USC Department of Sociology - Undergraduate Program

Welcome! The members of the Department of Sociology welcome all current and prospective sociology majors! This brief outline is designed to help you as you major in sociology and prepare for your future. The Department of Sociology wishes to help you in whatever way its members can. The Department encourages you to talk with faculty members whenever you believe they can assist you, and also encourages you to take advantage of the opportunities that the department and the university have to offer to students. An expanded version of this outline is available in the Sociology Handbook, which you can obtain in office 321 of Sloan College. More information can be obtained from Dr. Paul Higgins, Undergraduate Program Chair, paulhiggins[at]sc.edu.

How do people live and act with one another? How do people create, maintain, and change social life? Sociology investigates these and other questions. Sociologists explore how people structure social life and the consequences of those structures for human behavior. Sociologists examine populations, their formation, characteristics and impact on social life. Sociologists study how people interact with one another in order to accomplish joint activity. Human behavior is social. Therefore, sociologists have broad interests. Sociologists explore families, the experiences of diverse ethnic groups, organizations, the socialization of children and youth, social networks, the life cycle of people, inequality, the institution of religion, gender, the development and change of entire societies, and much more.

You may wish to study sociology for many reasons. If you are curious about social life, about what people do and why and with what consequences, then you may wish to study sociology. Through studying sociology, you will develop your ability to wonder about social life and to explore it carefully. You will learn to question common sense, raise significant questions, examine arguments, synthesize information, analyze data, make conclusions, and present your understanding orally and in writing. Through a major in sociology, you can prepare yourself well for a wide range of careers. An undergraduate degree in sociology provides strong preparation for entry level positions in social service, government, and business. A major in sociology produces a firm liberal arts foundation for entering professional schools in law, education, social work, and other fields. Of course, an undergraduate degree in sociology is excellent preparation for graduate work in sociology to become a researcher, professor, or consultant.

The Department of Sociology offers two undergraduate degrees. Students may elect to earn a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science in Sociology. The sociology requirements are the same for each. Please see the Undergraduate Studies Bulletin and the Guidelines for Advisement for the different requirements in mathematics, humanities, and social sciences for each degree.

The pre-major and the major requirements must be completed with a grade of C or better.

I. Pre-major Requirements

1. SOCY 101 Introductory Sociology--prerequisite for all other sociology courses.
2. SOCY 220 Elementary Statistics for Sociologists--prerequisite for SOCY 300, 310, and 320. It can be met by satisfactorily completing PSYC 227, MGSC 291, STAT 201 or an equivalent course in quantitative methods. The department encourages sociology majors to take SOCY 220.

SOCY 320 - Individual and Society (also the prerequisite for SOCY 520 to 529 & 557)

2. FIVE sociology courses at the 300-level or above in addition to requirement # 1. The department offers a variety of courses that explore particular areas of social life, such as the family, minority groups, aging, children and youth, collective behavior, sex roles, social problems, inequality, death and dying, education, and more.

3. TWO 500-level courses. These are intended to be small, junior/senior level seminars.

To qualify for this distinction the student must earn at least a 3.5 grade point average in sociology and at least a 3.5 in non-sociology courses. In addition, the student must plan and conduct his/her own research project described and presented in an honor’s paper. The student who seeks this honor must select one faculty member to chair the committee that guides and evaluates his/her work. The committee will be composed of at least three faculty members including the chair. The student and the head of the committee will consult with one another to select the other members. To meet the requirements necessary for departmental honors, the student must successfully defend his/her proposal and final paper to the committee. Upon the completion and acceptance of the honor’s paper, the student will receive three hours credit in Sociology 698 (independent research). Other requirements to attain a degree in sociology will remain the same. Ideally, the project should be finished within two semesters. The consensus of the committee is necessary to pass the two oral defenses. Research projects must conform to the University’s policy on the treatment of human subjects. Proposals must additionally be subjected to the scrutiny of the Sociology Department’s ethics committee.

The University of South Carolina, Columbia hosts the GAMMA chapter of Alpha Kappa Delta, the international sociological honor society. Sociology majors (and other students with a serious interest in sociology) maybe eligible to become members. Look for announcements each year concerning this opportunity.

USC Undergraduate Studies Bulletin - Includes information about Admissions, Regulations, Student Life, Fees and Refunds, Financial Aid and Scholarships, and Academic Programs.

