Sociology, M.A.

Admission Requirements

Admission to the Master of Arts in Sociology program requires

1. an earned bachelor’s degree from an accredited university or college;
2. an acceptable grade point average in all college work taken (generally at least a 2.75 GPA);
3. successful completion of at least 18 semester hours of undergraduate sociology courses, which includes the prerequisites of research methods (SOC 3040), statistics (SOC 3050), and sociological theory (SOC 3060) or their equivalents with a grade of C or better;
4. completion of the Graduate Record Exam with acceptable scores.

Conditional admission is possible, but not guaranteed, under the following circumstances:

1. GRE score is less than acceptable (exception is dependent upon the strength of the other admission criteria);
2. prerequi­sites are missing or the grade is less than a C. All prerequisites must be completed within the next semester following this conditional admission and prior to enrollment in the twelfth hour of graduate study. If these conditions are not met, the candidate will be dropped from the program and must seek readmission in a subsequent semester;
3. GPA is less than 2.75 (exception is dependent upon the strength of the other admission criteria).

Application Procedures

All application materials are to be submitted to the College of Graduate Studies.

Application deadline for the M.A. program is April 1 for Fall admission, September 15 for Spring admission.

 Applicant must

1. submit application with appropriate fee (online at www.mtsu.edu/graduate/apply.php);
2. submit official scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE); 
3. submit official transcripts of all previous college work;
4. submit letter of interest and goals;
5. submit an example of written work; 
6. submit three letters of recommendation.

Degree Requirements

Candidate must

1. complete a minimum of 36 semester hours in graduate-level courses, 24 of which must be graduate-level Sociology courses, with no more than 6 of the 36 hours at the 5000 level;
2. complete all required courses with a minimum grade of B-;
3. complete 6 hours of thesis research (SOC 6640 ); 
4. submit and successfully defend a thesis.

Curriculum: Sociology

Candidate must complete 36 hours in the following course of study:

Program Notes

Candidate must

1. file a degree plan in the College of Graduate Studies prior to the completion of 21 credit hours;
2. file a Notice of Intent to Graduate form in the College of Graduate Studies within the first two weeks of the term in which candidate intends to graduate.