yale university phd psychology

Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology with Health Emphasis

Ferkauf graduate school of psychology.

Degree level

Course structure

Internship Match

APA Accredited

Training in

Multiculturalism and Diversity

The Clinical Psychology with Health Emphasis PhD program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology is dedicated to the goals of diversity and inclusion throughout all aspects of our program including coursework, research, clinical work, and for the students, faculty, and staff. We value diversity in all forms, including, but not limited to, age, race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, immigration status, sex (or sex assigned at birth), gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, class or socioeconomic status, religious belief and non-belief, political views or party, and level of ability/disability. Information about a range of diversity- and inclusion-related topics (e.g., multiculturalism, social determinants of health, working with diverse clients) is incorporated into our classes, our research programs, and our clinical work and supervision. We actively participate in and support Ferkauf’s ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts such as the Student-Faculty Coalition for Diversity and Social Justice and a number of affinity groups (e.g., BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, international).

Announcements

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Hannah-Rose Mitchell, who recently joined our faculty!

Dr. Hannah-Rose Mitchell, PhD, MPH, is a clinical health psychologist joining as an Assistant Professor in Ferkauf’s PhD Program in Clinical Psychology, Health Emphasis. She recently completed an NIH-funded T32 fellowship in Psycho-Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where she served as Chief Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and worked on trials examining interventions targeting cancer-related distress in patients and caregivers. She received her PhD in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Miami and earned a Master of Public Health from Yale University. Her research focuses on the psychosocial effects of cancer on the family/family caregivers, particularly the traumatic impact and development of posttraumatic stress and growth.

Noteworthy News and Accomplishments

• Congratulations to Sarah Styke on being awarded the 2024 American Psychological Foundation (APF) National Register Internship Travel Scholarship!
• Kensei Maeda is the recipient of a research fellowship from the American Heart Association to evaluate the role of migraine in development of dementia.  This research will be conducted at the Veterans Health Administration Headache Centers of Excellence. Existing evidence regarding the risk of dementia conferred by migraine is inconsistent. The most compelling evidence is derived from cohorts including only women. However, during a one-year period, 6% of men also experience migraine. The goal of the current study is to evaluate the risk of a new diagnosis of dementia 10+ years after patients present with migraine in the Veterans Health Administration system. This research will include approximately half-a-million veterans with migraine (2/3 men) and a million matched controls. Kensei will explore the role of moderating factors such as gender, age, cardiovascular comorbidities and treatments for both migraine and cardiovascular diseases. 
• Dr. Seng's Interview with Nature Medicine highlights issues around diet in neurologic diseases
• Research by Dr. Gonzalez featured in Special Issue of Diabetes Care
• Dr. Jonathan Feldman Receives National Heart Lung and Blood Institute Grant entitled "A Randomized Trial of Perception of Airflow Limitation Training to Improve Outcomes for Older Adults with Asthma"
• Dr. Jonathan Feldman Receives Grant from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to Create Mobile App Using Voice Biomarkers to Help Asthma Control
• Her publication that won the "Member's Choice" award for the best article published in Headache in 2022
• Her interview with CBS News Health Watch
• Dr. Roee Holtzer Receives National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Grant entitled "Central Control and Neuroinflammatory Mechanisms of Locomotion in Older Adults with HIV"
• Dr. Roee Holtzer Receives National Institute on Aging Grant for the Assessment of Cognitive Decline using Multimodal Neuroimaging with Embedded Artificial Intelligence
• Dr. Elizabeth Seng Receives National Institutes for Health/National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health Grant to Study Mindfulness Therapy for Migraine
• Dr. Jeffrey Gonzalez Receives Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Grant to Explore Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Reduce Diabetes Distress
• Dr. Jeffrey Gonzalez and the New York Regional Center for Diabetes Translation Research (NY-CDTR) Receive Renewal Grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
• Dr. Michelle Chen Receives K23 Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health
• Dr. Amy Grinberg Wins Society for Health Psychology (Division 38) Award for Excellence in Clinical Health Psychology by an Early Career Professional
• Dr. Elizabeth Gromisch Receives the Harry Weaver Scholar Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society

See more exciting news about our Alumni on our  Featured Alumni  page!

Program Overview

The primary goal of this 99-credit program is to train doctoral-level (Ph.D.) students in the ethical science and practice of clinical psychology with an additional emphasis on the interaction of physical and mental health. 

Mission Statement

The overarching mission of the program is to train qualified clinicians, academic scholars, and applied researchers in clinical psychology. Embedded in this mission statement are core values of Yeshiva University that include: (1) bringing wisdom to life; (2) love of knowledge for its own sake; (3) a commitment to excellence in teaching and research; and (4) the view that liberal arts and social sciences are compatible with high ethical and moral standards. At the graduate level of training, this mission is manifested through an emphasis on the ethical and moral principles that govern professional scientist-practitioners' search for knowledge.

The program's training philosophy is aimed at training psychologists who are both clinically and academically prepared to work as clinicians and researchers in diverse settings. This program design is based on the premise that psychologists working in mental and physical health settings need a strong foundation of clinical and research skills, to enable graduates to provide superior clinical services and make meaningful research contributions .   The foundations of psychology represent the primary base, with in-depth training in general clinical psychology. This training base is complemented by training in health psychology, physiological bases of behavior, and public health systems.  In addition to broad-based training in clinical psychology, the overarching goals of our program are briefly described below. 

• Goal 1 :  Provide sequential and cumulative training of increasing complexity in evidence-based psychological and healthcare assessment, intervention, and consultation services. 
• Goal 2 : Produce independent researchers capable of contributing to the scientific body of knowledge in the field of clinical psychology as it is applied to diverse health issues, and able to educate and mentor future researchers in the field. 
• Goal 3 : Train effective clinical providers and researchers, through comprehensive training that is cumulative and graded in complexity in psychological theories, clinical practice, and research with clinical health psychology as an emphasis.  
• Goal 4 : Provide comprehensive training in the professional values, attitudes, standards and ethics of clinical work and research with diverse individuals and groups. 

Our teaching and training philosophy is consistent with the Boulder model of the scientist-practitioner. Furthermore, in our view and interpretation of the Boulder model the integration of the functions of the scientist and practitioner is critical in advancing the science and practice of clinical psychology; and in translating empirically based assessment and treatment approaches to diverse settings.

Accreditation

The Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with Health Emphasis was awarded the maximum seven years of APA accreditation in 2016. The program was initially granted APA accreditation effective October 2005. In 2017, the program was re-accredited for seven years. The next accreditation review is scheduled for 2023.

The APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation supports the APA Commission on Accreditation (CoA) in carrying out its responsibilities as the nationally recognized accrediting body for education and training programs in professional psychology. Contact information for the CoA as follows:

APA Accreditation Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002-4242 Phone: 202.336.5979, 202.336.5979 TDD/TTY: 202.336.6123 Fax: 202.336.5978

Email:  [email protected]

Full Program Breakdown

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Program Director and Faculty

Program director.

Jonathan Feldman, Ph.D. Dr. Feldman's Lab Webpage

Jeffrey Gonzalez, Ph.D. Dr. Gonzalez's Lab Webpage

Bari Hillman, Ph.D. Director of Clinical Training

Roee Holtzer, Ph.D. Dr. Holtzer's Lab Webpage

Hannah-Rose Mitchell, Ph.D. MPH Dr. Mitchell's Lab Webpage

Elizabeth Seng, Ph.D. Dr. Seng's Lab Webpage

Charles Swencionis, Ph.D. Dr. Swencionis' Lab Webpage

Andrea Weinberger, Ph.D. Dr. Weinberger's Lab Webpage

Vance Zemon, Ph.D. Dr. Zemon's Lab Webpage

Emeritus Faculty

Fred Foley, Ph.D. Dr. Foley's Lab Webpage (No longer mentoring new students)

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• Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data  -   (Updated 9/2023) - Information concerning admissions, internships, costs, graduation rates, and licensure.

Elective Courses and Minors

The ph.d. in clinical psychology (health emphasis) program minors.

Students have the option to complete a number of minors that are offered by the Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (Health Emphasis) Program. In order to successfully fulfill the requirements for a minor, a student must complete all required coursework with grades of B+ or higher in each course as well as any required externships and/or research projects. A summary of each minor can be found below and can also be found in the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology Academic Catalog.

*Students interested in elective training opportunities through the minors are required to schedule an in-person appointment with the faculty member who directs the minor they wish to pursue in order to discuss the training process and requirements, and to receive formal approval.

Clinical Neuropsychology Minor

Director: Dr. Roee Holtzer                                         The training in Clinical Neuropsychology is consistent with the educational and training guidelines recommended by Division 40 of the APA and the Houston Conference. Core courses in assessment, interviewing, psychopathology, therapy, statistics, and biological basis of behavior must be completed before students begin their training in the Clinical Neuropsychology Minor. Successful completion of the courses “Neuroscience of Human Behavior, Cognition and Affect” and “Physiological Health Psychology” also serves as a prerequisite for admissions to the minor. Then, concurrent with the two-semester didactic sequence (Introduction to Clinical Neuropsychology I and II) students are required to complete a formal year-long externship in Clinical Neuropsychology. The course in Psychopharmacology may be taken in parallel or subsequent to completion of the above year- long didactic sequence. As discussed above, the following courses are required for the minor: Physiological Psychology [PSH 6938], (2) Neuroscience of Human Behavior, Cognition and Affect [PSH 6014], (3) Clinical Neuropsychology I [PSH 6011], (4) Clinical Neuropsychology II [PSH 6012], (5) Psychopharmacology [PSA 6071].

Research Methodology and Statistics Minor

Director: Dr. Elizabeth Seng                                       The Research Methodology and Statistics Minor will give students an opportunity to gain advanced didactic and applied training in research methodology and statistics in the behavioral sciences. Students must take Statistics I [PSA 6280] and Statistics II [PSA 6283] as prerequisites to the minor. Students will then take coursework in Applied Statistics in Health [PSH 6284], Social Psychology in Health [PSH 6935], Qualitative Research [PSA 6289], and Test Construction [PSH 6321]. Students will also practice advanced research methodology and statistics skills through an applied project, which will consist of a written document describing the application of an advanced methodological or statistical technique in either an academic research project, an abstract submitted to a conference, or a peer-reviewed publication.

Addictions Minor

Director: Dr. Andrea H. Weinberger The Addictions Minor requires the completion of the three courses (listed below) which will provide the students with training related to clinical work in addictions (e.g., assessment, treatment), research (statistical analysis of addiction-related data), and the association of addictions to health. To fulfill the requirements of the minor, students must also complete one of the following: (1) a clinical externship with an emphasis on clinical work in addictions or (2) a research project focused on addictions. The externship and research project must be approved by the minor advisors. The following courses are required to complete the Addictions Minor: (1) Applied Statistics in Health [PSH 6284], (2) Health and Addictions [PSH 6421], and (3) the American Psychological Association (APA) Substance Use Disorders (SUD) Curriculum [https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/substance-use] . For the APA SUD Curriculum, the certificate of complication must be submitted to Dr. Weinberger in order to get credit for the course as part of the Addictions Minor.

Additional Minors

Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (Health Emphasis) students are eligible to complete several minors that are offered through the Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology program or the Psy.D. in School-Clinical Child Psychology program at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. In order to successfully fulfill the requirements for a minor, a student must complete all required coursework with grades of B+ or higher in each course as well as any required externships and/or research projects. A summary of each minor can be found below and can also be found in the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology Academic Catalog.

Geropsychology Minor

Director: Dr. Richard Zweig The Ferkauf Older Adult Program (FOAP) offers a minor in the newly emerging field of clinical geropsychology comprised of didactic coursework and clinical training experiences. Didactic Training Requirement: Students who seek a minor in clinical geropsychology must complete 9 credits (see below) to meet the didactic coursework requirement; one of these must include Assessment and Treatment of Older Adults [PSC 6448], an overview of issues critical to the diagnosis and psychological treatment of psychological problems in older adults. Required Coursework: (1) Assessment and Treatment of Older Adults [PSC 6448] and (2) Two of the following courses: Neuroscience of Human Behavior, Cognition and Affect [PSH 6014]; Geropsychology Lab I [PSC 6449L] & II [PSC 6450L]; Research in Depression & Personality Disorders in Older Adults I [PSC 6459L]; Research in Depression & Personality Disorders in Older Adults II (PSC 6450L]; Clinical Neuropsychology I [PSH 6011] & Clinical Neuropsychology II [PSH 6012] (only open to students pursuing the Neuropsychology minor); Geriatric Neuropsychology Practicum I [PSC 6449] & Geriatric Neuropsychology Practicum II [PSC 6550] (open to participants in the FOAP geropsychology externship ONLY). Advanced Clinical Training Requirement: Students who seek the minor may satisfy the advanced clinical training requirements through participation in an externship that emphasizes supervised clinical work with older adults (minimum experience of nine (9) months of applied supervised training for at least ten (10) hours per week). For more information, please see the FOAP website: https://www.yu.edu/ferkauf/ degrees-programs/clinical- psychology/elective-training

Child Minor

Director: Dr. Greta Doctoroff Students in all doctoral programs have the option of completing a Child Minor. Students must contact the School-Clinical Child Program Director prior to registration for the Spring semester to apply for the child minor. Please be aware that availability may be limited based on enrollment in any given year. Students accepted to the minor will be assigned a Child Minor advisor. The Child Minor requires the completion of four courses that must be taken in the order listed below. These courses equip students with foundational knowledge to inform future supervised training outside of the minor in child and adolescent therapy. In addition to these courses, Child Minor students must also have either 1) a year-long externship which involves 75% of time dedicated to child/adolescent therapy/assessment that has been approved by the Child Minor advisor or 2) a doctoral research project which is focused on child or adolescent research that is approved by the Child Minor advisor. Required Coursework: (1) Developmental Psychopathology [PSS 6250 (Spring)] and (2) Beginning Work with Children, Parents, and Families [PSS 6610 (Spring)] and either: (3) Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy for Youth I [PSS 6213 (Fall)] (4) Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy for Youth II [PSS 6449 (Spring)] or: (3) Psychodynamic Theory [PSS 6118 (Fall)] (4) Psychodynamic Therapy for Youth [PSS 6119 (Spring)]. Please note: the Child Minor does not involve the opportunity to complete the Child Therapy Practicum courses, which are reserved for students in the School-Clinical Child Program.

Other Training Information

Our training process is sequential, graded in complexity and cumulative. Upon entering the program, each student is assigned a core faculty member as an  academic advisor,  who meets with the student at least twice per year to address academic and program-related issues. During the first month of the program, each student collaboratively identifies a  research mentor , a core faculty member who provides individual supervision to students in her/his lab about research and career development mentorship throughout the student’s tenure in the program. Academically, students first complete core courses and emphasis is placed on achievement of foundational knowledge.

Clinical training begins in the spring semester of the 1 st  year with our in-house training clinic, the Parnes Clinic, as part of the program’s Behavioral Medicine Practicum sequence. In the second year and throughout their tenure in the program students are placed in year-long externships, which are formal external clinical training sites typically located in medical centers, hospitals and outpatient clinic settings.  After the students satisfactorily achieve all academic and clinical requirements during in-residence training they are required to complete a full-time predoctoral internship (see clinical training section for further details).

The program’s robust training in research is focused on the application of clinical psychology to diverse health conditions and populations. The research lab courses, which are required throughout the tenure of the students in the program, serve as platforms for students to learn core concepts related to the specific research area and to develop, implement and successfully complete their research projects.  The student is required to achieve two research milestones, the predoctoral project and dissertation thesis.

Students are expected to demonstrate competencies in all areas of training. Our assessment of competencies is based on academic performance, direct observations of expected skill sets, indirect evaluations including but not limited to students’ evaluations by clinical supervisors as well as procedures developed by the program faculty to directly observe and evaluate core clinical and research competencies. In addition, the program has developed two independent procedures that assess competency in a manner consistent with the APA competency benchmark system.

For a comprehensive overview of the programs’ training procedures, policies and values see the  Program Manual (PDF) .

Student Resources

• Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology Academic Calendar 2023-2024
• Program Manual (PDF)
• Ferkauf Academic Catalog (PDF)
• YU Handbook (PDF)
• Parnes Clinic Manual (PDF)

Student Groups

• Association of Neuropsychology Students in Training (ANST) ANST Website
• Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) PsySR (PDF)
• The Organization of Psychology Students (OPS) The Organization of Psychology Students (OPS)  is the student organization of Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. 

Reimbursements

• Click Here to find out more about Reimbursements (PDF)
• Research Reimbursement Form (PDF)
• Conference Reimbursement Form (PDF)

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• Student First Authored Presentations

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Yale College Programs of Study 2024–2025

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• Summary of Requirements

Director of undergraduate studies:  Yarrow Dunham , psychology.yale.edu

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, the brain, and human behavior. The Psychology department offers coursework and research opportunities in the fields of clinical, cognitive, developmental, neuroscientific, and social psychology. By studying psychology, students better understand human behavior, including who we are, how we do the things we do, and how we enhance our lives and society. The Psychology major provides a foundation for careers in education and research; law; medicine and public health; politics and public policy; and in business fields such as marketing, finance, and management. 

Course Numbering

Courses in the department are organized so that they are best taken in several parallel sequences. Courses numbered 120–190 and ending in a zero are core survey courses that introduce students to major areas of psychology and provide additional background for more advanced courses. These courses represent major content areas of psychology; students should sample broadly from them before specializing. Courses numbered from 200–209 focus on statistics. Courses numbered 210–299 teach general methodology or data collection in various areas of psychology. Courses numbered from 300–399 are more advanced courses in a particular specialization. Senior seminars, whose enrollment is limited to no more than twenty students, are numbered from 400–489. These seminars are best taken once a student has the appropriate background. Courses numbered from 490–499 are special tutorial courses that require permission of the adviser and the director of undergraduate studies (DUS).

Prerequisite

PSYC 110 , a general survey course, is a prerequisite to several 100-level and all 200-level and above courses. This prerequisite may alternatively be satisfied by a score of 5 on the Psychology Advanced Placement test or a score of 7 on the IB Psychology exam.

Requirements of the Major

Standard major  The standard major in Psychology for both the B.A. degree program and the B.S. degree program requires twelve credits beyond PSYC 110 , including the senior requirement. The difference between the B.A. and the B.S. degree programs is the senior requirement (see below).

• Because psychology is so diverse a subject, every student is required to take two courses from the social science point of view in psychology and two from the natural science point of view in psychology. Listed below are examples of courses that fulfill these requirements. A complete list of courses, updated each term, may be found on Yale Course Search (YCS) by searching "Any Course Information Attribute." At least one from each group must be a course designated as Core in the course listings and below. Students are expected to take their two core courses as early as possible in the major, normally within two terms after declaring their major.

     Social science core ( YC PSYC: Social Science Core ): PSYC 140 , 150 , 180

     Social science : Search YCS for courses with the YC PSYC: Social Science  designation

     Natural science core ( YC PSYC: Natural Science Core ): PSYC 130 ,  160

     Natural science : Search  YCS for courses with the YC PSYC: Natural Science designation.

