MCAP Graduate Certificate
The advanced methods training provided through the MCAP graduate certificate will combine formal and informal training with experiential learning in order to promote the rigorous, multimethod investigation of pressing theoretical questions in the behavioral, health, and social sciences. This is achieved by incorporating diverse qualitative and quantitative methods and immersion in interdisciplinary environments.
Purpose
This certificate will train the next generation of scholars to respond to novel challenges in the behavioral, health, and social sciences with the methodological rigor and multidisciplinary view needed to lead groundbreaking scientific endeavors. The interdisciplinary nature of this certificate will facilitate collaborations among diverse sets of instructors and students.
The MCAP graduate certificate is the only interdisciplinary training program available for graduate students seeking to develop advanced methodological skills that cover the wide breadth of methods used in the behavioral, health, and social sciences. The Advanced Methods in the Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences Certificate is an exciting opportunity to develop and practice real skills in interdisciplinary methods. Students will gain state-of-the-art data analysis skills in the social, behavioral, and health sciences as well as practical experience in consulting on and teaching research design and analysis.
Admissions
Who should apply?
This program is open to all graduate students enrolled at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus. Post-docs, faculty, and staff on campus are also welcome to complete the certificate.
When should I apply?
You can apply at any time after you have met the prerequisites listed above. While you can apply after you have already completed some of the requirements for the certificate listed below — we encourage students to apply early as this helps us provide workshops, work-in-progress presentatioins, and other events of interest to those currently pursuing the certificate.
How to apply
- Create an application (instructions on how to apply)
- Complete/update the background section
- Select the Purdue West Lafayette (PWL) campus
- Select “Advanced Methodologies in the Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences” as the graduate major and as a degree objective
- Select the term you’d like to enroll
- Select “Residential” as the primary course delivery method
- In the “additional information” section, check “I am a Current or Past Purdue Student”
- Applicants must provide a current Purdue transcript OR indicate “YES” on the application where it says “I consent and authorize Purdue University faculty and/or staff to access my Purdue University academic record for university business.”
- Fill out the application form and submit it with your application as the “statement of purpose”
- Sign and submit!
- Current Purdue graduate students must provide a completed G.S. Form 18 Dual Graduate Program Request. List the “proposed department” as Advanced Methods at Purdue and the major code as AMAP and degree code as AMBS. The form needs to be signed by the applicant and the head of the graduate program in the applicant’s home department. Email the completed form to mcap@purdue.edu with the email title “AMAP Certificate Application.” MCAP will provide the signature for the proposed department (MCAP).
Application fee
$60 for domestic students
$75 for international students
Deadlines for submission
All application materials must be received by: August 1 (for Fall admission) and December 1 (for Spring admission). We will process applications shortly after these deadlines.
While we encourage students to apply early, you may apply at any time prior to, during, or after completion of the requirements listed below. If a student has already completed all of the requirements and wishes to obtain a December certificate they must apply no later than August 1; the deadline is December 1 to qualify for a May certificate.
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
- Minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.0 with the possibility of conditional admission for applicants who do not meet this requirement.
- Current Purdue graduate students who are non-native English speaking international students do not need to retake an English language proficiency test (e.g. TOEFL or IELTS). Any applicant not currently enrolled in a Purdue graduate program do have to provide an English language proficiency test.
- If you have questions about any of the addmissions criteria, contact the MCAP steering committed (mcap@purdue.edu)
Prerequisites
Students are encouraged to complete a course in linear regression and/or ANOVA before enrolling in the certificate. A course in linear regression and/or ANOVA is a required prerequisite for most of the quantitative courses listed below. Routinely offered courses in linear regression or ANOVA include HDFS 613, HDFS 617, POL 501, PSY 606, PSY 631, SOC 680, and STAT 512.
All students must already have completed a foundational research methods course. A new interdisciplinary cross-listed seminar on “Principles of Research Design in the Behavioral, Health, and Social Sciences” will be offered in future semesters to meet this requirement. This seminar is intended to provide a survey of different types of qualitative and quantitative methods, and ensure a common foundational learning experience that unifies all students earning the certificate. Comparable courses already offered within specific CLA or HHS departments can count as fulfilling this requirement. Current courses that meet this prerequisite are listed below. Other courses may meet this prerequisite but must be approved by the MCAP steering committee. Approved prerequisites are:
- COM 582 (Descriptive/Experimental Research In Communication)
- PSY 688 (Research Methods)
- SOC 580 (Methods for Social Research)
- POL 600 (Political Science: Discipline and Profession)
- COM 682/NUR 599/ HDFS 590 (Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Methods)
NOTE: Other methodology classes from the Communications department with COM 682 course number (eg. Multivariate Statistics for Communication Research, Advanced Computational Communication Research Methods) can be counted as one of the four required courses, but this particular course is considered a prerequisite, and cannot be counted as one of the four advanced methodology courses required to finish the certificate.
