Degree Requirements
- Program Note: Students will be directly admitted to the Ph.D. program. We do not admit students for the M.A. degree. On completion of the Ph.D. program of study, students will have earned only the Ph.D. degree. Students who fail to maintain satisfactory progress after two successive semesters working on any of the program's research-based benchmarks will be transitioned to the M.A. track. Students on this track will be required to complete one additional elective course, if they have not already completed a second-year research paper, in order to graduate with a terminal Masters degree in Sociology.
- Credit Hours: Students must complete 47-59 credit hours in the doctoral program. In addition to the requirements shown below, students who enter the PhD program with a BA or non-thesis MA must complete 6 thesis hours. Further, all students on funded graduate teaching assistantships must complete SOC 710, Teaching Sociology.
- Grade Point Average: Students must earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 and a minimum GPA of 3.0 in courses applied to the degree.
- Graduation Requirements: In addition to completing required coursework, students must pass written and oral comprehensive examinations and successfully defend a dissertation. Students can choose from two dissertation models. They can follow the traditional model, which takes the form and substance of a scholarly monograph, or the manuscript model, which consists of three interrelated papers on a single topic.
- Comprehensive Examination: The Comprehensive Exam has two parts, the written and an oral. The Written Examination is intended to assess students’ broad competencies in a specialized area of sociology with specific focus on understanding sociological theory and methods as they relate to the student’s chosen specialization. The exams also test students’ writing skills and their ability to think creatively and carry out independent research. In most cases, the student will be asked to give a brief summary of their written comprehensive exam work for the Oral Exam, but the primary emphasis is on a question and answer session.
- Dissertation: The dissertation requirement ensures that students have the ability to carry out a major independent research project. Students can choose from two dissertation models. They can follow the traditional model, which takes the form and substance of a scholarly monograph, or the manuscript model, which consists of three interrelated papers on a single topic. The quality and contribution of each paper should reach the level of articles published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. The manuscript model must also include an introductory chapter that clarifies the dissertation theme and situates the work as a whole in the sociological literature, as well as a concluding chapter that synthesizes and integrates the three papers.
- Benchmarks: For details, go to the Sociology Degree Progress tab.
Curriculum Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Required Core Coursework | ||
| SOC 600 | Professional Development Seminar | 1 |
| SOC 615 | Sociological Data Analysis and Interpretation 1 | 3 |
| SOC 616 | Sociological Data Analysis and Interpretation 2 | 3 |
| SOC 620 | Sociological Research Methods | 3 |
| SOC 710 | Teaching Sociology * | 3 |
| SOC 730 | Sociological Explanation | 3 |
| Doctoral Required Coursework | ||
| SOC 721 | Qualitative Methods | 3 |
| Specialized Elective Course | 3 | |
Select One of the Following: | ||
| Theories of Crime and Deviance | ||
| Systemic Inequalities | ||
| Sociology of Religion | ||
| Individual and Society | ||
| Dissertation | 9 | |
| Research | ||
| Electives ** | 19 | |
| Total Hours | 50 | |
- *
See graduate advisor for details.
- **
Includes SOC courses at the 600 or 700 level. Excludes the following: 695, 697, 795, 797.
Major Learning Outcomes
Sociology
Students graduating with a Ph.D. in Sociology will be able to:
- Effectively communicate, orally and in writing, the current state of knowledge, research, and needs in the field of sociology
- Conduct independent and original research of publishable quality
- Develop a research program to evaluate social issues using sociological theories and methodological skills
- Critically analyze the canonical literature in one of the four research specializations
- Explain professional practice and ethics as they relate to sociology