(REVISED 2006-08-07)

This Graduate Student Handbook is offered as a general guide to the program's requirements, policies and procedures. However, no attempt has been made to cover these exhaustively or definitively. So, if in doubt, always check with the graduate director or the department chair to be sure that what you are doing, planning, or assuming is in conformity with department norms and expectations.

You can browse the handbook below, or download a pdf version here.

CONTENTS OF THE HANDBOOK

1. ABOUT THE PROGRAM
2. ADMISSION TO THE DEPARTMENT
3. FINANCIAL AID
4. NON-FINANCIAL RESOURCES
5. COURSE WORK AND RESEARCH CREDITS
6. QUALIFYING PAPERS
7. DISSERTATION PROPOSAL AND DISSERTATION
8. PERIODIC EVALUATIONS OF PROGRESS
9. FORMS TO BE FILED
10. MISCELLANEOUS

APPENDIX A.     DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
APPENDIX B.    MODEL FOUR YEAR COURSE SCHEDULE
APPENDIX C. TRANSFERING CREDITS FROM OTHER DEPARTMENTS
APPENDIX D. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

I. ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Department of Sociology offers a graduate program leading to the Ph.D. degree. The Ph.D. in Sociology is conferred in recognition of marked ability and scholarship within the discipline, and distinguished creative achievement within a special field of the discipline.  Students also earn the Masters degree en route to the Ph.D., and some may leave the program after obtaining the Masters. But the program is not designed for students who know from the beginning that they want to go only as far as the Masters level.
The graduate student career goes through three distinct but overlapping stages, all of which require extensive reading and writing.  The first stage consists of classroom work. We offer a set of required core courses in theory, methods, and statistics and a set of elective seminars in a wide variety of substantive areas. Next, the student moves into a stage of writing qualifying papers which is designed to bridge the gap between writing relatively short term papers for classes and writing a much longer and more complex dissertation. In the third and final stage, the student assembles a faculty committee that provides guidance during the planning and writing of an original dissertation. In practice, these three stages always overlap to some degree.

II. ADMISSION TO THE DEPARTMENT
Applicants are admitted into the program just once each year starting in the fall semester.  The admission process is competitive.  Applications must be received during the spring semester prior to the academic year for which admission is sought.  Consult the Sociology Department web page for application deadlines.  Occasionally, an applicant with strong credentials who has missed the application deadline may be admitted as a non-matriculating student for one semester.  If the student does well, he or she will be retroactively admitted to the program with the work completed during the trial semester counting toward the degree requirements.
Members of the Sociology faculty evaluate all applications for entry into the Rutgers Graduate Program in Sociology. Funding and admission decisions take into account undergraduate courses and grades, letters of recommendation, a writing sample, personal statements, and GRE. Applicants from outside the USA may also have to take the TOEFL exam.
Incoming students should schedule an interview with the Graduate Director as soon as they arrive at Rutgers. Each student will have already been assigned an advisor on the basis of perceived mutual interests. Questions regarding the requirements for the Ph.D. and M.A. Degrees should be addressed to the Graduate Director and/or the student's advisor. Initial assignment of advisors is always somewhat arbitrary and never binding on the student.  Students should feel free to change their advisor at any point and for any reason simply by informing the Graduate Director.  Some students change advisors two or more times during their years at Rutgers as they get to know specific faculty members and as their interests change and evolve. 
Students who already have a Masters degree when applying for admission should also submit evidence of their performance in the Masters program.  If admitted, they may apply to have some or all of the work they have already done credited toward their Ph.D. requirements. Incoming students with prior graduate work (whether or not they have completed the Masters) should meet with the graduate director in their first semester in residence to determine which prior courses are likely to transfer toward Rutgers degrees.

III. FINANCIAL AID
Financial aid for graduate students is of four types: major university funding, minor university funding, external funding, and funding for research expenses.  Each of these is described below.

1. Major University Funding
Three major kinds of financial support are awarded by the department to graduate students: Fellowships, Graduate Assistantships (GAs), and Teaching Assistantships (TAs).  All of these provide complete tuition remission, a living stipend, and possibly (depending on the specific award) some fringe benefits. 
Students who are admitted to the program with major financial aid usually receive this in the form of a multi-year package designed to support them during the first several (3 to 5) years. One typical package consists of two years of Fellowship followed by three years of TA or GA support.  Annual continuance of these multi-year packages is dependent upon satisfactory progress each year toward the Ph.D.  Occasionally, a student may be admitted with just one year of major funding but this has been unusual in recent years.
Students who have been admitted without funding, or whose funding packages have run out, may apply for major funding on a year-to-year basis (after their first year in the program).  These will almost always be GA-ships or TA-ships, although more advanced students may apply for more remunerative (and extremely competitive) faculty instructorships or “writing year” dissertation fellowships.
a) University Fellowships are awarded at the time of admission usually for two years of graduate study.  The fellowship is the only form of major funding that carries no employment obligation.  A Fellow is given the opportunity to devote full time to being a student.  Therefore, Fellows are expected not to hold jobs inside or outside the University except, if they wish, during the summers.  Only a very limited number of University Fellowships are awarded each year and they are all allocated, by University policy, to the recruitment of new students.
b) GA-ships are usually generated out of research grants secured by individual faculty members. Graduate Assistants are expected to work 15 hours a week, from September through June, with time off for holidays that the University makes available to "staff". Note that this is a different schedule than that for Teaching Assistantships. "Calendar year" Graduate Assistants work through the summer as well.  Year-to-year applicants for GA positions must apply directly to the faculty member actually doing the research.
c) TA-ships (the most common form of major funding) are supported by the budget of the Graduate Dean.  Only a limited number of TA-ships are allocated to each academic department each year depending on undergraduate course enrollment statistics.  TA-ships follow the academic calendar year of work. Teaching Assistants generally lead discussion sessions of large lecture courses where they also help write examinations and grade the examinations of their students. Each TA is responsible for two or three sections. In some cases, experienced TA's may be instead be given full responsibility for teaching a course.  Qualified students may sometimes be given TA-ships in other departments that don’t have enough graduate students to fill all of their TA needs.  Sociology department policy states that students should not hold teaching assistantships within our department for more than three years in order to give as many students as possible an opportunity to receive this aid. 

