Careers

Why Study Sociology?

By helping you understand context, Sociology prepares you for a variety of career paths. Sociology at Notre Dame teaches you to use empirical data to ask and answer complex and multi-faceted questions and to write with clarity, depth and precision. Additionally, Sociology helps you live our campus commitment to social justice an human rights, helping you to direct your talents, gifts and energy in practical and meaningful ways to help others.

ND Sociology Students After Graduation

• 48% find full-time jobs
• 28% go to graduate or professional school
• 18.5% enter service programs

Graduates of Notre Dame's Sociology program are now employed in fields as diverse as business management, consulting, corporate administration, insurance, medical administration, politics, realty, religious life, social work, teaching, and higher education. Check more outcomes for detailed information.

Career Choices

Through its emphasis on critical thinking and sound data collection and analysis, sociology prepares our students to excel in a variety of disciplines.   

Sociology and Medicine

Sociology addresses complex social, structural, and environmental factors affecting health and well-being.  These factors include poverty, racism, exposure to violence, social networks, environmental justice, access to health care, food deserts, and the role of power and money in defining health, illness, and care.

Sociology enables you to develop the cultural competence necessary for successful communication in multi-cultural and diverse social contexts.

Sociology helps you to prepare for the MCAT’s sections on the social and behavioral sciences.

Sociology and Law

Sociology sheds light on complex issues conforming the legal and judicial systems: for example, the relationship between extra-legal factors such as race, poverty, and gender with the criminal justice system, the role of interests in determining how laws are defined and enforced, definitions of deviance across time and space, etc.

Sociological theory provides a solid basis for understanding the logic and reasoning of human behavior and social organization.

Sociology and Business

Sociology improves your potential for adaptability in any organization by helping you to understand key social factors such as culture, race, ethnicity, gender, power, economics, etc.

Sociology is fundamental to effective interpersonal communication in current multi-cultural and multinational business environments

Sociological research design and methods are applicable to many fields in business, including HR, marketing, consulting, sales, management, etc.

Job Titles for Sociology Majors and Minors