Bachelor of Arts in Sociology

at Shorelight Group - University of Massachusetts - Boston USA

The Psychology major is a 12-course major.  The requirements of these 12 courses provide students with a foundation in each of five core areas of the discipline of psychology, upper-level coursework in one or more areas and basic information about the research practices used in the field.  The basic structure of the major is represented by four parts.

The description below provides an outline of the major.  The phrase “major requirements” refers to the minimum number and distribution of psychology courses a student must complete successfully in order to graduate as a psychology major. We encourage students to take more than the minimum number of courses in psychology and allied disciplines. Only one of the 12 required classes may be taken pass/fail; the other 11 classes must be taken for a grade.  Eight of the 12 courses for the major must be taken in residence at UMass Boston.

This interdisciplinary major introduces students to a number of perspectives from which to study American social and cultural life.  The work we do begins from the premises that “America” itself has been a contested term for centuries, and that the people who call themselves “American” have consistently been engaged in conversations over and around the meaning of that term.  Our courses offer investigations of America’s past and present in a global context through critical analysis of the ways that race, class, gender, and sexuality help constitute American institutions and people.

From our introductory courses (“American Identities” and “American Dreams, American Realities”) through a variety of intensive capstone seminars students develop the ability to understand the texts and contexts, and the representations and realities that have most powerfully shaped the political and aesthetic landscape of the United States.

UMass Boston's MS in Finance (MSF) is a 10 course, 30 credit degree program. The 10 courses are composed of Finance Requirements, Finance Electives, and a Capstone course. Four prerequisite courses must be satisfied or waived through prior relevant coursework, based on a review of transcripts.*

The CFA Institute University Affiliation Program can be completed full-time or part-time, with classes that meet primarily in the evenings and online. Scheduling is highly flexible, with most classes meeting once per week.

Students will be required to select from 2 tracks, General Finance or Investment Management & Quantitative Finance.

Admission to the program is highly competitive and is based on several factors, including prior academic record, professional experience, standardized test scores, essays, and recommendations. The curriculum has been designed by the College of Management Accounting and Finance faculty in consultation with the AF Department’s Advisory Board to assist students in furthering careers in finance and in preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam.

As part of the Department of Performing Arts, the Theatre Arts Program explores diverse forms including the classics, contemporary drama, comedy, film, and musical theatre. Studies include training in acting; scenic, costume, and lighting design; directing; theatre history; and playwriting. The Theatre Arts major is for active participants who are ready to apply theory to practice via live performance, production work, undergraduate research, and theatre conferences.

• We train our students in state-of-the-art facilities, exposing them to current technology, quality equipment, and contemporary approaches.
• In classes and productions, we follow industry standards, preparing our students with one-on-one mentoring, group collaboration, and peer mentorship to succeed in a highly competitive field.
• We provide curricula that take our students from theory to practicum, and from applied production work to internships.
• We promote undergraduate research that allows our students to participate in regional and national conferences such as KCACTF and USITT.

The Bachelor of Science in Chemistry is an ACS-approved degree. The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the largest scientific society in the world. The American Chemical Society (ACS) organizes national and regional chemistry conferences, publishes a variety of chemical journals and other publications and offers a variety of additional services to its members. The American Chemical Society also promotes quality in chemistry education by approving undergraduate programs. The American Chemical Society recognizes ACS-approved programs as providing a high-quality undergraduate chemistry program.

Students completing a degree in chemistry will:

• Learn the basic canon of chemistry, covering the five fundamental sub-fields as recommended by the American Chemical Society: inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry.
• Conduct original chemical research and report their results orally and in writing to scientific audiences.
• Learn and apply the principles of scientific ethics with regard to use of sources, generating and reporting of data, and collaboration with colleagues.
• Develop an understanding of green chemistry and environmental responsibility.
• Upon graduation, be prepared to practice as a professional chemist, whether in further study or in the workforce.

The Information Technology major offered through UMass Boston's College of Management is designed to offer pathways to highly-demanded careers in IT for both high school graduates and students of Massachusetts community colleges. Our small classes ensure personalized attention from IT faculty while our ties to the Greater Boston business and technical communities add an extra dimension of learning to our program of business information technology education. The IT major offers an “applications-path” format for students which includes a core of technical knowledge (nine courses), an area of specialization or track within IT (four or five courses, depending on track selection), three professional electives in an application or domain area (preferably outside of IT but within business), and two wrap-up courses (project management and IT capstone), in addition to general education requirements.