2. Minor University Funding
A wide variety of minor funding sources are available.  These usually pay only for living expenses although occasionally partial tuition remission may also be granted. Sources of minor funding include the following:
a. Part Time Lecturer positions that pay a fixed salary for teaching a specific course.
b. Wages of labor for working on research grants or on specific department projects.
c. Wages for helping professors grade student work in large courses.
d. Pay-per-course for teaching during the summer session, during the winter break, or at one of our satellite campuses.
e. Teaching or research in neighboring educational institutions.
f. Work-Study programs for students meeting federal eligibility requirements.
g. Student loans.
All minor funding requires the student’s initiative to find out about opportunities and to apply for them.  These opportunities arise at various times throughout the year and can be for periods as short as a few weeks or as long as a few years.

3. Competitive Funding From Outside the University
A variety of fellowships are available from external sources. The procedures and stipends attached to these change from time to time, as do the rules of eligibility. Please note that these fellowships require that students and prospective students take the initiative to acquire applications and submit them by fixed deadlines. Among the most important of these are Fulbright, Javits and NSF fellowships.
Students may apply directly for fellowships and traineeships to such agencies as the National Science Foundation or the Public Health Service. (See book located in student library for details). Other forms of external financial aid are described in detail in the Graduate School Bulletin.
Students interested in applying for externally funded research grants or fellowships should contact Teresa Delcorso at CHASER, the resource center for Graduate Student External Support.  CHASER is located on College Avenue Campus in the Graduate Dean’s Office, 25 Bishop Place, Room 301.  The phone number is 732-932-2705.  Or contact Teresa by email: delcorso@rci.rutgers.edu.
There is also a Grants Register--available in the Rutgers libraries.  This contains information on thousands of grant-giving programs and is a little overwhelming.  Most students looking for grant money find it a lot more efficient to work through CHASER.

4. Funding for Research Expenses
A different sort of funding from any of the above consists of reimbursement for expenses involved in doing research, obtaining the tools needed for research, and/or presenting research findings at professional meetings.  Sources of this kind of funding may be departmental, University-wide, or may come from outside agencies or foundations.  Awards in this category are always competitive and usually fewer than half of those who apply receive this sort of research support.  Since the opportunities for these sorts of grants, the application requirements, and the application deadlines change year by year, this handbook cannot provide specifics.  As such opportunities arise, students will be notified. 

IV. NON-FINANCIAL RESOURCES
In order to help students in their progress toward the Ph.D., the sociology department also provides a variety of non-financial resources including the following:
1. Computer Services
Application for computer accounts can be obtained from the sociology department’s computer lab manager, Shan Harewood.  From time to time, the lab also offers training in the use of software of particular interest to sociologists.  More general training programs are offered by RUCS, the University-wide computer center at Busch campus.  Shan can be found at the department’s computer lab on the third floor of Lucy Stone Hall.  He can also be reached at 732-445-4126 or by email:. The computer lab also maintains site licenses for Microsoft Office, SPSS, SAS, and a variety of other useful packages for data management and analysis.  These can be used for free on the lab computers or purchased (usually for a nominal sum) for installation on students’ own computers.

2. Mail and Email Services
Each graduate student has a departmental mailbox.  These are located in the mail room on the second floor of Lucy Stone Hall (B-201).  It’s a good idea to check your mailbox at least once a week because important notices are sometimes distributed in that way.
Email is the most frequently used means of communication within the department.  All students are eligible for email accounts on the department’s mail server.  Some students may prefer to use external email accounts or to maintain multiple email accounts.  Since this can get confusing, each student should tell Dianne (the graduate program administrator) what email address he/she wants to use for departmental communication.  This should be an email address that is checked at least a couple of times a week.  That email address will appear on official department rosters. 
It will also be the one used for the soc_grad listserv. The soc_grad listserv is an emailing list of all active sociology graduate students.  It is used frequently by faculty and administrative staff to send messages to all graduate students at once.  Any sociology graduate student can also send email to the listserv to communicate with every other grad student in the department at once.  Students have the responsibility to inform the department promptly of any changes in this main email address to avoid missing important announcements.
Since it is imperative to keep the lines of communication open between the student and the Graduate Sociology Program, all students should inform the graduate program administrator as soon as there is any change-of-address, change of phone number, or change of email address. Simply advising the Registrar's office is not sufficient for this purpose; they do not send a copy of this information to the Graduate Sociology Office.

3. Library Services
Students have the use of all university libraries.  The library supports online catalog searches and many useful general search tools as well as full-text archives of certain reference sources.  Librarians will help students learn to use these powerful resources in the most efficient way.

4. Offices in Lucy Stone Hall
Because of shortage of space, the department is not able to offer office space in Lucy Stone Hall to all graduate students.  Those who do have office space usually have to share it with other students.  The department tries to stretch its limited office space as widely and as fairly as possible.

