Unique features and advantages

The Graduate Program at Loyola University Chicago has certain unique features:

• Our graduate program includes both full- and part-time students, recent undergraduates,
  persons who have completed an M.A. at a different institution, and returning older adults.
• We pride ourselves in being one of the more diverse graduate programs at Loyola. We
  welcome students of all ages, religions/faith traditions, races/ethnicities, sexual orientations, educational and employment backgrounds. 
• To accommodate our diverse student body we work to maintain small class sizes (fewer
  than 15 students per class). Seminar-level courses have even fewer students and focus
  on particular areas of ongoing research and faculty-student interest.
• Classes meet once a week for 2 1/2 hours and are usually scheduled in the evening or
  late afternoon to facilitate those students who also work during the day. All required
  courses are offered in the evening.
• In addition to prominence in research and professional activities, the faculty work closely
  with graduate students conducting independent research projects and collecting data to
  writing articles and reports.
• The department places strong emphasis on helping students to plan courses and research
  experiences that fit their own goals and interests, and at the same time take fullest
  advantage of the distinctive strengths of its faculty.
   

Loyola’s graduate programs in Sociology offer many other advantages:

A faculty of scholar-teachers - At many universities, a large and overcommitted faculty has little time
or incentive to concentrate on teaching and mentoring its students. Smaller departments where teaching
is emphasized, on the other hand, may lack the research-active faculty found at the more prestigious institutions. At Loyola, you will find the best of both worlds in a faculty of nationally respected, active
scholars who also take pride in their teaching, and who give graduate education and graduate students
the care and attention they deserve.

Chicago - Graduate study at any institution is a long-term commitment, for many students lasting at least
five or six years. And Chicago is a wonderful place in which to spend a significant time of one's life—a thriving, culturally vibrant, yet very "livable" urban center which most new residents, come to love. The Loyola Lake Shore Campus and Coffey Hall is located on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan.  Located
on public transportation routes, the campus provides a safe and attractive refuge while also giving easy access to the resources of the city around it.

Success in the job market - Despite the notoriously challenging job market , the Sociology department
at Loyola has a strong, long-standing record of success in placing our students in jobs—particularly at
liberal arts colleges where teaching is valued, but also at research universities and in research or
consulting jobs in non-academic settings.

Manageable degree requirements - For the master’s degree, ten courses (30 credit-hours) are
required and you can choose to submit a portfolio demonstrating your competencies or a thesis in order
to complete the degree. The MA program is designed so that full-time students (3 courses per semester) could complete all the requirements within a year and a half (3 semesters at full time plus one summer course). Interested in doing the M.A. on a part-time basis while working at a full-time job? We make it possible by offering the majority of our graduate seminars in the evenings and late afternoons.
Coursework in the Ph.D. program can be completed within three years (two years for students entering
with the M.A. degree), with the special field exams, dissertation proposal and dissertation taking two to
three more years of study.

Real training in teaching skills - Our department considers the training of our graduate assistants in classroom teaching to be an important part of what we do. We do not throw new graduate students into the classroom without training. All students who teach for the department must have the MA degree, have taken a teaching workshop or teaching class or teaching experience before they enter the classroom as an instructor of record. Our students feel well prepared when they teach their own first course and our graduates hone their teaching skill set that is very attractive to prospective employers.