Sociology

During the fall and spring semesters, speak with the Sociology Undergraduate Advisor Prof. Gwendolyn Dordick gdordicksociologyadvisor@gmail.com

During winter break and summer breaks, speak with the department office assistant Ms. Laura Bowman or with the department chair.

You can declare the major / minor yourself using iDeclare.

Please connect with our sociology department advisor each semester so that you can understand your progress towards fulfilling the major / minor requirements and develop a relationship with our department.

For instance, our advisor can review your coursework, identify any courses that count as sociology electives that DegreeWorks has overlooked, and share insights into how particular classes might support your interests and growth.

No. A few classes – for example, SOC 237 theory – have a prerequisite of SOC 105, but these classes may be taken during the same semester, with a permit from the sociology advisor.

Check the course bulletin (available on-line) to see the requirements for majoring in the other field. Then, speak to an advisor from that department to learn more.  

Most credits from the professional schools (education, architecture, and engineering) do not carry over to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  So, you may wish to consider obtaining a second degree instead of a double major.

No.

No.

Sociology courses offer specific skill sets that emphasize developing, testing, and applying theories, critical reasoning, writing for multiple audiences, and applying research methods, including survey techniques, ethnography, interviewing, quantitative and qualitative analyses. These skills prepare students for a wide and diverse range of jobs in public policy, local, state and federal government and nonprofit organizations and for-profit firms in education, human and social services, advertising, marketing, research, academia, law, writing and publishing.

None of our courses require department consent. If a course has “CWE” in its prefix, then it is a Center for Worker Education Course. You will need to contact them for permission to enroll.  https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/cwe

These are different learning modalities.  In-person means the class meets on campus at specified days and times.  Hybrid asynchronous means that students will attend a class on-campus on specific days and times and do other work online asynchronously, outside of class time.  Please look carefully at the course description class to see if you need to meet in-person or synchronously online.  Inquire with the course instructor if you have any questions.

Office/student hours are designated times when students can meet one-on-one with instructors in-person, virtually, or by phone to go over questions or work. It is an ideal way to get to know an instructor, especially if you might need letters of recommendation later on or if you are looking for research opportunities under the supervision of a faculty member. If you are having difficulties, an instructor might be able to refer you to appropriate resources.

Besides enrolling in our classes where you can learn about research findings and how to conduct research, some of our faculty members offer research opportunities, such as fieldwork, independent studies, and mentoring of collaborative or independent research project during the summer. Contact faculty members whose interests most closely match yours to identify possible opportunities.

Getting research experience outside of coursework may be needed for applications for competitive graduate degree programs, particularly PhDs.  This research experience can also help students identify career interests and get letters of recommendation.  

Before deciding to attend graduate school, you’ll want to find out whether a graduate degree is needed for your desired career.

• Check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s online Occupational Outlook Handbook.
• A CUNY and NYPL librarian can help you with looking up information about desired occupations and whether these require degrees. For example, if you want to practice as a licensed professional like a public school teacher, social worker, nurse, medical doctor, or a lawyer, most likely you will need to earn a particular type of graduate degree.
• Talk with people who are in your desired fields and/or organizations and find out how they got their job. This is called an “informational interview.” 
• Professional associations may feature informative events and share advice.
• When considering programs, talk with recent alumni who can tell you what the program is like and what people do with their degrees after completing the program.
• Think carefully about how you will finance a graduate degree. Even if you are offered a scholarship, some degrees might involve taking out substantial loans – if so, you will want to think about your earning potential. 
• Graduate school applications will require getting several letters of recommendation. Respectfully approach instructors and internship supervisors who know your work well and provide them with your (1) resume, (2) statement of purpose outlining why you want to get a particular degree/work in a internship/how you will use or benefit from a fellowship or scholarship, (3) transcript, and any other helpful information like where to send the letter and the deadline for sending the letter. For more about this, see “How do I ask for a letter of recommendation?”
• For insights into the professionalization processes of graduate programs, consult guides such as Prof. Fabio Rojas’s Grad Skool Rulz and Prof. Jessica McCrory Calarco’s A Field Guide to Grad School.

Ideally, the person who writes the letter of recommendation is familiar with you and your work. Perhaps this is an instructor with whom you took a class and got to know you through discussions, your work, and office hours.