5. Student Organizations
a. GUSS: The Graduate Union of Sociology Students (GUSS) is an organization which is composed of all Sociology Graduate Students and headed by two co-chairpersons who are elected by the students. GUSS conducts new student orientations, sponsors various social events, handles elections of the student members, takes charge of the GUSS budget, and is represented at some Graduate Program Committee meetings.
b. The GSA: The GSA is the Graduate Student Association, composed of all graduate students from all departments. All graduate students are automatically members of the GSA, which means the membership is about 6,000 in number. The budget is generated from student fees (paid by all graduate students). With this money and graduate student support, the GSA sponsors a wide variety of activities and enterprises.

V. COURSE WORK AND RESEARCH CREDITS
There are five types of formal work for credit that you can accumulate: (1) required courses, (2) seminars, (3) independent studies, (4) research credits, and (5) the writing seminar.  How many of each you need for the Masters degree and how many for the Ph.D. is explained in Appendix A.

1. Required Courses
Required courses cover the core areas of sociological theory, research methods, and statistics.  All students must take courses in these areas regardless of field of specialization.  These courses are offered every year.  Students are strongly advised to fulfill these requirements during the first five semesters in the program.  Students entering our program with a Masters degree in sociology from another institution may be able to substitute courses taken at the prior institution for some of these requirements.  Application for this kind of credit should be made to the Graduate Director.
ExemptionsSome students may feel they have a strong enough statistics background to skip the first course in the required statistics sequence (Soc 541) and go directly into the second statistics course (Soc 542).  These students may petition the graduate director to go directly into the second course.  The student should first meet with the Soc 542 instructor and both the student and the instructor should agree that this seems like a good idea before making such a petition.

2. Seminars
Each semester, the department also offers a variety of courses in elective subjects.  To distinguish these from required courses, they are referred to in this handbook as seminars.  The term seminar is used here to refer to any non-required course, regardless of whether the classroom format involves lectures, discussions or both. 
Specific seminars are not offered every year or even, necessarily, every other year.  During the course of a graduate student’s career at Rutgers, up to two graduate seminars in other academic departments may be substituted for sociology department seminars if these are deemed relevant to the student's academic area of interest. If a student wishes to take more than two seminars outside the department, he or she must petition the graduate director for permission to waive this two-course limit.

3. Independent Studies
Independent studies are based on arrangements made between a professor and one or more graduate students to study a mutually agreed upon subject intensely for one semester.  From a credit point of view, independent studies are treated by the department and by the University as identical to seminars.  Students are limited to two such independent studies during their time in the graduate program.  As with courses taken outside the department, waiver of this limit requires a petition (with compelling reasons) to the graduate director.

4. Research Credits
An advanced student may apply to work with a professor for one or more semesters and receive ‘research credits’ instead of ‘course credits.’  Research credits are usually taken after all course credit requirements have been fulfilled and dissertation work is progressing.  But, under special circumstances, students may decide to take research credits earlier in their careers.  Consult Appendix A to find out how many course credits and how many research credits you need for the Masters or for the Ph.D. 
Be aware that course credits and research credits may never be substituted for one another.  The University treats them as totally different species, charges different rates of tuition, and records them separately on your transcript.  To anticipate a question that often confuses students, independent studies and research credits are treated by the University as satisfying very different requirements even though the one-on-one work that a student does with a professor for independent study credit may often be indistinguishable from the one-on-one work done by another student and another professor for research credits. 

5. The Writing Seminar
The Writing Seminar (Soc 703) is a unique hybrid entity.  It’s a required course organized as a seminar for which students receive research credits rather than course credits. The Writing Seminar is offered once a year, usually in the spring semester.  It is generally taken in the third or fourth year in the program.  Occasionally, a student may be allowed to take it in the second year but only with prior permission from both the Writing Seminar instructor and the Graduate Director.  For first and second year students, permission of the instructor by itself is not sufficient to register for this course.
The Writing Seminar is designed to help students transform an existing qualifying paper (or an unusually advanced term paper) into an article for publication in a journal.  It is not to be used for the purpose of turning a term paper into a qualifying paper or a Masters Essay.  All Ph.D. students must take the Writing Seminar at least once.  Students may choose to take it more than once.

6. Incompletes
At the discretion of the instructor, students who are unable to complete all the requirements for a course may receive the grade of Incomplete. It is very important to understand that not all instructors give grades of Incomplete and those who do each have their own criteria for determining the suitability of this grade.  There is no appeal from the instructor’s decision as to whether or not to give a grade of Incomplete in a course so it’s important to ask rather than assume.   Incompletes may be taken in required courses, seminars, or independent studies.
If this arrangement is worked out, the student should not register for the course again, even if he or she feels the need to sit in on the course the next semester it is offered. The original registration will be sufficient and only a change of Grade form need be submitted when the work is completed. Once a permanent grade is assigned it is considered final.
Students have only twelve months to make up the work for an Incomplete.  Requests for extension of this one year limit must be made by the student, recommended by the course instructor, and approved by the graduate director and the Graduate School Dean.  If extension of time is needed, it should be applied for prior to the one year expiration date. It will not be routinely granted. Students should be aware that there have been instances in which the sociology department has thought that a student ought to have an extension of time beyond a year but has had this decision vetoed by the Graduate Dean.
Any student who has more than one Incomplete will be allowed one semester to reduce the number to one (or none), after which he or she will not be allowed to register for additional courses until these excess Incompletes are completed or "abandoned". ("Abandoned" refers to a situation in which the student has agreed that the course will never be completed and the program has agreed to allow the student to continue with a Permanent Incomplete (PIN) on his or her record.)

7. Permanent Incomplete Grades (PIN's)
There are two situations in which a PIN grade may be warranted.
a. Students are restricted in the number of incompletes they may carry. In order to proceed, a student may choose to "abandon" a course by waiving the privilege of completing it. In such a case the student requests a change from IN to PIN. The PIN is not regarded as an outstanding incomplete and does not hinder further registration, unless it constitutes part of a pattern which the faculty interprets as warranting a warning or dismissal for unsatisfactory progress.
b. Incompletes are to be made up within one year. Those not removed in favor of a letter grade may be converted to PIN to indicate that the option to complete the course has expired.

