Admission Requirements
The General Admission page includes detailed information about admission requirements.
Candidates applying with a Master's degree in Psychology may request advanced standing in the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program. See the Master of Arts page for more detailed informaiton.
Degree Requirements
The Department requires a minimum period of registration of nine terms beyond an Honours Bachelor's degree or six terms beyond a Master's degree. (While a PhD may be obtained within nine terms of an Honours BA, a period of twelve to fifteen terms is typical.)
A reading knowledge of a modern foreign language is not a PhD requirement. Entry to any of the programs of the Department presupposes general proficiency in the English language. However, please refer to English Language Proficiency page for information on English language requirements.
For the PhD in Psychology, the Department requires successful defence of the PhD thesis, completion of statistics and breadth requirements and satisfactory performance in a minimum of two two-term graduate Psychology courses or their equivalent in one-term courses. Further requirements for the PhD are outlined in sections describing the particular programs. While many courses may be taken on a Cr/NCr basis, at least half the courses offered for a degree by the student must be graded.
Statistics and Breadth Requirements
Students enrolled in doctoral programs must complete the Department's statistics requirements and comprehensive breadth requirements. The statistics requirements may be met by satisfactory performance in at least one of two core statistics courses: PSYCH 630 and PSYCH 632 (or credit granted for evidence of a strong undergraduate statistics background) plus one additional statistics course. The additional course may be the remaining core statistics course or a different statistics course such as PSYCH 800. To meet the departmental breadth requirements, all students will be required to take four one-term courses or their equivalent outside their areas/divisions. These courses must be taken in at least two different areas/divisions. For the purposes of this requirement the relevant areas are:
- Clinical
- Cognitive
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental
- Educational
- Industrial/Organizational
- Psychopharmacology
- Quantitative Methods
- Social
- Other
Extra departmental courses as well as transfer credits may also be considered. Usually no more than two one-term credits toward breadth requirements are granted from such sources.