Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree

COURSEWORK REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PHD Major Area of Concentration Minimum of 12 hours of coursework in courses constituting a "major area of concentration". See notes below for standard areas of concentration. (Course selections must be approved by the graduate advisor, the department head, and the students committee.) 12 hours Minor Area of Concentration Minimum of 9 hours of coursework in courses constituting a "minor area of concentration". See notes below for standard areas of concentration. (Course selections must be approved by the student's committee members, the graduate advisor, and the department head.) 9 hours Required Electives Minimum of 12 hours. Elective courses from outside of the student's major and minor areas of concentration. (The selection of elective courses included on the degree plan must be approved by the student's committee members, the graduate advisor, and the department head.) 12 hours Required Independent Research SOCI 691 Independent Research. Minimum of 18 hours. Hours are usually registered under a section number reserved for the student's dissertation supervisor. 18 hours Additional Elective or Research Hours A total of 13 additional hours may be comprised of a combination of elective course and independent research. (The selection included on the degree plan must be approved by the student's committee members, the graduate advisor, and the department head.) 13 hours Total Hours 64 hours Major and Minor Areas of Concentration: The "standard" areas of concentration are: (1) Political and Economic Sociology, (2) Individuals and Institutions, (3) Race, Class, and Gender, and (4) Population and Rural Sociology. Other concentrations may be developed with approval from the student's committee, the graduate advisor, and the department head.

NON-COURSEWORK REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PHD Degree Plan: The Office of Graduate Studies requires PhD students to file a degree plan before they can begin their fifth semester of coursework. To file a degree plan, students must first form a dissertation committee and identify a committee chair (dissertation supervisor). Working with the committee and the graduate advisor, the student develops a degree plan which must be formally approved by the committee and the department head and submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies. Students who have not met this requirement are barred from registering. Preliminary Examinations: Doctoral students should schedule preliminary examinations no later than the end of the first semester after completion of formal course work and no earlier than a date when the student is within 6 credit hours of completing formal course work. Preliminary examinations for doctoral students must be written and oral, covering (at least) both areas of concentration. The exams must be completed within a two week period of time. The form and substance of the examination is determined by the student's advisory committee. All members of the advisory committee are responsible for examining the student in their areas of competence, unless they choose to waive participation and indicate that choice on the formal announcement of the examination. The schedule for examination must be approved by the Office of Graduate Study no less than two weeks before the exam is held. Doctoral Dissertation: After completing coursework and passing the preliminary exams, doctoral students then write a dissertation - an independent research effort or example of scholarship that deals with a significant research question and extends the boundaries of knowledge in the discipline in some way. The student's first step toward this is to form a committee and identify a dissertation supervisor. Next the student consults with committee members and his or her supervisor to develop a proposal for the dissertation project. The student student then defends the proposal in a formal "proposal defense" hearing. After the proposal is approved, the student conducts the research and produces the final dissertation which he or she then defends at a formal "final defense" hearing that involves a review of the dissertation and any other topics deemed relevant by the committee. a passing grade is required to graduate.

OTHER PHD GUIDELINES Guidelines for Readings Courses: Students may include up to six hours of readings courses (SOCI 685) toward their combined MS and PhD degrees. Several restrictions apply. Readings courses may not be used to take the place of required theory, survey courses, or methods courses. Readings courses may not count as research hours. They may count toward the fulfillment of the major concentration, the minor concentration, or electives. In order to be included on the PhD degree plan, a signed 685 form with accompanying syllabus must to be submitted to the Graduate Advisor for placement in the student's graduate file. The 685 forms can be obtained from either the Graduate Advisor or the Graduate Program Secretary in Academic 409. Readings courses are excluded from calculations of the students grade point average used in evaluations for department assistantships. Coursework Guidelines for Students Not Earning the MS at Texas A&M: Doctoral students who did not earn an MS in Sociology at Texas A&M are expected to take the sequence of theory and methods courses required for the MS degree unless their letter of admission into the doctoral program specifically states otherwise. These courses can be counted as electives and thus do not increase the total number of credit hours required to earn the PhD. Students can petition to have this requirement waived. The process involves submitting a request to the Graduate Advisor along with syllabi for previous coursework thought to be equivalent. Faculty teaching the theory and methods courses review the submitted syllabi and recommend whether the requirement should be waived. As with MS students, doctoral students taking the theory and methods courses must earn a grade of B or higher in those courses to include them on the degree plan. Those who fail to do so on the first attempt must retake the course.