<p>Hey i'm an incoming freshman in 6th who is currently undeclared but is interested in taking sociology- particularly sociology with an emphasis in econ and society.</p>
<p>So, i was wondering if there are any of you sociology peeps out there willing to share some positive as well as negatives about this department!</p>
<p>You can write whatever you want but i would love it if you could briefly touch on the following q's as well:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How big are sociology classes compared to other social science majors (avg estimate)</p></li>
<li><p>How much is workload compared to other social science courses, how much work do you get on avg?</p></li>
<li><p>How much math is there?</p></li>
<li><p>How approachable are the profs?</p></li>
<li><p>What do you think about sociology w/ econ and society?</p></li>
<li><p>How useful or interesting are the classes?</p></li>
<li><p>What are "typical" class activities, is the material taught predominantly by book or by self investigations? any survey trips etc...?</p></li>
<li><p>What are the grade boundaries and how hard is the grading?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>cheers,!</p>
<p>Hi there!</p>
<p>I am a senior at UCSD and a sociology major (with emphasis on international studies). I’ll try to give you some insights about the sociology department and answer your questions.</p>
<p>First, the sociology department at UCSD is GREAT. The people working at the department administration are very helpful and will definitely work with you. Beverly, who is the department secretary, is amazing so if you have any issues regarding any administrative stuff, ask her.</p>
<p>Anyhow… to answer your questions now:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Sociology classes are typically between 70 and 150 people.</p></li>
<li><p>The workload is not terrible, but there is A LOT of readings. Most of the time there are papers to write and in-class exams tend to be short answers or essay questions (mainly essays though). Compared to psychology (which I’m minoring in), I would say that sociology has a slightly heavier workload and A LOT more readings. I’m not sure about other social science classes.</p></li>
<li><p>In order to transfer as a sociology major, I needed a statistics class so I’m pretty sure that’s required. After transferring, I didn’t have to take math for sociology. The requirements (for transfers) are 10 upper division sociology classes, 1 sociology theory class and 1 methods class (for methods, if you take quantitative methods, you’ll encounter some math, otherwise you won’t).</p></li>
<li><p>Most professors I’ve had have been very approachable! You can definitely visit office hours, talk to them after class or even have lunch with them (for free!) through the dine-with-a-prof program (which is available once per quarter). Don’t be shy :)</p></li>
<li><p>If you are interested in economy, it may be a good idea, but the requirements are not very strict for the concentrations within the sociology major, and I don’t think the concentration even appears on your actual diploma. However, there are definitely a fair amount of classes that you can pick from if you decide on that concentration. I am currently taking sociology 121 (economy and society) and it’s one of the most interesting classes I’ve had at UCSD.</p></li>
<li><p>I personally love sociology and find it extremely useful. I have learned so much about society in general, and it has truly helped me become a better, more open-minded person. People always say that sociology is a bad major because job prospects aren’t so good, but I think personal growth is way more important, especially if you plan on continuing your studies after your BA (where you can learn more specific skills that will be more applicable for the job market).</p></li>
<li><p>The material is predominantly taught through books and articles (no field trips so far). </p></li>
<li><p>The grading is not harsh (even though that depends on the professor and/or the TA) but it can be subjective. There are no curves in sociology classes, but I haven’t found it hard to get good grades, especially is you keep up with the readings and understand the concepts. Also, don’t hesitate to ask for a regrade if you feel that your paper was better than the TA gave you credit for. I used to be afraid to do that at first, but usually professors are happy to take a second look at papers/exams.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Let me know if you have any more questions!</p>
<p>Gaiou37</p>
<p>Hi thanks and sorry for the late reply</p>
<p>I do have more q’s though</p>
<p>1.I’ve heard that the sociology major isn’t so “hands-on” but to what extent is this true? especially compared to the other social science courses (eg. econ, psych). I’m not expecting sociology to be as “hands-on” in science or engineering. Are there a lot of opportunities for research?</p>
<p>2.Also, will i get enough practice in empirical methods of research to carry me through to graduate school (once, again im not expecitng as much as a science or engineering degree this is a main concern if a course is too theory based). In other words, is this major a good “feeder” for grad school?</p>
<p>thankyou!</p>