Ph.D. Program

NOTE: Application Deadline JANUARY 1, for all students wishing full consideration of their application.

Students enter with the expectation of completing the Ph.D. program. Formally all applicants with a bachelor's degree are initially admitted to the M.A. program; after completing M.A. degree requirements, students may petition their M.A. thesis committee and the faculty to proceed toward the doctorate.

Course Requirements | Comprehensive Exams | Dissertation
Typical Continuing Students Schedule | Typical Incoming Students Schedule

Course Requirements

All Ph.D. candidates must complete both university-level requirements and departmental requirements.

University-level Requirements:

• Students are required to complete 72 semester hours (24 courses) of course work; including at least 54 semester hours (18 courses) other than non-topical research.
• Satisfactory completion of a dissertation is required. The Ph.D. examining committee will be made up of not fewer than 4 members, one of whom must be from another department, serving as a representative of all graduate faculty.
• Students must complete the Ph.D. program within the 7-year limit. (Starting from the time of enrollment in Ph.D. program.
• Students coming in with a master's degree from another institution receive 24 graded hours towards the 72 hours required by the University.

Departmental Requirements (effective for entering students beginning in Fall 2008):

Ph.D. Students must complete 24 graded semester hours (8 courses) beyond the M.A. requirements (for those students entering the Ph.D. level, M.A. level courses are also required, unless waived). Required courses (beyond M.A. requirements) include:

• SOC 5060 - Contemporary Sociological Theory
• SOC 5110 - Survey Research Methods or SOC 5140 - Qualitative Methods or
  SOC 5620 - Social Demography
  
• Four "Core" courses (12 hours) - choose from:
  • Comparative/Historical Sociology (SOC 5080)
  • Culture (SOC 5056)
  • Education (SOC 8053)
  • Economic Sociology
  • Family (SOC 5057)
  • Gender
  • Law (SOC 8055)
  • Organizations (SOC 8710)
  • Political Sociology (SOC 8054)
  • Race & Ethnicity (SOC 8410)
  • Religion (SOC 8052)
  • Science/ Knowledge (SOC 5059/8470)
  • Stratification (SOC 5420)

Three of the 24 graded hours (1 course) may be a Directed Reading or Apprenticeship rather than regularly scheduled courses. Students wanting to count a second Directed Reading toward the Ph.D. may, with a valid reason, petition the Director of Graduate Studies to make an exception . With prior permission of the Graduate Studies Committee, students may also take courses and seminars of appropriate level elsewhere in the University for graded credit.

A required course may be waived if the student demonstrates competence in the subject. Waiver of a required course does not reduce the twenty-four hour requirement, but does give the student greater flexibility in choosing electives to fulfill that requirement. Petitions for such waivers should be directed to the Director of Graduate Studies; include one page explaining why you are qualified for a waiver and attach relevent syllabi of other supporting material.

Students receiving funding (e.g., Teaching Assistantships) from the Department must always be registered for 12 credit hours (a portion of which can be Non-topical hours). Students may register for an unlimited number of non-topical research credits.

There is no language requirement for the Ph.D.; however, students who are interested in cross-cultural or comparative research or classical theory are encouraged to develop appropriate language skills. A rich variety of language instruction is available through the University's various language departments, and generous graduate fellowships are available through the Center for South Asian Studies, the Center for Russian Studies, and other foreign language and foreign study programs of the university.

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Comprehensive Exams

Ph.D. students must pass two comprehensive exams designed to certify expertise in areas of Sociology. The Department offers exams in most major sub-fields of the discipline including, for instance, culture, family, gender, education, religion, and stratification.

We currently offer exams in these areas:

The following are the guidelines for graduate comprehensive examinations as of January 1, 2001.

There will be two exam weeks each semester. All exams will be taken in these designated weeks. Exam weeks are marked on the departmental calendar placed on the web site each semester and posted in the office.

All graduate students are required to take their comprehensive exams in the final stages of their doctoral course work, prior to their dissertation proposal defense. Students may take a comprehensive exam during any of the announced exam weeks after entering into the Ph.D. program. (Students may take both exams during the same week but it is not required.)

Every comprehensive exam has a "Committee Chair." All students are required to consult with the committee chair in their chosen area as soon as possible but NO LATER THAN ONE MONTH PRIOR to the exam week they wish to take the exam. The committee chair will discuss strategies for preparation and provide examples of the type of questions students should anticipate. Students are expected to have a solid understanding of all the readings on the list for that particular area.

Each committee will make available the following materials: sample reading list, sample questions, and general procedures. All exams will contain a substantial written component, although an oral component may also be required. Details will be determined for each area by the examining committee.

At least two committee members will read each exam and participate in any oral component of the exam. The committee will assign one of the following three grades: pass with distinction, pass, or fail. In the case of a disagreement among the two committee members, the third committee member will be called in.