Completion Requirements
Complete Four Method Courses
Students need to attend at least four courses in approved method courses (or similar courses with AMAP steering committee approval) totaling at least 12 credit hours. Detailed information is listed below.
- AMAP emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to methods; therefore, students must take courses from at least two different departments for the four courses to be counted for the certificate.
- To encourage well-rounded methodological training all students must take at least one quantitative course and at least one qualitative course.
- Students have the option to specialize in quantitative or qualitative methods. For example, a student who specializes in quantitative methods would take three advanced quantitative courses and one qualitative methods course. Students who specialize are encouraged to develop capstones that fit their chosen specialization.
- There is no requirement to specialize in quantitative or qualitative methods; students can choose to mix quantitative or qualitative courses, workshops, and capstones.
- AMAP faculty may also offer shorter modular courses, with three modules equaling one seminar of the four required.
- Students must earn a minimum grade of B in each of the four (4) classes they select from the below list, as well as the foundational prerequisite course.
- 12 credit hours taken prior to admission to the certificate program may be counted toward completion of the certificate.
- A maximum of 3 credits may be transferred from another institution, provided the transfer is approved by the AMAP steering committee.
- No more than 9 credit hours earned in non-degree status, including credit hours earned toward completion of a single certificate or more than one certificate, may be applied toward a graduate degree.
Attend Three Workshops
- Attendance in at least three AMAP workshops.
- See the AMAP Events page for upcoming workshops
- See “Workshops and Seminars” on our Past Events page for example offerings
- Most workshops are not explicitly qualitative or quantitative in nature and therefore can be attended and counted regardless of whether a student is specializing in quantitative or qualitative methods
Attend Four Work-In-Progress Talks
- Attendance in at least four work-in-progress talks.
- See the AMAP Events page for upcoming work-in-progress talks
- See “Work-In-Progress Series” on our Past Events page for example offerings
Capstone Experience
Examples of capstone experiences can be found on here.
“Capstone” experience in research methods, to be determined in advance in consultation with the major professor and the AMAP steering committee. The goal of the capstone experience is to gain experiential, hands-on learning in the application of methodological tools and/or teaching methods.
Courses
Approved Courses
These are example courses from MCAP affiliated departments in CLA and HHS that have been approved for the certificate. Many other courses including those taught in other colleges may qualify but must receive MCAP steering committee approval.
We color code courses as Quantitative or Qualitative; all students must take at least one quantitative and at least one qualitative course to complete the certificate.
Approved Courses
These are example courses from MCAP affiliated departments in CLA and HHS that have been approved for the certificate. Many other courses including those taught in other colleges may qualify but must receive MCAP steering committee approval.
All students must take at least one quantitative and at least one qualitative course to complete the certificate.
Qualitative courses are gold.
Quantitative courses are black.
