Program Overview
If you are actively concerned about the world you live in and want to do something constructive and useful in it—whether in law, business, education, medicine, urban or rural planning—sociology provides our best means for understanding how "the system" works. Whether you want to change society radically, modify it, preserve it as it is, or restore it to a bygone era, you must first understand what the structure of system is, how social order is maintained, and how social change can be affected. Sociology can give you some of that knowledge and can further help you acquire the analytic tools to develop it on your own.
Sociology majors generally leave with solid research skills, people skills, and presentation skills, which helps prepares them for many fields of work. Some of our students go on to get PhDs in sociology or related fields, and many work in human service agencies, or go on to masters in social work programs or law school.
Beyond The Classroom
"Collaboration" and "involvement" are keywords in the UVM sociology department. Students in our department have a variety of opportunities to do independent research, gaining valuable opportunities to present and publish academic work. We offer an upper-level research seminar in which students design and implement their own study, a senior honors thesis in which a student works with a faculty advisor on a project chosen by the student, and readings and research courses in which a student and a faculty member explore a specific topic of mutual interest.