Doctor of Philosophy in Social Policy

The PhD in Social Policy program is designed for individuals interested in economic inequality, neighborhood and special segregation, poverty, changing family structures, race and immigration, educational access and quality, political inequalities and participation, and comparative and institutional studies of social policy, particularly in the United States and Western Europe.
Students in the program have worked on an array of projects including the ways labor is divided in households, the inequality, fairness, and identity in American politics and US law, and race and social stratification.

The programs do not focus in any sustained way on social policy in the developing world. While it may be possible to combine study of developing countries in the disciplinary department—government or sociology—with the analytic framework acquired in social policy, the social policy curriculum itself focuses almost exclusively on the issues and experiences of advanced industrial countries.

Students gain admission to the program in a two-stage process of review by both a multidisciplinary admissions committee in social policy and the admissions committee of the relevant disciplinary department. From the very beginning of their graduate careers, then, students are regarded as future contributors to the advancement of scholarship in their home discipline, as well as emerging leaders at the intersection of disciplinary boundaries in the study of social policy.

Applicants must receive a minimum score of 80 for the TOEFL, and it is not common for applicants to be admitted with TOEFL scores below 90. The minimum IELTS Academic score is 6.5. Some programs may require higher scores. Application Deadline: Dec 1.