Admission to the doctoral degree School Psychology Program is offered only for the fall semester. Department application material must be received by November 15, for best consideration.

NOTE: International applicants are advised to have all university application documentation completed and received by Admissions at least four (4) weeks prior to the admission deadline. International applications require additional time to process submitted documentation.

Applicants must have a bachelor's degree and a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) for the last 60 hours of undergraduate work. Admission is competitive. Meeting the minimum admission requirements does not ensure selection into the doctoral degree program.

Program Course Preparation
Students applying for admission to the School Psychology Program are required to have completed a minimum of 21 hours of undergraduate psychology courses, which include general psychology or an equivalent course, experimental psychology or research methods or equivalent, and a social science statistics course or equivalent. Students who have not completed required courses may be admitted but will have these courses added to the doctoral degree program requirements. For more information, see the School Psychology Web site. Questions should be directed to the school psychology coordinator

Department Application
The department's application materials are listed below. The Flowchart for Doctoral Degree Application provides a convenient checklist for completing the department application.

• Vita Sheet (MS Word) (PDF)
• A copy of articles, thesis, or other publications.
• Three Letters of Recommendation (MS Word) (PDF)
  (At least one letter should be from an individual who is familiar with your research activities. Each letter should be in a separate, sealed envelope with the writer's signature across the seal.)
• Writing sample (Scholarly work approximately 5-15 pages, not a personal statement.)
• Graduate Assistantship application (see information below)
• Graduate Tuition Waiver application (see information below)

The Microsoft Word forms are interactive. Click on the link to download the forms to the computer's desktop. Complete the forms before printing. Adobe® Acrobat® is needed to access PDF forms. If a PDF form does not open, click on Adobe Reader to download a free copy of the software. PDF forms are not interactive. The forms must be printed and then completed.

Financial Assistance
Graduate students admitted to the doctoral degree School Psychology Program, having a GPA of 3.0 or higher, are eligible to apply for assistantships. Graduate assistants are chosen at the same time as admission offers are made to the doctoral degree program. Incoming students receive $550 a month for 10 hours of work per week. All assistantships include tuition waivers.

Applicants interested in a department graduate assistantship should click on Illinois State University Jobs for a list of available positions and an online application. When at the Jobs Web site, click on Graduate Assistantships and scroll down to find the jobs for Psychology-462. Follow the instructions for the online application. The decision to award a graduate assistantship is based on a variety of factors, e.g., the academic record of the applicant, the program to which the applicant is applying, and matching job-related skills and availability of the applicant with specific needs of the department.

If applying for a graduate assistantship, applicants are encouraged to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA application is the basis for determining eligibility for a Federal Work Study (FWS) award. The FAFSA application should be completed by March 1; the online application is available at www.fafsa.ed.gov.

Applicants are not required to complete the section on parental income or assets; however, providing this information increases the likelihood of eligibility for federal funding. If work study funding and a graduate assistantship are both awarded, a portion of the cost of the assistantship will be covered by the FWS award. If the FWS award is larger than the assistantship stipend, the department will consider increasing the assistantship. Under some circumstances, graduate students who receive a FWS award are disadvantaged by accepting the award; therefore, students will be released from the FWS award if this award is not in their best interest.

If applicants do not apply for or receive a FWS award, applicants are still eligible for graduate assistantships. Conversely, receiving a FWS award does not assure applicants of a graduate assistantship offer from the department.

Applicants are also encouraged to complete and submit the Graduate Tuition Waiver (PDF).

Submission of Application
Department doctoral degree application material, as one complete package, should be sent to:

Applicants are responsible for verifying that their application is complete. Applicants may verify receipt of application material by contacting the Graduate Psychology Programs office by e-mail at psygrad@ilstu.edu. The e-mail should include the applicant's full name and identify the doctoral degree School Psychology Program.

See the Graduate School and Financial Aid Web sites for information about financial assistance.

Applicants must also complete the University application process for admission to Illinois State University.