Introduction

The Ph.D. program in the psychology department covers a wide spectrum of contemporary behavioral science within a close-knit community of faculty and students.  The program offers four distinct areas of experimental emphasis: behavioral neuroscience, language/cognition, perception, and social/personality.  In addition, individual faculty members frequently pursue other, not easily classifiable, experimental interests.  (Note that the program does not offer training in clinical or counseling psychology.)

The objective of the Ph.D. program is to prepare students to become colleagues in research and teaching in psychology. To accomplish this goal, the department takes a mentoring approach whereby the graduate students are apprentices in faculty laboratories, working closely with their faculty mentors throughout their time in the program.

The department admits only a few students each year in order to maintain this intense educational model, and students are admitted to work with a particular faculty mentor.  In the laboratory, responsibility for collaboration in research gradually shifts from the faculty mentor to the student, culminating in the student’s doctoral dissertation.

The basic apprenticeship relation is supplemented by other activities, such as required courses (concentrated in the first and second years), advanced seminars and/or course work in this as well as other departments or universities, a colloquium series, assignments as teaching assistants, the master’s project, and the dissertation and its oral defense. Graduate students also develop their teaching and research skills through close mentoring of undergraduate research assistants.

The Program

The psychology department admits students only into the Ph.D. program. Students earn a master’s degree at the end of their second year in the course of progressing toward the Ph.D.

Requirements for the Ph.D. degree include:

• 4 proseminars

• 2 quantitative methods courses

• 1 research methods course

• 1 ethics and professional issues course

• At least 3 elective courses/seminars

• First-year paper

• Master’s project (including proposal, oral presentation,  and write-up)

• Ph.D. research (including proposal, dissertation, and defense)

• Fifty semester hours

Admissions and Financial Aid

A baccalaureate degree is required. Desirable experience includes laboratory courses in psychology and allied sciences, as well as courses in mathematics.

As part of the online application process, applicants will be asked to indicate their primary area of interest from the following list: behavioral neuroscience, language/cognition, perception, social/personality, or other.  In addition, they will be asked to select the faculty mentors (up to three) they would be most interested in working with.  For information about the research areas, as well as individual faculty research interests, see Research Overview.  Applicants should also indicate in a personal statement why they are applying to the Ph.D. program.   

Inquiries made directly to potential faculty mentors via e-mail are welcome, as these aid greatly in establishing the suitability of the applicant’s background and the match between faculty and student interests. After applications have been reviewed, the department hosts an Interview Weekend to which the most promising applicants are invited, and admissions decisions are made shortly afterwards.

Applications should be submitted by January 1, complete with personal statement, transcripts, letters of recommendation and Graduate Record Examination scores (General Test). For information about online application and required admissions materials see Graduate Admissions.  

The Ph.D. program is full-time, with a 12-month stipend offered to all students in the program each year. (For September 2009 through August 2010 the stipend is $24,060.) In addition, all tuition charges are waived and individual health insurance is covered. All students serve both as research and teaching assistants.

Links to Further Information / Contact Information

Additional information on the Ph.D program can be found by clicking on the following links:

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Psychology Booklet

Current Graduate Students

Questions about the Ph.D. program in the psychology department can be addressed to:

Dr. Joanne L. Miller
Graduate Coordinator / Director of Graduate Studies
j.miller@neu.edu