Loyola University Chicago

Department of Sociology

BA/MA Program

See here for Application Requirements

See here for Degree Requirements

The Sociology Department offers a 5 year BA/MA degree, allowing you to begin graduate school in your senior year, and to finish the MA degree at the end of your 5th year.  This is a wonderful opportunity to gain an advanced degree without the time and expense of the longer 2 year MA degree offered by most programs. This is approximately one year less than normally required to earn both degrees. Graduates of this program will be well prepared to enter the labor force, a professional school or pursue a PhD.

BA/MA Information Session Recording

Our Program

Our program has particular strengths in the medical sociology, urban sociology, sociology of religion, and inequality and social justice.

Upon completing the degree students will be able to:

  • formulate independent research and/or internship projects that rely on sociological concepts and methods; 
  • gather, interpret and analyze varied forms of qualitative and quantitative evidence;
  • critically evaluate the quality of social science research;
  • acquire deep, career-relevant knowledge about specific social issues.

Our graduates and currently enrolled students can provide you with more knowledge about the value of the degree.  We have graduates in Ph.D. programs, schools of social work, marketing firms, non-profit and community organizations, and more!‌

Application Requirements

To apply to the BA/MA program, a student:

  • must be a declared undergraduate Sociology or combined Sociology-Anthropology major;
  • must be a Junior based on credit hours earned;
  • must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.3 for all course work at Loyola;
  • must have earned a 3.5 GPA in at least five sociology courses at Loyola (three of which must be at the 200 level or above);
  • must complete all of the undergraduate requirements (120 credit hours including core and major requirements;
  • should apply for admissions to this program between January 15 and March 15 of her/his junior year;
  • must submit a writing sample and three letters of reference from professors. At least one of the letters must come from a full-time faculty member of the Sociology Program
  • are encouraged to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), but are not required to submit scores.

Once admitted to the program, students may apply up to twelve credit hours taken in their senior year toward the thirty graduate hours required by the department for the MA degree. These twelve credit hours must include a minimum of two and up to four pre-approved courses at the 400 level or above. Students must achieve at least a 3.0 GPA in all their graduate course work and complete the required course sequence for one of the tracks in the MA program, either the regular MA track or the applied MA track. The tracks are summarized below.

Students interested in the five-year BA/MA program are invited to meet with the Graduate or Undergraduate Program Director for more information.

Degree Requirements

Bachelor of Arts Degree (Years 1-4)

  • Complete the sociology major, taking all required courses in the BA sequence (Socl 205, 206, 301 and 365) and seven electives (Of the electives, only up to two courses may be at the 100 level.)

  • Take from two to four graduate courses during the senior year. Consequently, from 6 to 12 credit hours are counted toward both the undergraduate and the master's degree.  
  • Students who earn a grade of B or better in both courses will qualify for distinction in the undergraduate major, even though the courses also count toward the MA degree.
  • If the student intends to do the applied MA track, she/he is advised not to take the undergraduate internship (SOCL 380) but to take the graduate internship instead (SOCL 494).
  • The BA/MA program requires 2 to 4 more sociology courses than the eleven normally required for a BA sociology major. Consequently, BA/MA students will have 2 to 4 fewer nonsociology electives than ordinary BA students.

Master of Arts Degree (Year 5)

During the fifth year, students will take 6-8 graduate-level sociology courses (both elective and required) x 3 hours = 18-24 hours of 30 hours required for the MA degree.

General TrackApplied and Public Sociology Track
1) Socl 405 (History of Sociological Thought) 1) Socl 405 ((History of Sociological Thought)
2) Socl 406 (Modern Sociological Theory) 2) Socl 410 (Logic of Sociological Inquiry)
3) Socl 410 (Logic of Sociological Inquiry) 3) Socl 412 (Qualitative Methods)
4) Socl 412 (Qualitative Methods) 4) Socl 414 (Quantitative Methods I)
5) Socl 414 (Quantitative Methods I) 5) Socl 494 (Internship)
6) Elective 6) Elective
7) Elective 7) Elective
8) Elective 8) Elective
9) Elective 9) Elective
10) Elective 10) Elective

+ Either thesis or portfolio

Only one independent research/directed study course counted toward MA.