草莓社区

BA/MA Program

The Sociology Department offers a 5 year BA/MA degree, allowing you to begin graduate school in your senior year, and to finish the MA degree at the end of your 5th year.  This is a wonderful opportunity to gain an advanced degree without the time and expense of the longer 2 year MA degree offered by most programs. This is approximately one year less than normally required to earn both degrees. Graduates of this program will be well prepared to enter the labor force, a professional school or pursue a PhD.

A group of people sitting around a table working with laptops, notebooks, and drinks. The scene suggests a collaborative meeting or study session in a casual setting. Sunlight filters through windows, casting shadows on the wooden table.

Our Program

Our program has particular strengths in the medical sociology, urban sociology, sociology of religion, and inequality and social justice.

Upon completing the degree students will be able to:

  • formulate independent research and/or internship projects that rely on sociological concepts and methods; 
  • gather, interpret and analyze varied forms of qualitative and quantitative evidence;
  • critically evaluate the quality of social science research;
  • acquire deep, career-relevant knowledge about specific social issues.

Our graduates and currently enrolled students can provide you with more knowledge about the value of the degree.  We have graduates in Ph.D. programs, schools of social work, marketing firms, non-profit and community organizations, and more!‌

Application Requirements

To apply to the BA/MA program, a student:

  • must be a declared undergraduate Sociology or combined Sociology-Anthropology major;
  • must be a Junior based on credit hours earned;
  • must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.3 for all course work at Loyola;
  • must have earned a 3.5 GPA in at least five sociology courses at Loyola (three of which must be at the 200 level or above);
  • must complete all of the undergraduate requirements (120 credit hours including core and major requirements;
  • should apply for admissions to this program between January 15 and March 15 of her/his junior year;
  • must submit a writing sample and three letters of reference from professors. At least one of the letters must come from a full-time faculty member of the Sociology Program
  • are encouraged to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), but are not required to submit scores.

Once admitted to the program, students may apply up to twelve credit hours taken in their senior year toward the thirty graduate hours required by the department for the MA degree. These twelve credit hours must include a minimum of two and up to four pre-approved courses at the 400 level or above. Students must achieve at least a 3.0 GPA in all their graduate course work and complete the required course sequence for one of the tracks in the MA program, either the regular MA track or the applied MA track. The tracks are summarized below.

Students interested in the five-year BA/MA program are invited to meet with the Graduate or Undergraduate Program Director for more information.

The Sociology Department offers a 5 year BA/MA degree, allowing you to begin graduate school in your senior year, and to finish the MA degree at the end of your 5th year.  This is a wonderful opportunity to gain an advanced degree without the time and expense of the longer 2 year MA degree offered by most programs. This is approximately one year less than normally required to earn both degrees. Graduates of this program will be well prepared to enter the labor force, a professional school or pursue a PhD.

A group of people sitting around a table working with laptops, notebooks, and drinks. The scene suggests a collaborative meeting or study session in a casual setting. Sunlight filters through windows, casting shadows on the wooden table.

Our Program

Our program has particular strengths in the medical sociology, urban sociology, sociology of religion, and inequality and social justice.

Upon completing the degree students will be able to:

  • formulate independent research and/or internship projects that rely on sociological concepts and methods; 
  • gather, interpret and analyze varied forms of qualitative and quantitative evidence;
  • critically evaluate the quality of social science research;
  • acquire deep, career-relevant knowledge about specific social issues.

Our graduates and currently enrolled students can provide you with more knowledge about the value of the degree.  We have graduates in Ph.D. programs, schools of social work, marketing firms, non-profit and community organizations, and more!‌

Application Requirements

To apply to the BA/MA program, a student:

  • must be a declared undergraduate Sociology or combined Sociology-Anthropology major;
  • must be a Junior based on credit hours earned;
  • must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.3 for all course work at Loyola;
  • must have earned a 3.5 GPA in at least five sociology courses at Loyola (three of which must be at the 200 level or above);
  • must complete all of the undergraduate requirements (120 credit hours including core and major requirements;
  • should apply for admissions to this program between January 15 and March 15 of her/his junior year;
  • must submit a writing sample and three letters of reference from professors. At least one of the letters must come from a full-time faculty member of the Sociology Program
  • are encouraged to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), but are not required to submit scores.

Once admitted to the program, students may apply up to twelve credit hours taken in their senior year toward the thirty graduate hours required by the department for the MA degree. These twelve credit hours must include a minimum of two and up to four pre-approved courses at the 400 level or above. Students must achieve at least a 3.0 GPA in all their graduate course work and complete the required course sequence for one of the tracks in the MA program, either the regular MA track or the applied MA track. The tracks are summarized below.

Students interested in the five-year BA/MA program are invited to meet with the Graduate or Undergraduate Program Director for more information.