Admissions

Application Deadline: January 17, 2012 for September 2012 entrance.

Late applications will be accepted for September 2012 entrance from Canadian citizens and permanent residents but with secondary consideration for both admission and funding. It is to your advantage to submit all supporting materials as soon as possible.

 September 2013 entrance Application Deadline:   January 15, 2013

The on-line application system will open in November 2012.    In September/October, applicants are encouraged to apply for an Ontario Graduate Scholarship or CIHR or SSHRC Fellowship.  

General Information

Thank you for your interest in graduate study in Sociology at McMaster University. Those of us who teach in this department believe that we offer a graduate programme that emphasizes the importance of good scholarship and is attuned to current developments in the field of Sociology both in Canada and throughout the world.

The objectives of the programme are to help candidates to acquire the skills that will enable them to take-up academic, managerial, instructional, planning, organizational, service and research positions in the public and private sectors in both Canada and abroad. At the Master’s level the Department gives students the opportunity to complete their degrees by either coursework, major research paper or thesis. All options are rigorous in their own right, and reflect a desire on our part to attend to the different needs that students may bring to the post-graduate experience. Students choosing the Master’s Thesis option and those completing Ph.D. Dissertations are expected to make original contributions to knowledge in the discipline of sociology.

Graduate students in the M.A. and the Ph.D. programmes in Sociology at McMaster are exposed to a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and gain expertise in various research methods. Students also develop a number of inter-related skills as they complete their programmes. These skills include critical reasoning, problem solving and an ability to write in a professional manner. With this combination of knowledge and skills, we believe that our students are prepared to make meaningful contributions in a variety of fields in both private and public sector organizations; for example, in health care, corrections, social services, immigration, employment and manpower, education, and management.

In designing our programme, we also have tried to place particular emphasis on the development of close working relationships between faculty and students. Graduate work here is not an impersonal process: Faculty members work closely with graduate students, helping them to plan their course work, and assisting them at all stages of their thesis research. As part of this process we have a system of thesis supervision in which each graduate student meets frequently with all members of her or his supervisory committee to discuss how the work should best proceed.

We also try to provide our students with financial support throughout their graduate studies so that they can complete their degree requirements in the time allotted. More information about financial support is provided below.

We are pleased with the success that our graduates have achieved, and we believe that much of their success is due to the knowledge, skills, and professional identity that our programme is designed to foster.

 Department Specialties

Admission Requirements

Application Procedure

Financial Support, Tuition and Fees