Students in the Sociology Ph.D. program must complete their coursework before taking the Preliminary Exam (i.e., defending their dissertation proposals) at the end of the third year of study. Students may continue to take courses after defending their proposals.
Duke offers two types of courses: regular (3-credit) courses and half (1.5 credit) courses. Unless otherwise specified, course requirements can be fulfilled by either type of course, with the caveat that two 1.5-credit courses are required to obtain 3 credits.
Core Courses
First-year students must:
- take the five core courses (1 theory, 2 statistics, 1 research methods, 1 computing)
- take the first-year professionalization seminar
Electives
Students must complete 5 electives:
2 methods electives
Methods electives can cover any empirical method, ranging from network analysis to topic modeling to in-depth interviewing. Half-courses may be used to fulfill this requirement, but 2 half-courses are required to constitute 1 elective. Students who wish to use non-departmental courses to fulfill this requirement should check with the DGS in advance to ensure that the course qualifies as a methods elective.
3 additional electives
These elective courses may be taken in any substantive or methodological area. Students must take at least two of these electives in Duke Sociology.
Students who enter with an MA may petition the DGS to have one of their graduate courses count toward the electives.
Students may take independent studies. Any given student cannot take more than one independent study with the same faculty member.
Participation in a lab for two contiguous semesters can count as one independent study elective credit. Students may only receive one total independent study credit for lab participation throughout their entire time in the program.
Coursework Timeline
All required coursework must be completed by the end of the Spring semester of the third year of study. Students may take additional courses after that if desired.