8. Inter-University Cooperative Exchange Program
By a series of reciprocal institutional agreements, graduate students at Rutgers may take courses, when appropriate, at certain other universities.  Rutgers and Princeton Universities have been engaged in such a cooperative exchange program since 1964.  This consortium has been expanded to include also such universities as Columbia, and CUNY, and NYU.  No application to any of these host institutions is required and no funds are exchanged between the two institutions.  With permission of the student’s advisor, our department’s graduate director, and the instructor of the course at the host institution, a student may register and receive credit for such a course just as if it were part of the Rutgers graduate sociology department curriculum. 
The policies and procedures related to this program are the following:  (1) participants must be currently matriculating at Rutgers; (2) exchange is usually limited to one (and never more than two) graduate courses per semester per student;  (3) the course must be applicable to the student's degree program and must be unavailable at the home institution; (4) the student’s advisor and the graduate director must agree that taking any such course makes sense in terms of the student’s progress toward the degree.
To participate in this program, a variety of forms must be filled out and signatures must be obtained.  These may change from time to time so check with the department’s graduate administrative office to be sure you are touching all the right bases for the course you are interested in.

9. Summer Session Courses
Depending on availability of faculty sponsors, students can earn some of their necessary course credits or research credits during the summer.  Usually, these are either in the form of: (a) independent-study reading-courses taken for course credit; or (b) 700-level supervised research taken for research credits. It is the student's responsibility to find a faculty member willing to sponsor this sort of summer work.  The faculty sponsor’s name must be submitted at the time of registration. You can’t sign up for the credit first and find the faculty sponsor later.

VI. QUALIFYING PAPERS

An important and challenging part of the graduate program is the writing of qualifying papers.  Before advancing to the dissertation stage of the program, you must write three qualifying papers.  [Exceptions to this rule are noted below.]  Each qualifying paper must be original work written at Rutgers under the direct supervision of a reading committee composed of two faculty members.  No faculty member can be a reader on more than two of your three qualifying papers.  If you want exactly the same committee on any two of your qualifying papers, this must be approved in advance by the graduate director.
There are only two exceptions to the three-qualifying-paper rule:
(a). If you enter the program having already completed a sociology Masters Degree, and if you wrote a Masters essay as part of the requirements for that degree, you may select a reading committee and ask your committee to read your Masters essay as if it were a qualifying paper written at Rutgers.  The requirements for passing will be the same as for an ordinary qualifying paper written as part of the Rutgers Graduate Program.
(b). You may decide to take one qualifying exam in a sociological area of your choice in place of one of the qualifying papers.  You first select a committee of two faculty members just as with a qualifying paper.  You agree with your committee on a list of readings designed to show mastery of the agreed-upon sub-field.  When you feel you are ready to be examined on your understanding of this sub-field, your committee members will prepare for you a three-question exam.  This exam can be either a six hour in-class test or a 72-hour take-home test.  If you elect to take the exam in class, you may bring written notes with you and consult them during the six hour test period.
These exceptions are not either/or.  If you decide to use a Masters essay written in a previous program for one of your three qualifying papers, you may also elect to substitute a qualifying exam for one of the two remaining qualifying papers.
It’s impossible to say exactly when the qualifying paper stage of a graduate student’s career begins or when it ends.  In general it is intermediate in time between the course-taking stage and the dissertation writing stage.  But all students should be thinking seriously and specifically about qualifying papers (and reading committees) while still taking classes.  And it is not uncommon for a student actually to complete a qualifying paper before all course work is finished.  On the other side of the boundary, it is very common for a qualifying paper (especially the third qualifying paper) to serve as a first draft of a dissertation proposal or a rough draft of a chapter of what will eventually become the dissertation. 
Each qualifying paper must have its own unique focus although the areas of investigation chosen may, and often will, overlap. The papers are expected to demonstrate a careful and thorough consideration of a problem of sociological relevance. Students are encouraged to choose a well-focused, delimited, and manageable topic. The papers should be concisely written, no more than article length and of near-publishable quality.  Beyond this, it is impossible to generalize about the characteristics of an acceptable qualifying paper (even though this is probably the question that graduate students ask most often).  Before starting on each qualifying paper project, discuss expectation in detail with your committee.  It is your responsibility to make sure from the start that what they expect you to produce is the same as what you expect them to expect.
Before beginning a qualifying paper, but after selecting your reading committee, you must write a short (one to two page) proposal for the paper.  This should be submitted to your reading committee along with a form available from Dianne.  Only when both committee members sign this paper and you file it with Dianne, are you free to begin the project.  [Note that, if your project involves research with human subjects, you must also get prior IRB approval.  This process is discussed later in this handbook.]
You qualifying papers (or exam plus paper) taken as a whole must demonstrate readiness to move on to the dissertation stage.  Much of this readiness is intangible and can only be determined through discussions with you and your qualifying paper readers.  However, there are also three specific that need to be acquired before beginning the dissertation and these can be outlined here:
(a). empirical research skill: in which the student demonstrates an ability to analyze an empirical problem of sociological relevance. The student can collect her/his own data or use secondary analysis. "Analysis" is construed broadly to include a wide variety of methods including quantitative, qualitative, and historical/comparative.
(b) theoretical skill:  in which the student demonstrates the ability to draw connections between existing sociological theories and a specific sociological problem.  If existing theories are not adequate to the problem, the ability to design an appropriate theory or to modify an older theory can also satisfy this requirement.
(c) analytical review skill: in which the student critically reviews the literature on a topic of sociological relevance. The essays appearing in the Annual Review of Sociology are good models illustrating the effective use of this skill.  Analytic reviews should not simply summarize a body of literature but should provide a critical synthesis of a sociological issue.
Traditionally, many students have chosen to demonstrate these skills by focusing each of the three qualifying papers in turn on just one of the above skill areas.  But this is not a requirement.  Students may choose instead to utilize all or some of the skills listed above in each of their papers.  In some ways, this may provide a better form of preparation for the dissertation because, in the dissertation, these three skills are not separated out but must be blended together into a coherent whole.
Before beginning a qualifying paper, a student must submit to the graduate director in writing the proposed topic of his or her paper (see Dianne for the appropriate form). The one-page proposal should include a tentative title, the names of two faculty members (with their signatures indicating consent) who will serve as advisor and second reader, and a brief description of the paper's content.
Under normal circumstances, the faculty advisors and readers are expected to provide feedback to students on paper drafts within one month of receipt. In addition, they are encouraged to share these comments with each other.

