When Esther Lo changed majors from political science to sociology during her second year of college, she had to field a lot of questions from skeptics about what she planned on doing with her degree after graduation.
“But I don’t regret (studying sociology) — it’s really broadened my worldview,” Lo says. “There’s so many technological or scientific advancements that people could work on, but one main preoccupation that sociologists consider is how those affect people in the day-to-day, and it’s important to have people focused on the ethics” of those innovations.
About a year after graduation, Lo says she regularly uses the skills she developed while working toward her sociology degree in her work in early childhood education.
Although sociology doesn’t necessarily prepare students for a specific career in the same way that nursing or accounting programs might, experts say that studying sociology can give students a leg up in careers that require strong communication skills, critical thinking and statistical analysis.
As a result, you’ll find alumni of sociology programs in a variety of fields. Many sociology graduates end up pursuing careers in education, law and social work, among other areas.
[READ: Choosing a Major in College: What to Know.]
Whether you’re a sociology student nearing graduation and not quite sure what to do with your degree or you’re just considering majoring in the field, here are some things to keep in mind.
What Is Sociology?
As the American Sociological Association defines it, sociology is “the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior.” Sociologists can specialize in various different areas of the field — from the sociology of gender and race to public policy and social mobility.
Cristina Rojas, an undergraduate advisor in the sociology department at the University of California–Berkeley, who was a sociology major herself, says that studying sociology gives students a better framework to explore and answer questions about what’s going on in society.
“Some students come into the major because they’ve seen things in their social world that they really want to investigate and explore in a deeper way,” Rojas says, pointing to examples like inequality and social hierarchies.
Students enrolled in a sociology program often take courses on topics like statistical reasoning, political science, research methods, race, gender and sexuality.
“The classes that students sometimes want to take least — statistics and research methods — can offer the most important skills for students,” Karen Sternheimer, a professor and director of undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California‘s department of sociology, wrote in an email. “Being able to conduct research is great, but even being able to interpret quantitative and qualitative data and write about it clearly is a very valuable skill in any industry.”
[Read: Why Undergraduate Research Matters in College.]
Sternheimer says that one of the key concepts students frequently encounter in their sociology studies is verstehen — a German word that means “to understand,” referring to the sociologist’s effort to gain a deep, subjective understanding of different communities from their perspective.
“Sociology gives us tools to understand people’s lives that might not be like ours, to be able to understand how peoples’ worldviews might differ from our own,” she says.
Career Paths for Sociology Majors
Experts note that it’s hard to pin down a specific career path for sociology majors.
“The paths diverge too much to say there are common career paths,” Sternheimer says.
Rojas and Sternheimer both say that students are often drawn to sociology out of an interest in social justice. As such, they say that many sociology graduates pursue careers that allow them to combat inequalities in our society — for example, pursuing law or nonprofit work.
[Related:What Does It Take to Get Into a Top Law School?]
“If there is a common thread it is that many students often graduate with the desire to help disempowered groups, which is at the core of many electives in sociology,” Sternheimer adds.
According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2015 the top five most common careers for sociology degree holders were social work, elementary- and middle-school education, secretarial/administrative work, miscellaneous managerial roles and counseling.
Of course, many students also pursue research careers as sociologists, which typically require a doctoral or master’s degree. Students can enter a sociology Ph.D. program directly after undergrad or earn a master’s degree first to prepare for further academic work. These degrees have a deeper focus on sociological theory and also emphasize research methods and statistical analysis. Additionally, graduate education gives students the opportunity to focus on a subfield within sociology that they’re particularly interested in, such as the sociology of education or gender.
Amy Kate Bailey, an associate professor and the director of undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago‘s department of sociology, says that sociology students have a wide range of careers they can pursue. Although students might not use the minute theoretical details they learned in the classroom, she says that the softer skills developed over the course of the degree — collaboration and statistical analysis, for example — can be broadly applied in many different jobs.
“There’s a whole array of jobs where you need to be able to do a bunch of different things that tap into a lot of higher level skills — but the job title may not directly map on to a particular intellectual discipline,” she says.
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What Can You Do With a Sociology Degree? originally appeared on usnews.com
