There are lots of numbers in social science research but here are a few you rarely see from backstage.
9 = the number months I spent going from degree requirement to principal investigator.
24 = the number of months I wish I’d had to go from degree requirement to principal investigator.
47 = my total N for interviews
9 = number of field sites
5 = the number of times I added another evidence component to triangulate findings and/or bolster evidence claims
219 = the number of financial documents I downloaded from the SEC
5 = the number of times I cried to a resource librarian about decoding SEC documents
0 = the number of resource librarians that I do not love
27 = number of hours I spent in the field
70 = the number of hours of interview data I transcribed
2 = the number of senior scholars who told me the project isn’t sociological or meritorious
1,000,000 = the number of times I reminded myself that I am Vivian’s daughter, dusted my ego off and tried again
2,319 = the arbitrary number I assigned to drafts of the paper when I’d rewritten it so many times that no workflow organizational system of version numbers mattered anymore
18 = the number of times I quit academia in my head
Countless = the number of people who helped me
Forever = how long I’ll feel guilty for taking up their valuable time with drafts and woes
1 = current working draft of “Like Your Mom Without All the Guilt”: Social Resources, Structural Motivation, Stratification, and the Admissions Process at For-Profit Colleges“.
I loved this post! As someone who is looking into PhD programs now with the intention of applying soon, it’s refreshing to see a realistic post like me. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing.