Degrees Offered
PhD, PhD/MS with Epidemiology, PhD/MA with Applied Sociology (UMBC)
Program Description
The Doctoral Program in Gerontology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) will train a new generation of scholars conversant with interdisciplinary and integrative paradigms and research designs to examine the unique, reciprocal, and dynamic nature of aging in context. UMB’s six professional schools (dental, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work) and UMBC’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences departments (public policy, psychology, and sociology, anthropology, and public health) combine to make this mission possible by offering three tracks of study:
- Aging policy issues
- Epidemiology of aging
- Social, cultural, and behavioral sciences.
The program also offers a dual-degree program between gerontology and epidemiology and a combined degree program between gerontology and applied sociology. Students earn a PhD in gerontology and a master’s degree in epidemiology or applied sociology.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the program, students are equipped with interdisciplinary and integrative perspectives and relevant research skills on the process of human aging. Students will be knowledgeable about the complex, dynamic, and bi-directional relationships among individuals and the historical, political, economic, environmental, psychological, social, cultural, and biological contexts in which aging occurs. Graduates will be prepared for employment in positions in academic institutions, government agencies, as well as those in private and non-profit organizations. We have embraced nonacademic positions as valuable venues for contribution by our alumni.
Program Admission
Applications are accepted for fall admission only. All application materials must be received by December 15 in year prior to year of intended enrollment. Three letters of recommendation, transcripts, a personal/goals statement, and a CV are required of all applicants. Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) scores are not required for admission. The Test of English as a Foreign Language or the International English Language Testing System exam is required for all international students who do not have a bachelor’s or master’s degree from a U.S. institution and/or whose native language or language of the home is not English. The program encourages the application of candidates from racial and ethnic minorities under-represented in the sciences. The program offers graduate research assistantships that provide a stipend, tuition remission, and student health insurance.
Degree Requirements
The PhD program consists of a minimum of 49 course credits (21 core course credits, 12 research methods and statistics course credits, 9 track specialization course credits, 6 elective course credits, and 1 ethics course credit). Comprehensive exams are required to be admitted to doctoral candidate status. These exams take place in the summer after completion the second year for full-time students. All students must complete at least 12 credits of dissertation research and successfully defend a dissertation. In addition, students attend a bimonthly aging forum and required seminars.
Required Courses at UMB
Required Courses at UMBC
| GERO 672 | ISSUES IN AGING POLICY | 3 |
| GERO 700 | SOCIOCULTURAL GERONTOLOGY | |
| GERO 750 | THEORY AND METHODS I | 3 |
| GERO 751 | THEORY AND METHODS II | 3 |
Available Track and Elective Courses
Track courses and electives are selected from available courses for each track as well as from courses offered on each campus that contribute to the student’s area of research in consultation with the student’s advisor.
part of this catalog.