The IT major is project based.  Every exercise assigned throughout the BSIT is designed to be of the kind that a student might encounter in his or her work: collaboration, competence, and outcomes assessment are the hallmark characteristics of the program.  Students will learn how to use IT to solve real-world problems within the context of a field in which they wish to work. Graduates will be familiar with, and be able to apply, the following core information technologies to solve business problems:

• Programming
• Networking
• Databases
• Web technologies

In addition, the BSIT program offers four specialization tracks: business intelligence1, computer forensics1, information architecture1 and systems administration.

Information Architecture Track
The Information Technology (IT) major is a jointly offered program between the College of Management (CM) and the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The BSIT consists of a common core of ten courses, a track of four to six courses in a particular area of specialization (the information architecture track requires four courses), a common capstone course, and three professional electives.

The field of Africana Studies documents and disseminates a specialized body of knowledge about Africa, the Caribbean and especially the United States. We focus on the experiences of the African Diasporas – the global dispersion of peoples of African descent – its history, literature, culture, society, and contributions worldwide. Students are prepared for careers relevant to the development of the African world community and to the rectification of global social ills created by individual and institutional racism.  Students approach the field and subject matter from a rigorous curriculum rooted in the social and cultural history of Peoples of Africa and the Africa Diaspora, and designed to provide practical solutions to challenges facing them from both a local and global context.

UMass Boston's MS in Business Analytics (MSBA) is a 10 course, 30 credit degree program. To receive the MSBA, students must complete a minimum of 10 courses: Analytical Core, MSBA Electives, and the MSBA Capstone. One (1) prerequisite course must be satisfied or waived through prior relevant coursework, based on a review of transcripts.*

The MSBA program is designed to prepare students for utilizing analytical techniques, methods, and applications for data-driven practices in diverse organizations and enterprises of all sizes.

As businesses become more and more reliant on data-driven strategies, the needs and opportunities for graduates in Business Analytics have grown rapidly. Breakthroughs in data collection, storage, and analysis to uncover and capture business value have fueled this growth, and post-recession companies have recognized this potential and increasingly emphasize data-driven decision-making in their business strategies. The current annual rate of job growth in this area is approximately 11.8%, a rate that is only expected to accelerate in the future.

This program covers theories of powerful techniques and quantitative methods in Business Analytics and how they are applied in the real world. The program focuses on using current software tools to study effective techniques of problem formulation, developing solutions with mathematical and algorithmic techniques, and methods for implementing those solutions with technology.

The MSBA program offers students a choice of two specializations, Big Data Analytics and Supply Chain Analytics. Each includes a core of analytical courses, elective courses in that specialization, and a capstone course.

Big Data Analytics
The Big Data Analytics specialization focuses on data mining and analytical techniques, big data management, storage, and modeling. The objectives consist of enabling students to process big data in an effective and efficient way, discover knowledge patterns in big data, build predictive models, and use big data to answer business questions.

Engineering physics is a branch of applied science that emphasizes both engineering and physics. It is a challenging general alternative to the traditionally more specialized undergraduate engineering curricula, offering flexible options for professional growth. The engineering physics curriculum is designed to provide a firm foundation of basic scientific principles, as well as the theoretical knowledge and skills required for specific engineering applications. The curriculum is equally suitable for students intending to pursue careers in industrial research and development, and for those preparing for graduate studies in a variety of scientific and technical areas.

The basic engineering physics curriculum consists of the first two years of a standard engineering program, followed by upper-division courses equivalent to those required for a bachelor of science degree in physics. Students select a concentration of technical electives in one of a number of currently marketable areas: applied physics, properties of materials, computer science, or digital electronics. Students receive realistic, practical, problem-oriented training in an advanced projects laboratory and seminar, designed with the cooperation of representatives from some of Massachusetts' outstanding high-tech industrial firms.

The Economics department has approximately 400 declared undergraduate economics majors and serves students from many other departments and programs in the College of Liberal Arts, as well as students from other colleges of the university.  Currently 8% of declared undergraduate majors in the College of Liberal Arts have chosen Economics as their major. Their interests include Economic Development, Economic History, Environmental Issues, Health Economics, Industrial Organization, Immigration, International Economics, Labor Economics, Macroeconomics, Marxism, Monetary Theory, Political Economy of Race and Gender, Public Policy, Public Sector Economics, Social Welfare, Statistics and Econometrics, and Urban Economics. In addition to teaching, faculty members are engaged in research, writing, consulting, and other professional activities in their areas of interest.