The UCLA Graduate Sociology Program offers strong opportunities for training in quantitative approaches to social science.  Typically, this training combines concentration in one or more areas of sociology that employ quantitative data and statistical or mathematical approaches to analysis with individually tailored training in statistical methods.  These areas of sociology range from those that are primarily quantitative in practice, such as social demography and social stratification, to those in which quantification is part of a more diverse set of methodological approaches, such as sociology of education, migration, economic sociology, family sociology, sociology of ethnicity and race, comparative-historical sociology, and sociology of culture.

Students obtain training in quantitative methods and their applications through a variety of channels, including: (1) required and elective statistics and methods courses offered within the Sociology curriculum; (2) additional courses in statistical methods offered in other departments, including Statistics, Economics, Education, and Biostatistics; and (3) one-on-one research apprenticeship to a faculty advisor, leading to master’s and doctoral thesis research or other collaborative projects.  Because students who seek quantitative training enter the UCLA program with diverse prior research experience and mathematical preparation, each student typically follows an individually tailored program of courses and research experiences. Students are also affiliated with the California Center for Population Research.

Students who have completed the Ph.D. Program in Sociology at UCLA with quantitative training have followed a variety of possible post-Ph.D. career lines, including teaching and research in an academic setting, non-academic employment in the public or private sectors, and further training through post-doctoral fellowships.  Our program’s recent record of placement is very strong.  Recent graduates have secured academic appointments at the University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, Brown University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Massachusetts, and others.  Other graduates have received appointments at the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Research Triangle Institute, and Abt Associates.  Others have obtained postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard, Cornell, Texas, Princeton, Michigan, and North Carolina.