• Because statistical techniques and the mode of reasoning they employ are fundamental in psychology, a course in statistics ( PSYC 200 ) is required, preferably prior to the senior year. A student may substitute S&DS 103 for PSYC 200 or may substitute an examination arranged with the instructor of PSYC 200 for the course requirement. Students may take the examination only one time, and a n additional psychology course should be taken if the examination substitutes for PSYC 200 . A student who has taken S&DS 103 may not take PSYC 200 for credit. If approved in advance by the DUS, a second course in statistics that focuses on advanced statistical techniques relevant for research in psychology can be counted towards the major as a PSYC elective. 
• To ensure some direct experience in collecting and analyzing data, students must elect at least one research methods course, preferably before the senior year, in which research is planned and carried out. For students pursuing the BS degree, this course  must  be taken prior to the senior year. Courses numbered between 210–299 fulfill this research methods requirement.
• Students may, with permission of the DUS, count up to three term courses in other related departments toward the major. Appropriate courses are rare and only approved when the course has substantial empirical psychology content. Students should consult with the DUS in Psychology about selecting outside courses and should not assume that a course will count prior to that consultation. Getting this approval in advance is highly recommended.

Students interested in research are encouraged to take an independent study course ( PSYC 493 ) as early as the sophomore year. Students may also take PSYC 495 for one-half course credit of independent research per term with prior permission of the faculty adviser and the DUS (this course is often taken twice in sequence). To obtain permission, follow the instructions on the department website to fill out the enrollment survey and then add the class normally, being sure to request instructor permission. This process must be completed at least one week before the end of the add/drop period for a given semester. These independent study courses are graded P/F. No more than a total of three credits from PSYC 490–499 combined may count toward the major.

Neuroscience concentration  Students with a major interest in neuroscience may wish to elect the neuroscience concentration. Such students are considered Psychology majors for whom the requirements have been modified to accommodate their interests and to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of modern neuroscience and psychology. Given the broad nature of the field of neuroscience, students may wish to concentrate their studies in one area of the field (e.g., behavioral, cellular and molecular, cognitive, affective, social, clinical, or developmental). Interested students are encouraged to contact the concentration adviser, Steve Chang . Majors in the neuroscience concentration must check in with the concentration adviser at the beginning of each term in their junior and senior years.

Requirements for the neuroscience concentration are the same as for the standard major, with the additional requirements listed below.   A complete list of courses, updated each term, may be found on Yale Course Search (YCS) by searching "Any Course Information Attribute."

• Two terms of introductory biology are required for the major, BIOL 101-104. Students who have scored 5 on the Advanced Placement test in Biology or scored 7 on the IB Biology exam may place out of these courses.
• Students must take PSYC 160 and a data-collection course (YC PSYC: NSCI Track RsrchMthds ) chosen from PSYC 230 , 238 , 250 , 258 or 270 . PSYC 229L , 260 , or MCDB 320 may substitute for the PSYC 160 requirement, or MCDB 320 and 321L may substitute for PSYC 229L  or  260 , but not both. If MCDB 320 is substituted for a Psychology course, it cannot be counted as one of the two advanced science courses outside the department (see item 4 below).
• As required for the standard major, students in the neuroscience concentration must take two social science courses, at least one of which must be designated as Core in the course listings. Students in the neuroscience concentration must also take a course from the natural science list in addition to the courses specified in item 2 above.
• At least two advanced science courses ( YC PSYC: NSCI Track Adv Scie ) must be chosen from Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology courses numbered 200 and above that deal with human and/or animal biology; recommended courses include MCDB 200 , 202 , 205 , 210 , 250 , 300 , 315 , 320 , E&EB 220 , 225 , and E&EB 240 . Certain courses outside of these departments may also meet the advanced science requirement, including BENG 350 , 421 , CPSC 475 , MB&B 300 , 301 , 420 , 435 , 443 , 452 , MATH 222 , 225 , MATH 230 , MATH 231 , and 241 . Other courses may qualify for this requirement with permission of the neuroscience concentration adviser. Laboratory courses do not count toward the advanced science requirement. Students should note that many advanced science courses have prerequisites that must be taken first.

Credit/D/Fail  No more than two term courses taken Credit/D/Fail may be applied toward the major; no 200-level course, or course taken to satisfy a 200-level requirement (e.g. S&DS 103 ), can be taken Credit/D/Fail and then applied toward the major.

Searchable attributes  YC PSYC: Social Science Core ,  YC PSYC Social Science ,  YC PSYC: Natural Science Core ,  YC PSYC: Natural Science ,  YC PSYC: NSCI Track RsrchMthds ,  YC PSYC: NSCI Track Adv Scie ,  YC PSYC: NSCI Track Senior Sem

Senior Requirement 

Standard major  Majors are required to earn two course credits from courses numbered PSYC 400–499. At least one of these courses (excluding PSYC 490–495, which can only be taken P/F) must be taken during the senior year, for which a student must write a substantial final paper (a minimum of 5,000 words) and receive a letter grade.  The B.A. degree i s typically awarded to students who conduct a nonempirical literature review during senior year. There are no restrictions in the research format for the B.A.  The B.S. degree is awarded to students who conduct empirical research through  PSYC 499  during senior year. An empirical research project normally includes designing an experiment and collecting and analyzing the data. Students pursuing the B.S. degree will want to identify a faculty advisor well in advance of the semester in which they intend to complete their senior essay, and they may want to seek research experiences with that faculty member prior to the senior year.

Neuroscience concentration  The senior requirement for the neuroscience concentration is the same as for the standard major, except that the two required course credits from PSYC 400–499 must have neuroscience content (YC PSYC: NSCI Track Senior Sem designation). Students pursuing the B.S. degree in the concentration must carry out a neuroscientific empirical project in  PSYC 499  and must be supervised by a faculty member within the neuroscience area of the Psychology department. Students who wish to work with an affiliated faculty member studying neuroscience outside the department must obtain permission from the neuroscience concentration adviser. Students pursuing the B.S. degree will want to identify a faculty advisor well in advance of the semester in which they intend to complete their senior essay, and they may want to seek research experiences with that faculty member before the senior year.

Distinction in the Major  To be considered for Distinction in the Major, students must submit a senior essay to the Psychology department at least one week before the last day of classes in the term when the course used for the senior essay is taken. Senior essays that are submitted after the deadline will be subject to grade penalties. Senior essays considered for Distinction in the Major are graded by a second reader and the essay adviser.

Schedules for all majors must be discussed with, and approved by, the DUS or the adviser for the neuroscience concentration in Psychology. For questions concerning credits for courses taken at other institutions or at Yale but outside the Department of Psychology, students should consult with the DUS. For questions concerning the neuroscience concentration, students should consult with the adviser for the neuroscience concentration in Psychology.

Computer Science and Psychology major  The interdepartmental major in Computer Science and Psychology may be considered by students with interests lying squarely between the two disciplines. See Computer Science and Psychology for more information.

SUMMARY OF MAJOR REQUIREMENTS

STANDARD MAJOR

Prerequisite  PSYC 110

Number of courses  12 courses beyond prereq (incl senior req)

Specific course required  PSYC 200  or S&DS 103

Distribution of courses   B.A. or B.S .—2 social science courses and 2 natural science courses, as specified; 1 course numbered PSYC 210–299

Substitution permitted  For PSYC 200 , S&DS 103 or exam arranged with instructor; up to 3 relevant courses in other depts, with DUS permission

Senior requirement   B.A. —1 course credit from PSYC 400–489 or 499 taken during senior year; 1 additional course credit from PSYC 400–499; B.S. — PSYC 499 taken during senior year; 1 additional course credit from PSYC 400–499

NEUROSCIENCE CONCENTRATION

Number of courses  12 courses beyond prereq (incl senior req); same as for the standard major with the additional requirements listed below

Specific courses required BIOL 101–104 unless students place out; PSYC 160 ,  200 , 230 , 238 , 250 , 258 or 270 .

Distribution of courses  B.A. or B.S. —2 social science courses and 1 natural science course, as specified; at least 2 advanced science courses, as specified

Substitution permitted  MCDB 320  or PSYC 229L or 260  may substitute for PSYC 160 ; or MCDB 320 and 321L  may substitute for PSYC 229L  or 260 ;  S&DS 103 or exam arranged with instructor for PSYC 200

Senior requirement  B.A. —1 course credit from PSYC 400–489 or 499 with neuroscience content taken during senior year; 1 additional course credit from PSYC 400–499 with neuroscience content; B.S. — PSYC 499  taken during senior year, with neuroscience content in a research project; 1 additional course credit from PSYC 400–499 with neuroscience content

Prerequisite for B.S. degree, B.A. degree, Neuroscience concentration

Requirements for B.S. degree and B.A. degree

12 courses (12 credits), including the senior requirement, but not the prerequisite 

• PSYC 200 or  S&DS 103
• 2 social science courses, to include 1 core course
• 2 natural science courses, to include 1 core course
• 1 research methods course numbered PSYC 210–299
• 4 electives, 3 of which may be taken in related departments (with DUS approval)
• for the B.S. degree only : empirical research:  PSYC 499  taken during the senior year and 1 additional course from PSYC 400–498
• for the B.A. degree only : nonempirical literature review: 1 course from PSYC 400–489 or PSYC 499 taken during the senior year and 1 additional course from PSYC 400–499

Requirements for the Neuroscience concentration

• 2 social science courses (one of which must be a core course)
• 2 natural science courses (one of which must be PSYC 160 )
• BIOL 101 - BIOL 104 (half credit each), unless excused by placement exam
• 1 data collection course, chosen from  PSYC 230 , PSYC 238 , PSYC 250 , PSYC 258 or PSYC 270 (see Overview for acceptable substitutions)
• 2 advanced science courses ( YC PSYC: NSCI Track Adv Scie )
• NOTE: same senior requirement as B.S. and B.A. degrees, but courses must have neuroscience content

The field of psychology scientifically studies the mind and behavior. Psychologists study a number of specific topics including perception, cognition, emotion, motivation, personality, development, mental health, social processes, and organizational behavior. Understanding these topics requires multiple perspectives, and the field uses a number of different levels of analysis. Psychologists investigate mental processing from the level of the neurons and brain function up to the level of how behavior is shaped by complex social processes. Because of this interdisciplinary breadth, psychology is by nature a diverse discipline that spans the natural and social sciences.

The Psychology major aims to provide students with a strong academic foundation in the science of psychology. Students who major in Psychology often differ widely in their reasons for choosing the major and in their post-graduation plans. Some students go on to graduate training in Psychology, while others enter professional schools (e.g., medicine and law) or choose from a variety of professions such as education or business and finance. The specific requirements of the major ensure that students with a variety of goals can achieve the necessary background in psychology within the context of a general liberal arts education.

The prerequisite to many courses in the major is PSYC 110 . Students interested in the major are encouraged to take PSYC 110 during the first year. This prerequisite may be waived for students who present a score of 5 on the AP test in Psychology or a score of 7 on the IB Psychology exam.

The following introductory courses also have no prerequisites and are open to first-year students:

PSYC 126 , Attraction and Relationships

PSYC 130 , Introduction to Cognitive Science

PSYC 140 , Developmental Psychology

PSYC 141 , The Criminal Mind

PSYC 150 , Social Psychology

PSYC 160 , The Human Brain

PSYC 165 , Personality Psychology

PSYC 170 , Fundamentals of Neuroscience

PSYC 180 , Clinical Psychology

FACULTY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Professors Woo-kyoung Ahn, John Bargh, Tyrone Cannon, B. J. Casey, Marvin Chun, Margaret Clark, Melissa Ferguson, Jutta Joormann, Frank Keil, Joshua Knobe, Gregory McCarthy, Jennifer Richeson, Peter Salovey, Laurie Santos, Brian Scholl, Nick Turk-Browne

Associate Professors Arielle Baskin-Sommers, Steve Wohn Chang, Molly Crockett, Yarrow Dunham, Avram Holmes

Assistant Professors  Dylan Gee, Maria Gendron, Julian Jara-Ettinger, Julia Leonard, Sam McDougle, Robb Rutledge, Ilker Yildirim

Lecturers Jennifer Hirsch, Stephanie Lazzaro, Kristi Lockhart, Mary O'Brien, Matthias Siemer

See visual roadmap of the requirements.

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Yale University

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Graduate & professional study.

Yale offers advanced degrees through its Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and 13 professional schools. Browse the organizations below for information on programs of study, academic requirements, and faculty research.

Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Yale’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences offers programs leading to M.A., M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in 73 departments and programs.

School of Architecture

The Yale School of Architecture’s mandate is for each student to understand architecture as a creative, productive, innovative, and responsible practice.

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The Yale School of Art has a long and distinguished history of training artists of the highest caliber.

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Yale Divinity School educates the scholars, ministers, and spiritual leaders of the future.

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The David Geffen School of Drama graduates have raised the standards of professional practice around the world in every theatrical discipline, creating bold art that engages the mind and delights the senses.

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The Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science is at the cutting edge of research to develop technologies that address global societal problems.

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The School of the Environment is dedicated to sustaining and restoring the long-term health of the biosphere and the well-being of its people.

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The Jackson School of Global Affairs trains and equips a new generation of leaders to devise thoughtful, evidence-based solutions for challenging global problems.

Yale Law School hones the world’s finest legal minds in an environment that features world-renowned faculty, small classes, and countless opportunities for clinical training and public service.

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School of Management students, faculty, and alumni are committed to understanding the complex forces transforming global markets and building organizations that contribute lasting value to society.

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Yale School of Medicine graduates go on to become leaders in academic medicine and health care, and innovators in clinical practice, biotechnology, and public policy.

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The Yale School of Music is an international leader in educating the creative musicians and cultural leaders of tomorrow.

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The Yale School of Nursing community is deeply committed to the idea that access to high quality patient‐centered health care is a social right, not a privilege.

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The School of Public Health supports research and innovative programs that protect and improve the health of people around the globe.

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The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is composed of the departments and academic programs that provide instruction in Yale College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Centers & Institutes

A number of our centers and institutes offer additional opportunities for graduate and professional study.

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Graduate students.

Graduate Students pursue degrees in each of our affiliated departments, as well as in the combined Philosophy and Psychology PhD program.

Graduate Student Advisory Panel:

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Anthropology

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Department of Psychology

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• Admissions Application Overview
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• Planning on applying to our Ph.D. graduate program?

• Standardized Testing Requirements
• PhD/Master's Application Process

Please review the standardized testing requirements for your program of study and register for any required examination(s) as soon as possible. Testing centers and available testing dates fill quickly.  

Use your legal name as it appears on your passport when registering for any standardized test (and also on your application for admission).

For more information, please review our FAQs on Standardized Tests .

Graduate Record Examination (GRE) 

The GRE is required for some degree programs at the Graduate School. Please check the table below to see if your program requires it.  

• Required = You must submit GRE General Test results. 
• Optional = You may submit GRE General Test results if you wish. If you choose to submit scores, you must follow any self-reported scores with official test results. 
• Not Accepted = Do not submit GRE General Test results. GRE General Test scores will not be considered when applications are reviewed. If you submit scores, they will not be reviewed.

Test requirements below are for the 2024-2025 application cycle.

Last updated July 2, 2024. Subject to change.

*Applicants to a combined degree program should consult both programs' admissions requirements and submit scores if either of the two programs require the GRE General Test and/or Subject Tests.

Submitting Official GRE Scores  

Official GRE scores must be sent to Yale University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, directly from ETS.

• Use Institution Code 3987.  
• You do not need to enter an individual department code when sending your official scores. Institution Code 3987 is sufficient.  
• Paper score reports are not accepted.  
• Scores released to other schools at Yale University cannot be transferred to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.  
• If you are applying to a PhD program associated with one of the professional schools at Yale, send your official scores directly to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Institution Code 3987) and not to the professional schools, which may have a separate code for applicants applying to other degree programs.  
• You should also self-report scores and any future test dates in your application.  

The Educational Testing Service administers the GRE in the United States and abroad. For details and registration forms, visit their site at www.ets.org .

English Language Tests - TOEFL iBT / IELTS Academic

TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic is required of most applicants whose native language is not English.

You may be exempt from this requirement if you have received (or will receive) an undergraduate degree from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction, and if you have studied in residence at that institution for at least three years. See "Exemptions" for more information. 

Official TOEFL iBT scores may be used to fulfill the English Language Test requirement.

• Scores must be sent to Yale University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, directly from ETS.
• Use Institution Code 3987.
• You do not need to enter an individual department code when sending your official scores. Institution Code 3987 is sufficient.
• Paper score reports are not acceptable and scores released to other schools at Yale University cannot be transferred to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
• If you are applying to a PhD program associated with one of the professional schools at Yale, send your official scores directly to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Institution Code 3987) and not to the individual professional schools, which may have separate codes for applicants applying to other degree programs.

The Educational Testing Service administers the TOEFL in the United States and abroad. For details and registration forms, visit their site at https://www.ets.org/ .

Official IELTS Academic scores may be used to fulfill the English Language Test requirement.

• We will only accept official scores submitted electronically by the IELTS test center via the E-Delivery service.
• When you take this test, please specify Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (also known as the Office of Graduate Admissions) as a score recipient. To identify us in the IELTS system, our address is Warner House, 1 Hillhouse Avenue, room 302, New Haven, CT 06511. Please do not send paper score reports to this address.
• We do not accept paper Test Report Forms, nor do we verify Test Report Forms (TRFs).
• We accept only IELTS Academic test scores. The IELTS General Training module is not accepted.

For more information and to register for the test, please visit https://ielts.org/

If you have received (or will receive) an undergraduate degree from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction, and if you have studied in residence at that institution for at least three years, you are exempt from the English Language Test requirement and are not required to submit the TOEFL or IELTS.

No exemptions are made on the basis of an advanced degree (e.g., MA/MS or PhD) from any institution.

When you complete your application, you will answer questions about your native language and the primary language of instruction at your baccalaureate institution. If either was English, you will not be required to submit TOEFL or IELTS scores when you submit your application. No separate documentation is necessary. 

Note: If you are not required to report TOEFL or IELTS scores (i.e. you are exempt because English is your native language or was the language of instruction at your undergraduate institution and you were in residence three years or more), but you choose to self-report your TOEFL or IELTS scores in the application anyways, you will be required to also submit official test results for verification purposes.

General Management Admission Test (GMAT) - For Applicants to Management (PhD)

The General Management Admission Test (GMAT) is acceptable in lieu of the GRE for applicants to the PhD program in Management.

• To send official GMAT results, select Code 3TJ-30-78 for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
• Paper score reports are not accepted and scores released to other schools of Yale University cannot be transferred or used.

Open Yale Courses

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The Department of Psychology at Yale conducts research in major areas of the field, including behavioral neuroscience, clinical, cognitive, developmental, and social/personality psychology. The B.A. in psychology has been designed to provide undergraduates reasonable grounding in psychology in the context of a general liberal arts education. At the graduate level, the primary goal is the training of research investigators in academic and applied settings. Learn more at http://www.yale.edu/psychology

• Doctoral Programs

Organizations and Management

Organizations and Management focuses on the study of two things: how individuals and groups interact within organizations, and how firms interact with one another and with consumers, employees, communities, and institutions. To understand these processes, scholars draw both on psychology—particularly the study of intergroup processes, power, stereotyping, and emotion—and on sociology, especially the study of categories, identity, interpersonal and inter-organizational relationships, organizations, and stratification.

Relative to other programs in organizations and management, Yale SOM's uniquely trains students to have a deep understanding of both psychological and sociological perspectives on the various issues studied by organizations scholars. It is also unusual in the depth of training that it provides in empirical research methods.

