Requirements for the Master's and Ph.D. Degrees

Students must complete a master's degree on their way to completing the Ph.D. in our program, unless they are granted a waiver of our master's requirements based on review of a previous master's degree. We do not have a separate master's program.

Entering graduate students are required to take a 1-credit proseminar that introduces them to faculty and research projects in the departments.

Master's degree: Twenty-four credits of graduate work in sociology and/or rural sociology at UW-Madison and completion of a master's thesis are required. The thesis should be of a length, style and form appropriate for submission to a professional journal.

The 24 credits must include at least six credits from courses and seminars restricted to graduate students (numbers 700-989--excluding "trainee" or "research" seminars such as Soc. 901, 902, 988). Soc 361, Statistics for Sociologists II, is required. If the student has no previous statistics background, a lower level course must be taken first. Students must have had a course in general research methods and one in classical sociological theory as an undergraduate or must take such a course after joining the program. Soc 475, Classical Sociological Theory, or Soc 773, Intermediate Sociological Theory, will meet the theory requirement. Soc 773 also meets a Ph.D. theory course requirement.

Most graduate students with a statistics deficiency take Soc. 360, Statistics for Sociologists I, and most with a methods deficiency take Soc. 357, Methods of Sociological Inquiry. The deficiency courses 357, 358-359, and 360 will not count toward the 24-credit requirement; however, 475 will count. Upon completion of course requirements and thesis, a candidate for the master's degree takes a two-hour oral examination. The three-member examining committee reviews the student's overall record before recommending the award of the degree and, as a separate decision, recommending whether or not the student should be granted permission to proceed toward the doctorate. The student's thesis must be approved and signed by the major professor before it is submitted for deposit in Memorial Library. Four semesters is the maximum time permitted for completion of the master's degree.

Ph.D.: We require a minimum number of specific courses that we consider necessary to ensure adequate core preparation for a professional sociologist. The remainder of the graduate training may be tailored to individual academic and research interests, to prepare for passing examinations and to develop competence in the dissertation area.

Required courses are: Soc 361, Statistics for Sociologists II; Soc 362, Statistics for Sociologists III; Soc 750, Research Methods in Sociology; and Soc 773, Intermediate Sociological Theory. A Ph.D. student must also complete four graduate seminars in sociology (Soc 903-989--excluding "trainee" or "research" seminars).

Besides the course requirements, before they become dissertators Ph.D. students must pass two six-hour departmental written examinations and an oral preliminary examination and they must complete a minor of graduate courses in one or more other departments. An oral defense follows completion of the dissertation.

The departments require that a student become a dissertator by the end of the eighth semester of graduate work (or the sixth semester if the student entered with an approved master's degree).

If your question is not answered here, e-mail Sandy Ramer.