Basic to the MMSS program is the belief that students should work closely with one another and with a supportive faculty. The skills taught in the MMSS program are best acquired and honed by such collaboration.
MMSS students pursue a double course of study: a common mathematics and quantitative methods sequence and a social science major of their choice. In addition to the traditional social science disciplines - anthropology, economics, history, linguistics, political science, psychology, and sociology, other fields such as Slavic studies, cognitive sciences, computer sciences, mathematics, and statistics have been chosen as joint majors by students in the MMSS program. At the end of their course of study MMSS students receive a BA with a joint major in MMSS and the social science major of their choice. The option of obtaining a minor or an additional (third) major in mathematics is also offered for students who wish to pursue mathematics more deeply.
In the first two years of the program, MMSS students enroll in a coordinated sequence of twelve one quarter courses (two courses per quarter) that provide a coordinated and rigorous treatment of mathematics and statistics and their applications in the social sciences. All of the classes in this core curriculum are open only to MMSS students and are taught at an advanced level that is appropriate for this select group of students. The mathematics and social science topics are interwoven so that the material introduced in the mathematics courses can be used efficiently in the social science courses.
Courses address both theory and analysis of concrete data, stressing the historical context within which various models were developed, the data to be explained, the policy questions of interest, and the mathematical implications of the models. Students complete the requirements for their chosen social science major during their junior and senior years. During their senior year, MMSS students participate in a year-long senior seminar. Working closely with the seminar leader and a social science faculty advisor, students formulate, research, and write an independent thesis.
