Apply

Apply Eligibility

Participation is restricted to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career faculty. However, there are no restrictions based on citizenship, country of study, or country of employment. About 25 participants will be invited.

The Summer Institute aims to bring together computational social scientists across all levels of technical experience. Participants with less experience with social science research will be expected to complete additional readings in advance of the Institute, and participants with less experience coding will be expected to complete SICSS boot camp. Students doing this preparatory work will be supported by a teaching assistant who will hold online office hours during the two months before the Institute.

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and fields of study, especially applicants from groups currently under-represented in computational social science. We evaluate applicants along a number of dimensions:

research and teaching in the area of computational social science
contributions to public goods, such as creating open source software, curating public datasets, and creating educational opportunities for others
likelihood to benefit from participation
likelihood to contribute to the educational experience of other participants
potential to spread computational social science to new intellectual communities and areas of research. Further, when making our evaluations, we attempt to account for an applicant’s career stage and previous educational opportunities.

How To Apply

Applicants must submit the following documents:

A cover letter that summarizes your research interests, your CSS background, and potential contributions to the event (in English, 300-500 words);
Your CV (in English;
A publication or writing sample that best represents your research around computational social science (English preferred). All documents should be combined into a single PDF, named as “NYU-Shanghai-Your First Name-Last Name.pdf”

In order to be guaranteed full consideration, all application materials must be submitted by 11:59 pm on May 20, 2025 (Beijing time). All application materials must be submitted through Qualtrics Form. Applications that are not complete by the deadline may not receive full consideration. We will notify applicants solely through e-mail by shanghai.caser@nyu.edu, and will ask participants to confirm their participation very soon thereafter.

Inquiries can be sent to shanghai.caser@nyu.edu.

Application Frequently Asked Questions

Can I apply to more than one Summer Institute location?

Yes, but not at the same time. For example, you can apply to SICSS-NYU-Shanghai, and then if you are not accepted you can apply to one of the other locations if it has a later deadline. However, you cannot have an applications under review at two locations simultaneously.

Can I participate in SICSS-NYU-Shanghai if I have already participated in SICSS at another location?

No. Every year we have more applicants than we can accept, and we would like everyone to have a chance to participate in SICSS once before we allow folks to participate twice.