VII. DISSERTATION PROPOSAL & DISSERTATON
After finishing all requirements for the Masters Degree, the department makes a decision as to whether the work of the student shows sufficient promise to allow advancement to the dissertation stage.  This is not automatic. The dissertation required for the Ph.D. degree must be an original and significant scholarly contribution to the sociological literature. A student will not be allowed to advance beyond the Masters level unless he or she is deemed able to accomplish this sort of original work.
Assuming advancement beyond the Masters level, the following is a list of the 11 steps required in the final stage of the graduate student career:
(1) Determining that all course work and all qualifying paper requirements have been met.  Determine also how many research credits (of the 21 required for the Ph.D.) the student still has to complete.  The student is responsible for registering for these research credits semester-by-semester so that the required number have been completed before the dissertation is defended.
(2) Selecting a dissertation committee. The dissertation committee consists of three members of the graduate sociology faculty.  The student selects one of these faculty members to be the chair of this committee. The chair of the committee will be the student’s dissertation advisor.  The dissertation advisor will be the main consultant for the student during all phases of the dissertation research and writing. The composition of the committee must be approved by the graduate director.  Substitutions in committee membership, once the committee has been formed, are the responsibility of the Graduate Director. Substitutions normally occur only if a member is unable to serve or if a student's dissertation topic changes.
(3) Selecting an outside member. There must also be a fourth “outside” member of the committee who is not a member of the Rutgers sociology department.  This “outside” member may be chosen either from another department at Rutgers or from outside the University.  This “outside” member can be selected at the same time the committee is formed or can be added much later in the process.  Some students choose to wait to choose the “outside” reader until a draft of the complete dissertation has been written although this is not always advisable. The outside member is expected to be a recognized authority on the subject of the thesis. The student should provide the Graduate Director with a statement giving the reasons for the "outside" member's selection. No outside member may serve as the student's chair.
(4) Writing the dissertation proposal. In consultation with the dissertation advisor, the student next writes a dissertation proposal. The dissertation proposal is typically developed gradually, as a result of the student's preliminary research and discussion with her/his committee members.
(5) Defense of the dissertation proposal.  Once it is written in a final form, the proposal must be defended in an oral examination before the student's dissertation committee. After its approval it is placed in the student's file in the office of the Graduate Director.  At this point, the student is informally designated as ABD (All But Dissertation).
(6) Research for the dissertation. The committee (especially the dissertation advisor) must be kept informed of the student's progress at frequent intervals and should monitor the candidate's work and assist in its development. In so far as possible, the committee should attempt to give the student ample and early warning of any reservations concerning the student's progress and, if necessary, should specify the changes required for dissertation acceptance.
(7) Writing the dissertation draft. A first draft of the dissertation should be submitted to the dissertation advisor and then, upon advisor’s consent, to the rest of the committee. 
(8) Revision of the dissertation draft.  In accordance with committee comments, the draft is then revised until it is deemed ready for defense.  This may take several rounds of revision.
(9) Defending the dissertation at a specific designated time and place.  Once the committee is satisfied that the dissertation is ready to be defended, the dissertation advisor will give the student permission to set a date for defense.  When the student, the dissertation committee chair, and the other committee members agree that the dissertation is complete and ready for public defense, the Graduate Director should be contacted. It is the responsibility of the student to schedule a mutually agreeable date and time for the defense.  The defense should be scheduled at least three weeks in advance. A public announcement must be made and the faculty and graduate student body invited to attend.  Except by special prior permission of the graduate director, the defense must take place in Room A-256 Lucy Stone Hall and the student and all members of the committee must be present.  Routinely, however, permission will be granted for the outside member to be absent if necessary provided that he or she sends the committee chair written comments. 
(10) Making final revisions.  If the dissertation passes the defense, it almost always happens that final revisions are required.  Typically, these are made in consultation with the dissertation advisor who is then given authority to sign-off on the completed manuscript.  Students should be advised that this stage of final revisions, after a successful defense, is not trivial or anticlimactic but is an important part of the dissertation process.  Making final revisions can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months.
(11) Formatting and printing the official version of the dissertation.  The final draft of the dissertation should be prepared in strict accordance with the instruction given in the pamphlet Style Guide for Thesis and Dissertation Preparation, available in the Sociology graduate office or the Graduate School.  With the completed dissertation, the candidate is required to submit an abstract not exceeding 350 words, embodying the principal findings of her/his research. As in the case of the dissertation, the abstract must be approved by the professor in charge of the work for the dissertation and accepted by the other members of the student's committee.

