Applying for a sociology masters

Hi,

Doing a placement is incredibly valuable for getting a job after completing such a broad degree as sociology! (Coming from a Social Policy & Sociology BSc grad, now studying Social Research MA).

I would highly recommend doing a placement, it really adds to your employability (I used to work in Employability at a University in the Midlands). Would suggest looking into the terms of the placement: do you need to find the placement yourself, or do the uni source this for you? What is the process for applying for the placement? Is it a competitive process? Are you guaranteed a placement? What kind of roles are the placements typically in? Logistics - will the placement be paid, and if not will expenses to travel to/from the placement be covered? etc.

All the best, L

Hi!

Thank you for responding. The course I'm most interested in is Sociology with Quantitative Research Methods at Bristol University, its four years long and you graduate with an MSci. It doesn't come with a placement year, but is placement easy to find/something I can do once I've finished university? Does it matter that much if I actually do the placement year during my deg

Hi!

So I studied Sociology & Social Policy BSc at Bristol and can vouch for how fantastic the Sociology department at the uni is. You'll have a great time.

I am now studying Social Research MA (Birmingham), and heavily focus on quant research technical skills. By doing a Quants research MSci within the course, you'll learn how to use specialist software and how to become a statistician. This will set you up really well for jobs within statistics and research organisations (ONS, YouGov, IPSOS etc.) as well as for a PhD in quants methods that would be transferable to many different topics. So this is a great choice.

Having a placement year is really beneficial for employability particularly if you do A) a vocational course such as automotive engineering or anything to do with healthcare or social work or B) if your course is quite general and you don't have much work experience.

I would say that by specialising in Quant methods at Bristol, you will make yourself employable within academia (PhD material) as well as within research organisations through the technical skills that you gain. You wouldn't need a placement for these kinds of roles.

So a placement offers a different kind of employability to the MSci with Quant methods.