Admission to the doctoral program in Medical Sociology requires the approval of the Graduate School and the doctoral program committee of the Department of Sociology, which is responsible for recruiting the most qualified graduate students and for balancing the interests of the Medical Sociology program with the available financial resources. The committee reviews and makes recommendations for admission. Students entering the program with a master's degree are granted waivers for a maximum of 16 semester hours of substantive graduate work, upon approval of the Graduate Program Director and the professors in charge of the respective coursework in question.  Students transferring from another graduate program without having received a graduate degree may be granted waivers for a maximum of 12 semester hours of substantive graduate work, upon approval of the Graduate Program Director and the professors in charge of the respective coursework in question.

Minimum admission requirements are as follows:

• A bachelor's or master's degree from an accredited institution in Sociology or a related field with a minimum of 18 hours of social science coursework, preferably including social theory, statistics, and research methodology
• An overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.0, based on a 4.0 system, or a 3.2 GPA for the last 60 semester hours in a BA/BS program
• A 3.0 GPA in all previous graduate coursework
• A GRE (Graduate Record Examination) score of at least 1150 for the verbal and quantitative parts of the test combined
• For international students, a minimum TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score of 550 and an acceptable score on the Test of Written English (TWE).

Exceptional students who fail to meet any of the above requirements will be evaluated on a case‑by‑case basis. Furthermore, the following criteria are also considered in the admissions process: 

• Evidence of scholarship
• Statement of career goals, with emphasis on research and scholarship
• Letters of Recommendation
• Professional experience.

Applications for fall admission are due by March 1; applications for spring admission are due by November 1; and applications for summer admission are due by April 1.  The application for the PhD program can be completed on-line at the following link:

Graduate Application and Admissions