Requirements & Timeline

Students attend the Doctoral Program full-time. They are required to take a minimum of fifteen courses, including the following requirements:

• Seven required courses: History of the Social Work Profession, History of Social Welfare, Research Methods for Social Work, Theory in Research, Qualitative Research Methods, Statistical Research Methods I, and Statistical Research Methods II
•  Five courses on research methods (minimum) are offered at the Crown Family School and across the University
• Eight  additional substantive courses, at least three of which are to be taken in a single discipline or substantive area at other departments or professional schools within the University of Chicago

In each of the first two years in the program, students are required to hold a Mentored Research Assistantship (MRA) with a Crown Faculty School member. 

• In the MRA, students collaborate on faculty research projects to gain experience in a range of research activities, such as data cleaning, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, use of research software, preparing Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols, conducting qualitative interviews, research proposal writing, developing collaborative research relationships, preparing conference abstracts, and manuscript preparation.

Students are expected to complete a pre-dissertation research project by the end of their fourth year of study. This project should be an empirical report, a critical analysis of the literature, or a theoretical piece, written while a doctoral student and submitted for publication in a journal or book.

After completing doctoral coursework, students must pass a two-part qualifying examination. 

• The first component, “Applying Foundational Knowledge in History, Theory, and Methods,” assesses students’ ability to integrate and apply core knowledge from required courses in theory, history, and methods. 
• The second component, “Individualized Area of Interest Exam,” assesses students’ ability to engage with relevant literature in their area(s) of interest, including relevant social theories, conceptual development, and empirical work. 

The examination process includes a take-home, open-book written examination completed during the summer following the second year.

Each student must complete three quarter-length mentored teaching experiences, which entail participating in the teaching of a course as an assistant, co-instructor, or instructor.

Students are required to successfully complete a dissertation project. As the culmination of the Doctoral Program, the dissertation reflects the student's ability to apply theoretical knowledge and analytic tools to advance knowledge in a particular area of concern to social work and social welfare scholarship.