We are QMSS 451, run as a consulting firm
Eighteen seniors, a coordinator, and one real client. We meet on Mondays and Wednesdays, which is where the name comes from.
A class that works like a firm
QMSS 451 is a seminar in the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences program. This fall it runs as a consulting firm. A real client brings a real question and real data, and the class does the whole job: learns about the client, agrees on what to deliver, protects the data, cleans and analyzes it, and presents the results.
On the first day, each table proposed a name or two, and eight candidates went to a vote. Sixteen of the seventeen people in the room voted for Monday Wednesday Consulting.
How the semester went
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Aug 31 – Sep 30
Getting to know the client
Each of us researched the Hub. We wrote scope drafts and compared them, signed the data agreement, and the Hub's team came to one of our meetings to answer our questions.
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Sep 14 – Oct 16
Getting the data in shape
A first look at the file, then cleaning in Excel, each of us on the whole file. From our first passes we agreed on one standard, and the cleaning was written as code so it could run again on the Hub's corrected file.
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Oct 12 – Nov 18
Building the deliverables
We analyzed the data with AI, without the AI ever seeing the records. Teams formed, and each of the seven deliverables got a lead team. Each piece was shown to the whole firm and revised until it passed.
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Nov 30 – Dec 2
Delivering to the client
A full rehearsal, then the presentation to the Hub.
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Dec 7 – Dec 9
One more project, together
The whole firm builds one product from College Scorecard data in two days, with each team on its own piece.
What we expect of each other
Everyone does the groundwork
Cleaning the data was individual work. Each of us took the whole file, from the raw sheet to a log of every change.
Two teams, one piece
When a piece matters, two teams can take it on separately. We put their results side by side and learn from where they differ.
Shown until it's ready
Nothing goes to the client until the whole firm has seen it and it has passed.
Own your work
Whatever tools you use, AI included, you can explain what you hand in and defend it.