The Stereotypical PAM major

I thought long and hard about what the first entry should be about. It seems appropriate to introduce the major and talk a little bit about the students. To start, the acronym, PAM, is something that remains a mystery to all, except for people in the college of Human Ecology, or people who know someone who is a PAM major.

So, what is PAM? Policy Analysis and Management. It's not all Policy, It's not all Analysis, and only some take Management classes. So, how do PAM students explain it when their friends, family, and prospective employers ask? PAM is a major that provides students with qualitative and quantitative skills necessary to excel in any field. The PAM department's website describe it as a program that teach students to " integrate analytical thinking, research and data analysis skills, and policy implementation strategies to understand the effects of public and private policies on people's lives".

So, essentially, PAM is a major about understanding the intersection between the government, our society and the private sector. It is not surprising, then, that no two PAM majors are alike. Every person is interested in a different part of this equation, the public sector, the society or the private sector. This makes for very interesting discussions, once you get into a discussion with a couple of students.

No matter how different we are, there are few things that unite us. We learn to read research, and stay up for days writing our own research papers. We're taught to never, ever trust any study we come across in the news. We ask questions like "How large was the sample size of the study?" and never say "cause" but "correlate". We grumble about the opportunity cost of our time, and say things like "This is a very inefficient way to do this".

It might not be quickly evident what PAM majors do, but one thing is sure: they are preparing to be tomorrow's leaders.