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The doctoral program is designed to be completed in five to seven years of study by a student entering with a bachelor's degree (completion within four years is possible). Those students entering with the master's degree in sociology from another university will ordinarily be able to complete the Ph.D. a year or two sooner.
Common core course requirements. To complete the requirements for the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees, students are required to complete for credit a two-quarter sequence, Sociological Inquiry I and II, as well as History of Social Theory, during the first year of residence.
Methodology and statistics requirement. For the Ph.D. degree, also during the first year, students are required to complete for credit Statistical Methods of Research I and II. For students entering with a strong quantitative background, the department may approve alternative sequences.
Cross-National Competence requirement. The department believes strongly in sociology as an international enterprise. The language requirement is that students will have a serious command of nations or cultures other than those from which they come. We feel this command can be demonstrated not only by command of a foreign language but also by serious scholarly work on another nation or culture. To that end we have restructured our language requirement into a cross-national competence requirement.
Preliminary examination. This is an A.M. final/Ph.D. qualifying written examination designed to demonstrate competence in several major subdisciplines of sociology. The examination is based on the common-core courses, Sociological Inquiry I & II and History of Social Theory, and a special supplementary bibliography. The preliminary examination is normally taken at the beginning of the second year of residence. On the basis of the student's performance on this examination, in course work during the first year, and in the A.M. research paper, the department determines whether the student is allowed to continue for the Ph.D.
The A.M. research paper. The A.M. requirement is to write a publishable piece of work. Normally this will be an independent research article, in some cases it maybe a review piece or purely theoretical argument. The requirement is designed to allow for a broad range of types of paper and to set a standard of professional form and quality. Typically, it is done in the second year.
Special field examinations. Each student is required to pass two special field examinations usually during the second and third years of residence, but in any case after passing the preliminary examination. The examinations are prepared on an individual basis in fields of sociology in which the student wishes to develop research competence. One special field is ordinarily closely related to the subject matter of the subsequent dissertation. The examinations will cover both theoretical and substantive materials and the methods required for effective research in those fields. Preparation takes the form of specialized courses and seminars, supplemented by independent study and reading. The fields most commonly taken are community structure; demography; human ecology; economics and work institutions; culture; educational institutions; family and socialization; formal organizations; mathematical sociology; methodology; modernization; personality and social structure; political organization; race and ethnic relations; small groups; social change and social movements; social psychology; social stratification; and urban sociology. Fields other than those listed, whether they fall entirely within the competence of the Department of Sociology or involve cross-disciplinary study, may be established on petition by the student accompanied by a comprehensive bibliography.
Dissertation. The student prepares a research plan under the guidance of a specially appointed committee. The plan is subject to review by a faculty committee appointed for each student to determine whether the project is feasible and to assist in the development of research. Upon approval of the dissertation proposal and completion of the other requirements listed above, the department recommends that the Division of the Social Sciences formally admit the student to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. When the dissertation is completed, an oral examination is held on the dissertation and the field to which it is related. The Ph.D. dissertation is judged by its contribution to sociological knowledge and the evidence it shows of ability to carry out independent research.
