THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Curriculum
The curriculum has been carefully designed to provide students with instruction on essential aspects of the discipline: theory, research logic, methods, and real-world applications. We have scaled back the major’s requirements to the absolute minimum in order to allow students more flexibility in designing their undergraduate career, but we insist that students take all nine required courses in our department. These courses represent the hard core of the Sociology curriculum, and they must be taken for a quality grade. To preserve its coherence, we strongly discourage petitions to get out of taking course requirements or to substitute a non-SOCI course (including sociology courses taken outside our department) for a required SOCI one.
Please plan ahead! Because several course requirements are offered concurrently, it will be difficult to take them all in one year without overloading.
Finally, please join our undergraduate listserv soc-ugrads@lists.uchicago.edu so that you don’t miss important news and reminders.
- Introduction to Sociology (choose one)
- Sociological Theory (choose one)
- Quantitative Methods (choose one)
- Qualitative Methods (choose one)
- Logic of Social Inquiry (choose one)
- Four courses in sociology (i.e., prefaced by SOCI)
- BA project (optional)
It is strongly recommended that the requirements be taken in the following sequence: (1) Introduction to Sociology (2) Sociological Theory and the two Methods courses, (3) Logic of Social Inquiry, and (4) the BA project (seminar and paper), with the four electives taken throughout. One course cannot be counted for more than one requirement.
You may use this checklist of requirements for guidance.
This list may not be complete or up to date. Check with the Director of Undergraduate Studies (renedf@uchicago.edu) to see if an unlisted SOCI course counts towards a requirement.
The most up-to-date descriptions of our course offerings can be found in the college catalogue.
Autumn
- SOCI 20233 Race in Contemporary American Society
- SOCI 20295 Contemporary Social Problems: Morrissey’s America
Spring
- SOCI 20002 Society, Power and Change
- SOCI 20258 Maverick Markets: Cultural Economy and Cultural Finance
- SOCI 20655 Religion and Inequality in America
Autumn
- 20175 The Sociology of Deviant Behavior
- 20290 Theories of Sexuality and Gender
- 20574 How to Think Sociologically
Winter
- SOCI 20005 Sociological Theory
Spring
- SOCI 20125 Rational Foundations of Social Theory
- SOCI 20576 Social Theory for the Digital Age
Autumn
SOCI 20004 Introduction to Statistical Methods and Models
Winter
- SOCI 20009 Regression and Generalized Linear Models
- SOCI 20602 Thinking like a Computational Social Scientist
Autumn
- SOCI 20548 Coding & Analyzing Qualitative Data using MAXQDA
- SOCI 20140 Qualitative Field Methods
- SOCI 20575. Logic of Social Inquiry (Winter)
- These electives can be satisfied by taking any course in the major, including cross-listed ones—i.e., they must have a course number prefaced by SOCI.
- SOCI 29998. BA Seminar. See BA thesis policies outlined on this page below.
To attain honors in the major, students will need to meet four conditions: (1) a GPA of 3.25 or higher in the college, (2) a GPA of 3.5 or higher in the major, (3) completion of the BA Seminar (SOCI 29998), and (4) their advisor’s determination that their BA thesis merits Honors.
Courses must be taken for a quality grade in order to count toward the sociology major. However, additional courses beyond the 9 required may be taken for a Pass/Fail grade.
We support sociology students wishing to study abroad during their time at UChicago. However, for students interested in completing the BA Seminar, we recommend studying abroad before Winter Quarter of their third year.
Students pursuing Honors in Sociology are required to take SOCI 29998, the department’s BA Seminar course, which runs from Spring Quarter of a student’s third year through Winter Quarter of their fourth year. Ideally, students interested in pursuing the BA project will have fulfilled their Methods and Logic requirements by Winter quarter of their third year, as these courses provide necessary preparation for the experience of doing original research.
Students will register for SOCI 29998 in Spring Quarter of their third year but will not be given a grade until the conclusion of the thesis process. This grade incorporates the BA thesis grade they receive from their faculty advisor as well as an evaluation of the student’s work in the SOCI 29998 course. Students who drop SOCI 29998 mid-year may qualify for a grade of “P” if they complete the requirements of the first quarter.
The BA seminar does not count as a sociology elective. However, we encourage students to take advantage of SOCI 29997 to get elective credit for work done in support of their thesis.
More information about the BA project can be found here.
Undergraduate sociology majors enrolled in the four-year combined BA/MA program typically write an MA thesis in their fourth year. They cannot also write a BA thesis. The reasoning is as follows: To preserve the integrity of the BA and MA programs, the BA and MA theses must be distinct intellectual products. It is very difficult, and, in any case, ill-advised, to pursue two separate research projects in the same year. Thus, we ask students to choose: pursue the BA thesis for honors in the major, or the MA thesis for an MA degree. Note that the BA Seminar is attached to the BA Project and cannot be taken by students writing MA theses.
Students enrolled in a five-year BA/MA program (such as MACSS and CMES) may, if they so choose, write a BA thesis in their fourth year and then an MA thesis in their fifth. But again, the two theses should represent distinct research projects. While the two projects may be related, the MA thesis cannot be a duplication of BA work.
Students must complete all BA/MA requirements, including the MA thesis, by June in order to graduate by August.
Students are permitted to submit a single BA thesis to fulfil the thesis requirements of Sociology and another major. However, we remind students that they must be active participants in Sociology’s BA seminar (SOCI 29998) to meet the requirements for Honors in Sociology.