University of Minnesota
Department of Sociology
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612-624-4300


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Home > Graduate Program : Applying

Applying

Application Procedure

The sociology department has access to - and uses for its review purposes - the application materials that applicants submit to The Graduate School. Therefore, there is no seperate departmental application, and there is usually no need to send any duplicate application materials to the department. To be considered for admission to the graduate program of the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota prospective students must submit the following REQUIRED materials to The Graduate School.

1. A completed online ApplyYourself application.
2. A personal statement.
3. A sample of written work, single authored by the applicant.
4. Three letters of recommendation.
5. Transcripts from each post-secondary school attended.
6. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores.
7. Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores, if a non-native English speaker.

All supplemental materials of the application (i.e., items 2 through 7) can and should be uploaded to the online application itself (see below for more details). However, The Graduate School requires all applicants to also submit hard copies of their transcript(s) to its admissions office.

General Time Line for Making Application

It is generally advised that applicants begin the application process about one year before they plan to start graduate school; however, if one works quickly and has much of the supplemental material on hand, one can complete the application in mere days. To be considered for admission, fellowships, and/or initial assistantship allocation, the departmental deadline for the receipt of completed applications is December 1. Note, although applicants are promted within the ApplyYourself application form to choose from among various program start dates (e.g., Spring 2010), the department of sociology offers only a fall startl. Therefore, if any option other than a fall start date is selected, there is a chance that an application will not be received and that it will not be reviewed. Please refer to the following timetable to help with the correct and timely submission of applications.

Summer

Write a draft of the Statement of Purpose paper (aka Personal Statement). This is a very important component of the application and is often the deciding factor when the admissions committee makes its admissions decisions. The statement should be approximately two-pages in length and should explain the core areas of interest in which the applicant would like to eventually teach or do research. The statement should explain how interest in a research institution such as the University of Minnesota has been developed and how the applicant's experiences have prepared him or her to engage with the socio-cultural world. The statement will be evaluated for its written quality as well as for its clarity of professional goals.

Take standardized tests as required (e.g., GRE, TOEFL, MELAB, etc.). Official general test scores of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) must be submitted to The Graduate School by all incoming students—there are no exceptions made for non-international students. GRE scores should be sent to the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities using the school code 6874. Students who are non-native English speakers must also submit official scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language* (TOEFL) examination. In order for non-native English speaking applicants to be considered for admission, paper-based TOEFL examination scores must be 550 or above and Internet-based TOEFL examination scores must be 79 or above (with a minimum score of 21 for the Writing section and a minimum score of 19 for the Reading section). MELAB scores must be above 80 in order for non-native English speaking applicants to be considered for admission. The most current information about the GRE and the TOEFL examinations is available at the website address http://www.ets.org.

* In lieu of TOEFL scores The Graduate School will accept scores from the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB), and the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP). The minimum score for admission eligibility on the IELTS is 6.5, on the MELAB scores must be above 80, and students enrolled in the MELP must acheive a passing grade.

September

Meet with potential recommenders to discuss the Statement of Purpose paper and to ask for letters of recommendation to be written. Applicants are encouraged to provide recommendations from people who can confirm the applicant's academic abilities. It is often helpful to give the recommender a copy of the Statement of Purpose paper. The U. of M. sociology department neither stipulates certain requirements that must be included in the recommendation letter nor requires standardized assessment forms to be completed by your recommenders. Recommendation letters may be submitted electronically via the Grad School's online application system, ApplyYourself. Applicants will be informed by the ApplyYourself system of what to do to ensure that recommenders know how to submit their letters electronically. If a recommender chooses not to use the online application system to electronically submit his/her letter, the applicant might think to ask the recommender if he/she would appreciate the applicant providing him/her with a pre-stamped envelope. Please address all envelopes to the Graduate Program Associate, University of Minnesota, Department of Sociology, 909 Social Sciences Building, 267 – 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Recommenders should be asked to mail recommendation letters by November 15th to ensure the letters get to the department prior to its December 1 application deadline. Recommenders can direct the salutations of their letters to "The Graduate Committee."

October

Order official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions that have been attended and have them sent to the University of Minnesota Graduate School, Office of Admissions, 101 Pleasant Street SE, 309 Johnston Hall, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0421. "Official" transcripts are transcripts that are sent from one educational institution to another or transcripts that pass through the student's hands in a sealed, tamper-proof envelope.

