Applicable only to students admitted during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Social Science

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Interdepartmental Program in Social Science offers the Master’s degree in Social Science (MaSS).

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The Student Affairs Officer will counsel students on visas, enrollment, graduation requirements, and other relevant issues. The Academic Program Director and the Chair of the Interdepartmental Program (IDP) will advise students on matters pertaining to the academic program.

Areas of Study

N/A

Foreign Language Requirement

Not required.

Course Requirements

Students must be enrolled full time during one year (three quarters with a minimum of 12 units per quarter) and complete 36 units (nine courses) of course work. The course work consists of seven core MaSS program graduate courses (400 series), and two elective courses either at the graduate (200 series) or upper division (100 series) level. All courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Students must complete the 36 units (nine courses) as follows:

Fall Quarter

• SOC SC 400A (four units): This course introduces students to research paradigms, interpretive approaches, and key concepts in social science inquiry.
• SOC SC 401 (four units): This course introduces students to key concepts and approaches to qualitative research and provides hands-on experience with qualitative research methods.
• SOC SC 402 (four units): This course introduces students to the fundamentals of data analysis and statistics, focusing on the application of statistical methods in social problems research.

Winter Quarter

• SOC SC 410 (four units): This course introduces students to the theory and practice of “engaged social science” as an emerging orientation to transformative research.
• SOC SC 430A (four units): Part 1 of a two-part course that introduces students to the theory and practice of community-based research.
• Elective Course (four units): The elective course will be selected from graduate course offerings by departments in the Division of Social Sciences and other campus units.

Spring Quarter

• SOC SC 420 (four units): This course guides students toward completion of the capstone paper.
• SOC SC 430B (four units): Part 2 of a two-part course that introduces students to the theory and practice of community-based research.
• Elective Course (four units): The elective course will be selected from graduate course offerings by departments in the Division of Social Sciences and other campus units.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

Students are required to submit a capstone portfolio at the end of spring quarter. The capstone portfolio includes samples of work submitted in each of the MaSS core courses, including the capstone research paper. The capstone portfolio highlights intellectual growth and demonstrates core competencies as a social scientist. The capstone portfolio will be evaluated by three faculty members, who will provide feedback and evaluate the final submission to determine the student’s satisfactory fulfillment of this requirement.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

The normative time-to-degree is three quarters. The time-line for the master’s degree is described in the Course Requirements section.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Master of Social Science	3	3	4

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.