MASNA graduates enrolled in HSE Doctoral School of Sociology!

Three MASNA graduates have just successfully passed the entrance exams and are accepted for the PhD programme in Sociology at HSE. Each of them has its own story and its own path, but one thing unites them - they all came to their cherished goal. Congratulations to our colleagues!

Polina Lushnikova

My path to the academic environment was sudden for me and to some extent a “life with the flow”. As a student of undergraduate studies, I did not want to continue my education, I thought it would be enough to have a bachelor's degree to find a job in business intelligence and be successful. It so happened that by chance I ended up on a course on network analysis, which was taught by Valentina Kuskova. Thanks to her, I realized that research can be interesting and I can learn to use data analysis methods that show interesting and unusual results, but which are difficult to imagine in corporations. Then I realized that I wanted to study further and I entered the master's programme MASNA and began to work in ANR-Lab. In Dmitry Zaitsev’s policy network research group, I finally realized that research is really cool. We started working on a project that turned out to be more extensive than we originally assumed - from here the idea of ​​my admission to graduate school was born.
Due to my nature, I tried to refuse admission - not because I did not want to, but because I was afraid to screw up. I was convinced to try. In fact, everyone believed in me, except for myself, and I am grateful to everyone who was with me and who believed. My story taught me that not always “life with the flow” is bad, because sometimes, when you don’t know what lies ahead, it’s better to give in. All the accidents are not accidental, and what is most important is to find people who will believe in you and support, no matter what happens.

Grigoriy Khvatskiy

When I was still in school, my family and I often joked about the time in the (distant) future when I would get my Ph.D. Now, this future is much nearer than it seemed at that time.

I found myself in an academic environment, which was a surprise for my family, deciding not to do exact or natural sciences, but to try my hand at sociology. This decision was influenced not only by teenagers' protest but also by the desire to apply my knowledge in practice rather than engage in theoretical research only. Also, my enrollment in the sociology program was greatly facilitated because I won the HSE Olymp in social studies.

At my bachelor's degree, I met Valentina V. Kuskova, who taught time series analysis. The course seemed to be very complicated at that time; there was a lot of new material. The fact that the whole course was conducted in English did not make it any easier. However, this was what made the course so new and exciting. At the end of the course, Valentina invited us to take an internship at the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research, and I decided to give it a try.

In the Laboratory, I learned many interesting people and got a lot of new knowledge about new and complex data analysis methods. Around the same time, I joined Dmitry G. Zaytsev, who was engaged in political network analysis. I got my first experience with real big data in this group when I was writing my bachelor's degree. At that time, I realized that I still want to do more data analysis methods and techniques than pure sociology. That's why I decided to enter the Master's program in applied statistics with network analysis methods. 

When I studied at the program and worked in the Laboratory, I took part in real research and worked with real data. I liked it and seemed to be very interesting, so I decided to build an academic career. When it came time to prepare and take exams for post-graduate studies, I became terrified. I stopped believing in myself, as I usually have in such (in my opinion) important and defining moments of my life. However, in every possible way, everyone who surrounded me tried to support me, who - is a kind word, and who - by organizing collective sessions for the preparation and rehearsal of exams. In the end, I have acted, and I thank for it all who supported me at this challenging and crucial moment. While I studied in the Vyshka and worked in the Laboratory, I understood that I am surrounded by like-minded people who are always ready to support and come to the aid in a difficult moment.

Rustam Kamalov

My academic career began by chance. Being second year bachelor student, I did not even think about the possibility of building my career in the scientific research. However, by chance, I ended up in the newly opened International Laboratory for Applied Network Research under the direction of Valentina Kuskova. While working in the ANR-Lab, I realized the full potential of the advanced data analysis and decided to change the path of my education from an economic to a more method-oriented one. So I ended up at MASNA. After graduating from the master's programme, I began to work in the Dmitry Zaitsev’s group, which is engaged in the analysis of policy networks. Around the same time, I received an unexpected offer to go to PhD school. For a long time, because of the complete absence of a sociological background, I finally decided to give it a try. In preparation for the exams, I was convinced that I would fail. My head was torn by the amount of new information and it seemed that in the exam I would forget everything and I would just silently look at the commission. Fortunately, this did not happen. During the preparation, my colleagues supported me in every possible way, starting from encouraging words and ending with the organization of collective training sessions, for which I am very grateful to each of them. I look forward to starting my studies!