ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

NOTE: THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS DECEMBER 1ST, 2024.

The ISU Doctor of Psychology program requires a minimum of four years of full-time, on-site study, plus a one year off-site internship.  The program does not offer part-time or distance education.

Applications for the clinical doctoral (Psy.D.) program will be accepted between September 1, 2024 and December 1, 2024 for the Fall 2025 cohort.  All materials must be received by the deadline; applications and application materials received after December 1^st will not be considered for admission. Indiana State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, handicap, Veteran status, or age. The department actively recruits students from diverse backgrounds.

Our program adheres to a practitioner-scientist training model, whereas most Psy.D. programs follow a practitioner-scholar model. Ph.D. programs tend to follow a scientist-practitioner model. The models speak to the relative balance of clinical work to non-clinical work, as well as the emphasis on research (contributing to knowledge) versus scholarship (learning existing knowledge).

As opposed to Ph.D. programs, we place more emphasis on the practice of psychology than on research. With regard to research, although we don’t follow a traditional “lab model,” in which students are admitted to work only with a particular faculty, we do admit students to the program who have similar research interests with one or more of our faculty. Similarly, we also consider the match between the applicant’s clinical interests and the clinical training and areas of expertise represented among our faculty.

The extent to which our students engage in research varies. All students are expected to complete a dissertation. In addition, all students in the program are expected to give at least one research or clinical presentation while on campus. Students are not required to engage in research beyond their dissertation, however many choose to do so. Some faculty will involve students in their research labs starting in the first year, other faculty will begin working with students on research closer to the 3^rd year of the program, when the dissertation topic is being developed. Students are free to engage in research with more than one faculty member. Prospective students may inquire about individual research expectations with faculty members.

Admission into the Psy.D. program is competitive and enrollment is generally limited to 8-9 students per year. Applicants are selected for admission on the basis of undergraduate and graduate grades, clinical and research interests and experiences, letters of reference, significant accomplishments, and formal interviews.

Admission into the program requires a solid foundation in the science of psychology. Prerequisites for admission to the Psy.D. program for those with a bachelor’s degree are a minimum of 24 undergraduate credit hours in psychology at an accredited university or college. These 24 hours must include coursework in Abnormal Psychology, Research Methods or Experimental Psychology, and Statistics. In addition, it is preferred that students have taken course in learning or cognition and personality. Applicants whose undergraduate training does not satisfy these requirements may substitute comparable graduate coursework in psychology.

Minimum criteria for consideration for admission into the Psy.D. program include an undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, or a graduate GPA (if more than nine graduate credit hours in Psychology) of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale. The program is not requiring GRE scores for admission this year.

An applicant should have the potential to become a professional psychologist, as documented by letters of reference. Recommendation letters will ideally come from psychology professors and/or mental health professionals familiar with your academic and/or professional and interpersonal competence, and who can speak competently to your ability to succeed in a doctoral program in clinical psychology. Letters from individuals who are familiar with doctoral training in psychology are strongly preferred. Additional letters of recommendation beyond these three may be submitted, but are not required. Applicants must have official transcripts from all institutions of higher education in which they have been enrolled sent to the ISU Admissions Office (Indiana State University Graduate Admissions, Welcome Center, 318 North Sixth Street, Terre Haute, IN 47809-1904)

Interviews for admission are held on an invitation-only basis. Approximately 40 of applicants are invited in mid-January for an initial, online (Zoom) interview to occur in late January. Following those interviews, applicants judged to be have a high likelihood of being offered admission into the program will be invited to an follow-up, on-campus interview. When possible, we try to accommodate scheduling conflicts for those applicants who are invited to interview, but cannot come on our scheduled interview dates. Travel costs for all interviews are assumed by the applicant. Decisions on admission and financial assistance usually are made by early March and offers must be accepted by April 15^th.

Students entering the program with previous graduate work should not assume automatic transfer of credit for graduate courses. After arrival, transfer credit will be evaluated on a course-by-course basis. Up to nine credit hours may be transferred for graduate credit in non-clinical core courses. To be eligible for transfer credit, the course must be judged to be comparable to a required ISU course and should have been taken within the past three years; the student should have earned with a grade of an A or higher in the course and will be required to demonstrate the requisite skills associated with the course; this can usually be accomplished by a syllabus review and presentation of a portfolio of relevant coursework.

If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Dr. Kevin Bolinskey, Chair of the Psy.D. Admissions Committee, Kevin.Bolinskey@indstate.edu.