Program Requirements

Proposed Requirements for Sociology Degrees (for final approval at September 2009 graduate committee/faculty meeting) MA: 10 courses, 6 in sociology PhD: 20 courses, 12 in sociology [16 for grade B or above; 4 may be taken S credit, not requiring written work] Transfer of credit: up to 8 graduate course units may be transferred from other institutions after 1 year at Penn, upon approval of the Graduate Chair. At least 12 courses must be completed at Penn, 10 of these in sociology. Students must meet with their advisors and provide a written report on their academic activities at least once a year. An online system is being developed to facilitate report submission. Ideally, students should meet with their advisors every semester. Students at the dissertation stage must meet with each member of their committee at least once a year. The deadline for reports and advising meetings will be one week before the May faculty meeting. The reports will be circulated to the faculty. Requirements by Year Year 1: 1. SOCI 602 Classical Sociological Theory 2. SOCI 555-556 two-semester proseminar taught in 4 modules 3. SOCI 536 statistics, with prerequisite (535), which may be satisfied based on past coursework at discretion of instructor. 4. Qualifying exam given at end of second semester, based on reading list and graded by instructors in SOCI 555-556 and 602 Year 2: 1. Sociology 604 Research Methods in Sociology 2. Sociology 603 Research Workshop for Second Year Paper 3. Completion of Second Year Paper (equivalent to M.A. thesis; a publishable paper) Year 3: 1. Sociology 620, Dissertation Workshop [to develop dissertation proposal] 2. Completion of GSAS 20 course CU requirement 3. Completion of one Comprehensive Exam in a specialty area [total required courses listed above = 7 CU; remainder = 13 CU] Year 4: 1. Completion of the second Comprehensive Exam in a specialty area by the end of fall semester 2. Dissertation Proposal and formal Proposal Hearing should be completed by the end of the first semester and must be completed by the end of the second semester Granting of the Ph.D.: 1. Completion of dissertation 2. Public presentation of the dissertation research, open to the university community, before the dissertation defense 3. Successful defense of dissertation before the Ph.D. committee