VIII. PERIODIC EVALUATIONS OF PROGRESS

There are four situations in which students’ work and progress through the program are evaluated by the faculty: (1) the annual review; (2) the Masters review; (3) the three year review; and (4) the ABD review.
(1) Annual Review: Beginning with the first year in the program, all graduate students are evaluated once every year by the entire sociology department faculty.  Evaluations of students in their first four years in the program are conducted in the spring of each year and evaluations of the more advanced students are conducted in the fall.  Students and their advisors are informed of the results of these individual student evaluations by letter from the graduate director.  These letters are vehicles both for encouraging acknowledgement of what the student is doing well and for constructive criticism (when needed) of those areas in which the faculty see the need for improvement.  Annual reviews are conducted every year for all students in the program including those in the advanced stages of dissertation work.
(2) Masters Review: At the time that the student completes all work for and applies for a Masters degree, the student’s committee will make one of three recommendations— (a) to deny the Masters degree; (b) to grant a terminal Masters degree signifying that the student may not continue in the program toward the Ph.D.; or (c) to grant the Masters degree as a stepping stone to the Ph.D.  In any given year, most students applying for the Masters fall into category (c).
(3) Three Year Review:  Starting with the cohort entering the program in fall of 2006, all students will be reviewed during the spring semester of their third year in the program to determine whether they are making sufficient progress to be allowed to continue in the program.  Since this is the newest addition to our student review policy, a bit of explanation may be needed for why this kind of review has been deemed necessary when a Masters review is already required.  The reason is that some students enter our program with a Masters degree already in hand and so never have a Masters level review of work done within the Rutgers program.  Other students, for various good or bad reasons, are not yet ready to apply for the Masters degree by the end of their third year in the program.  Because there is such great variation in the trajectories taken by students within the graduate program, it was decided that all students should be reviewed during the sixth semester, regardless of whether they are on a slow or a fast track toward completion.  During the three year review, the faculty will make one of three possible choices about each third-year student: (a) the student is making sufficient progress to continue; (b) the student is not making sufficient progress to continue and should therefore be dropped from the program; or (c) the student’s continuation in the program is conditional upon completing certain specific tasks within the next six months (approximately August of that year) and the student’s advisor and the graduate director are charged with supervising the student in the completion of those tasks.  The specific criteria defining “sufficient progress” will vary from one student to another and so cannot be enumerated here.  Students should do one or two “reality checks” with their advisors during the third year to make sure the outcome of the three year review does not come as an unpleasant surprise.
(4) ABD Review: At the time a student defends his or her dissertation proposal, the student’s dissertation committee will review the feasibility of the dissertation ideas and the research plan to determine whether the student is ready to make the transition into this last phase of the Ph.D. program.

IX. FORMS TO BE FILED
A candidate entering the final term of her/his M.A. or Ph.D. program, in anticipation that the faculty will recommend the conferral of the degree, should complete and file the following forms:
1. Application for Admission to Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts should be filed at least four weeks before the student expects to complete all requirements for the M.A. Degree as outlined above. The form may not be filed before the student has completed 30 hours of graduate credit as well as the first qualifying paper. The form is to be filled out by the student and signed by the instructors of Soc. 501, 515, and 516, the advisor of Paper I, and the Graduate Director.
2. Application for Candidacy for the Ph.D. - Part I is to be filled out by the student, signed by the advisor and second reader of Paper III (or the members of the qualifying exam committee), and the Graduate Director and returned by the student to the Graduate School office immediately after passing the qualifying examination or completing the third qualifying paper.
3. Dissertation Defense - Before defending the dissertation the student must pick up the form at the Graduate School. At that time, other forms will be given to the student, e.g., payment fee forms, microfilming/copyright agreement forms, questionnaires, etc. The student will then go to his/her defense. If the defense is successful, the student's committee will sign Section "B" of the candidacy form and the title page of the dissertation. Final approval must be given by the Graduate Director certifying all requirements have been met for the Ph.D. degree. This form, along with the other forms mentioned above, and two copies of the dissertation must be returned ALL AT THE SAME TIME to the Graduate School.
4. Diploma Application - A Diploma Application form must be filled out and returned to the graduate registrar, Administrative Services Building, Room 200A, Busch Campus by dates specified on the back of the form. The dates correspond to the dates on which the degrees are awarded.
All of the above material must be submitted to the Graduate School Office not later than three weeks before the date of commencement (or not later than the announced deadlines for October and January dated diplomas).
Before the Graduate Director will certify that all program requirements have been completed, one bound copy of the dissertation, including a copy of the signed and approved title page, must be presented to the Office of the Graduate Sociology Program (Graduate Secretary).
NOTE: Degrees are conferred and diplomas issued only at the annual commencement each spring; however, a student who completes the degree requirements in the summer or fall may, on request, be given a suitable certificate for use until the following commencement. Application for such a certificate should be sent to the University Registrar (Administrative Services Building) accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Diplomas and interim certificates will be withheld from all students whose financial and/or library accounts are not clear. It is the student's responsibility to make sure that all the requirements are met and that the proper forms are filled out correctly and filed by the appropriate deadlines for conferral of the degree. Information on deadlines and assistance in completing forms can be obtained from the office of the Graduate Director of the Graduate Sociology Program.

X. MISCELLANEOUS
1. The Masters Degree
As indicated in the previous section, it is important to understand that completion of the Masters Degree does not automatically qualify a student to advance to the Ph.D. level.  Rather it is an opportunity to stop and reflect and to decide whether such advancement is appropriate and likely to be successful.  Upon completion of the requirements for the Masters Degree, the Graduate Program Committee shall decide whether to grant a terminal Masters Degree or to allow the student to continue working toward the Ph.D.

