Sociology Major Requirements

UMaine Catalog Degree/Graduation Requirements

Sociology Degree Requirements:

General Education Requirements information

2.0 cumulative GPA, or better, for the 27 credits of Sociology courses (12 Core credits & 15 Elective credits) required for the major.

Core Requirements: 12 Credits  (All core requirements except for SOC 101 must be passed with a “C” or better.)
SOC 101 – Introduction to Sociology
SOC 290 – Research Methods in Sociology (Previously SOC 390)
SOC 360 – Major Ideas in Sociology (Previously SOC 460)
SOC 499 – Senior Seminar

Sociology Electives: 15 credits (At least 6 of the 15 credits must be 300- or 400- level courses.)
SOC majors are allowed to count up to 6 credits of CRJ courses towards the elective requirement for the SOC major. Students who are pursuing a CRJ minor may also count these credits towards the minor requirements.

Advanced Methods Course: 3 credits (One of the following courses must be passed with a grade of “C-” or better)

SOC 219 – Quantitative Reasoning in Sociology
SOC 291 – Qualitative Reasoning in Sociology
ANT 448 – Ethnography Through Film
CMJ 402 – Communication Research
PHI 103 – Methods of Reasoning
PSY 241 – Statistics in Psychology I
STS 132 – Principles of Statistical Inference
STS 215 – Introduction to Statistics for Business & Economics
STS 235 – Introduction to Statistical Methods

STS 434 – Probability Therory
SWK 491 – Methods of Social Work Research
WGS 205 – Introduction to Feminist and Critical Data Analysis

Allowable Advanced Methods Courses on Other UMS Campuses:

USM’s SOC 301 – Qualitative Research Methods
UMM’s ENV 226/326 – Undergraduate Research in Environmental Studies
UMPI’s SWK 410 – Social Work Research
UMF’s EPP 304 – Environmental GIS

English Proficiency: 3 credits (Not required of Honors Students who complete the Honors Program’s four-semester Civilizations sequence.)
All Sociology majors must complete the English Proficiency requirement by the time they graduate. ENG 201 – Strategies for Writing Across Context, or ENG 315 – Research Writing in the Disciplines, or ENG 317 – Business and Technical Writing, will fulfill this requirement (with a grade of “C” or better).

Transfer students declaring Sociology must take 15 credits of UM courses (excluding SOC 101) to acquire the BA in Sociology.

Senior Thesis: The completion of a senior thesis on a topic of the student’s choice under the supervision of a sociology faculty member. While senior students will typically complete SOC 499 as their capstone experience, in rare circumstances students may conduct a significant piece of sociological research with a faculty mentor. Students who take this course may choose to substitute it for SOC 499 Senior Capstone to satisfy both the Sociology and General Education capstone requirements.