Bachelor of Arts in Sociology

Requirements

• General Education Requirements: 34
• College of Arts & Sciences Requirements: 14
• Sociology Core: 12
• Sociology Electives: 18
• Additional Credits for Graduation*: 42

Total Hours: 120

*Bachelor's degrees require a minimum of 120 credit hours for graduation.

Note: A 2.2 cumulative GPA is required for graduation in this major.

General Education Courses

Students pursuing a bachelor’s degree must complete the following General Education coursework. Diversity courses may also fulfill major or Breadth of Knowledge requirements. Integrated and Applied Learning courses may also fulfill requirements in the major.

Academic Foundations

• Mathematics, Statistics, and Logic: 3 credit hours
• Speaking: 3 credit hours
• Writing: 6 credit hours

The Breadth of Knowledge

• Arts/Humanities: 9 credit hours
• Natural Sciences: 7 credit hours
• Social Sciences: 6 credit hours

Diversity

• Domestic Diversity
• Global Diversity

Integrated and Applied Learning

Select one class from one of the following subcategories:

• Complex Issues Facing Society
• Capstone

College of Arts & Sciences Requirements

Degree requirements in Arts & Sciences include the demonstration of ability to use another language by completion of the second year of a foreign language.

Foreign Language

• 101 Beginning I
• 102 Beginning II
• 201 Intermediate I
• 202 Intermediate II
• Survey of Deaf Culture in America (American Sign Language option only)

Students must also complete a minimum of 40 credits (excluding workshops) consisting of either:

• Upper-level (300/400) courses both in and outside of the student’s major;
• or other courses outside the major department approved by the student’s major department chair (permission should be obtained prior to enrollment); these may not include workshops.

Sociology Core

• Introduction to Sociology
• Social Research Design (Only offered fall semester)
• Data Analysis (Only offered spring semester)
• Sociological Theory

Sociology Electives

Complete 18 credits:

• 3850:3xx
• 3850:4xx

Two optional degree tracks

In our Health & Well-Being track, you will learn about the social determinants of health and the risk factors that are shaped by social forces. Race, social class, gender, and sexuality all shape health outcomes and health behaviors. You will also learn about the health care professions, including the social nature of medical training (who becomes a physician or a nurse and why) and the occupational stressors in health care. Special topics also include mental health and mental illness, and the social patterns and trends in drug and alcohol use and abuse.

Our Social Justice track gives you the skills and knowledge to understand the role of major social institutions in relation to social justice. Social issues such as racism and sexism; sustainability, the environment, climate change, and population; migration and immigration; mass incarceration; intimate partner violence; and community access to health care are all addressed in this track. You will gain new tools to analyze the social forces that shape injustice and identify ways to rectify these problems, even in small, everyday choices and acts.

The skills and knowledge that sociological training provides are in demand in a number of professions. “Careers in Sociology,” a publication of the American Sociological Association, gives the following, non-exhaustive list of employment sectors:

• Business
• Community service
• Criminal justice
• Health services
• Higher education
• Law
• Public health
• Publishing
• Social services
• Teaching

Recent UA sociology graduates have worked in criminal justice and legal fields, human resources, administration, politics, and activism.