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Week-by-week schedule

The eight active research weeks run Monday June 22 through Wednesday August 12, 2026. Each card below is the index card for one week — open it for the Monday-through-Friday schedule, the assigned chapters and notebooks, the mentor session, and what is due Friday at 5 pm ET.

Two days are off for federal holiday observances: Friday June 19 (Juneteenth — pre-program) and Friday July 3 (Independence Day observance — Week 2). All other Mondays through Fridays are full days, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm ET.

How to read these cards

Each card lists (1) the date span, (2) the chapter range in the textbook, (3) the mentor session topic, and (4) the deliverable due that Friday. Click through for the full daily breakdown, reading list, and data-card links.

  •   Week 1 — Foundations active

    Jun 22 – Jun 26 · Probability, sampling, and the logic of inference Chapters 1.1 – 1.5 · Lab Coin-Flip Universe Mentor session "What is a finding?" Due Fri 5 pm: PS 1.1 – 1.5 + week-01 journal entry

  •   Week 2 — The OLS Engine upcoming

    Jun 29 – Jul 2 · OLS in matrix form, Gauss–Markov, FWL, robust SEs Chapters 2.1 – 2.5 · Lab Fama–MacBeth on CRSP Mentor session "The standard-error ballgame" Due Thu 5 pm (Jul 3 holiday): PS 2.1 – 2.5

  •   Week 3 — Causal Inference I upcoming

    Jul 6 – Jul 10 · Potential outcomes, matching, IV, weak-IV pathology Chapters 3.1 – 3.5 · Lab PSM + 2SLS on HMDA Mentor session "Earning a causal claim" Due Fri 5 pm: PS 3.1 – 3.5 + project-question shortlist

  •   Week 4 — Causal Inference II upcoming

    Jul 13 – Jul 17 · DiD, RD, synthetic control, shift-share Chapters 4.1 – 4.5 · Lab Staggered-DiD bake-off Mentor session "Reading staggered-DiD papers in 2026" Due Fri 5 pm: PS 4.1 – 4.5 + capstone team formation

  •   Week 5 — Reading the Frontier I upcoming

    Jul 20 – Jul 24 · One classic paper per day — FF92, FF93, JT93, Petersen, BDM Chapters 5.1 – 5.5 · Lab Replicate FF93 from Ken French data Mentor session "How a paper actually gets written" Due Fri 5 pm: PS 5.1 – 5.5 + capstone charter draft

  •   Week 6 — Reading the Frontier II upcoming

    Jul 27 – Jul 31 · Text-as-data, KPSS patents, Hoberg–Phillips, LM dictionaries, the AI co-pilot Chapters 6.1 – 6.5 · Lab RAG over 10-Ks (offline-safe) Mentor session "Responsible AI in empirical research" Due Fri 5 pm: PS 6.1 – 6.5 + final capstone charter (signed off)

  •   Week 7 — Capstone build upcoming

    Aug 3 – Aug 7 · Pre-analysis plan, data pull, dataset build, identification memo Chapters 7.1 – 7.5 · Lab PAP companion + merge harness Mentor session "Pre-registering before peeking" Due Fri 5 pm: Signed PAP + cleaned analysis dataset + identification memo

  •   Week 8 — Symposium upcoming

    Aug 10 – Aug 12 · Specification curve, robustness, poster, defense Chapters 8.1 – 8.5 · Lab Final manuscript + replication packet Mentor session "Defending a result" Due Wed Aug 12: Poster presented at GMU ASSIP Symposium + JSSR abstract submitted