What is the Sociology Honors program?
The Honors program in Sociology provides senior sociology majors meeting eligibility criteria (see below) the opportunity to graduate with honors by writing a thesis through the Department’s year-long Honors Seminar. During the senior year, each honors student develops an original research project and writes a thesis based on that research. The Honors Seminar – led by a faculty member with additional individualized support for students from a teaching assistant – prepares and guides the students through this process. Students also may have a mentor in another faculty member who advises them and oversees their work on the thesis.
What are the benefits of the Sociology Honors program?
This program provides high-achieving students majoring in Sociology a chance to do receive more advanced training, to do more sophisticated work, to gain research experience, and to work more closely in a small seminar-setting with a dedicated faculty member. The final product can serve as an effective “writing sample” for graduate school applications and in some exceptional cases be published in a scholarly journal. The Honors Seminar brings students together in a context stressing mutual support rather than competition. All methodological approaches are welcome, including, for example, quantitative analyses of large-scale survey or census data, participant observation, qualitative in-depth interviewing, and historical research. Similarly, students’ theses may focus on any subject, ranging, for example, from the variation in gun control across the world to the hookup culture among college students to the history of ways race has been portrayed in popular magazines.
To be eligible for the Sociology Honors program, a student must:
- be a declared Sociology major
- have an overall GPA of 3.65 or higher and a GPA of 3.65 or higher in Sociology
- have completed SOC-UA 301: Research Methods or an equivalent course in another department before starting the Honors Seminar
In special cases, students with GPA’s slightly below the cut-off have been admitted into the honors program by permission from the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Sociology.
Although not required, before entering the Honors Seminar students typically should also have completed:
SOC-UA 111: Sociological Theory and SOC-UA 302: Statistics or equivalent course in another department.
To complete the Sociology Honors Program successfully, students must:
Take both semesters of the Senior Honors Seminar in Sociology and complete a research project and write a thesis.
The Honors thesis is evaluated by the professor overseeing the Honors Seminar. Please visit this page for the College of Arts & Science statement on departmental honors.
Please submit the completed application and any questions regarding the Honors Program by email to both the Sociology Director of Undergraduate Studies and the Academic Administrator.
For participation in the Honors Seminar beginning in Fall 2020, applications are due by April 10, 2020.