Application

The SoDA graduate program, offering a dual-title Ph.D. and doctoral minor deadline for admission to fall is October 1 and the deadline for admission to spring is April 1. Please note: SoDA cannot independently admit students. Applicants must first be admitted to an appropriate home PhD department at Penn State before they can be admitted to SoDA.

Students admitted to the following Penn State Ph.D. programs, but not yet having completed four semesters in the program (not including summers), may apply for the dual-title Ph.D. in Social Data Analytics: Criminology, Human Development & Family Studies (HDFS), Informatics (IST), Recreation, Park and Tourism Management (RPTM),  Political Science (PLSC)Psychology (PSY), Sociology (SOC), and Statistics (STAT)

Students accepted to any Penn State Ph.D. program, but not yet having passed their comprehensive exam, are eligible to apply to pursue the doctoral minor in Social Data Analytics. To date, the doctoral minor has accepted students from Communications (Bellisario)Communications Arts & Sciences (CLA), Criminology, Geography, Human Development & Family Studies*, Informatics*, Marketing (Smeal), Political Science*, Psychology, Recreation Parks & Tourism Management, Sociology*, and Statistics*.

*Students in these departments may consider applying for the minor if they are personally ineligible for their department’s SoDA dual-title, either because they have already passed candidacy, or if they are already pursuing another dual-title such as Demography, Women’s Studies, or Operations Research.

Admission applications are reviewed by the interdisciplinary SoDA Graduate Program Committee.

Prospective students are advised to speak with the SoDA Director of Graduate Studies (Bruce Desmarais) about the program prior to submitting their completed application.

Application deadline for admission to fall is October 1 and the deadline for admission to spring is April 1. Since required coursework in the SoDA program begins in the fourth semester of graduate school, Students should submit their applications during or before their third semesters at Penn State. Dual-title students must be admitted before the end of the fourth semester in their PhD program.