Sociology is the scientific study of groups of humans. It is the study of collective human behavior and the social forces that influence collective human behavior. Sociologists seek to discover the broad patterns of interaction of social life that influence individual behaviors. If you major in Sociology, you’ll learn about how groups, organizations, and societies are structured. You’ll study crime and violence, sex and gender, families, health and illness, work and leisure, ethnic relations, religions and cultures, social classes, and communities and cities. You’ll study the rules that different groups of people have for living together, and the principles upon which groups of people are organized. You’ll find out how these rules are created, how they are sustained, how they are broken, and how they give meaning to the lives of individuals.

Preparation

Sociology involves lots of writing, reading, analysis, and criticism. American history and English composition courses are important. You’ll probably be required to take a college-level Statistics course, so some Math isn’t a bad idea, either. And familiarity with computers won’t hurt. Foreign language is a big plus, too, because you will probably be required to take several foreign language classes as a sociology major.