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 6 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.
4 additional electives
These elective courses may be taken in any substantive or methodological area. In all, students must take at least half of their electives in Duke Sociology.
Transfer Credit
Students who have completed a graduate degree in Sociology at another university may petition the DGS to substitute up to three previous courses in place of non-departmental electives. Substitution for core courses is not usually permitted and requires the permission of the DGS and the instructor of the course in question.
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.