Eligibility Criteria
To be admitted directly to the Ph.D. program, applicants must have received a Master’s degree from a recognized University.
The Department is willing to consider applications for admission to the Ph.D. program on a part-time basis. However, the Department prefers that students register for the Ph.D. on a full-time basis.
The course requirements will normally be six half courses chosen in consultation with the student’s supervisor.
Any Ph.D. student admitted without 9 units of undergraduate or Master’s level theory will be required to complete the requisite number of courses at the appropriate level, in addition to the regular graduate program.
Ph.D. students who have not successfully completed a 700-level theory course at the M.A. level at McMaster must take one 700-level theory course, namely, one of Sociology *750, *751, *757. (In very rare cases, another appropriate course may be substituted by petition to the Graduate Committee.)
Ph.D. candidates will be required to demonstrate competence in quantitative methods by taking Sociology *740/Applications of Quantitative Methods. Persons admitted to the Ph.D. program without the equivalent of Sociology 3H06/Research Techniques and Data Analysis or Sociology *6Z03/Quantitative Methods in Sociology, however, will be expected to complete *6Z03 before taking Sociology *740. Admission is governed by the general regulations.
Ph.D. candidates will also be required to satisfy the Department of suitable competence in either qualitative methods or historical methods according to procedures delineated by the Department.
Students who have completed equivalent course work at another university may request to be exempted from the methodology requirements.
In addition to the theory and methods requirements, all Ph.D. students must take at least two regularly scheduled 700-level courses offered in the Department.
Ph.D candidates are required to take two comprehensive area examinations, both in Group A, or one from Group A and one from Group B. These will constitute the student’s Comprehensive Examination.
GROUP A: Individual and Society; Occupations and Organizations; Social Inequality
GROUP B: Aging; Deviance; Education; Gender; Health and Health Care; Ideology and Culture; Methodology; Political; Race/Ethnic Relations; Theory.
By the end of their first year in the program, doctoral students must complete six courses, or at least four courses and one comprehensive exam. By the end of their second year in the program, they must complete all six of their courses and both comprehensive exams.
The student’s supervisory committee and the Graduate Committee may require Ph.D. students to demonstrate competence in a second language if their chosen area of study and research makes knowledge of a second language desirable.