Due to recent fraud by a significant number of Chinese applicants, in order to maintain the integrity of The Graduate School's admissions procedures, the University now requires students from China to have their schools send their transcripts directly to The University of Minnesota. Chinese transcripts that have first been sent to the student and then forwarded to the U. of M. will not be considered official.

Although unofficial transcripts can be submitted for application review purposes, an admitted student will not be able to matriculate if The Graduate School does not receive and verify his or her official transcripts.

November

Complete and submit an online ApplyYourself application. In so doing, applicants will have the opportunity to upload* to the system the Statement of Purpose paper (Statement #1), the Diversity Statement (Statement #2), the Writing Sample, and copies of GRE scores, TOEFL scores, and transcript(s).

For Statement #1, please ignore the requested content which the online application asks for, and instead refer to the content instructions mentioned above.

Statements #2 and #3 are not required statements, but can be submitted if the applicant so wishes; for these two statements, applicants should refer to the content instructions requested by the application system. American citizens wishing to be considered for the DOVE Fellowship should submit Statement #2 and clearly identify the underrepresented group with which they identify.

The Writing Sample should be a sole-authored academic paper written in thesis defense form and submitted in English. An empirically based (i.e, research-oriented) paper is preferred, and the content should pertain to the social sciences. Faculty evaluators will consider the level of abstraction, creativity, organization, sociological sophistication, and writing ability. Papers should be no longer than 30 pages (of substantive content) and should be uploaded as directed within the online application section entitled, "Graduate Program Supplementary Information."

Official GRE and (if applicable) TOEFL scores must be sent by ETS to The Graduate School (the school code is 6874). The department does not want to receive duplicate hard copies of GRE and TOEFL score reports. Rather, the department asks that applicants upload copies of their (unofficial) score reports using the "upload document" button placed next to "Other Credentials" within the online application section entitled, "Graduate Program Supplementary Information." International students should make and upload one electronic file that contains both of their GRE and TOEFL score reports. Click here for recommendations on creating electronic documents that you can upload.

The department of sociology does not require applicants to submit to its offices duplicate hard copies of transcripts also being sent to The Graduate School because the Graduate School sends the department electronic files of the transcripts it receives. However, due to the vast numbers of transcripts requiring processing by The Graduate School, there is often a long delay between applicant transcripts arriving at The Graduate School and the department finally receiving a copy of them. Therefore, to ensure the department receives a copy of transcripts, applicants are strongly encouraged to upload to their online application (unofficial) electronic copies of their transcripts. Electronic copies of undergraduate transcripts (or grade reports printed from a college/university's intranet) should be submitted using the "upload document" button placed next to "Upload 1" within the section entitled, "Graduate Program Supplementary Information." Electronic copies of graduate transcripts should be submitted using the "upload document" button placed next to "Upload 2 " in the same section.

As mentioned above, there is no additional graduate program application required by the department of sociology, neither is a Description of Research or Work Experience paper required nor a resume' or CV. Applicants to the PhD in sociology program are are not expected to upload documents to these areas of the "Graduate Program Suppplementary Information" section of the online application.

Finally, ensure that all application materials have been submitted prior to the December 1 admissions deadline. It is best to submit applications early so that prior to the application deadline there is time to correct any errors discovered by the applicant, The Graduate School, or the department.

* Uploaded files cannot exceed 500 KB in size and should be in .doc, .wpd, .rtf, .xls, .pdf, .docx, .xlsx or .txt format. For Macintosh users, please note that the filename must include the appropriate 3- or 4-letter extension. Also, please do not attempt to upload a document that is password-protected or that contains macros. This will cause the process to fail.

Late November

It is an applicant's responsibility to ensure that his or her application is complete and correctly submitted with all required supplemental documents. If there is reason to be concerned, applicants are encouraged to contact the Graduate School and/or the department of sociology to make inquiry of the status of their application. If required application items are missing (faculty are notoriously late in submitting letters of recommendation), it is the applicants' responsibility to correct the problems prior to the application deadline. Applications that are incomplete after the application deadline has passed are in jeopardy of not being considered for review. The Department of Sociology does not send out warnings if applications are incomplete nor will it send verification when applications are complete.

