Social Science Program Overview

Social Science is Many Ways of Seeing

Social science is composed of many disciplines. This means that when you graduate with a social science degree, you’ll be able to study, understand and work with the many different kinds of context that affect our lives. Each different social context is studied by a different social science.

Social Science is…

• Anthropology: the study of the global development and diversity of human culture
• Communication: the study of how spoken, written, and non-verbal messages create meaning
• Economics: the study of how the distribution of resources and value affects behavior
• Geography: the study of how human behavior is affected by the physical environment
• Political Science: the study of the emergence, function and change of systems of government
• Psychology: the study of the mind and its effect on individual and group behavior
• Sociology: the study of groups, communities and societies that shape individuals and one another

The Social Science B.A. challenges you to consider how of these contexts affects outcomes as small as the course of an individual life and as large as the fate of civilization itself.

Social Science is Empirical

Social scientists appreciate a good story as much as anyone else, but we don’t stop there. Social scientists develop particular kinds of stories called “theories” that try to explain why the world works the way it does, [SOCIAL SCIENTISTS DEVELOP THEORIES—STORIES THAT TRY TO EXPLAIN…] but we also test those theories by watching the world carefully and noticing whether the world actually works the way our theories suggest. Both the generation of theory and the testing of theory happen through observation of the world: this makes social science empirical. The systematic approach we take to observing and analyzing the world makes our field a research-driven science.

Students studying for a Social Science B.A. gain a variety of skills in social research. You’ll learn about techniques from experiments to surveys, practice analysis using both hard numbers and in-depth qualitative field notes, and take advantage of opportunities for applied research in current topics like social network analysis, climate change community study, policy scholarship and social media analytics.

Social Science is Changing

In the 21^st Century, social scientists are using computers and the online environment to study the world, to reach the world, and to communicate with the world using cutting-edge technologies. As a Social Science student, you won’t just be a consumer in the Information Age; at a time when information is the new currency and knowledge is power, you’ll gain the ability to evaluate the value of information with a critical eye and to create new knowledge about the world around you.

What Kind of Person Makes a Great Social Science Major?

Social Science isn’t right for everybody, but it just might be right for you. In our experience, a student who gets the most out of a Social Science degree is…

• Someone who doesn’t accept common wisdom at face value
• Someone who enjoys considering multiple possibilities
• Someone who is (or wants to become) a keen observer of their environment
• Someone who notices patterns
• Someone who is not satisfied with the way things are
• Someone who wants to chart their own course in work and in life
• Someone who wants to change the world

If this describes you, we’d love to talk with you and explore the possibilities.