Please note this is not considered a terminal degree and students are not admitted for the M.A. program only.
Admission Requirements
The department accepts as graduate students only those who show definite promise for completing the requirements for advanced degrees. Meeting the minimum admission standards or having extensive undergraduate course work in psychology does not guarantee acceptance, since the number of applicants who can be admitted is limited. Preference is given to those applicants who have a well-balanced background of psychology courses and some background in science and mathematics. Students who do not have an undergraduate major in psychology but who otherwise satisfy these requirements may apply.
For consideration for admission, the applicant must have the following:
- Bachelor’s degree (official transcript(s) required to verify degree).
- Satisfactory undergraduate scholastic average
- Minimum of 32 quarter hours (24 semester hours) in psychology. This total should include a three semester hour (four quarter hour) elementary statistics course as well as a course in experimental psychology. A course in History and Systems is also desirable.
- The departmental graduate admission committee will determine, on the basis of a consideration of each student’s proposed program of study, whether the minimum 32 quarter hours in psychology is sufficient for advanced study.
- Official Graduate Record Examination results of the Verbal and Quantitative tests. It is highly recommended that you also submit
scores from the Subject Test in Psychology, although it is not required.
- Three letters of recommendation from academic sources.
- Vita/Resume
Students considering application to the M.A.–Ph.D. program in Community Psychology should be aware of the following:
Each year, the community psychology program can accept three or four new students. All application materials are carefully evaluated, with emphasis on the following criteria.
Completeness of credentials
Applicant files that are not complete by the January 5th deadline cannot be evaluated, and thus those applicants must be rejected. GRE scores and grade point average: While numerical standards are not followed rigidly, students are expected to have an undergraduate GPA well above 3.4 as well as strong GRE scores.
Preparation
Students are expected to have had courses in statistics, experimental psychology, and other core areas of psychology. While an undergraduate class in community psychology is not required, such a class is helpful. Strong research skills and experience are highly recommended, and field experience is also considered a plus. Credit for students entering with a master’s degree in Community Psychology or a related field is considered on a case-by-case basis.
Diversity
The Community faculty strongly encourages applications from minority students.
Interests
The community psychology program has an ecological-community orientation that emphasizes a public health model rather than a clinical or medical model. Those having interests in traditional clinical work would not find the community program a good fit. Students accepted in the community program are ineligible to transfer into the clinical psychology program. Successful applicants have been those whose personal statements reflect an understanding of the nature and content of the field, compatible goals, strong GREs and GPAs, sound research skills, and very good letters of recommendation. We accept only those applicants who intend to work toward the doctoral degree. Students who desire a terminal master’s degree are not admitted.