2. Protection of Human Subjects in Research
According to action taken by the Board of Governors on December 6, 1966, all members of the University community who are conducting research with human beings as subjects must conform to certain procedures prescribed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These procedures include the review of the project by a University Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research. All members of the University who are conducting research with human subjects (including graduate students) must file a statement with the Board describing their work. Regulations require continuing review each year the project is active. Copies of the forms are available from, and should be returned to, the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Administrative Services Building III on the Cook Campus. Phone: 732-932-0150 (http://orsp.rutgers.edu/default.htm). A sample of the form is in the Graduate Secretary's office.
The University takes this requirement very seriously; to the point of not awarding Ph.D.s for completed dissertations that have not undergone IRB review. IRB review is also required for any original research involving human subjects conducted for courses or qualifying papers.

3. Readmission or Restoration of Active Status
Students who have interrupted their graduate registration without receiving a degree in the program for which they were enrolled must apply for readmission. Appropriate forms are available from the Office of the Graduate School, not the Graduate Admissions Office. A restorative fee of one credit of tuition at the current rate for each term lapsed (up to a limit of five terms) will be charged those who are ABD's. A request for a waiver of the restorative fee can be applied for when the applicant can justify a case of extreme hardship or severe temporary disability. Candidates for a master's degree or students who have completed a master's degree and have interrupted their graduate registration must file within two semesters following the last registration date. After this time interval, the prospective student must submit a new application for admission to the Office of Graduate Admissions. The letters of recommendation should originate from faculty members at Rutgers University with whom the student previously studied. In all other respects, including payment of the application fee and submission of official transcripts of all previous academic work, the application procedure is identical with that of the first application for admission.

4. Matriculation Continued
There may be circumstances that arise while a student is pursuing a degree that make it impossible for the student to be actively involved in either coursework or research for a given semester. Depending upon the particular situation and the status of the student, it may be advisable for the student to register for Matriculation Continued. This is a registration that carries zero credit and a nominal fee. It keeps the student "alive" in the program. Doctoral students who have not taken their qualifying exams and have completed their coursework may use this registration until such time that the qualifying exam has been completed and research may start. Doctoral students who have passed their qualifying examinations are not permitted to register for matriculation continued unless, due to personal circumstances, an exception is approved by the Graduate Dean’s Office.

5. Full-time and Part-time Programs
For most purposes, a full-time student is defined as one who is registered for 12 or more credits; one who registers for 11 or fewer credits is a part-time student. Graduate and teaching assistants, who hold these half-time (one-third line) academic appointments with the common understanding that they must maintain good standing in their own related programs toward advanced degrees, register their assistantships for 6 E credits (signifying a portion of their time and for which, of course, no tuition fee is to be paid), which (together with the required minimum program of 6 credits of course work or research) qualifies them as full-time students in The Graduate School--New Brunswick. All courses, including both courses of research and regular courses undertaken "not for credit," are counted in measuring the student's recordable program of work. These regulations govern tuition charges, student fees, statistical records, residence requirements, and other issues affected by definitions of full-time and part-time status.

APPENDIX A: DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
1. Requirements for the Ph.D.
The Ph.D. program is designed for full-time students. All students are strongly encouraged to enroll full time. The requirements for the Ph.D. degree are:
1. Minimum time: A student must devote a minimum of three years of full-time study beyond the bachelor's degree for the Ph.D., of which at least one year must be devoted to dissertation-related research. Full-time study for one year is represented by 18 credits of course work or research. If any of the work is conducted on a part-time basis, the minimum time required will naturally be longer.
2. The minimum requirement for the Ph.D. is 72 credits of which at least 48 must be course credits and 21 must be approved dissertation research.
3. The following required course must be completed and passed:
Soc. 501 - Sociological Research Methods I
Soc. 515 - Classical Sociological Theory
Soc. 516 - Contemporary Sociological Theory
Soc. 541 - Analysis of Sociological Data I
Soc. 542 - Analysis of Sociological Data II
Plus one additional methods/statistics course chosen from the following:
Soc. 502 - Sociological Research Methods II, or
Soc. 520 - Comparative Historical Methods, or
Soc. 615 - Seminar in Qualitative Research Methods, or
Soc. 633 - Seminar in Social Science Data Analysis
4. Of the 48 required course credits, at least 36 must be with grades of "A" or "B".
5. Completion of three qualifying papers of near-publishable quality (or two papers and an exam).  Taken as a whole, these qualifying papers must show evidence of empirical research skills, theoretical skill, and the ability to review analytically a body of sociological literature.
6.  Completion of a writing seminar (for which a student receives 3 research credits).
7. Successful defense of the dissertation proposal.
8. Completion and defense of the dissertation.

2. Requirements for the Masters Degree
1.  Two theory courses (Soc. 515 and Soc. 516);
2. Two methods/stats courses (Soc. 501; Soc. 541)
3. At least six additional courses (up to two may be independent studies)
4. The successful completion of one qualifying paper (see section on Qualifying Papers for details).
5. A comprehensive examination.   This is not an actual examination but a retrospective assessment of past performance in studying the foundations of sociology.  Candidates for the Masters degree satisfy the Comprehensive Examination requirement by completing courses in Classical Theory (515), Contemporary Theory (516), and Research Methods (501). The three faculty members of the student’s Comprehensive Examination Committee will be the faculty members who taught the student in the two theory courses and one methods course named above. The grade on the Comprehensive Examination will be a combination of the grades in these three courses. An overall grade of "B" is needed to pass.