Undergraduate Studies - Information from the Office of the Dean of Arts & Sciences. Includes information on undergraduate scholarships.

USC Career Center - Useful Resources for Career Planning, Career Center, 6th floor, William H. Close Building (Business Administration College building), (803) 777-7280. career@sc.edu

Community Service Programs (for developing service opportunities in the community) - #039 of Russell House Student Union, lower west wing, (803) 777-5780.

Career Exploration: Every semester devote some time (perhaps one hour each week) to career exploration. Use the services of the Career Center; search the web to learn about careers; where possible, tie a course assignment to a potential career; do a phone interview with people in careers that interest you and shadow them for part of a day; go to USC's Career Festivals to learn more about careers and employers even if you're not a senior; consider taking SOCY 399 (Independent Study in Sociology) and tie what you do in it to career interests; use volunteer activities and part-time jobs for learning about careers and developing career skills, and more! Ask supervisors to write letters of recommendation for you when you end a volunteer activity or part-time job. You'll have those recommendation letters to use for future job applications. Use the Career Center at the start of your senior year to look for your first job upon graduation.

Every year, the Sociology Department organizes two competitions for undergraduate student awards:

Outstanding Senior Major in Sociology Award - The Department of Sociology faculty selects each spring one or more senior sociology majors (who have graduated in the previous August or December or will graduate in May) to receive this award. The faculty makes its decision based primarily on the academic accomplishments of the sociology majors and on any other relevant accomplishments and activities.

Rising Senior of the Year Award - The College of Arts and Sciences sponsors a Rising Senior of the Year award for each of its department. To be eligible for this award, which is decided in the spring semester, sociology majors must meet the following criteria: declared sociology major; cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher; 3.5 or higher GPA in course work at USC; 3.5 or higher GPA in sociology courses; must have completed 75 hours by the beginning of the spring semester; must maintain full-time enrollment (12 hours minimum) for the following fall and spring semesters; at least 24 hours earned at USC, Columbia by the beginning of the spring semester; and at least 4 of the sociology major requirements (out of 11) met by the beginning of the spring semester.

Here are a few words about the members of our teaching faculty. More information, including personal websites and email, can be found on the Faculty Page of our Department website.

ANDREW BILLINGSLEY is Professor in the Department of Sociology, the African American Studies Program and the Institute for Families in Society, where his major responsibilities lie.

MATHIEU DEFLEM specializes in sociology of law, social control, deviance, terrorism and counter-terrorism, and policing, especially from a comparative-historical perspective.

CHRISTINE FOUNTAIN is interested in the ways that labor market institutions and social networks interact to shape the careers of American workers.

PAUL HIGGINS wonders how people live and act together when no force determines what they do. He brings this emphasis on how people socially construct social life to the undergraduate courses he teaches.

BARRY MARKOVSKY specializes in group processes, social psychology, social networks, theory construction methods and experimental research methods.

RONALD MARIS, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, specializes in suicidology, psychiatry, and sociological theory and teaches courses on social problems, mental disorder, death and dying, suicide, and theory.

PATRICK NOLAN is a macro-comparative-evolutionary sociologist. He has published a number of papers on macro-sociology, stratification, and ecological-evolutionary theory.

JIMY SANDERS teaches an undergraduate course that facilitates "statistical literacy." Emphasis is placed on becoming familiar with the types of data and statistics commonly reported in the media.

KEN E. SHIN teaches courses in demography. His areas of interest are the political demography of Korea and Korean American communities.

BRENT SIMPSON teaches and researches in the areas of social psychology, trust, altruism, and prosocial behavior.

SHELLEY SMITH interests are in socioeconomic inequality, stratification, and research methods. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas.

LALA CARR STEELMAN earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Emory University.

IRENA STEPANIKOVA earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2006. Her research and teaching interests include race/ethnicity, social psychology, and medical sociology.

SHANE THYE earned a bachelor’s degree in experimental psychology from the University of Iowa and received a Ph.D. from the Iowa Department of Sociology in 1997.

DAVID WILLER’S research focuses on the structural determinants of power, exploitation, and domination. He is currently using Elementary Theory of Social Structures which he founded to offer new historical explanations based on that experimentally tested theory.

More information can be obtained from Dr. Paul Higgins, Undergraduate Program Chair, paulhiggins[at]sc.edu.