Specific programs of study are built around the interests of individual students.

• Laura Adler
• Tristan Botelho
• Jennifer Dannals
• Julia DiBenigno
• Emily Erickson
• Adriana Germano
• Ivana Katic
• Balázs Kovács
• David M. Munguia Gomez
• Jayanti Owens

Examples of research topics that would fit within the program include:

• How compensation schemes affect employee performance
• How do people categorize things and how do those categories influence behavior
• How do social networks influence economic development
• How employees and colleagues react to female leaders
• How rules and relationships affect lending practices
• The importance of social influence in the adoption of technologies
• How status hierarchies perpetuate or reduce inequality
• What motivates employees and individuals
• How to design and structure organizations
• How to balance innovation vs. execution in organizations
• How to transform complex organizations / institutions
• How non-market factors affect organizational outcomes

Applicants interested in this program should include at least one writing sample in their application materials.

Yale Daily News

First years enter the University under the leadership of Yale’s new 24th president, Maurie McInnis

Maurie McInnis was announced as the University’s new president in late May 2024.

Staff Reporter

The 2024-25 academic year will mark the first under a new University president in over a decade. University President Maurie McInnis assumed the top leadership position on July 1 after former president Peter Salovey stepped back to rejoin the Department of Psychology faculty.

McInnis first came to Yale to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees in the history of art, completing them in 1990 and 1996, respectively. Her academic research examines early American politics and the slave trade through the insights of works of art. Two years ago, she was appointed as a successor trustee of the Yale Corporation, the principal arm of the University that governs policies, the endowment and the selection of presidents. 

On May 29, senior trustee Joshua Bekenstein ’80 announced that the corporation had appointed McInnis to the presidency, making her the first woman to hold the position in a non-interim capacity.

“In the end, all 15 trustees were extremely excited, and it was a very, very unanimous vote with extreme levels of excitement about the future,” Bekenstein told the News in May . “Peter Salovey has done a fantastic job for 11 years, putting Yale where we are today, and we believe that Maurie will be a fantastic leader on a go-forward basis.”

In an August interview with the News, McInnis said that while she does not yet have specific changes planned from Salovey’s governance, she is committed to exploring new solutions. 

She promised to engage with the Yale community to understand their aspirations and the University’s strengths before formulating concrete plans, as she had only been president for just over a month at the time.

“[Under President Salovey’s leadership,] the University very clearly identified four pillars of the University’s initiatives and those have given us a really strong foundation,” McInnis told the News during the summer. “My role as president will be to shepherd and grow the work we are doing in that space, benefitting millions around the globe.”

Salovey announced his intention to leave the University’s helm on Aug. 31, before the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023. Over the course of the following academic year, pro-Palestine campus protests placed universities at the center of a nationwide controversy. Ultimately three Ivy League presidents — at Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania — resigned, following backlash after their testimonies on campus antisemitism before Congress.

Although Salovey was initially called to testify as well, Rep. Virginia Foxx, the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, later replaced him with other college presidents who had reached agreements with student protesters. Salovey was instead rescheduled to appear for a transcribed, closed-door interview with congressional staffers that was not released, thereby avoiding public backlash.

The Presidential Search Committee kept its decision-making process and formal requirements for the presidential job under wraps. In April, the News reported that McInnis fit the typical profile of a presidential choice: a prominent scholar who has held administrative positions in higher education and maintains connections to Yale. Her appointment marks the first time in recent decades that the Corporation has selected one of its own members for the presidency.

Prior to becoming the University’s president, McInnis served as president of Stony Brook University, where she emphasized science programs and secured the largest-ever unrestricted donation to an American university. She previously worked as provost of the University of Texas at Austin and taught at the University of Virginia before becoming an administrator.

While under consideration, McInnis faced mounting criticism at Stony Brook for her decision to arrest students participating in pro-Palestine protest encampments. After 29 arrests were made on May 2, the Stony Brook Faculty Senate narrowly defeated a vote to censure McInnis but approved an investigation into a large campus security operation that McInnis created. Some Stony Brook faculty and administrators blamed her for sowing division on campus in her final semester.

At Yale, pro-Palestine students and a faculty member expressed wariness of her record of involving police in protests. At the same time, other students reserved judgment and were eager to see Yale governed by a female president. Students who sat on the Student Advisory Council of the search committee were optimistic about how McInnis may actively engage with students.

The search committee that selected McInnis was composed of eight fellow Corporation members, four faculty members and 12 students.

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• Residents & Fellows
• Researchers

Yale Researchers Awarded $20.6M Grant for Wide-Ranging Study of Mental Illness

Scientists from Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences have been awarded a $20.6 million federal grant for a five-year study of people with a wide range of mental illnesses.

The project seeks to identify new and better ways to identify groups of people with similar underlying conditions, even if they have different diagnoses, and to move toward an individualized understanding of how symptoms evolve over time.

The Yale IMPACT-MH program will include researchers from across the medical school, including 16 different diagnosis-focused research and clinical groups from across the Yale Department of Psychiatry and Yale Child Study Center.

The researchers will use traditional assessments of mental health, new behavioral tools that measure different aspects of brain function, artificial intelligence-driven analysis of participants’ own descriptions of their experience, and electronic health records to follow 1,800 people who suffer from mental illness, and 600 controls who do not.

Each participant’s information will be analyzed to predict treatment outcome, to characterize how symptoms change over time at the individual and group level, and to identify subgroups of patients with differences in outcomes two years after diagnosis. Importantly, these groups may not map onto our current diagnostic framework – indeed, the researchers hypothesize that, in important cases, they will not.

The goal is to devise more comprehensive, personalized treatment plans for individual patients based upon a better understanding of how people with similar conditions have responded to care.

“This is an exciting project. It will advance important science that we hope will have a real impact on our ability to identify which patients most need our care, and how best to treat them,” said Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD, Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, and one of the project’s leaders. “At the same time, we will bring together research groups across the psychiatry community in a way that has not been done before, and that is sure to spark new collaborations. We’re excited to get started.”

Sarah Yip, PhD, MSc, associate professor of psychiatry and in the Child Study Center, and director of the Yale Imaging and Psychopharmacology Lab, is co-principal investigator with Pittenger and Godfrey Pearlson, MD, MA, professor of psychiatry and of neuroscience.

Other Yale collaborators include Robb Rutledge, PhD, assistant professor of psychology; Yize Zhao, PhD, associate professor of biostatistics; Daniella Meeker, PhD, associate professor of biomedical informatics & data science; and Hua Xu, PhD, Robert T. McCluskey Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science.

