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Ph.D. Program

The department offers the Ph.D in sociology. Students with an MA degree in sociology should apply directly to the Ph.D. program. Students without an MA in sociology who would like to enter the Ph.D. program should instead apply to the MA program. Once students complete their MA degree requirements they may then apply to the Ph.D. program. The vast majority of students who obtain an MA degree in our program continue on into the Ph.D. program and obtain the Doctorate. It is the hope and expectation that students entering our program will continue toward the Ph.D.

Admissions
Applicants to the doctoral program should apply for admission in the year in which they expect to complete the requirements for the master's degree as a master's degree is required. Students who possess master's degrees earned in areas other than sociology are considered for admission on an individual basis. Please note that, in addition to the usual materials required for admission to the department, all applicants for the doctoral program are required to submit, with their application, written materials that demonstrate their capacity for scholarship at the doctoral level. (Copies of several course or term papers or a copy of a master's thesis or paper would be appropriate.) See the foregoing general Admission section as well as the sections on Qualifying Examination and Degree Candidacy that follow.

Residency Requirement
The University's residence requirement can be satisfied by one year of full-time graduate work, or its equivalent, beyond the Master of Arts degree. If the student's MA degree is not in sociology, a longer period of residence is typically required. Most students should expect to spend approximately two years, or the equivalent, in full-time graduate study beyond the requirements of the master's degree.

Qualifying Examination
Students entering the graduate program must take a theory qualifying examination at the conclusion of their first year of study during the Spring semester. The theory qualifying examination is a standard exam taken by all students in the same cohort. The exam is graded on a pass/fail basis. Students who fail the examination may take it a second time but will not be allowed to enroll for course work beyond the thirty-semester hours MA requirement or their first year of Ph.D. residence (whichever case applies) until successfully completing the qualifying exam. Students who fail the examination on their second attempt will be asked to leave the program. In the latter case, a student may petition the graduate committee for a review of the student's record and performance in the program.

Degree Candidacy
To enter into degree candidacy, the student must have earned a Master of Arts degree or its departmental semester hours equivalent, passed the qualifying examination, established a graduate committee of three faculty members from the Sociology department, and successfully completed the candidacy examination.

Course Requirements
As prerequisites, all doctoral candidates are expected to have completed the core requirements for the quantitative option of the Master of Arts in Sociology (SOC G210 and SOC G211), and the theory requirement for the Master of Arts in Sociology (SOC G200 and SOC G201). Students entering the Ph.D. program from another university will be required to take the core requirements courses unless they can provide evidence of the completion of equivalent courses during their master's degree work. Credits earned for master's-level core requirements cannot be counted toward the doctorate. Doctoral candidates are also expected to complete an advanced methods course by taking SOC G213 Quantitative Research Methods.

A minimum of 21 semester hours of graduate work beyond the master's degree is required. Students will register for SOC G800 (Exam Preparation) during the semester following completion of their Doctoral coursework. During that semester, students should complete their first comprehensive examination. Students will then register for one semester of SOC G869 (Doctoral Research), during which their second comprehensive examination should be completed. Upon completion of both comprehensive examinations, students will have achieved PhD degree candidacy and be certified by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. At that point, they will register for SOC G890 (Dissertation) for two consecutive semesters during which they should complete and defend their dissertation proposal. Following that, students will register for SOC G899 (Dissertation Continuation), for their remaining semesters until the dissertation is approved by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and submitted electronically to Proquest.

Teaching Requirement
All doctoral candidates are required to teach. Students should register for SOC G701 Tutorial in Teaching (for which a maximum of three semester hours of credit may be counted toward the degree), during a term in which they are responsible for teaching a course. The COGS approves the tutorial credit, taking into consideration materials and evaluations supplied by the student.

Candidacy Exam
Formal Ph.D. degree candidacy is established after completing departmental requirements (listed earlier). The candidacy exam requires the completion of two separate written comprehensive exams plus two oral examinations in areas of specialization chosen by the student. Each written and oral examination is administered by a committee of three faculty members. The purpose of the exams is to ensure that the student has mastery in two substantive areas of sociology. Although guidelines are provided by the department, the format of the examination is agreed upon between the student and the graduate committee. Each comprehensive examination in the substantive area of specialization must include the submission of written work prepared exclusively for this examination and an oral defense of the written material. The candidacy examination is evaluated on a pass, conditional pass, no pass basis. Examinations given a conditional pass must be rewritten or redone within two months to address the graduate committee's concerns and must be resubmitted for a final evaluation of pass/no pass.

The entire candidacy exam (both comprehensive exams) must be completed with one year of completing all required course work. Students may apply to the graduate committee for a one-year extension if circumstances warrant. The candidacy examination requirement must be completed at least nine months before the commencement at which the Ph.D. is to be awarded. Since the student-committee relationship is an important one, students are encouraged to estalish their graduate committee as early as possible in their residency.

Dissertation Proposal Defense
A dissertation proposal must be submitted and defended within six months of completing the candidacy examination. Students may apply to the graduate committee for a six-month extension if circumstances warrant. The student must submit a dissertation proposal describing the topic of the doctoral dissertation, the theoretical relevance of the research problem, and the methods of research. The proposal is to be discussed and approved by the student's graduate committee and a reader from outside the department. All dissertation proposals must also be reviewed by the Office of Institutional Compliance for human subjects research issues.

Deadline for Considering a Doctoral Dissertation
The chair of the dissertation committee should be fully satisfied that a dissertation is substantially complete on or before April 1 of the year in which the candidate expects to defend the dissertation. A defense that might enable the student to receive a September degree can be arranged only if all members of the student's committee are available and agree to arrange a defense during the summer term.

Dissertation Defense
The dissertation may be defended only after completion of all other requirements for the doctoral degree. This oral defense is held approximately four weeks after the dissertation has been accepted by the dissertation committee, and at least four weeks before the commencement at which the degree is to be awarded. Please note that candidates for the doctoral degree must be registered during the term in which the dissertation is defended at the final oral examination.

Petitions
All exams (qualifying and candidacy), the defense of dissertation proposal, and the dissertation defense must be scheduled with COGS at least two weeks before the event is to take place. The student is responsible for the filing of this petition. COGS will review the petition to ensure that departmental and graduate school requirements have been met.

All examinations by committee (including the candidacy examination, the dissertation proposal defense, and the dissertation defense) are departmental public events that faculty and graduate students are welcome to attend.