Abstract: The Kepler Space Telescope has yielded 3000+ confirmed planets and 500+ multi-planet systems to date, giving astronomers for the first time an opportunity to learn the broad characteristics of extra-solar systems and compare them to the Solar System. Such a comparison reveals that certain aspects of the Kepler population are different from our Solar System while others are similar. For example, unlike the Solar System, the most common exoplanet discovered by Kepler is a super-Earth with an orbital period of less than 50 days. However, like the Solar System, Kepler multi-planet systems tend not to be in mean motion resonance with low eccentricity. In this talk I will discuss my graduate research trying to understand the broad characteristics of the Kepler sample, discussing its relevance to the formation of planetary systems.