APPENDIX B: MODEL FOUR YEAR COURSE SCHEDULE
C. TABLE 1. Suggested Sequence and Course Requirements

* Students who are not working as T.A.s may, if they choose, elect to take a fourth course. It is usually not recommended that students who are serving as teaching assistants take more than 3 courses per semester without first consulting with the graduate director.
January of Year 2: Proposal for qualifying paper #1
May of Year 2: Qualifying paper #1 Completed

APPENDIX C: TRANSFERING CREDITS FROM OTHER PROGRAMS
A. Transfer of Credits toward the Degree
1. M.A. candidates, upon completion of 12 graduate credits taken in the Rutgers program, may apply to transfer up to a maximum of 12 credits towards the credits required for the degree at Rutgers.
2. Ph.D. candidates may apply to transfer up to a maximum of 24 credits towards the degree required at Rutgers, upon completion of 12 graduate credits taken in the Rutgers graduate program. However, to transfer a theory, methods or statistics course, the student must demonstrate competence by passing the appropriate exemption examination or secure approval from the Graduate Director of relevant courses taken elsewhere.
On transfer of credits from other institutions, please refer to Section 4 below.
3. Regular numerical or letter grade courses only are approved for transfer, not courses graded "S" or "P". No grade below a "B" will be approved. Individually arranged reading courses are not acceptable for transfer.
4. The Graduate School will not approve any credits to be transferred for the degree at Rutgers after a maximum of 6 years from the time the course(s) were taken. An exception may be made upon receipt of a letter from the student attesting to the fact that the student has been using the knowledge gained from these superannuated credits towards the furtherance of her/his career.
5. Students wishing to transfer credits from other programs should discuss this request with the Graduate Director on entry into the program. However, formal application for transfer credits should be made after completion of 12 graduate credits. Students may obtain the application form from the Graduate Secretary's office (A260) and submit the completed application with an original transcript to the Graduate Director. After approval, the completed form and the original transcript are forwarded to the Graduate School for final approval. A copy of the approved application for transfer is sent to the Registrar (ASB, Busch Campus) and to the Graduate Director who then informs the student of acceptance.

APPENDIX D: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why can’t I take the writing seminar during my first two years in the program without special permission from the graduate director?

The writing seminar is designed to be an intensive workshop specifically for the purpose of helping students prepare potentially publishable papers for submission to journals.  Since most students in the first two years don’t yet have a paper suitable for the writing seminar, special permission is required to determine suitability.

Sometimes a student who has a TA-ship for the coming academic year suddenly becomes aware of a research opportunity that will be important for the student’s career but which conflicts with TA responsibilities.  Why are some students allowed to “bank” a part of their TA-support for use in future semesters while other students are not?

Commitments are often made to students promising TA support for several years in advance.  Since the total number of TA slots that the department has available is fixed by the University, we have to plan the flow of TAships for several years at a time to make sure we don’t inadvertently promise more than we are able to deliver.  Banking a TAship for use in the future greatly complicates this process.  Since we want to encourage students to take advantage of grant-funded research positions, we will allow banking whenever possible.  But each case has to be discussed in advance with the graduate director to make sure the balance between promises and availability is maintained.

I am not a numbers type and I am planning to do a qualitative dissertation.  If I’ve worked this out with my advisor and he/she is satisfied with my plan, why can’t I waive the statistics requirement?

The department is committed to the principle that all graduate students need to learn certain core areas of the discipline of sociology regardless of what they later decide to specialize in.  These core areas are theory, methods, and statistics.  Although you can control the substantive area in which you decide to work, you can’t control the work of others that you will have to read in order to do a thorough literature review in your chosen subject.  It’s very likely that some of this literature will use statistical methods which you will need to be able to follow with comprehension.

What is the difference between taking an independent study to do research and taking research credits?

Both are one-on-one arrangements between you and a professor who has agreed to supervise your work for one semester.  The difference is purely administrative and doesn’t affect the working relationship with your professor.  An independent study is considered to be a course and it gives you course credits.  Eventually you will need a certain number of course credits and a certain number of research credits to get your Ph.D.  Usually students are more in need of course credits early in their career and more in need of research credits later on.  Each case is different so discuss the matter with the graduate director if you are still uncertain.

When I try to find out about getting external funding for a research project I want to do, I keep on being told to talk to Teresa.  Who is Teresa and where can I find her?

Teresa Delcorso (732-932-2705; delcorso@rci.rutgers.edu) is the director of CHASER (Center for Humanities and Social Science Research.  Her office is located in the Graduate Dean’s Building, 25 Bishop Place, College Avenue Campus.  She can help you with grant application forms and deadlines and she also maintains a database of private and government agencies that fund sociological research, and so may be able to direct you to the best targets for your funding efforts.  Her office maintains a file of previous student grant proposals that have been successful that you can model your own efforts on if you wish.

If I need specialized computer software to do my research, under what circumstances will the department buy it for me?

There’s no general rule.  If funds are available (varies greatly month to month and year to year) AND if a case can be made that the software may in the future be useful by other students or faculty as well as yourself, the department will give serious consideration to your request.  Often, even if the department is not able to buy you the software you need, it may be in a position to get you a substantial educational discount.

Which sorts of questions should I be taking up with the department’s administrative staff and which with the graduate director or department chair?

Faculty sets policy; staff implements policy decisions made by faculty.  If you already know the department policy (on, say, teaching summer courses or making up an incomplete—just to take two of many possible examples) but you’re not sure about the mechanics of actually getting it done, then you should talk to a member of the administrative staff.  If you want an exception made to a departmental policy or you want to suggest a change in policy, you should talk to the graduate director or department chair.  If you’re not sure what a specific policy is, talk first to a staff member.  If it’s a matter of interpretation, they will refer you to the appropriate faculty member or dean.

IF YOU BELIEVE THERE ARE OTHER QUESTIONS THAT SHOULD BE ADDED TO THIS LIST IN THE FUTURE, DROP A NOTE TO THE GRADUATE DIRECTOR STATING YOUR SUGGESTION.  THIS IS A LIST IN PROGRESS.