Sociology Department
Orientation
August 20 (Monday) and
21 (Tuesday), 2007
Orientation Leaders:
Kasia Skuratowicz and
Dawn Norris
Congratulations on your acceptance to the University of
Maryland's graduate program in Sociology and welcome to
College Park!
Prior to the start of the Fall semester,
we hold a two-day series of orientation meetings for new
graduate students.
We will
be assisting you in your transition to the Sociology
department this Fall and hope that we can answer any
questions you may have about the upcoming school year.
To get
you acquainted with the layout of the department, the
graduate program, and different faculty members, a
Departmental Orientation is scheduled on Monday,
August 20, and Tuesday, August 21, 2007.
The schedule of orientation will be available on our
department website during the summer.
All students receiving funding are required to attend,
and it is strongly recommended that others plan to
attend as well.
Besides finding out about courses and registration,
there are presentations by faculty and students about
the structure of the program, specialty area
information, and opportunities to meet many people in
the Department as well as to socialize with other new
students! Keep those days free and plan
to attend!
Registering for Classes
Do not worry about course registration
yet. You can do it on-line on TESTUDO if you wish, but
you can just as well wait till you are here. You will
not be closed out of Sociology graduate courses. At the
Departmental orientation we will provide some guidelines
for selecting classes and then help you register. Be
aware, however, that you should be registered for your
courses by August 30th, after which late fees come into
play. A summary of courses offered this Fall in
Sociology is available on the Testudo website:
http://www.testudo.umd.edu/ScheduleOfClasses.html.
Generally, graduate classes in our
program start at the 600 level; 400 level classes are
primarily for undergraduates, though they can be taken
for graduate credit.
All students are expected to take SOCY 601 (a required
statistics course:
Statistics for Sociological Research I).
If you think you should be exempt from it because you
already have had graduate level statistics you can raise
this in discussion with Graduate Director, Joan Kahn, and the
statistics instructor to decide the best course of
action. Many entering students will also be taking SOCY
620 (a classical theory course:
Development of European and American Sociological Theory).
Also note that most sociology grad courses require an
electronic clearance before you can register. This
encourages discussion with advisors and also allows us
to reserve most of the seats for our own students. For
the required clearance, please contact the Graduate
Office secretary.
Housing
Information
The
following links contains links to useful topics such as
typical area rents, apartment search agencies, commuting
information and most importantly a searchable database
of rooms for rent.
Graduate
Hills and Gardens:
http://www.smc-grad-housing.com/
Grad Student Life Handbook:
http://www.union.umd.edu/GH/new_grads/housing.html
Off Campus Housing Services:
http://www.och.umd.edu/
Parking
Before
coming to the Orientation (and keeping in mind your
parking needs for the coming academic year), we strongly
encourage you to register for a parking permit, as space
is limited and permits are allotted on a first come,
first served basis. Call 301-314-7275 or go to
http://www.transportation.umd.edu/parking/tickets.html.
We recommend trying to get a Lot 1 permit because other
options are a considerable distance from the Art-Socy
building. Parking restrictions will be relaxed during
orientation so you will not need to have your permit
already, but again, we strongly recommend that you
register for a permit BEFORE coming to campus.
Enjoy
the remainder of your summer, and we look forward to
meeting you soon.
