Application FAQs

A limited amount of fee waivers may be available each year.

If interested in applying for a waiver, please complete the form below by November 20th for consideration.

No. Our application process is centralized and does not require being sponsored or recommended by faculty. You are welcome to reach out to a faculty member to ask about their research, but any application inquiries sent to faculty will be redirected to the Program Coordinator or DGS.

Look further into this website to understand our faculty’s research interests. If their scholarship aligns with your interests, the department may be a good fit for your graduate training.

The application deadline is January 10th.

No. Consistent with the recommendations of the American Sociological Association, we are not requiring and do not consider GRE scores in our admissions process.

Those students submitting all of the materials required for admission to the graduate program will automatically be considered for financial support, usually in the form of a graduate teaching or research assistant stipend. Preference is given to students who intend to complete a PhD degree.

In accordance with the policies of the Graduate School, continuance of financial support is dependent upon adequate performance as a teaching assistant or research assistant and normal progress in the program. A student with an M.A. degree pursuing the Ph.D. degree can expect three years of support.

Financial support beyond these lengths of time will be considered only in exceptional cases. Of course, the continuation of support is always contingent upon the availability of funds but, because of current and anticipated budget shortfalls, the Department will not be able to fund any graduate student beyond 10 semesters.

Students receiving an assistantship work 20 hours per week with faculty. The assistantship provides graduate students with a financial stipend, a health insurance package, and an operation fee waiver for tuition. The total financial worth of the assistantship exceeds $30,000 for the current academic year.

For the Doctoral program, we typically admit only the number of students we can fund with teaching or research assistantships. Students may be admitted to the professional Masters’ program without teaching or research assistantships.

The number of assistantships we can offer in any academic year depends upon funding from the administration and external grants received by our faculty. In recent years, we have accepted between 4-6 new graduate students.

Most incoming students receive teaching assistantships. Research assistantships are typically funded through research grants received by our faculty. If such funds are available, and the applicant’s experience meets the needs of a particular faculty member, research assistantships may be awarded in place of a teaching assistantship.

The Graduate College specifies: A prospective student must have received a baccalaureate degree from a college or university accredited by a recognized accrediting association with a minimum grade point average of 3.00 in the student’s most recent 60 semester hours. Students with a baccalaureate degree from a non-accredited institution will be considered for admission only upon special petition to the Dean of the Graduate School.

In addition to the basic requirements for admission, the Graduate College specifies: International applicants are required to have the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor’s degree (normally a minimum of four years of study beyond grade 12), demonstrated proficiency in English (minimum TOEFL of 550 or equivalent), and evidence of financial support. Please refer to the Graduate School’s page for further information on test scores and testing alternatives.

Admission decisions are made by the Graduate Studies Committee. This committee is comprised of up to six faculty members, and the committee members rotate on an annual basis.

We take the entire application into consideration. Apply for admission.