Application Requirements

Persons applying for admission to the graduate program in Sociology must submit all supplementary materials required by the department. Please see our "How to Apply" page for a complete list of required application materials.

Because of the great diversity in institutions of higher education all over the world, students with training abroad must be judged on an ad hoc basis. The criteria on which this judgment will be based are the reputation of the foreign institution, the scholastic record established there, GRE scores, recommendations from professors, and the student's proficiency in English as established by the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or MELAB (Michigan English Language Assessment Battery).

MA to PhD level
 

Students who receive the M.A. from this department and wish to continue toward the doctorate must do the following: submit the Internal Application for PhD level form, a one-to-two page statement of current interests and plans for doctoral work, recommendations from all members of the student's Examination Committee, an advising report, and a copy of the master's thesis (draft or final) to the Graduate Studies Coordinator by the last day of the semester in which they plan to begin doctoral work.

Application Procedures for Students Graduating End-of-Semester.

Students who do not defend their theses before the last day of the semester may still apply for admission into the Ph.D. program effective the following semester under the following conditions:

The student must submit a complete draft of the thesis along with the other application materials by the last day of the semester. All text, tables, footnotes, references, etc. for the current draft must be included in correct Graduate School format.

The letters of recommendation from all the Examination Committee members must state how likely it is that the student will meet the University's end-of-semester deadline (the last business day before the start of the next quarter) by successfully defending and submitting a thesis. The student and committee must agree that this is a realistic and likely outcome.

A successful thesis defense by the student must take place before the end-of-semester deadline, and the student must submit to the Department Graduate School copies of the final, approved thesis by 5:00 p.m. of that day

If the Graduate Studies Committee grants admission to the Ph.D. program, it will not become effective until the thesis has been successfully defended and submitted. Failure to meet the University's end-of-semester deadline means that the student will not be in the Ph.D. program for the next semester.

The Graduate Studies Committee strongly discourages, in principle, the practice of submitting an undefended thesis. The quality of the thesis plays a significant role in the admission decision and thus undefended theses will be subject to especially close scrutiny.