I had always envisioned a linear path — going to college, then medical school and eventually becoming a surgeon, as that was the expectation set for me. But in Arizona, I reconnected with a larger sense of being, realizing how my focus on grades and routine had distanced me from the world around me.”
Bachelor of Arts
Sociology
Major | Minor
Understand Society. Work to Make It Better.
Investigate inequality and power and learn to be a force for justice.
Sociology at Goshen College asks what shapes how people live, think and relate to each other. You investigate the forces behind human behavior, identity and inequality, and learn to be a force for justice and social transformation.
Rooted in Goshen College’s core values, the program helps you understand and critique social systems. With small classes, close faculty mentorship and immersive learning, you’ll gain real tools to promote positive change and prepare for a meaningful career.
Is Sociology Right for You?
This major fits students who notice how systems shape people’s lives and want to do something about it. You’ll build the analytical and research skills to read inequality clearly and to act. Sociology alumni work in social services, education, law, public policy, research and nonprofit leadership. Many go on to graduate study in sociology, social work, law or public administration.
Sociology is a social science field, and a supportive one. You learn alongside real people and communities, in small classes where faculty know you by name. This program is built around service and positive change that welcomes students of every background.
What You’ll Study
As a sociology student, you’ll examine how social institutions, identities, and power structures shape everyday life. Courses focus on social theory, research methods, race and ethnicity, gender, religion and inequality, giving you the big-picture frameworks and the hands-on research skills the field runs on. The major and the minor draw on the same core, so you can go deep as a major, or add a sociological lens to another field with the minor. View the complete program requirements in our catalog.
Put Your Learning Into Action
Sociology at Goshen is hands-on. You can design and conduct community-based research, intern with local nonprofits, social service agencies or policy organizations, work with professors on evaluation projects for local institutions, or take your learning off campus through the Study-Service Term and urban-diversity programs in Chicago, Washington, D.C., or Guatemala.
The work is real. Past student projects have included studying jail overcrowding, updating census data for a civil rights agency and researching gender dynamics in sports. You’ll also collaborate across the behavioral and social sciences through interdisciplinary coursework, research labs and community partnerships, sociology-led peace and justice initiatives and guest lectures and panels on race, class, gender and social reform.
Arleth Martinez '25
Sociology major · Co-founder, One Circle · 2024 Global Citizenship Award
Paying for Goshen
Goshen is committed to affordability, and all students are automatically considered for academic scholarships based on GPA and test scores, alongside need-based aid. To see your own price after aid, run the net price calculator or explore your options at the financial aid and scholarships pages.
Common Questions About The Sociology Major
Sociology examines how social institutions, inequality and power shape groups and communities, while psychology focuses on individual minds and social work trains you for direct clinical and case-management practice. If you’re drawn to understanding and changing systems rather than working one-on-one in a clinical role, sociology is the closer fit.
You can design community-based research, intern with nonprofits and policy organizations, and work with professors on evaluation projects. Past students have studied jail overcrowding, updated census data for a civil rights agency, and researched gender in sports. You can also study off campus through the Study-Service Term and programs in Chicago, Washington, D.C., or Guatemala.
Many sociology students study abroad, most often through Goshen’s Study-Service Term (SST), which combines structured coursework with service in a community outside the United States. For a major built around investigating inequality and power, seeing those dynamics play out in a different society firsthand is a natural extension of the classroom.
The major is reading and research heavy, especially around the community-based research project you’ll design yourself, but it’s not a lab-science course load. Expect consistent engagement with course material and fieldwork rather than high-stakes cumulative exams.
With 90% of classes under 30 students, sociology faculty know your specific interests well enough to help you design a community-based research project around an issue you actually care about, then mentor you individually through fieldwork, data analysis and presenting your findings. That kind of one-on-one guidance on original research is hard to get in large sociology departments where supervision is spread thin.
Rob Brenneman
Professor of Criminal Justice and Sociology
Kendra Yoder
Professor of Sociology
RJS and Co-Director of Global EngagementRegina Shands Stoltzfus
Professor of Peace
Justice
and Conflict StudiesJerrell Richer
Professor of Economics
Carl Kreider Chair and Co-Director of Global Engagement
