Bachelors to Masters Degree (BAM)

The Department of Sociology offers a combined BA to MA (BAM) program to allow high-performing and highly motivated students to complete both degrees in five years.

The BAM program allows students to take three courses (nine credits) that count toward both the BA and the MA at the undergraduate tuition rate.
BAM Students may choose to complete either a Plan A or a Plan B Master’s degree.
Interested students should be familiar with the BA Program and the MA Program.
UHCC students should enroll in the Ka’ie’ie Program of dual enrollment with UH Manoa.

The BAM program can open doors to a variety of occupations and serve as a strong complement to professional or academic training in other fields. MA degree holders may be hired to teach sociology at the community college level or to serve as part-time lecturers at four-year institutions.

If you decide to apply to the BAM program, be sure to connect with the undergraduate advisor as well as the Chair of the Undergraduate Studies Committee and the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee, each of whom is listed on the Contact page.

Eligibility Requirements

Application and Admission

To apply to the BAM program, sociology majors must complete both parts of the MA program application. One part is required by the UH Mānoa Graduate Division, and the other consists of supplemental materials specific to the Department of Sociology's graduate admissions process.

MA program applications must be submitted by January 15th of students’ junior year for admission to the BAM program in the fall semester of the same calendar year. Students who are accepted into the MA program will receive notice of their admission at the end of the semester in which they apply.

The semester following their admission notice, BAM students will be considered dual students in the BA and the MA programs and will begin taking double-counted coursework at the undergraduate tuition rate. Students will be assigned a temporary faculty advisor and will choose whether they will be on the Plan A or Plan B track.

Plan A Thesis or Plan B Non-Thesis Tracks

Ideally the MA will be completed in BAM students’ fifth year of study. Students will have completed the BA requirements in their fourth year, and they work exclusively on the remaining MA requirements in their fifth year.

Plan A students complete six credits of SOC 700, Thesis Research, and write and defend an MA thesis.
Plan B students write a research paper (rather than a thesis), take an additional theory or methods course, and take another substantive 600+ level course.

The details of these two tracks are explained on the Sociology MA Program page.

Options for Double-Counted Courses

Students select one of the following undergraduate courses:

SOC 413 Economy and Society,
SOC 432 Punishment and Society,
SOC 454 Analysis in Medical Sociology,
SOC 456 Racism and Ethnicity in Hawai‘i
SOC 459 Popular Culture

Students select one Quantitative or Qualitative Methods course:

SOC 605 Statistics for Regression Analysis (The required co-requisite course, SOC 605L, is not double-counted.)
SOC 606 Research Methods and Design
SOC 607 Seminar in Methods of Content Analysis
SOC 608 Survey Research Design and Analysis

Students select one Sociological Theory course:

SOC 611 Classical Sociological Theory
SOC 612 Contemporary Sociological Theory

View Sample Five-Year Plans (BA/MA Sociology Plan A and Plan B)

Note: BAM programs are listed near the page bottom.

For more information, please contact the Graduate Chair or the Undergraduate Advisor.

Undergraduate Advising

SOC Class Availability

SOC Class Descriptions