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Expectations
There are always some students who enroll in a studies program and first after a year realize that they have chosen a wrong program for themselves. You can avoid such frustration if you check beforehand whether the content and organization of the studies match your interests and expectations. We will help you in doing so with the following self-assessment tool.
Candid self-assessment through the provided questions and their feedback will help you decide if the Master’s Program ‘Sociology – European Societies’ is the one for you.
Please note: this is not a test of your current skills or knowledge. The results will be neither collected nor stored and are not a prerequisite for your application.
Please decide on each statement if it is true or false for you. At the end you will receive an interactive feedback to each statement (via the ‘i’ symbol). If you cannot decide upon some of the statements you can leave them unanswered.
I do not want to deal with statistics during my Master’s (anymore).
The Master’s program is research-oriented – we work with various statistical procedures and methods. You will be instructed to conduct independently empirical research. The readiness to learn or revise statistical methods and techniques is definitely an important part of it.
I am interested only in qualitative research methods and I would like to further specialize in them during my Master’s.
The program is predominantly oriented on the quantitative research methods. Expertise of these methods will be acquired and deepened during the studies. You will learn to critically evaluate corresponding literature and learn how to answer your own research questions with quantitative data. If you wish to focus on the qualitative methods and to improve your knowledge of them, you should choose a different Master’s program that is dedicated to them.
I would like to prepare myself with this Master’s program to a specific profession, i.e. for working at the EU institutions.
Graduating from a research-oriented Master’s program prepares primarily to work in academic and commercial research units. This program is definitely for you if you would like to use and apply empirical data in your future profession.
The acquired skills and expertise can naturally be also used in other occupations, e.g. in European or international organizations or companies.
I am interested in the analysis of various European nations and I am curious about the social aspects of Europeanization.
In the focus of the Master’s program stays the analysis of the European societies. Furthermore, it deals with the question of Europeization of the nation-state societies. During your studies you will intensively learn about:
1) Economic, political, social and cultural integration of Europe
2) The impact of the political unification process on the societies of the participating states
3) Comparison of the European societies and the EU with the global regions (keyword: globalization)
Reading complex texts in English is not a problem for me and I can easily and clearly express myself in English on different topics.
A very good command of English is necessary for studying the Master’s program, as all the compulsory lectures are conducted in English. In addition, most of the reading assignments in the seminars will be in English so you have to be able to read scientific texts in English on a daily basis.
The B2 level of English is one of the admission requirements. More information on the accepted language certificates is provided on the next page (‘Admission’).
I like independently create scientific texts.
Enjoying writing is one of the basic requirements for the Master’s program. You will be scientifically answering sociological questions – and a lot of that.
I have not studied Sociology. However, I am really interested in the Master’s program and I am ready to familiarize myself with the sociological topics and methods.
Holding a Bachelor’s title in Sociology is not a prerequisite for the admission. However, collecting at least 60 credit points (ECTS) from sociological courses is one of the admission criteria. Therefore you need to provide Transcript of Record with your application as a proof thereof. You will find more information on the next page (‘Admission’).
I definitely want to integrate a stay abroad in my studies, to reflect the international focus of the studies program.
It is possible to study abroad during your Master’s here, most easily with the LLP Erasmus exchange program. A two-semester stay abroad can be easily integrated in the Master’s program – you simply continue with the studies when you are back from the exchange. A shorter stay, e.g. for a semester, are more complicated to do so – resuming your studies can be delayed for another semester because each module is offered only once in an academic year. There are two possible solutions to this problem: you can either plan your stay abroad for the 4th semester and only postpone writing your master thesis but without the need to catch up any seminars, or you try to find a host university that offers thematically similar courses that you can take instead some of the courses of the program.
I would like to work during my Master’s as well.
The Master’s is a full-time program and the estimated weekly workload is about 35 hours. If you cannot invest that time in your studies because you need or want to work beside your studies you are – as our experience so far showed – rather unlikely to complete the studies within the regular four semesters.
I speak no German – but I can study exclusively in English so this should be no problem for me.
We do our best to make the Master’s program as accessible as possible for the students who do not speak German. However, if you are going to move to Germany after living or studying in another country you should be aware that things are likely to be organized differently than in your home country. For example, not all librarians or the employees in the university administration speak English.
You will receive feedback to each answer when you click on the icon .