Petitions for Course Substitutions or Waivers

Circumstances that Require a Petition

Sometimes you will want to waive a program requirement or request that a course fulfill a degree requirement. Here are a few scenarios:

  • You are an incoming first year student with a solid background in statistics. You request a waiver for SOC 504, SOC 505, or SOC 506.
  • You found a 400-level course that is important for your research. You want this course to apply to your degree.
  • You want a non-Sociology course to count as one of your graded Sociology electives.

Petition Process

The scenarios above require a petition, which you can submit before or after you take a course. Send an email to the Graduate Program Coordinator (copy the GPA). Include:

  • Course description and (ideally) a syllabus
  • Key assignments (if known)
  • Why this course is relevant to your graduate studies.
  • The applicable degree requirement (i.e. graded Sociology elective, PhD training plan).
  • Description of sociological content (if requesting that a non-sociology course be counted as a degree requirement).
  • List other software/programming you have used, and describe your experience using R programming language. 
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