The Department of Sociology offers both the bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees in sociology.

Core Courses
All undergraduate students working toward a BA or BS (or minor) in sociology must complete the following core courses:

      SOC 201 Intro to Sociology (formerly SOC 209 Principles & Concepts)
      SOC 301 Intro to Social Statistics
      SOC 303 Intro to Research Methods
      SOC 320 Social Theory
      SOC 323 Diversity & Inequality

Students are encouraged to take these core courses as early as possible in their program, as they provide fundamental knowledge useful to 300+ and 400+ sociology electives.

Electives
For students admitted to UofL prior to fall, 2007, the following are the requirements for the BA and BS in sociology:

For students admitted to UofL fall, 2007 or after, the following are the requirements for the BA and BS in sociology:

NOTE: Students admitted to the UofL fall, 2006 or after must take SOC 301 Social Statistics and earn a solid C or better before being admitted to the sociology program. Students must also earn a solid C or better in SOC 303 Research Methods and SOC 320 Social Theory to graduate with a degree in sociology.

Restricted Electives
*As of 10/21/04, current and prospective sociology majors are no longer required to take a certain number of their electives from the "restricted electives" list; therefore, students may choose any combination of sociology electives to fulfill their sociology elective requirements.

Programmatic Requirements: Humanities or Natural Sciences
Sociology majors must take two humanities (or natural science) courses (at the 300+ level) for their degree. (B.A. students must also take an additional humanities or natural science at any level.) Humanities courses include: art, art history, English, humanities, music history, philosophy, theatre arts, and any language course (French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Spanish, modern languages, etc.). Natural sciences courses include: biology, chemistry, geosciences, mathematics, and physics.

Social Sciences
Students earning the B.A. must take 18 hours and B.S. students must take 24 hours of social science electives. The social sciences include: anthropology, communication, economics, geography, history, justice administration, paralegal studies, political science, and psychology. Some classes in Pan-African studies, women's studies, and linguistics are also considered social science electives; please consult the course description for a particular course's designation. NOTE: Sociology courses may not be used to satisfy social science requirements.

Substitutions
Sociology majors may only substitute a psychology research methods course (i.e., PYSC 302) for SOC 303, but may substitute JA 326, MATH 109, MGMT 201, or PSYC 301) for SOC 301. Sociology minors may substitute a research methods course from communication, justice administration, Pan African studies, political science, or psychology for SOC 303, and may substitute JA 326, MATH 109, MGMT 201, or PSYC 301 for SOC 301. Any other substitutions must be approved by the undergraduate advisor in sociology.

NOTE: If a student opts to substitute such a course, he/she must take an additional sociology elective at the 300+ level in lieu of the required sociology course. Students may not take two statistics courses and have both count toward their degree.

WR (Writing Requirement) Approved Courses
All students in Arts & Sciences must take two WR courses to fulfill the writing requirement. Beginning with the fall, 2003 semester, the SOC 303 (Research Methods) and SOC 320 (Social Theory) became WR courses, thus meeting the WR requirement for Sociology majors.

NOTE: Students who have taken SOC 303 and/or 320 prior to the fall, 2003 semester will not earn WR credit for these courses and must meet the WR requirement by taking other courses which are designated as WR courses. Students may, but are not required to, meet their WR requirement by taking one or two sociology courses which are designated as WR courses: SOC 371, 374, 454, 455, 464, and 472.

General Education Requirements (GER)
All sociology majors must have completed or be completing general education requirements. For more information on GER requirements for Arts & Sciences' majors, visit http://www.louisville.edu/provost/GER/