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User:Benjamin Mako Hill/Prospective graduate students
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== What I'm looking for in students == The most important thing I'm looking for in students is a deep interest in online communities involved in building public information goods. In the past, that has typically involved sites like Wikipedia, Fandom/Wikia, free/open source software, free culture, OpenStreetMap, Reddit, Q&A sites, or a wide range of other [[:wikipedia:peer production|peer production communities]]. I'm typically less interested in pure social media communities that are "just" about talking and chatting—although I've got room in my heart for them and have done research projects related to them from time-to-time. I am also looking for students with a technical background (e.g., at least a little experience with programming, statistics, and/or mathematics). I'm particularly interested in students interested in studying [[:wikipedia:peer production|peer production communities]] to understand how and why they work. If you contribute to a wiki, a remixing community, or a free software project, if you use GNU/Linux, if you enjoy programming (even if it's only ever used a means to solving problems you do care about), and if you want to become a social scientist, please consider applying to our department and let me know you've applied. It's OK if you're not an expert in all this stuff yet or if you don't know a lot of statistics. After all, grad school is school and learning new tools and approaches is hopefully a big part of why you're applying to graduate school in the first place. I had not taken a math class since high school when I started in graduate school. I learned a lot while I was there and I'm still working on it. What's important is that you show me (and the admissions committee) that you're interested and able to learn. Personally, I'm much less concerned with things like grades and test scores than I am with a proven ability to build things, to ask interesting questions, to write working code, to craft solid prose, and to make the world a better place. Of course, admission is never entirely up to me and things like grades and test scores certainly help your case.
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