Graduate Course Requirements
This page illustrates a typical sequence that leads to the required number of credit
hours of coursework necessary to earn an MA or a PhD degree. Other requirements, including
the thesis/empirical paper, general exam and dissertation, are addressed on the MA
and PhD Program pages respectively.
For all graduate students, course requirements for the fall semester of the first
year are SOCL 7121 (3 credit hours), SOCL 7201 (3), SOCL 7211 (3), plus one credit
hour of SOCL 7903. In the spring semester of the first year students are required
to take SOCL 7203 (3) and 6 more credits of coursework. In Fall and Spring of the
second year, 9 credit hours must be completed to meet the master's degree coursework
requirements, as outlined below.
Master of Arts Degree: 36 Credit Hours
The requirement is 36 hours of coursework. However, the department also provides one hour's
worth of a Proseminar in Professional Socialization for new students. Since a standard
graduate level course is worth three credit hours, and the proseminar is required,
in practice the student will accumulate 37 credit hours, one hour over the 36 hours
formally required (see below).
| Course Number | Credit Hours | Course Title |
|---|---|---|
| SOCL 7121 | 3 | Classical Sociological Theory |
| SOCL 7201 | 3 | Fundamental Statistics in Sociology ("Statistics 1") |
| SOCL 7203 | 3 | Advanced Research Methods in Social Science ("Statistics 2") |
| SOCL 7211 | 3 | Methods of Social Investigation |
| SOCL 7903 | 1 | Proseminar in Professional Socialization |
| Electives (see below) | 24 | Sociology Graduate Seminars (6 credit hours minimum) and other approved elective (see below) |
| Total | 37 |
PhD Degree: 54 Credit Hours
The requirement is 54 hours of coursework (including hours for empirical research paper or thesis research and dissertation research hours). Since a standard graduate level course is worth three credit hours, and the Proseminar in Professional Socialization (worth two hours) is required, in practice the student will accumulate 56 credit hours, two over the 54 hours formally required (see below).
| Course Number | Credit Hours | Course Title |
|---|---|---|
| SOCL 7121 | 3 | Classical Sociological Theory |
| SOCL 7131 | 3 | Contemporary Sociological Theory |
| SOCL 7201 | 3 | Fundamental Statistics in Sociology ("Statistics 1") |
| SOCL 7203 | 3 | Advanced Research Methods in Social Science ("Statistics 2") |
| SOCL 7211 | 3 | Methods of Social Investigation |
| SOCL 7213 | 6 | Specialized Topics in Social Science Methods |
| SOCL 7903 | 3 | Proseminar in Professional Socialization* |
| SOCL 9000 | 9 | DIssertation Research |
| Electives | 21 | Sociology Graduate Seminars (12 credit hours minimum) and other approved elective (see below) |
| Total | 54 |
*Effective in 2020-2021. Students who completed the second hour of Proseminar in Sociology (7903) by Spring 2020 will NOT be required to enroll in SOCL 7904. These students will need one additional elective course (24 hours) to meet the 54 credit minimum.
Electives
Some courses that are required for the PhD may be used as electives for the MA, Therefore, in practice, 24 credit hours in electives are necessary to fulfill the required coursework of 36 credit hours for an MA degree but only 21 hours in electives are needed to fulfill the required coursework of 54 credit hours for a PhD.
MA Degree
- 6 credit hours must be from 7000-level sociology topical seminars (i.e., SOCL 7351, 7391, 7491, 7591, 7691, and 7791)
- Students who choose the MA Thesis option are required to take 6 credit hours of SOCL 8000
- After satisfying the 6 credit hour requirement from the 7000-level sociology topical
seminars students may meet the additional elective requirements by completing:
- Additional 7000-level SOCL courses (various topics, methods, and/or theory)
- Independent reading and research courses (SOCL 7901, SOCL 7902, SOCL 8900)
- Graduate seminars in other departments (2 courses maximum)
- 4000-level SOCL courses (2 courses maximum, only when taught by graduate faculty)
PhD Degree
- 12 credit hours must be from 7000-level sociology topical seminars (i.e., SOCL 7351, 7391, 7491, 7591, 7691, and 7791)
- After satisfying the 12 credit hour requirement from the 7000-level sociology topical
seminars students may meet the additional elective requirements by completing:
- Additional 7000-level SOCL courses (various topics, methods, and/or theory)
- Independent reading and research courses (SOCL 7901, SOCL 7902, SOCL 8900)
- Graduate seminars in other departments (2 courses maximum)
- 4000-level SOCL courses (2 courses maximum, only when taught by graduate faculty)