, and the department is actively recruiting for next fall. Professor Kowal cites the fact that the degree is a Bachelor of Science, a major advantage in the current job market, as a huge draw for the program.
This new major was brought to fruition as a collaborative effort by the social science faculty, who came together to address the needs of the social science students. The faculty “realized that the curriculum we had in the old major simply was not reflective of the type of research that modern social science produces, which is heavily quantitative. We also realized that many of our students were not as well-prepared for the changes in the job market as we would like.” The new major was constructed from scratch and addresses all of the technological and quantitative requirements that were previously neglected.
A lot of student interest has been expressed regarding the new major. QSS is a great fit for students who want to be exposed to the social sciences, while also addressing the problems in tech. Professor Kowal says that many students “don’t realize there are other options available to them that combine most of the programming they are interested in, but with applications to the things they want to study.” He hopes that in a few years the QSS program at Stevens will be competitive with similar programs at high-profile schools. “Our unique curriculum, tech focus, and proximity to NYC and the network of jobs and internships available just over the river are a combination that truly is unrivaled.”
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