MA in Sociology

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, everyone.</p>

<p>I'm currently a sophomore (junior coming fall) at USC, majoring in Policy, Planning and Development (BS). My concentration is nonprofit work and I hope to work for a few years after graduation. The thing is, I LOVE sociology too. However, I'm unable to double major without staying for another 1.5 years, which is not worth the student loans. I'm applying to the McNairs Scholars program, which allows me to conduct research, publish and present at a conference as an undergrad. My plan is to explore policy strategies through a sociological lens (race/ethnicity) and issues revolving around statistics. After graduation, I do plan to apply to Peace Corp and then grad school afterwards. The main reason for wanting to pursue my MA in Sociology (or perhaps in Cultural Studies) is to leave more doors open, especially for conducting research or working as a consultant later down the road. </p>

<p>I'm not even 100% certain I'll go to graduate school. My main focus is to work in nonprofit, or start my organization for education/social awareness and apply to Peace Corp. My GPA as of now is at 3.51. I can't guarantee what GPA I'll have by graduation, but I'm confident it will be 3.6/7 by then. I'm very interested in working on the west coast, but I'm not completely opposed to leaving. The schools I'm interested in applying to are: University of Washington, Cal, Stanford, UCLA, UPenn, and Columbia (Teacher's College for M.Ed.). As you can see, these schools listed are all very prestigious and difficult to get into, so I'm hoping if anyone can shed some light on other great MA programs offered in Sociology would be wonderful. </p>

<p>Thank you all.</p>

2

<p>I would argue that it is not worth the student loans to pursue an MA in sociology to “leave more doors open.” An MA in sociology is not going to open the kinds of doors that you want; they’re not intended to be professional or terminal degrees.</p>

<p>An MA in sociology will not enable you to work as a consultant (not on it’s own, anyway). For that, you would be better off getting a master’s in public policy or public administration, an MBA, or in some kind of quantitative or technical field. This is doubly true for an MA in cultural studies. Generally speaking, MA programs that end in “studies” are not good ideas unless you have a specific goal in mind for them.</p>

<p>You can conduct research without an MA in sociology, too. There are researchers in policy. There are researchers in international development. In order to do research, you just need to learn how to do research, not get a specific degree (unless you want to be a professor - then a PhD is necessary, but not in any specific field.)</p>

<p>If you are interested in issues surrounding statistics as well as exploring policy through a sociological lens, there are several ways to go. A potentially lucrative way is getting your master’s in a quantitative field and doing quantitative social science analysis. One example is Columbia’s Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences MA program, which is a 1-year MA.</p>

<p>You could also get an MPP or an MPA and focus on policy analysis. You could be a consultant with either of those degrees, easily. I have a friend with an MPA who currently works as a consultant on government contracts with a well-known consulting firm. There are many MPP and MPA programs that have policy analysis foci. Cal has the #1 program in the nation for policy analysis. Other top programs are Harvard-Kennedy, Michigan, UChicago, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Syracuse, Indiana U, Wisconsin-Madison, Texas-Austin, USC, NYU, University of Washington, Georgetown, UMD-College Park, UCLA, Minnesota, George Washington, Ohio State, UGA, UKentucky, UNC-Chapel Hill, Cornell, and George Mason.</p>

<p>There’s also a program called the Masters International/Coverdell Scholars, that assists Peace Corps alumni in attending MA programs during or after they return from their service. Good schools, too - CMU, George Mason, Duke, IU, Milano The New School, UIC, UMD-CP, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Texas-Austin, and UWashington are some of the schools that participate and offer a master’s in Public Policy or Public Affairs.</p>

3

<p>@juillet,</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your informative response. I’ve decided to stick to the MPA route, as it fits best with my career options. Are you familiar with the application process for MPA programs? With my given info from my first post, would I qualify to apply to top MPA programs? In a nutshell, I’ll graduate with around a 3.5-3.7 GPA (BS in Policy, Planning and Development with a minor in Economics), two internships (one related to nonprofit and social innovation - my concentration), and an undergraduate research/publication underway. I’m also going to apply to Peace Corps/Americorps AND work a few years before going back to grad school…and take my GREs as well. Would this be considered overqualified? Sorry if I’m hammering questions! Thanks in advance.</p>

4

<p>You can’t really be “overqualified” for an MPA/MPP. The more real-world experience, the better.</p>