Graduate Program - Additional Information

Although top sociologists have been working here at the University of California, Irvine, and staffing an interdisciplinary doctoral program, we've only run a doctoral program in Sociology since the Fall of 1998, and have just formally established a Ph.D. degree in Sociology. UCI offers a new, strong, and growing graduate program in Sociology.

With a broad concern with social and economic inequality, the Department offers demonstrable strengths in several areas, including immigration and populations, social movements, family and the life course, race and ethnicity, social networks, and qualitative and quantitative research methods. As a Department, we are committed to employing--and teaching--multiple methods for exploring questions of theoretical and practical importance. Members of the department are nationally recognized innovators in both qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as influential scholars in core areas in sociology, publishing important books and articles in top journals, heading research sections in the American Sociological Association, editing professional journals (UCI has been the long-time home of Social Networks, and Social Problems was recently edited here as well), winning national research funding, organizing international conferences, and engaging in activism in the community.

Resources for graduate students extend beyond the department. UCI's nationally-recognized program in Criminology, Law, and Society offers opportunities for study in these areas, and members of the Department enjoy particularly close ties with the Center for the Study of Democracy, Center for Research on Organizations, the Program in Global Peace and Conflict Studies, and the Program in Demographic and Social Analysis, all on campus. Two new centers (Center for Research on Immigration, Population, and Public Policy and the Center for the Study of Collective Action) are also housed in the Department, and will provide interested students with a range of additional opportunities. Students have taken courses with faculty in these programs, and from faculty with related interests in anthropology and political science as well.

By design and disposition, our faculty is committed to working with graduate students. Our graduate program is constructed to help students move from being consumers of research to being producers of important, and published, work. In addition to numerous opportunities for collaboration with faculty members, students must, by the end of their second year, produce independent research targeted for publication as a journal article. Students who take advantage of these opportunities have had good success in finding professional employment; recent graduates of our precursor program have accepted tenure-track positions at both small colleges and major research universities, including Cornell University, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of California-Santa Cruz, Florida State University, the University of Utah, and the University of California-Riverside. Current graduate students have won outside funding for their research, and published books and articles. Given the recent growth in the Department and its enhanced national visibility, we have good reason to believe that this strong performance on the job market will continue.

The University of California-Irvine provides an extraordinarily supportive environment for our continued growth and development. Located about midway between San Diego and Los Angeles, adjacent to Newport Beach, Irvine offers a pleasant climate year-round, easy access to mountains and the beach, and a central location in rapidly changing Orange County. It also benefits from the resources of the entire University of California system, including a world-class library and numerous internal research centers. The University of California has designated Irvine as a growth campus, and resources have followed the projected growth. UCI has grown not only in size, but also in quality; for several years, US News and World Report has ranked UCI among the10 best public universities in the United States.

Good news for UCI has meant good news for the Sociology Department. Currently comprised of 26 faculty members, more than half hired in the last four years, the Department has enjoyed a period of tremendous growth, and we will be growing for the foreseeable future. Because the School of Social Sciences enrolls more undergraduates than any other school, and because Sociology is a growing and popular undergraduate major, there are ample teaching assistant positions available, allowing graduate students in Sociology to support themselves through graduate school. The Department also offers research assistant positions and scholarships for particularly well-qualified students.

We are particularly interested in attracting highly qualified students whose interests dovetail with the strengths of the faculty. Admissions decisions are based on the applicant's academic performance in college, GRE scores, letters of reference, and the candidate's own statement of purpose and submitted academic work. In keeping the Department's long-standing commitment to diversity, we particularly encourage applications from ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged students. The Department makes every effort to fund all admitted students.

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