Capstone
All undergraduate students graduating in 2024-25 or later must complete a senior capstone project as a part of their major. This is a creative opportunity for students to display their educational experience and academic knowledge.
Honors Thesis
Students can fulfill the capstone requirement by pursuing and completing an honors thesis in the Sociology Department or another approved department. Please review our Sociology Honors Program for more details.
Capstone Experience
How can I fulfill the capstone?
Students completing the capstone should prepare to enroll in SOC 204A: Capstone Research Seminar: Part I, SOC 204B: Capstone Research Seminar: Part II, and SOC 204C:Capstone Research Seminar: Part III. SOC 204A (and SOC 202 for honors students) will satisfy the university Writing in the Major requirement. Although recommended, these three courses are not required to enroll in. Students can satisfy the capstone in another unit, given that the department has verified with that unit, and by taking another approved WIM course.
What will a completed capstone project look like?
Each project must include a minimum 10 page paper and can include some creative object. Creative objects can be:
- a slide show
- a performance
- a piece of software
- art criticism
- work of community engagement
Capstone papers cannot be team projects; each student must write their own capstone paper, but two students could collaborate on an activity or a creative object and each write separate papers about that activity. Each student must produce a unique capstone paper that is original to them. Capstone papers can describe the student's original research and hypothesis testing. Capstone papers can alternatively be essays, literature reviews, or commentary. The department recommends, but does not require, capstone projects to gather data and test hypotheses.
Capstone students will be required to give lightning a 5-minute presentation at our Spring honors colloquium.
*Students may NOT recycle a paper that they previously wrote for a class and turn it in as a capstone. With permission from the instructor of 204A or the DUS, students may build on a paper they previously wrote, turning both the old paper in with the new capstone paper, so the progress from the first paper can be verified.
What will I need in order to write my capstone?
Capstone projects (as class-spanning projects) will need Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to do human subjects research. If you plan to interview, survey, or run experiments with people, that is qualified as human subjects research.
How do I get my research IRB approved?
- Take and pass the required training
- A faculty member must endorse your IRB protocol
- Apply!
Disclaimer: students who get a late start applying for IRB permission or who want to work with vulnerable populations may not get IRB approval in time to gether the data and complete the Capstone. Please plan ahead, and keep the capstone projects simple! Capstone students may have to fall back to writing essays without new empirical data if IRB approval does not come through in time, and we will read those submissions as fully meeting the Sociology capstone requirements.
How will capstone projects be graded?
The Sociology department will evaluate capstone papers using our established rubric for Sociology undergraduates. The rubric emphasizes understanding the literature, posing a sociological question, writing clearly, citing sources correctly and (for students doing empirical research) gathering data and testing hypotheses. A passing grade of C or better will mean that the capstone is approved. A grade of less than C is a failing capstone and will require the student to re-rewrite, hopefully before graduation, but possibly after graduation (delaying conferral of the degree). Incomplete work, work without citations, or plagiarized work would require stuednts to re-do part or all of their capstone papers.
Capstone due date will be 3 weeks before the grade deadline in the graduation quarter to make sure that non-passing capstone (if any) have a chance to be rewritten to pass.