Master's Minor Requirements

Students need not formally apply to enroll in the minor; any student currently in good standing in the Graduate School may elect to complete the minor by fulfilling the requirements and filing a program completion form with the Director of Graduate Studies of Population Studies.

All students must take one of two core required courses.   PA 5301, Population Methods and Issues in the U.S. and the Third World teaches basic demographic methods, covers population trends and policy issues in the United States and the world, and explores a wide range of topics studied by demographers, via case studies. SOC 5090, World Population Issues teaches population trends, population dynamics, and the various factors that influence the volume and distribution of populations across the globe; exposes students to key theories and central methodologies in social demography; and examines key policy questions in the management and engineering of population dynamics across the globe.

In addition to the core course, master’s students will take at least three credits from the list of approved courses. All courses should be from the same subject area and may not be in the student’s major field. A total of six credits is required for the minor at the master’s level. Students must register for all courses A/F; courses taken on a pass/fail basis may not count toward the minor (with the exception of PubH 5628, which is currently offered only S-N).

Once a student has completed the requirements for the minor, he or she will file a program completion form with the Director of Graduate Studies. The DGS will approve the form and notify the Sociology Department for formal certification.

Grandfathering courses: Students who completed any of the courses included in the minor program’s approved curriculum in academic years 2001-02 or 2002-03 may count those courses toward completion of the minor program. Students who completed any of the courses included in the minor program’s approved curriculum prior to Fall 2001 may petition to have the course included in their minor program.

Students may also petition for a particular topics course to be included in their program of study. The Curriculum Oversight Committee will review these petitions to determine whether a particular topics course is appropriate for the minor program curriculum. For example, SOC 8590, offered Fall 2006 as “European Family Policy,” might be an appropriate course for inclusion in the graduate minor program, as part of the Family and Life Course Demography area.

Note for students who have already filed degree programs with the Graduate School: If you have already filed your official degree program identifying a related field and now wish to include the Population Studies minor, OR if you have already filed a program with one minor and now wish to switch to Population Studies, you must petition the Graduate School to change your program. Please consult the Graduate School’s Student Services and Progress Office for more information.

In accordance with Graduate School rules, students may not apply courses in their major field of study to the minor program in Population Studies. In the case of the core course, PA 5301, students in degree programs at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs are eligible for an exemption from this rule. This exemption applies to PA 5301 only. Those Humphrey Institute students who apply PA 5301 to their minor program are prohibited from counting this course toward their concentration within their Master’s degree program.