FAQ

Yes.  Entering the program with all of your lower-division completed, you can take all of your upper-division sociology courses, upper-division GE courses (3 courses required by Chico State), courses that fulfill your writing requirement, and electives all online. 

In order to enroll in our distance education program, you must live outside of the Chico area.  If, however, you are close enough to commute on some days, enrolling in the Distance Education program does not limit you to taking online classes.  You may take either on-campus or online classes, and all will count toward your degree progress.

Our online courses have different instruction modalities.  Some are totally asynchronous, with no meeting times, so you work through the material week by week but within that week, totally on your own schedule.  Others do have a meeting time and allow you to log in to the class synchronously to join in with the rest of the class and participate in live-time and ask questions to the professor.  Usually these classes are also recorded, so if you are unable to attend during the actual class time, you can watch the recording (called “archive” at Chico State) within 48 hours or before the next class period.  We do pay attention to the times of these courses, and attempt as much as we can to schedule them during the lunch hour or after PM to increase the chances that you can at least sometimes log in during the class period.

For some courses it may work to do all of the week’s work on weekend.  For many courses, however, you will need to log in, watch class videos, doing reading, communicate with group members and/or turn in assignments during the work week.  So if you are only available on the weekends, our distance education program may not be the right fit for you.  Keep in mind that the university has determined that a 3-unit course should have an average of 9 hours of work (including meeting times, videos, reading, and assignments) per week.  And while some courses may have a bit less work than this, if you take 15 units, that’s more than most people can reasonably fit into a weekend.

No.  Your diploma will list Sociology as your major, but will not be different from the diploma of an on-campus student.

Currently there are a very limited set of majors offered online.  They are:

• Religious Studies
• Social Science
• Multicultural and Gender Studies (coming Fall 2023)
• Community Organizing for Social Change (coming Fall 2023)

Yes, the tuition and fees are exactly the same as those for on-campus students. 

Students enrolled in our distance education program have the same eligibility for financial aid as on-campus students.  Additionally, the Sociology Department has a small number of scholarships and awards that it gives each year to sociology majors, and distance education students compete on equal footing with on-campus students for these.

You can transfer a maximum of 70 units total to Chico State, and a maximum of 9 units toward the major:  EITHER Introduction to Sociology OR Social Problems, and 2 lower-division sociology electives.  These 6 elective units do not have to match courses we specifically offer:  we will give lower-division elective credit for any 2 lower-division sociology courses you have taken.

You must enter the program with a minimum of 60 lower-division units (the university allows a maximum of 70 lower division transfer units).  Included in that, the Fundamental Core (Introduction to Sociology OR Social Problems) is usually transferred in, as well as up to 6  units of additional sociology classes, which count toward your electives.  Thus, most transfer students have 31 units to complete in the major when they begin our distance ed program.  Once enrolled in the program, if you take 15 units each semester, make sure you are taking the correct courses, and pass all your classes, you will graduate in 2 years (not including any minors or double majors).  If you take 2 classes per semester plus one summer class each year, you will graduate in 4 years.* Note that there can be variations in this timeline, depending on the units and courses you have transferred in, and the courses you take at Chico State.  See a Major Advisor to plan your schedule to achieve the best possible personal timeline toward graduation.

Yes.  We have a Sociology Department Tutor that books appointments with students online or in-person for all of our Fundamental Core classes, and also can provide help with any other class in the major.