Lots and lots of numbers

Wow, it's been awhile since I've blogged, and I do feel bad for that (though many of you maybe don't cause it means you haven't had to read my rambling thoughts).  But for those of you who do care, and who use my blog as a way of keeping up on what I'm up to in life, I'm sorry.

Almost three weeks ago I began my new adventure in life, the Masters of Public Policy program at Michigan State University.  The plan is to get this MPP degree, with a specialization in International Development Policy, and then either go to the developing world and do development work, or get a job somewhere in the US, helping form and implement development policy.  That's the plan for now.

It seems like ever since classes started my life has been an endless stream of numbers, interrupted only by my Wednesday night class called "Public Policy" in which we turn away from the numbers and look at analyzing public policy and the policy process.  The reason for all the numbers is simple.  It's called Quantitative Methods (Stats), Microeconomics, and a research assistantship.  Quantitative Methods and Econ are pretty obviously heavy on the numbers.  My research assistantship is with the Global Urban Studies Program (GUSP, for future reference).  Right now I'm working with Dr. Laura Reese on a project looking at demographic changes in the Cuauhtemoc Delegacion of Mexico City, specifically looking at three neighborhoods within the Cuauhtemoc Delegacion.  What this means is that in the past 2 weeks I have spent nearly 40 hours going through the last 50 years of Mexican Census data, looking for all the statistics that we need for our study.  The overall project is actually really interesting, it's just lots and LOTS of numbers.

I think I'm going to love Grad school. I also think that I will love it more once I get past some of the methods courses and into more of the applied courses where we actually do policy analysis rather than learn about microeconomic theory and research methods.

Living alone hasn't actually been too bad either.  I don't really have time to be bored or lonely because I spend a good portion of each day with my research assistantship, then there's class and readings and homework.  It's also nice that I can skype/call/text people with the touch of a button.

Speaking of reading, it's beckoning right now.  Until next time!

-Eric