Handbook and Other Documents

The Emory Sociology Graduate Handbook is the "user's manual" regarding all sorts of information: the timeline for the program of study, required courses, the logistics of the prelim, all the necessary forms, etc.

The Sociology Graduate Handbook is revised occasionally to reflect changes in our program requirements. There are three Handbooks relevant to current students in the Program. 

• The first is for students entering the program Fall 2016 or earlier (Emory Sociology Graduate Handbook 2015-16). 
• The next is for students entering the program Fall 2017 to Fall 2019 (Emory Sociology Graduate Handbook 2017-18). 
• The third is for students entering the program Fall 2020 or later (Emory Sociology Graduate Handbook 2024-25). 

Students are subject to the requirements in the Handbook in effect at the time they entered the program, but they may adopt requirements of a more recent Handbook if they so choose. 

The preliminary examinations are a part of our graduate program. They serve to validate early on that a given graduate student has mastered sufficient material to proceed to the next stages of the program. 

The prelims are not the end goal of our program but, instead, they are the starting point, so to speak. In fact, the prelims offer but one of several ways that we equip students to conduct their own research and to teach their own classes. Rather than the prelims, it is research and teaching that ultimately matter for student success in terms of the doctoral program and subsequent careers. 

Our prelims center on four topics, with the following reading lists.

• Culture Reading List 
• Health Reading List
• Inequality Reading List
• Social Psychology Reading List

Graduate students are required to focus on any combination of two of these topics. By doing so, our graduate students are equipped to work at the overlap of two of the discipline's major topics. 

Navigating and understanding the doctoral program is made easier when one knows about the track record of that program, such as the average time to completion.

To that end, this Laney Graduate School Dashboard should prove useful. It provides data on applications and admissions in Emory Sociology, as well as the diversity of our cohorts and time to completion.

For information regarding where our PhDs go after graduation, the alumni page should also prove useful.