Pathways to Graduate School in Quantitative Methods

Specific Information about Individual Programs

A. Nayena Blankson, PhD Professor, Spelman College

Jessica K. Flake, PhD, Assistant Professor, McGill University

S. Mason Garrison¹, PhD, Assistant Professor, Wake Forest University

Jessica Logan, PhD, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University

Matthew Madison, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia

Amanda K. Montoya, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

Jolynn Pek, PhD, Associate Professor, The Ohio State University

Mijke Rhemtulla, PhD, Associate Professor, University of California, Davis

Laura Stapleton, PhD, Associate Dean and Professor, University of Maryland

Tracy Sweet, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Maryland

2022-03-05

Welcome

We’re the Quad Squad (Quantitative access and diversity Squad).

Quantitative methods graduate degrees, including Masters and PhD programs in Quantitative Psychology, Educational Measurement and Evaluation, and related areas, represent a small but essential research area within the social sciences. Quantitative methodologists develop and study the research methods and statistical models that drive psychological and educational research. Researchers and programs in quantitative methods range from very technical (e.g., statisticians and psychometricians who primarily invent new statistical models or computational methods to estimate those models) to quite applied (e.g., extending existing statistical methods to answer new questions and tackle specific difficulties in real data) or more theoretical (e.g., studying the implications of how researchers use and interpret statistical models). Depending on what kind of methodologist you want to become, you may need more or less training in math and statistics, and more or less interest in a “substantive” research area (such as cognitive psychology). If you have enjoyed your statistics classes, if you care about improving how social science is practiced, if you love computer programming, one of these programs might be a good fit for you.

This document summarizes some key information about a number of graduate programs in quantitative methods, including some programs in Psychology, Education, and Human Development. The universities represented in this document are by no means an exhaustive list of quantitative methods programs: they represent just a small sample of programs that exist.

For a much broader list of universities that offer programs in quantitative methods, see this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_for_quantitative_psychology

Here is a list of graduate programs in educational measurement: https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NCME/c53581e4-9882-4137-987b-4475f6cb502a/UploadedImages/Documents/Grad_Programs_1219.pdf

Another, smaller list is available here: https://smep.org/resources/about-quantitative-psychology

Here’s an article (written 15 years ago but still relevant) arguing that science needs more methodologists: https://www.apa.org/monitor/sep05/quantitative

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