Merlin Star's Website

Unlike my bachelor’s degree in mathematics and my master’s degree in quantitative psychology, I want to approach this next degree with strong intent from the start rather than wait until the second to start knowing others.

With that, this post is more to keep myself accountable more than anything else.

Within academia, I want to connect with:

• Mathematicians, especially those that specialize in mathematical psychology, mathematical statistics, algebraic topology, and a few other fields.
• Statisticians, especially those that work within ethical data science or that their main focus is on psychological methods.
• Quantitative Psychologists, especially those that are equitable and anti-racist.
• Computer Scientists, mostly for graph theory and computational science.
• Sociologists so that I can have more formal terminology for much of what I already know.
• Interdisciplinary folks because I want to do interdisciplinary work!
• English writers who focus on writing technical work. You can never go wrong sharpening up your communication skills.

My slant is much more quantitative because that is what I plan to focus on. However, I do want to connect with qualitative researchers because they are able to provide a fresh perspective and notice flaws that quantitative researchers may miss. Of course, mixed methods (those who use both) are also folks that I will connect with.

An additional focus I would like to do is actually connect with professors early and read their research papers. Maybe I’ll get lucky enough to do some collaboration.

I do want to also connect with those outside of academia as I plan to primarily generate income via freelancing. Considering my multiple disabilities, my relatively broad skill set, and my strong desire for independence, I think freelancing or academia would be my best shot.

Hopefully I will know if I get into this PhD program within the next 2 weeks so that I can begin to have more concrete plans.