What Can I Do with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology, Phase II

在2001学年，超过25000名学生从美国高校毕业并获得社会学学士学位（NSF 2003）。这些专业的学生能够通过他们在该学科专业中获得的概念、技能、非课堂活动和职业建议进入科学工作队伍吗？为了回答这些问题，PI提出了一个两阶段的调查。在现已完成的第一阶段研究中，PI了解到，2005年毕业的高年级学生强烈认为，他们已经学会了那些以概念为导向的硬技能。他们不太乐观地认为他们已经获得了那些以技术为导向的硬技能，那些教他们在不同群体中工作的软技能，以及那些增加他们成功参与科学工作的可能性的指导关系。PI目前正在根据我们提出的一系列技能问题制定具体类型的人力和社会资本指标。在第二阶段的2005年毕业学生调查中，调查委员会将调查从本科专业获得的硬技能和软技能与早期职业职位和研究生院使用的技能之间的关系，相对于其他因素（包括种族、民族、性别、父母的人力资本、学校的声望和求职策略）。这个为期18个月的项目还有四个额外的目的。它们是：(1)继续更新、操作和检验人力和社会资本的概念和指标的有效性；(2)分析增加进入科学（包括社会科学）劳动力和研究生项目可能性的因素；(3)提供社会学系可以用来衡量自己学生的评估工具，并改善他们的职业成果，特别是属于少数民族的学生；(4)广泛传播研究成果，建立部门进行评估的能力，并为未来的研究提供基础。我们期望发现，在控制其他因素的情况下，结合社会资本的软技能与硬技能同样重要。作为第一阶段的结果，PI创建了一个数据集，允许对同行社会学项目进行比较。在第二阶段，PI将添加到该数据集中，以确定增加学生从事科学职业可能性的因素。这些数据可以用来衡量和比较院系的成功，将社会学与其他学科进行比较，将社会学与新的学士学位持有者作为一个群体进行比较（使用来自国家教育统计中心的调查数据学士及以上）。第一阶段和第二阶段的工具、措施和数据将提供给系主任进行比较，以建立其部门的研究和评估能力以及部门对学生和其他利益相关者的问责制。

In academic year 2001, more than 25,000 students graduated from U.S. colleges and universities with bachelor's degrees in sociology (NSF 2003). Are these majors able to enter the science workforce as a result of the concepts, skills, non-classroom activities, and career advice that they gain as majors in the discipline? The PI proposed a two-phase survey to answer these questions. In the now-completed Phase I of the study, the PI learned that the 2005 cohort of graduating seniors strongly agreed that they had learned those hard skills that are conceptually oriented. The were less sanguine that they had obtained those hard skills that are technically oriented, those soft skills that taught them to work in diverse groups, and those mentoring relations that increased the likelihood that they could successful participate in the science work force. The PI is currently developing indicators of specific kinds of human and social capital from the array of skills questions we asked. In the second phase of the survey of students who graduated in 2005, the PI will investigate the relationship between the hard and soft skills gained from the undergraduate major and those used in early career positions and in graduate school, relative to other factors (including race, ethnicity, gender, parent's human capital, prestige of school, and job search strategies). This 18-month project has four additional purposes. These are: (1) continue to update, make operational, and test the validity of concepts and indicators of human and social capital; (2) analyze the factors increase the likelihood of entering the science (including the social science) workforce and graduate programs: (3) provide assessment tools that sociology departments can use to measure their own students and improve career outcomes for them, especially those belonging to racial and ethnic minorities; and (4) disseminate the study results widely, build departmental capacity to conduct assessments, and to provide building blocks for future research. We expect to find that soft skills combined with social capital are equally important to hard skills, controlling for other factors. As a result of Phase I the PI created a data set that allows for the comparison of peer sociology programs. In Phase II the PI will add to this data set to determine the factors that increase student's likelihood of science careers. These data can be used to measure and compare departmental success, to compare sociology with other disciplines, and with new bachelor's degree holders as a group (using data from the National Center for Educational Statistics' survey Bachelors and Beyond). Phase I and Phase II instruments, measures, and data will be made available to chairs for comparative purposes, to build their department's research and assessment capacity and departmental accountability to students and other stakeholders.