Graduate Program
In addition to departmental requirements, candidates for graduate degrees must meet the university degree requirements described in the “Graduate Education” section of this catalog.
Admission
The graduate program in sociology is intended to lead to the awarding of the Ph.D. degree. Applicants are not admitted only to pursue the M.A. degree; however, continuation to the Ph.D. program is dependent upon a student’s successful completion of the M.A. requirements and defense of the M.A. thesis. Applications are accepted for fall quarter admission only.
Applicants should have training substantially equivalent to the undergraduate major in sociology at UCSB, including research methods, statistics, and the development of sociological theory. Students with inadequate background in these areas may be admitted to the M.A./Ph.D. program but will be expected to make up deficiencies during their first year of study. Students admitted with a M.A. in sociology earned elsewhere who do not have training substantially equivalent to that required for the B.A. and M.A. in sociology at UCSB must remedy deficiencies in training within two years of being admitted to the Ph.D. Program.
In addition to departmental requirements for admission, applicants must fulfill university requirements for admission to graduate status described in the “Graduate Education” section of this catalog. As of Fall 2022 quarter and onward, applicants are no longer required to submit scores on the General Test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). The deadline for receipt of the online application, submission of all required supplemental application materials, and payment of the application fee is December 1 by 11:59 PM PST. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
For more information, please visit our website: www.soc.ucsb.edu.
Master of Arts—Sociology (Requirements - PDF)
Doctor of Philosophy—Sociology (Requirements - PDF)
Optional Interdisciplinary Emphases
Students pursuing a doctoral degree in Sociology may petition to add the following Optional Interdisciplinary
Ph.D. Emphases: Black Studies; Demography; Environment and Society; Feminist Studies; Global Studies; Information Technology and Society; Language, Interaction, and Social Organization; Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences.
Requirement sheets for each emphasis may be found on this page.