Our admissions committee selectively admits about 10 new graduate students each year. A minimum GPA of 3.0 during the last two years of undergraduate study is required, and a background in sociology and doing well in an undergraduate statistics course is desirable. There is no GRE requirement. Our committee evaluates each applicant’s entire file holistically in making admission decisions. Strong letters of recommendation, a clear and focused personal statement, your research interests fit with faculty expertise, and an exemplary academic writing sample are at least as important as other factors. If you have faced difficulties that have negatively affected your record or you have additional strengths that you believe will ensure success in our graduate program, discuss them in your personal statement and the committee will take them into consideration.
Deadline
Applications for our Graduate Program must be completed by January 15, 2025.
Applicants from historically underrepresented groups (US citizens and permanent residents only) are encouraged to submit their applications before January 1, 2025 because they may be nominated for university fellowships.
Completing your Application
You will apply through the Graduate School’s Application Portal, which will ask you to provide the following information and documents:
- Personal Statement: Upload a 2-3 page statement that highlights your relevant training and experiences, your sociological interests and career goals, and why our department is the right place for you to continue your education.
- Academic Writing Sample: Upload a copy of a sole-authored paper, such as an undergraduate course paper, an honor’s thesis, Master’s thesis, or publication. The paper should showcase your writing abilities, demonstrate critical thinking skills, and reveal your potential to succeed in our graduate program.
- Transcripts: Upload copies of academic transcripts from undergraduate institutions and graduate institutions (if attended). Unofficial copies are acceptable for this portal submission although the copies that you submit to the FSU’s Office of Admission will need to be official transcripts (see more information below).
- Recommendation Letters. Provide the contact information of three academics who have agreed to write letters of recommendation. The submission portal will email them instructions about how to upload their letters. These instructions will not be sent until you initiate your application on the portal. Please initiate your application early so that your letter writers will have enough time to submit their letters before the deadline. If you have been out of college for an extended period of time and cannot secure three academics, contact us for further guidance.
- Additional Requirements for International Students:
- To learn about additional university-level requirements for international students, please carefully review this Graduate School web page. Below we summarize two major additional requirements for international students.
- English Proficiency Score. Official English Language Proficiency results are required of all international applicants whose native language is not English. Upload a copy of your exam score. Any of these exam scores are accepted:
- nternet based TOEFL (IBTOEFL): 80
- Paper based TOEFL (TOEFL): 550
- International English Language Testing System (Academic IELTS): 6.5
- Pearson Test of English (PTE): 55
- Duolingo: 120 (Summer 2022 and Forward)
- Cambridge C1 Advanced Level: 180 (Fall 2022 and Forward)
- Michigan Language Assessment: 55 (Fall 2022 and Forward)
Note: - The English Language Proficiency requirement can be waived for applicants who have earned a minimum of a BA or higher in the US or in an English-speaking country. Please see this document to learn which countries and territories are exempt from the ELP Requirement.
- Transcript Certification. After receiving a positive admission decision from our department, international applicants and those who earned degrees from international institutions will be asked to submit their official transcripts through the SpanTran portal, or from another NACES approved evaluator. Although certification is not necessary for our departmental admission decision, you need to be prepared to initiate the certification process as soon as you receive the departmental decision. Please read the following web page to learn more. The SpanTran fee cannot be waived.
You do not need to obtain a faculty member’s agreement to serve as your advisor, prior to your application submission. Admitted students will identify their advisors after they start the program.
Once you receive a positive admission decision from our department, you will be asked to mail your official undergraduate transcripts and graduate transcripts (if attended) to the University’s Office of Graduate Admissions. For more information, refer to the Graduate School web site.
Our department offers paid teaching and research assistantships as well as tuition waivers.
Our department offers a doctoral program only. Although students earn master’s degrees in the process of working toward their doctoral degrees, they are expected to remain in the program and earn doctoral degrees.
Application Fee and Status Check
Once you have provided the required information and uploaded your materials, you will have to pay a $30 fee and be able to check the status of your application through the application status check. If you do not pay the fee, the graduate school considers your application incomplete and they will not consider you for admission. The application fee is charged by the graduate school and cannot be waived.
Guide To Graduate Studies
Our Guide to Graduate Studies provides information for new and current graduate students. In addition to guidelines surrounding facilities, fees, and funding, it details requirements for earning your doctoral degrees. The Guide also lists information about preliminary examinations, graduate assistantships, and basic policies and procedures.
You may access the current Guide to Graduate Studies here.
Additional Information
The Department of Sociology at Florida State University actively works to collaborate and support graduate students through working groups, such as the Inequalities and the Aging Research on Contexts, Health and Inequalities (ARCHI) working groups, as well as reoccurring Brown Bag presentations through the Center for Demography and Population Health.
The Sociology Graduate Student Union (SGSU) is an organization led by, and for, the graduate students in the Department of Sociology at Florida State University. SGSU represents graduate student interests in departmental policy decisions and promotes a supportive and collaborative culture among graduate students. SGSU is open to full and part time FSU Sociology graduate students.
FSU Sociology graduate students can also join Graduate Assistants United (GAU) at Florida State University, the only legally recognized collective bargaining agents for Graduate Assistants at FSU. Read more about GAU at: https://www.fsugau.org/
Contact
If you have any questions about the application process, please email the program coordinator, Ms. Kimberly McClellan at kmcclellan@fsu.edu.