February

Applicants can expect to receive from The Graduate School an email with a link to an electronic letter which will detail whether the department has accepted or declined their request for admission. Rejections are firm and applications will not be reconsidered for any reason apart from action required by law and as a result of a formal complaint being registered with The Graduate School. Applicants being offered admission will be invited to visit the department during a one- to two-day campus visit event. Typically, the department helps to offset travel and accommodation expenses related to this event. The Graduate Program Associate, who will coordinate the formal campus visit, will contact admitted students directly and provide them with the necessary information.

Graduate School Application Pointers

 

Be sure to carefully follow all the instructions provided within the ApplyYourself application unless they are contrary to any special instructions mentioned by the department. What follows are a few other points to remember when working on the application.

  1. Occasionally The Graduate School will allow international students who do not have access to the Internet to submit a paper application form. To request a paper application form, please contact the Sociology Graduate Program Office at 612.624.2093 or robfox@umn.edu.
  2. An application fee of $75 for U.S. citizens and permanent residents or $95 for international applicants is required. This fee may not be waived or deferred, even temporarily, for any applicant. The Graduate School will not process an application unless it is accompanied by the application fee. For online applicants, the application fee will be required via a credit card payment prior to the applicants being able to submit their applications. Students who have been allowed by The Graduate School to submit paper application forms are required to pay the application fee with a bank draft drawn on a U.S. financial institution and made payable (in U.S. dollars) to the University of Minnesota, or they have the option of providing credit card information on a form that will be attached to The Graduate School application.
  3. Although applicants can submit unofficial copies of transcripts for application review purposes, The Graduate School requires official transcripts be submitted prior to students becoming eligible to matriculate. Chinese students should note that in order for their transcripts to be considered official, their institutions must send transcripts directly to The Graduate School; the transcripts cannot be forwarded to The Graduate School by the student. The mailing address to which transcripts should be sent is, Graduate School Admissions, University of Minnesota, 101 Pleasant Street S.E, 309 Johnston Hall, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0421.
  4. International applicants whose native language is not English must submit an official report of the TOEFL or MELAB scores. The scores should be sent directly to The Graduate School by the organization that administers the test. Please click here to review The Graduate School's English language assessment tests policy.
  5. GRE scores are an important element of the application. The Graduate School does not require GRE transcripts to be submitted prior to it considering your application complete; however, the department does. Therefore, applicants who do not have GRE scores submitted to The Graduate School by the application deadline risk having their applications overlooked. The school code that can be used to have the testing service send your scores directly to the U. of M. Graduate School is 6874. In the event that taking the GRE imposes unusual difficulty (e.g., in countries where the test is not regularly administered), an applicant may petition the department for a waiver of this requirement (there is no specific form; just a letter is required). The petition must arrive at the department on or before December 1 and may be uploaded in the "Extenuating Circumstances" sub-section of the ApplyYourself online application form (found in the "Applicant Statements" section). It is strongly recommended that students submit their petitions by November 15. Successful petitions often include evidence of the applicant's verbal and quantitative abilities, (i.e., successful petitions often include additional writing samples which prove competency across the three areas tested by the GRE).
  6. Applicants are encouraged to have their recommenders submit their recommendation letters electronically through the ApplyYourself system. If online letter submission can/will not be submitted by a recommender, he or she must mail (by December 1) his or her letter directly to the department in care of the Graduate Program Associate, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, 909 Social Sciences Building, 267 - 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0412.
  7. Although applicants need not upload diversity statements in order to complete the application, if they wish to be eligible for the DOVE Fellowship, they are required to submit the statement. The diversity statement can be uploaded in the "Applicant Statements" section of the ApplyYourself online application.
  8. The writing sample that is required to complete an application should be, at a minimum, 15-pages in length, and at maximum, 30-pages in length (of substantive content). Papers should be double-spaced and in 12-point font. Any writing samples shorter or longer than the recommended page lengths are in jeopardy of being unfavorably received and may not be read. Papers must be in English, and should be empirically based, related to the Social Sciences and written in thesis defense format. The writing sample can be uploaded in the "Graduate Program Supplementary Information" section of the ApplyYourself online application.
  9. Although made possible by the ApplyYourself application, it is not recommended that applicants submit information using the "upload document" buttons next to the areas labeled "Graduate Program Additional Application," "Description of Research or Work Experience," "Resume or CV," "Honors and Awards,"and "Extenuating Circumstances."

