<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Any current UCD Sociology majors? Can you please share your experiences? How are the classes like, what is the average graduation rate for Sociology major students, workload, professors expectations and availability, etc. Thank you! </p>
Hey, I know this is an old post, but want to share my experience since others will stumble across this thread.
I’m a current UC Davis Sociology major and have taken many upper-division courses. I transferred from a community college, so I will try to compare the experience.
The courses and professors here at UC Davis are top-notch! Sociology may seem like common sense to the average person, but it goes way beyond common sense. You will learn many theories and concepts that you have never heard of before. You will learn why people do the things they do and how social forces influence that decision. Although it varies, your standard class has a midterm, a final, and usually a large paper. Some courses may also have a smaller paper in addition, so your grade will depend on those items as the opportunities for point accumulation will be limited compared to community college.
Another important aspect of the courses at UC Davis are TAs, also known as teacher assistants. Many of the classes are 80+ students, so there will be a TA who does the grading of the work. The TA can definitely set the tone for the class. Some TAs are horrible and grade like they have something to prove. Other TAs are fair with their grading and are super helpful. I don’t like the idea of having a TA because their interpretation of what the professor teaches may be different than the students’ in the class, which affects grading. Most of the Sociology courses I have taken don’t offer extra-credit or curves on exams. Some courses have discussion sessions, some don’t. Just for reference, the class days will be represented by the letter of that day, but R means a Thursday class. These are just a few tips that might help you.
I haven’t found the availability of classes to be a problem (Except for Soc 46a/46b). The workload is rather high when you factor in the amount of reading you must complete. There will be times in your first quarter where you feel like “this isn’t too bad,” but then midterm and finals week comes. The difficulty of the courses won’t be a major shock compared to lower-division Sociology courses, but there will be many more concepts and theories. The hardest thing is that you are essentially fitting 16 weeks of material (community college) into 10 weeks, so the pace is pretty fast. For the most part, professors expect a lot from their students, especially here at Davis. Davis has a great reputation and is a top 10 public university, so you will be challenged and tested academically.
Prospective Sociology majors, I can tell you this, you will work for your degree at UC Davis. It is no cake-walk by any means. If you are coming from a community college, the first quarter will be a tough transition, especially around midterm and finals time. It is very tough to prepare for finals for multiple courses as the exams are much more difficult and intense than those at community college (my experience). Often times, the term paper will also be due around that time. My advice is to start early. Start studying about 8 days before the exam. Start your papers a week early. I’ve pulled so many all nighters during my first quarter.
It’s important to work hard and keep your GPA high because you never know if you will go to graduate school. Also, check out ratemyprofessor and read the reviews, they will help you choose your professor. More than anything, the skills you attain as a Sociology major will prepare you well for the workforce.
@anybodyhomemcfly This is super helpful. I’m a Sociology major transferring from a community college, my TAG was approved and I plan on SIR’ing to Davis come June since it’s my number one choice. I know that at Davis there are concentrations that you can choose for the Sociology major. Did you go for general Sociology or for any of the other ones? I’m considering majoring in the Organizational Sociology major but would like to speak to someone at UCD about all of the options in the major and which might be best for me.
I like ratemyprofessor.com for picking out teachers, I wish they had something similar for TA’s since i’ve heard that with such large classes, you interract with the TA’s more often. If the TA sucks, but the professor is great, then that’s kind of problematic but oh well that’s how it is.
I am so in love with Davis, I can’t wait till September rolls around.
More relevant is whether anyone gets a job out of sociology. Is that a field? I know there are departments but what do they prepare students to do?
@lostaccount Sociology is one of the many majors where its main purpose is either to go on to academia or to just check the “I have a college degree” box for job requirements. I don’t know of many/any jobs specifically recruiting for sociology majors, but I’m not a sociology major myself so I could very well be wrong on that front.
Looking at the data for what recent sociology grads are up to (https://icc.ucdavis.edu/data/major.htm?mc=180), it appears that most end up in jobs that don’t require a specific degree.
In case anyone’s curious what the data looks like for recent grads of other majors, here’s the page: https://icc.ucdavis.edu/data/index.htm
Welcome to Davis! Yes, there are many emphasis areas, but they will not appear on the degree or transcript, except for the organizational studies emphasis, which is a whole separate sociology degree. My emphasis is general sociology.
The same could be said about any social science field. A degree in sociology will honestly prepare students’ for almost any career path they choose; it’s a really flexible degree. One can even become a physician as long as they complete the pre-reqs. Now if you are talking about a job specifically in the field of sociology, you will have to go on to graduate school as many sociology jobs are academia related.
In general, many people with sociology degrees get jobs with the county/state and can make $60k + in a few years and move up the ranks quite fast. The majority of degree holders don’t work in their specific field of study anyway, so I laugh when people criticize Sociology majors as entering a useless field where no jobs are available (Not saying you are). It’s best to look at a degree as a necessary key that unlocks opportunities only available to those who have that key, unless of course you plan on attending post-grad school. I’ve talked to a lot of grads, and the skills you attain are so valuable, and in sociology, you will learn how to decipher tough text, perform bad-ass research, and write with the best of them (Among many skills). Take a look at the following list of famous Sociology majors, you will see many talented people on there, including Michelle Obama, who is a highly successful lawyer.
This probably isn’t the best example, being as this applies to literally every major.
And pretty much everything else you said applies to just about any social science or humanities major. I’m not sure if that’s what you were trying to imply, but it doesn’t answer the question of what you can do specifically with sociology that you couldn’t necessarily do with another major. Of course the obvious answer is academia, but that applies to every field.
So from the perspective of a sociology major, do you know of any specific career paths that specifically recruit sociology majors at the bachelor’s level? I’m well aware of there being a variety of career paths for social science and humanities majors (double majoring in a social science myself), but I’m curious if there are any that are either unique to sociology or where sociology is explicitly on the list of preferred majors. Or is it like most other social science/humanities majors where there aren’t any/many careers specifically recruiting that major?
With a BA in Sociology, probably research. http://sociology.nd.edu/assets/166056/research_opportunities_for_soc_bas.pdf
Most careers start after you get a Masters. Like, a MSW or a Masters in Public Policy, where your concentration in the Sociology major during your undergrad will help you in what you want to focus on in your graduate studies - like social services, for example. It depends on what you want to do with your own life in the future.