Degree Requirements
Admission
Requirements | Courses | Assistantships
In addition to the course work specified below, either of the
following two programs will satisfy the masters degree requirements.
Plan A: Thesis and oral examination
Plan B: One paper and written comprehensive examination.
Admission to thesis candidacy (Plan A) shall be by positive vote of
the Graduate Program Committee, upon submission of a formal
application that includes a current transcript, a writing sample, a
Plan A adviser letter of support and agreement, human subjects review
and approval, and a statement providing a general overview of the
thesis topic, methods, and time frame. The decision of the
Graduate Program Committee on thesis candidacy may be appealed to the
department faculty as a whole. Students planning to study for
the Ph.D. in sociology are strongly advised to pursue the Plan A
option on their masters program. Furthermore, students should be
aware that the department strongly recommends that faculty members of
the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work abstain
from writing letters of recommendation for any graduate student
seeking admission to and/or financial support from Ph.D. degree
institutions until admission to Plan A candidacy.
Plan B involves passing comprehensive examinations based on
graduate course work, involving a minimum of three tested areas, read
by no fewer than three members of the SASW graduate faculty.
Retakes of one or more areas of the comprehensive examinations shall
be allowed at the discretion of the student's Plan B supervisor, but
under no circumstance will more than one retake be allowed without
formal graduate course remediation approved by the Graduate Program
Committee. In addition, Plan B requires a substantial paper that
must be approved by two members of the SASW graduate faculty.
Graduate students enrolled in courses numbered below 600 are
expected to perform, as defined by the course instructor, at a higher
level than the undergraduate students in such courses.
It is possible to transfer up to 9 credit hours of graduate work
from another institution into the Sociology graduate degree
programs. It is possible that some transfer credit may
substitute for course requirements. The Graduate Program
Committee must approve the request for graduate transfer credit.
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