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How to Apply

The Department of Psychology offers the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree program, which provides students with breadth of training in psychology and in depth study in specialized areas. Qualified students are accepted into the Ph.D. program after their completion of either a baccalaureate degree or a master’s degree. Interested applicants should select to join a specific program. For information about our programs, see Department of Psychology, Graduate Programs. All students who are admitted for graduate study will begin in the fall semester (e.g., application deadlines of December 1, 2012, or January 5, 2013, are for entry in fall, 2013).

Application deadline is December 1 for:

Clinical (CLG, CLC, CLN)
Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience (NBN)
Cognitive Sciences (CGS)

Application deadline is January 5 for:

Community (COR)
Developmental (DEV)

The Clinical Psychology Program’s on campus interview days for 2014 are Wednesday, February 19, and Friday, February 21. This includes applicants to the Clinical Program who wish to dually enroll in Community Program (CLC) or Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience Program (CLN). Because interviewees will be asked to attend one of the two interview days, applicants should reserve both days.

In order to apply for graduate study in psychology, please follow the detailed instructions available on the College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Admissions website.

We provide the following tips to facilitate applying to the Department of Psychology

  1. Begin the application process well before the deadlines. It is your responsibility to ensure that all material is received by the Office of Graduate Services, College of Arts and Sciences, by the deadline. It is especially important to request GRE and transcripts well in advance of the deadline (e.g., it is not enough to take the GRE before the deadline, you must take it well enough in advance that GRE scores are received by the deadline - which take several weeks). Incomplete applications are not returned to the applicant.
  2. Apply online and do not submit any documentation (e.g., duplicate application) directly to the Department of Psychology.
  3. Although an undergraduate major in psychology is not required, applicants are expected to have a background in psychology that includes a minimum of four courses. Two courses that cover psychological statistics and research methods, including a laboratory, are required. Two additional junior- or senior-level psychology content courses are also required. The Clinical program recommends a course in abnormal psychology or psychopathology as one of the content courses. An introductory psychology course cannot be counted as one of the four required courses.
  4. No single predictor is used to accept or reject an applicant. However, when one factor, such as a GRE score, is below average, other factors should be well above average. See Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data for information about the number of applicants, the number accepted, their average GPA and GRE scores, etc. Previous research experience and, in the case of the Clinical and Community Programs, relevant applied experience are evaluated favorably in the admission process.
  5. Please read our Frequently Asked Questions pages.

If you have additional questions specifically for the Department of Psychology, you may contact Kristy Hill, Graduate Admissions Coordinator, by email at kdhill@gsu.edu, or Dr. Lindsey Cohen, Director of Graduate Studies for Psychology, by email at llcohen@gsu.edu. If you have questions regarding the application process and/or the submission of application materials, please contact Lita Malveaux, Academic Advisor in the Office of Graduate Services, at 404-413-5046 or by email at lmalveaux@gsu.edu.