General Admission Qualifications

Consideration for admission requires a bachelor's or master's degree, preferably with a major in psychology; an excellent scholastic average; favorable recommendations from at least three persons who know the academic and personal qualifications of the applicant; and appropriate statements from the applicant as stated on the application form. Requests for admission interviews are too numerous to honor. However, the admissions committee may invite applicants for an interview after the initial screening of written applications.

Students entering the programs at GSAPP need not have majored in psychology. However, they are generally expected to have taken the main courses for an undergraduate major in the field. Prior to entering the program, students must have taken courses covering the following areas: introductory psychology, statistics, abnormal psychology, and the biological bases of psychology. Students also should have taken at least one and preferably two courses in the following areas: cognitive psychology; psychology of perception, conditioning, and learning; developmental psychology; psychology of personality; and social psychology. We prefer that one of the above-listed courses have a laboratory component. Both clinical and school psychology programs welcome applications from Rutgers students who are properly prepared with good academic records and references.

We do not provide feedback about a prospective applicant's undergraduate curriculum to determine whether applicants meet any of the above criteria this includes pre-requisite courses. During the admissions process, each applicant will be asked to describe how they have met each criteria, or will meet each criteria, prior to matriculation in any doctoral program. It will be up to each candidate to describe how their prior coursework meets the content requirements above. During the interview process or once an applicant is offered admissions, the program will give feedback to individual students.