Undergraduate Degree in Sociology

Sociology is a fascinating field that can help you understand the people, groups, organizations, and institutions that make up the social world. A major in sociology is not a ticket to any single job, but sociological training provides an excellent basis for careers in social work, social research, business, law, and public administration.

A major in sociology provides the undergraduate with the opportunity to learn a distinct intellectual perspective and a method of inquiry. By continually testing conventional wisdom against evidence, the study of sociology encourages the development of a critical judgment. By routinely considering the matrix of social and cultural facts, it can lead students to an understanding of the conditions under which social facts emerge, and the consequences they have for individuals, groups, societies, and social institutions. It can also help students better understand their own roles in the array of social institutions in which they are enmeshed.

In addition to providing a foundation for the student who desires to pursue advanced study in sociology, a major in sociology can help to prepare students for many careers: social work, the health professions, personnel work, counseling, and other human-services fields, as well as law, civil service and public policy, social research, and other fields in the private sector. Majors are encouraged to develop skills in observation, interviewing, and other data collection techniques, data processing, statistical and content analysis, and forecasting the future -- all marketable skills in many career lines.

Learning outcomes. After completing a degree in Sociology, students will be able to:

• Understand and apply basic concepts in sociology such as power, culture, the sociological imagination, social change, socialization, stratification, social structure, and social institutions and the theoretical perspectives used to understand them.
• Identify and analyze the influences of social structure on individuals and groups (based on age, religion, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, and economic inequality), and the effects of individual thought and behavior on society.
• Understand and apply the scientific method in order to appropriately design, conduct, collect, and analyze qualitative and quantitative social scientific data.
• Identify, analyze, and critique sociological arguments in research papers and monographs and be able to discuss their primary claims, strengths, and weaknesses.
• Construct a sociological argument orally and in writing.