Information for First Year Students

  1. Office & Department Directory
  2. Sociology Department
  3. Information for First Year Students

Coordinator/Dept. Chair: Yesim Bayar
Phone: 315-229-5264
Campus Address: Piskor 209
E-mail: ybayar@stlawu.edu

Sociology courses offer an understanding of the interactions and workings of societies, their institutions, organizations and groups. We encourage you to discover a deeper understanding of the relationships between personal experience (your own and others’) and the social world. Our courses not only acquaint you with diverse cultures and social structures but also emphasize the dynamics of power and inequality on local, national and global levels.

In our courses, we emphasize the concepts and practice of social justice and public sociology. Built into our courses are opportunities for you to develop a sense of social responsibility by critically engaging the social world outside the classroom and to make your own discoveries about human social experiences.

The sociology department offers many courses appropriate for first-year students. The selection varies from semester to semester. You may take courses at either the 100 or 200 level. At the 100 level, you will typically find more of a “survey” approach and class size usually is 30 students. At the 200 level, courses are designed to explore particular social issues more specifically and in depth, and class sizes are smaller—typically 15-20 students—and may include a community-based learning (CBL) component, which involves doing community service that is connected to the learning of the course.

Courses appropriate for first-year students, subject to the availability of seats, are:

  • SOC 101: IntroSoc: Principles of Sociology
  • SOC 110: IntroSoc: Global Problems
  • SOC 112: IntroSoc: Inequality
  • SOC 161: IntroSoc: Social Problems and Policy 
  • SOC 169: IntroSoc: Media & Society
  • SOC 187: IntroSoc: Environment and Society 

General Timeline:

  • Intro-level courses (100-level): taken in the first or second year, fall or spring semesters (along with other requirements). 
  • Soc203: Foundations of Social Theory is taken as a sophomore or fall semester of junior year.
  • Soc300/301: Research Methods (Qualitative or Quantitative) is taken junior year or fall semester of senior year.
  • An Advanced Topics Seminar (300-level topical seminar) is taken after Social Theory and Methods in your junior year or senior year.
  • Students take Electives (200-level courses) all four years; they generally do not have pre-reqs.

Please see the major checklists for a more complete list of requirements.