The Review Process

The Graduate Admissions Committee generally consists of five faculty members—who evaluate applicants—and two graduate student representatives who participate in policy decisions when necessary. After December 1, and if an application file is complete (i.e., all application materials have been received by the department), it is reviewed by at least two faculty members. After all completed applications have been reviewed, the committee then ranks all of the applicants based upon the assessments of each applicant's application. If there appears to be a large discrepancy between two faculty members' evaluations of a particular applicant, a third faculty reviewer assesses the file and a final placement in the ranking is determined. In February, after the department chair has reviewed and approved the recommendation of the admissions committee, the department generally begins to extend offers of admission to the top-ranked applicants. By April 15th, the department requires from the students being offered admission a notification of acceptance or decline of the offer. If space and funding become available, additional offers are sometimes extended through May 1 to a small number of applicants that comprise a wait list. Applicants who have been placed on the wait list will be informed of their status at the same time that the acceptance and rejection letters are sent out by The Graduate School.

University of Minnesota Graduate School Online Application

Department Admissions Standards and Statistics

The department makes special efforts to limit the size of its incoming graduate cohorts and thus a selection process is undertaken during the first couple of months after the application deadline. This selection process is carried out in order to limit the incoming cohort such that reasonable advising relations may be maintained, graduate seminars can be kept small, and adequate financial support can be provided to all students.

No one aspect of the application material is valued more than another; the Admissions Committee seeks to gain a holistic understanding of the applicant and therefore equally considers all pieces of the application. The department evaluates prior academic performance as indicated by undergraduate GPA and the results on the general test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). The Graduate School requires for admission a cumulative GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale). However, based on average scores received by applicants admitted in recent years, the department generally chooses students with an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.5 and with consistent and strong verbal, quantitative, and analytical GRE scores. Faculty members of the Admissions Committee also evaluate letters of recommendation, written works, and applicants' statements of professional objectives. Written work is assessed according to the applicant's ability to conceptualize and articulate questions of interest to social scientists, and will consider the level of abstraction, creativity, organization, sociological sophistication, and writing ability. Additional considerations of the committee include the interest areas and strengths of our faculty compared to those of the applicant, and the quality and strengths of the applicant's undergraduate and/or graduate program(s). The following table summarizes GRE and GPA averages for selected incoming cohorts.

GRE/GPA Information
  GRE GPA
Cohort Year Verbal Quantitative Analytical Undergraduate
1980
(20%)*
[26%]*		 551 542 545 3.26
1990
(36%)
[0%]		 555 641 N/A 3.49
1995
(11%)
[20%]		 609 650 702 3.41
2000
(11%)
[11%]		 509 617 588 3.69
2005
(12.5%)
[25%]		 574 710 5.1 (new scoring rubric) 3.61

*Numbers in parentheses ( ) indicate percentage of students recruited from non-English speaking countries; those in brackets [ ] indicate percentage of students with USA under-represented status.


Admission to the sociology Ph.D.program has remained competitive in the recent past. Roughly, 20% to 25% of those who complete applications are offered admission to the program each year.

Admissions Information
Year 1990 1995 2000 2005
Completed Applications 124 112 83 103
Offered Admission 41 25 33 24
Entering in Fall 14 9 9 8

 

Non-Degree Seeking Students

It is possible to take courses on a post-baccalaureate degree basis as a non-degree seeking student. This route, of course, holds no guarantee for future admission into the Ph.D. program. However, it is an appropriate means to receive graduate credit for professional advancement as well as a way to "feel out" the program to determine if it is a correct fit for you. The signature of the Director of Graduate Studies (or the Graduate Program Associate) and permission of the course instructor are required to register for graduate credit when not admitted to a Graduate School program. Click on the links below for more information and contact the Graduate Program Associate with any unanswered questions.

 

Information for International Prospective Students

It is very important to carefully read through the Application Information and Admission Procedures.

The general test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is required of all applicants to the Sociology Graduate Program. In the event that taking this standardized test imposes unusual difficulty, an international applicant may petition for waiver of this requirement. Such a petition should be sent with all other department admission materials before December 1.

The submission of English language assesment scores is required of all non-native English speaking student applicants. In lieu of the common Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores, The Graduate School will accept submission of scores from the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB), or the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP). The minimum score for admission eligibility on the paper-based TOEFL must be 550 or above and the minimum score on the Internet-based TOEFL must be 79 or above (with a minimum score of 21 for the Writing section and a minimum score of 19 for the Reading section). Minimum scores for admission eligibilty on the IELTS is 6.5, on the MELAB scores must be above 80, and students enrolled in the MELP must acheive a passing grade.

Additional Resources