The Department of Sociology offers an honors program comprised of nine hours of disciplinary credit work. The honors program in sociology offers motivated students the opportunity to pursue an intellectual experience above and beyond that offered by the general curriculum. Students will have the opportunity to work closely with sociology faculty members to conduct independent research in their areas of interest and will leave the program well-prepared for post-graduate training. Benefits of the program include deeper investigation of topics of interest, enhanced research training, personalized faculty mentorship, and the development of a writing sample, all of which will provide students with a leg up both in graduate school admissions and on the job market.
Students are invited to apply for the departmental honors program upon completion of SOC 3885 Research Methods with an overall GPA of at least 3.4. Upon invitation, interested students must submit an application and writing sample for consideration. Applications will be reviewed by the Departmental Honors Coordinator and Department Chair. Students will be notified of the status of their application within two weeks of submission.
After admittance to the departmental honors program, students will complete two upper division (must be 3000 or 4000 levels) sociology honors courses. This can be done in one of two ways. The first option is to complete honors contracts in two courses. This involves completing extra, honors-level work in a standard sociology course. Students must complete and submit the honors contracts for approval within the first two weeks of the semester. Alternatively, students can take one to two Sociology Honors Seminars when offered.
Students must then complete an honors thesis while enrolled in SOC 4510. Note that this does not fulfill the Senior Capstone requirement and students must also take SOC 4450 Senior Seminar. With the help of the Departmental Honors Coordinator, students will select a faculty mentor, who will serve as their Honors Thesis Advisor. The honors thesis is the outcome of an independent research project taken under their guidance. Students must complete a 30-35 page research paper and an oral defense in order to meet the honors thesis requirements.
Students who successfully complete these requirements with a "B" or higher and maintain a 3.4 GPA will graduate with honors in sociology.
For more information about department honors, please use the associated links or contact Dr. Matthew Wright via email at wrightmr@appstate.edu or via phone at (828) 262-6390. For questions about university honors, please visit the Honors College website.
