Graduate Student Requirements: Course Work & Thesis (Effective Fall 2009)

To earn a Master of Arts in Sociology, students must complete 26 hours of advanced course work plus 4 hours of the master's thesis.

Required classes(9 semester credit hours): 
          SOC 5000 (Advanced Sociological Theory) 
          SOC 5100 (Advanced Social Research Methods)
          SOC/STAT 5070 (Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences);
At least two courses from the following (6 semester credit hours):
          SOC 5340 (Comparative & Global) 
          SOC 5440 (Deviance & Social Control)
          SOC 5500 (Societal Institutions)
          SOC 5540 (Stratification & Inequality); and
   One more course (3 semester credit hours) is to be taken from those courses just listed (SOC 5340, SOC 5440, SOC 5500, SOC 5540) or SOC 5250 (Seminar).  Seminars cover more specialized areas. Recent seminar offerings have included : Society, Environment & Disaster; Political Economics of Development; Social Movements; Evolutionary Sociology; Cities & Change; and Gender & the Law. 
   The remaining courses (8 semester credit hours) are taken as electives within the department, or from graduate courses in other departments with permission from the Graduate Studies Committee.
   In addition, a minimum of 4 semester credit hours of a master's thesis is required.  Before undertaking the thesis work, the student shall select a topic and thesis advisor. In consulation with his or her thesis advisor, the student will select a thesis committee. With the formation of a thesis committee, the student will write and defend a prospectus before the undertaking of thesis work. 

To examine the Sociology offerings as listed in the University of Wyoming Graduate Bulletin,click here. The Graduate Bulletin also offers additional information on the Sociology Masters Program.