ANTH
592 (Geographic Information System for Humanities and Social Sciences)
592 (Data Management and Curation for Qualitative [and Digital Humanities] Research)
605 (Ethnographic Analysis)
606 (Conduct of Anthropological Inquiry)
640 (Foundations and Framework: Applying Anthropology)
641 (Discovery and Design, Making Projects Work)
642 (Public Engagement)
675 (Sociolinguistic Analysis)
CE
590 (GIS)
COM
585 (Qualitative Methods)
624 (Focus Groups And Interviewing For Strategic Communication)
625 (Survey Design, Analysis, And Reporting For Strategic Communication)
632 (Social Media Analytics)
674 (Network Analysis)
682 (Variable Topics — Computational Methods, Content Analysis, Multivariate)
EDCI
615 (Qualitative Research Methods)
616 (Advanced Qualitative Research Methods)
EDPS:
607 (Mixed Methods Research Design and Applications)
632 (Meta-analytic Procedures)
635 (Psychometric Theory and Application)
635 (Multilevel Modeling)
636 (Item Response Theory)
HDFS
627 (Multilevel Modeling)
628 (Structural Equation Modeling)
ILS
595 (Variable Topics – Data Management and Curation for Qualitative [and Digital Humanities] Research, Geographic Information System for Humanities and Social Sciences)
695 (Introduction to Computational Text Analysis)
695 (Digital Humanities)
NUR
692 (Applied Statistics in Healthcare)
POL
605 (Political Methodology II)
606 (Variable Topics – Models for Categorical and Limited DV, Experimental Methods, Scaling)
608 (Field Research Methods. Note this mixed methods course can count as quantitative or qualitative)
608 (Qualitative Methods)
693 (Modeling Complex Systems)
PSY
606 (Intensive Repeated Measures)
607 (Scaling / Measurement)
608 (Measurement Theory / Interpretation)
610 (Multivariate)
611 (Multilevel Theory, Measurement, and Analysis)
646 (Variable Topic — Multilevel Modeling, Bayesian Statistics)
674 (Structural Equation Modeling (SEM))
SOC
609: (Comparative / Historical Methods)
609 or 681: (Causal Analysis)
609 or 681: (Experimental Design)
609 or 681: (Latent Variable Modeling)
609 or 681: (Longitudinal and Multilevel Modeling)
681: (Introduction to Computational Social Science in R)
681: (Interviewing)
681: (Categorical Data Analysis)
681: (Mixed Methods (can also count as a qualitative course))
686: (Qualitative Methods)
TECH
697: (Qualitative Research Methods for Technology Studies)
Capstone
Capstone Experiences
We receive many inquiries about what capstone experiences are possible. Below are some examples from past certificate students. Certificate students can alternatively propose their own idea for a capstone experience by emailing an idea to mcap@purdue.edu.
Past approved capstones:
- Serving as a teaching assistant (TA) for a graduate-level method course
- E.g., Students have TA’ed for SOC680, SOC 681, POL605, and others
- Some instructors allow students to TA as an independent study to fulfill the capstone
- Serving as a methodological resource for a research project
- One student served as a methodological expert for a research project that developed and fielded an online survey.
- Writing a journal article-length methods paper or dissertation chapter
- Papers must primarily focus on research methods
- Student must be first/lead author
- We do not require method papers to be published for the capstone. However, the papers must be of high quality that are suitable for publication
- Conducting an interdisciplinary workshop on an advanced methodological technique
- Workshops are typically designed to be two or three hours on method-related topics.
- Students can co-teach a workshop. E.g. Two certificate students taught a workshop on “data collection in the transnational context”
- Participating in an approved Data Mine project
- RA’ing for MCAP
- MCAP offers a year-long full-time RA’ship to one student each year
Program Completion
Completion Reporting
After a student has completed all requirements described above they should fill out this completion form detailing which courses, workshops, brown bags, and capstone the students plan to apply to the certificate. Email the completed form to mcap@purdue.edu with the subject “MCAP Certificate Requirements Complete” to alert the steering committee of the completed requirements. We will send a confirmation email verifying receipt of your email.
To facilitate tracking of students who are enrolled in certificate programs, the Office of the Registrar will establish a special admission status for such individuals. When a student completes the requirements for a certificate, the MCAP steering committee will notify the Graduate School. The Graduate School is responsible for certifying the completion of requirements. The Graduate School will audit the following items to certify the completion of requirements.
(a) the name of the student including PUID,
(b) student status, i.e. degree student including PUID,
(c) the complete name of each course, including course prefix and number,
(d) the grade in each course, and
(e) the semester and year each course is completed.
The Graduate School will then notify the Office of the Registrar.
Transcripting
This certificate will be posted separately upon completion of the requirements.
This Graduate certificate will be recorded in the following manner:
- Awarded: Graduate Certificate
- Program: Graduate School Administration – CPOSTB
- College: Graduate School
- Campus: Purdue West Lafayette (PWL)
- Major: Advanced Methods in the Behavioral, Health, and Social Sciences
Credits earned toward a certificate will be included in the computation of the overall GPA posted on the transcript. The certificate, itself, will be printed by the Office of the Registrar at the West Lafayette campus.
The certificate will be awarded jointly by the Graduate School. It will bear the signature of the dean of the Graduate School. Certificates will be awarded at the normal times when degrees are awarded. The Office of the Registrar will include the certificate with the diploma for degree-seeking students and mail the certificate to non-degree students.