The discipline provides excellent preparation for careers in a variety of occupations and professions including planning and community development, law, public relations and advertising, personnel administration, private business and government administration, health and human services, family relations, criminal justice fields, and others. Students may major or minor in sociology. The department offers a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science through the College of Arts and Sciences. Students may also complete a second major or minor in sociology even though they are enrolled in other colleges. In addition, students seeking certification in social studies education at the secondary level through the College of Education may also emphasize sociology in their programs.
Courses offered by the department cover a wide range of topics and issues.
Areas such as social inequality, health, social psychology, social change, institutions and organizations, social differentiation, criminology and deviance, work, gender, and inequality, and family comprise a large part of the curriculum. Students may also pursue special readings courses and experiential education placements or internships through the department. All students wishing to declare a major in sociology should see the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Sociology. This should be done prior to declaring the major or during the first semester of residence in the case of entering freshmen. Courses must be taken from at least two other areas unless the student has a double major.