Scholarship Examinations
The 2023 Foundation Scholarship examinations will take place in January 2024, dates to be confirmed. Candidates are examined in the modules of their course up to the end of Michaelmas Term of the Senior Freshman year.
Sociology Schol Information meeting will be held on Tuesday 10th October 2023 @ 3pm. Please email sociology@tcd.ie for further details of the meeting.
Foundation Scholarship Examinations 2023-24
Examination Papers set by Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Sociology
Introduction
The Department of Sociology is providing hour papers for The Foundation Scholarship examinations in 2023-24. The number and combination of papers which you should take depends on your programme plus the pathway which you are taking as listed below. There are mandatory papers for different programmes and pathways plus optional choices:
All Sociology Scholarship Examination papers require students to answer two questions and are 2 hours and 15 minutes in length.
Paper Descriptions
Sociology Paper 1
This is a 'foundations paper' which draws on the material taught in Semesters 1 and 2 from first year in the modules Introduction to Sociology 1 and 2. Students are offered six questions in two sections and they must answer one from each section.
Sociology Paper 2
This paper is a 'general paper' designed to test candidates’ analytical, critical and discursive abilities. Students are provided with a number of readings on two topics: intermarriage and cultural capital. Two questions on each topic are provided in two sections and students answer one question from each section.
Intermarriage Readings
The two questions in Section A will be based on two papers on the issue of intermarriage:
- Kalmijn, M. (1998). Intermarriage and homogamy: causes, patterns, trends. Annual Review of Sociology, 395-421.
- Lin, K. H., & Lundquist, J. (2013). Mate selection in cyberspace: The intersection of race, gender, and education. American Journal of Sociology, 119(1), 183-215.
Cultural Capital Readings
- Lareau, A. and Weininger, E.B (2003) Cultural Capital in Educational Research: A Critical Assessment, Theory and Society, Vol. 32, No. 5/6, Special Issue on ‘The Sociology of Symbolic Power: A Special Issue in Memory of Pierre Bourdieu’ (Dec., 2003), pp. 567-606.
- Kraaykamp, G., & Van Eijck, K. (2010). The intergenerational reproduction of cultural capital: A threefold perspective. Social Forces, 89(1), 209–231
Students should read all of the papers above and be ready to answer essay questions based on the different concepts used and the social processes that underpin them.
Sociology Paper 3
The Foundation Scholarship Examination Sociology paper 3 is a 'theory and methods' paper. Students are presented with six questions overall in two sections (A and B) from which they answer two question from either section. Section A will have three questions which draw on the material taught in Social Theory Semester 1 (SOU22061). Section B will have three questions which draw on the material from Introduction to Social Research Semester 1 (SOU22011).
Sociology Paper 4
Paper 4 is a 'core topics’ paper. Students are presented with six questions overall in two sections (A and B) from which they answer two questions from either section, two in total. Section A will have three questions which draw on the material taught in Gender, Work and Family in Semester 1 (SOU22021). Section B will have three questions which draw on the material from Power, State and Social Movements Semester 1 (SOU22041).