Capstone
All undergraduate students 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.
Ways to fulfill the capstone requirement
The remainder of this page outlines the requirements of the capstone experience. Information about honors can be found on the BA Honors Program page.
The capstone experience
Overview of Courses
- SOC 204A: Capstone Research Seminar, Part I (senior fall; also fulfills WIM)
- SOC 204B: Capstone Research Seminar, Part II (senior winter)
- SOC 204C: Capstone Research Seminar, Part III (senior spring)
Capstone requirements
- Each project must include a minimum 10-page paper.
- It can also include some creative component, such as:
- a slide show
- a performance
- a piece of software
- art criticism
- work of community engagement
- Capstone students are also required to give a lightning 5-minute presentation at our spring Colloquium.
Additional notes about the capstone requirement
- Capstone papers cannot be team projects; each student must write their own capstone paper. However, two students may collaborate on an activity or creative object, where each writes a separate paper 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. Alternatively, capstone papers can be essays, literature reviews, or commentaries. The department recommends, but does not require, that capstone projects gather data and test hypotheses.
- Students may NOT recycle a paper that they previously wrote for a class and submit it as a capstone. With permission from the instructor of 204A or the DUS, students may build upon a paper they previously wrote, submitting both the old paper and the new capstone paper, so the progress from the first paper can be verified.
Working with human subjects
Capstone projects (as class-spanning projects) require Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to do human subjects research. Interviews, surveys, and experiments that involve working with people all qualify as human subjects research.
To get research IRB-approved:
- Take and pass the required training
- A faculty member must endorse your IRB protocol
- Apply!
Disclaimer: Plan ahead and keep the capstone projects simple! Students who apply late for IRB approval, or those who wish to work with vulnerable populations, may not receive approval in time to gather data and complete their capstone. In that case, students may have to fall back on writing essays without new empirical data. We will read those submissions as fully meeting the sociology capstone requirements.
Grading
The Department of Sociology 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 rewrite, hopefully before graduation, but possibly after graduation (delaying conferral of the degree). Incomplete work, work without citations, or plagiarized work would require students to redo part or all of their capstone papers.
The capstone due date is 3 weeks before the grading deadline to ensure that any non-passing capstones have an opportunity to be rewritten.