At the completion of the exam, the committee chair will file the comprehensive exam completion form with the Graduate Administrative Assistant. Students will be notified via email and/or a letter in their mailbox. If a student fails a comprehensive exam he/she may retake it only once.

Graduate students with a serious interest in areas of research not covered by our current list of exams may petition the Director of Graduate Studies for permision to take a comprehensive exam in another area. Permission will only be granted in special cases. A minimum requirement will be the graduate student's ability to gain the approval of two faculty members who are experts in the chosen field.

Students may not defend a dissertation proposal until both exams have been passed, (students are encouraged to work on proposals while studying for exams.) Students may not be hired as instructors until both exams have been passed.

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Dissertation

Soon after the third semester in the Ph.D. program, students are expected to prepare an outline of the dissertation they wish to undertake. Students are encouraged to explore dissertation ideas with any member of the department faculty and with faculty members in other departments or outside scholars.

The doctoral dissertation should be a contribution to the existing body of knowledge in the discipline. The findings are presented in a book-length report, and the student's goal should be to produce a work of publishable quality.

The breadth and ambition of recent work is indicated by these titles:

• How Things Become Art: Status, Hierarchy, and Cultural Practice in the Expansion of the American Canon
• Village Voices: Gender, Action, and Meaning in Community Politics
• Highlighted Connections: The Role of Patrilineal Ideology in The Construction of the Religious Marginalization of Women
• The Invisible Revolution: East German Women's Social Status and Space in Reunified Germany
• Sculpting Memory: The Rise and Fall of Public Commemoration in Chicago
• Shifting Institutional Responsibilities: The Expansion of Formal Welfare in the United States During the Twentieth Century
• Modeling Gender Discrimination: Social Perceptions and Pay Differentials as Measures of Discrimination
• Law, Morality, and Conscience: The Social Control of Homicide in Modern America
• A Disease of One's Own: Psychotherapy, Addiction, and the Emergence of "Co-Dependency"
• The Therapeutic Corporation: Social Control in a Post-Bureaucratic Organization

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Typical Continuing Students Schedule*

Fall Semester - First Year

-SOC 5110 - Survey Research Methods or SOC 5140 - Qualitative Methods
or SOC 5620 - Social Demography
-Elective or Core course (graded)
-Elective or Core course (graded)
-SOC 8030/8040 - Sociological Issues (Colloquia)

Spring Semester - First Year

-SOC 5060 - Contemporary Theory
-Elective or Core course (graded)
-Elective (graded)
-SOC 8030/8040 - Sociological Issues (Colloquia)

Fall Semester - Second Year

-Take Comprehensive Exams
-Elective or Core Course (graded)
-Elective (graded)
-Non-topical Research
-SOC 8030/8040 - Sociological Issues (Colloquia)

Spring Semester - Second Year

-Complete Comprehensive Exams
-Defend Dissertation Proposal
-Dissertation Committee Appointed: April 1
-Dissertation Proposal Approved and Approval Form Submitted to Department's Graduate Administrator: May 1
-Non-topical Research

Fall & Spring - Third Year (and possibly Fourth Year)

-Dissertation Research, Dissertation Writing, and Defense Application for May Degree: Feruary 1
-Last Day for submitting copy of Dissertation title page to Graduate School: April 1
-Last Month for Defending Dissertation: April
-Non-topical Research

*Or students entering Ph.D. program with M.A.

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Typical Incoming Students Schedule

Fall Semester - First Year

-SOC 5030 - Classical Sociological Theory
-SOC 5100 - Research Design and Methods
-Elective or Core course (graded)
-SOC 8030/8040 - Sociological Issues (Colloquia)

Spring Semester - First Year

-SOC 5060 - Contemporary Theory
-SOC 5120 - Intermediate Statistics
-Elective or Core course (graded)
-SOC 8030/8040 - Sociological Issues (Colloquia)

Fall Semester - Second Year

-Take Comprehensive Exams
-SOC 5110 - Survey Research Methods or SOC 5140 - Qualitative Methods or SOC 5620 - Social Demography
-Elective or Core course (graded)
-Core course (graded) or Non-topical Research
-SOC 8030/8040 - Sociological Issues (Colloquia)

Spring Semester - Second Year

-Complete Comprehensive Exams
-Write Proposal
-Dissertation Committee Appointed: April 1
-Dissertation Proposal Approved and Approval Form Submitted to Department's Graduate Administrator: May 1
-Non-topical Research

Fall & Spring - Third Year (and possibly Fourth Year)

-Dissertation Research, Dissertation Writing, and Defense Application for May Degree: February 1
-Last Day for submitting copy of Dissertation title page to Graduate School: April 1
-Last Month for Defending Dissertation: April
-Non-topical Research

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