Respectfully approach instructors, internship supervisors, or other persons who know your work well and ask whether they are able to write a good letter of recommendation. If they can write a letter, then provide them with your (1) resume, (2) statement of purpose outlining why you want to get a particular degree, (3) transcript, and any other helpful information like where to send the letter and the deadline for sending the letter. If you have copies of work completed in that class, such as papers, you may want to provide these. If your transcript shows uneven grades during a particular semester, explain to your letter-writer what happened during that semester (i.e., a family member was ill and you were caregiving for that person).

Ideally, you want to give an instructor several weeks in advance of a deadline to prepare a letter.  A good letter can take a letter-writer up to an hour to prepare, write, upload, and send out.

Sometimes forms for letters will give you a choice about whether you waive the right to read a recommender’s letter. If you don’t waive this right, some readers will see this and wonder why.

Make sure to thank your letter-writers for their help. Let them know of the outcome of your application.

Learn about CUNYfirst here.

You can find help with using CUNYFirst here: https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/cis/cunyfirst/ -> Click the plus sign next to “Student Resources”

You can find help with using DegreeWorks here: Registrar-DegreeWorks

You can view classes by logging into CUNYFirst and using schedule builder. Here are step-by-step screenshots of how to use schedule builder.

Alternatively, you can view classes here without logging into CUNYFirst.

For directions, see these step-by-step screenshots.

Fill out an add/drop form from the Registrar’s office and have your course instructor sign it; return the form to the Registrar.

100-level courses are introductory courses.  For sociology, our introductory course is SOC 105 Introduction to Sociology.

200-level courses are usually intermediate level courses with a specific topic. Two of our required courses are at the 200 level:

• SOC 23200 Methods and Techniques of Sociological Research (4 credits)
• SOC 23700: Foundations of Sociological Theory (4 credits)

Our other 200 level courses are electives that count towards the sociology major or minor.

300-level courses could be either of the following:

• an advanced course that appears in the official course catalog
• a special topics course that does not yet appear in the official course catalog. It could be an intermediate or advanced course; check with the instructor teaching the course.

Our 300-level courses are specialty electives that count towards the sociology major or minor.​

Yes, this is an ideal way to take courses with an expert in a particular area (i.e., a leading criminologist) not offered at your home campus. You can do so by getting an E-Permit, assuming the course is not already offered that semester at CCNY. The following pages will show you how:

Registrar-E-permit-Information

How-To-Request-An-E-Permit

NOTE: Be sure to adhere to the Residency Requirements. For both the sociology major and minor at CCNY, you must complete 60% of your sociology courses at CCNY. Other school requirements must be satisfied to reach a total of 120 credits to graduate. Those requirements are not the same for BA in Sociology.

Check DegreeWorks for the exact school requirements that apply to you. Note that the Chrome browser will not work with DegreeWorks. Firefox works well. All students need to have 80 credits, or their last 30 credits, be taken at CCNY.

Your first step should be to discuss your concerns, ideally during office hours or in a meeting, with your instructor. If this discussion does not produce a satisfactory result, take your concerns to the department chair, who can suggest additional options.

Yes. Learning is most likely to happen when you have a relationship with fellow students and your instructor – such relationships are more likely to form when you are regularly attending class and actively participate in class activities.

Under certain circumstances when a student has completed the majority of work for a class but becomes ill or has an emergency, an instructor may offer that student an incomplete (INC) grade in which the student is expected to complete and turn in the work by a certain date. If the instructor has submitted a passing grade, the INC will be replaced by that earned grade. Otherwise, the Registrar’s Office will change the temporary grade of INC to failure (FIN) by the tenth week of the following semester. Students who receive an INC grade are encouraged to work with their instructors in order to complete the necessary coursework to have the grade changed.

A student may be eligible for the repeat-F policy. A student may repeat up to 16 credits of failed courses; if the second grade is C or higher (C- does not qualify), the original grade of F will not be used in calculation of the GPA. The revised GPA will be used for graduation. However, the course and grade of F remain on your transcript. In addition, the F grade will apply to graduation honors. Consult with the Office of the Registrar for specific applications of this policy.

Besides the cafeteria and rotunda in our North Academic Center (NA) building, you can study at our libraries, which include Cohen library, and computer labs, or our new Colin Powell School student space at NA 6/289.