Yip said the study’s long-term goal is to begin to identify trajectories of mental health, focusing on both disorder-specific and transdiagnostic features, as measured using a combination of behavioral, clinical, and computational assessments and analysis approaches.

“By focusing on assessing features that may change over time within individual participants it moves away from a traditional focus on variables that, on average, differ between groups,” she said. “This longitudinal, within-person approach is ideally suited to understand the complexity of psychiatric disorders, the majority of which are characterized by dynamic symptom changes over time. This also builds on an emerging machine learning literature indicating that variables that distinguish an individual with a given psychiatric disorder from one without that disorder are often different from those that predict treatment outcomes.”

In addition to its primary aims, the Yale IMPACT-MH study will amass a huge amount of clinical and behavioral data. Pittenger notes that participating investigators will be able to use this new information in conjunction with other studies they are performing with the same participants, creating new opportunities for unexpected findings and the development of new ideas.

“I’m almost as excited about that possibility as I am about the grant itself,” he said.

The Yale IMPACT-MH project is organized through the Center for Brain & Mind Health. Funding is from the National Institute of Mental Health.

• Biostatistics

Featured in this article

• Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry; Deputy Chair for Translational Research, Psychiatry; Director, Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit, Psychiatry; Director, Yale Program for Psychedelic Science, Psychiatry; Director, Yale Center for Brain and Mind Health, Yale School of Medicine; Director, Yale OCD Research Clinic, Psychiatry; Director, Neuroscience Research Training Program, Yale Department of Psychiatry
• Sarah Yip, PhD Associate Professor of Psychiatry
• Godfrey Pearlson, MA, MBBS Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience
• Robb Rutledge Assistant Professor
• Yize Zhao, PhD Associate Professor of Biostatistics
• Daniella Meeker, PhD Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics & Data Science; Chief Research Information Officer, Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Health System
• Hua Xu, PhD Robert T. McCluskey Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science; Vice Chair for Research and Development, Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science; Assistant Dean for Biomedical Informatics, Yale School of Medicine

Ph.D. Job Placement

Students receiving a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Yale go on to teaching and research positions around the world, at a wide variety of institutions—both academic and non-academic. This page lists the dissertation topic, graduation date, and current employment (if known) of Yale Anthropology Ph.D. alumni who received their degrees since 2010.

If you’re an alum and our information about you is incomplete or out of date, please send a note to the department chair and we will be happy to update it.

Undergraduates

Degree requirements.

Undergraduate students can major in Philosophy, Mathematics and Philosophy, or Physics and Philosophy. See the Yale College Programs of Study website for details for the major.

Course Information

Students should use  Yale Course Search  for course descriptions, locations and meeting times.  Undergraduate course numbers are 400 level or lower. The Registrar’s Office has an information page with instructions to use this resource. 

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INFORMATION FOR

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In the EMPH program, Yale’s award-winning faculty teach alongside expert practitioners to provide our students with a broad range of perspectives and expertise. Each student is assigned a faculty advisor. For those who elect a track the faculty track director takes on this role to ensure tailored support and engagement.

Track Directors

Professor of Neurology; Track Director, Health Informatics, Executive MPH; Chief of VA Neurology Service, VA Connecticut Healthcare System

• Brain Injuries
• Medical Informatics
• Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation
• Psychiatry and Psychology

Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) and Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment; Co-Director, Environmental Health Sciences Track, Executive MPH

Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases) and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging; Director, Advanced Professional MPH Program; Track Director, Applied Analytic Methods and Epidemiology, Executive MPH; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Core Faculty, National Clinician Scholars Program

• Mental Disorders
• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Chronic Disease
• Epidemiologic Methods
• Health Workforce
• Health Services Research
• Public Health
• Quality of Health Care
• Quality Indicators, Health Care
• Vulnerable Populations
• Emigrants and Immigrants
• Noncommunicable Diseases

Senior Advisor, Career Management, Admissions and Curriculum

Department Chair and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) and of Ophthalmology and Visual Science and of Environment; Director, Yale Superfund Research Center; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Cancer Center; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Co-Director, Environmental Health Sciences Track, Executive MPH

• Aldehyde Dehydrogenase
• Diabetes Mellitus
• Environmental Health
• Glutathione
• Ophthalmology
• Mass Spectrometry

Course Faculty

Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases); Assistant Professor, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

• Environment and Public Health
• Epidemiology
• History of Medicine
• Human Rights
• Political Systems
• Social Justice
• Social Medicine
• Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
• Pharmacoepidemiology
• Government Regulation
• Social Determinants of Health
• Public Health Systems Research
• Adaptive Clinical Trials as Topic

Associate Research Scientist (General Medicine); Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

Professor of Biomedical Informatics & Data Science; Professor, Biostatistics

• Anesthesiology
• Emergency Medicine
• Natural Language Processing
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Associate Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging; Vice Chair for Imaging Informatics, Radiology & Biomedical Imaging

• Artificial Intelligence
• Organizational Innovation

Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences); Co-Director, Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology (CPPEE)

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine & Biostatistics (Health Informatics)

• Social Behavior Disorders
• Data Mining
• Machine Learning

Professor Adjunct of Epidemiology (Environmental Health); Clinical Professor, Environmental Health Sciences

Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Department Chair and Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)

• Health Care Economics and Organizations

Assistant Professor Adjunct of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases); Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Developing Countries
• Hookworm Infections
• Parasitology
• Nutrition Policy

Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health; Dean of Faculty, Yale-NUS College; Director, Program on Climate Change and Urban Health; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

• Community Health Services
• Prenatal Care
• Urban Health

Associate Research Scientist in Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences)

Associate Research Scientist; Director, ECHORN Coordinating Center

• Breast Feeding
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• Child Health
• Maternal Health
• Implementation Science

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics; Co-Training Director, Health Informatics MS

• Computer Simulation
• Neurosciences
• Computational Biology
• Informatics

Assistant Professor; Director of Research, Equity Research and Innovation Center (ERIC); Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

• Healthcare Disparities

Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health); Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

• Air Pollution
• Environmental Exposure

Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences); Director, Office of Public Health Practice; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Director, YSPH Global Health Concentration; Director, Maternal and Child Health Promotion (MCHP) Program

• Child Development
• Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2
• Food Deprivation
• Hypertension
• Maternal Health Services
• Maternal-Child Health Centers
• Nutrition Surveys

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and of Bioinformatics & Data Science; Director of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Emergency Medicine

• Decision Theory
• Neural Networks, Computer
• Deep Learning
• Data Science

Senior Research Scientist in Epidemiology

• Breast Neoplasms
• Terminal Care

Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences); Director of Online Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences; Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Professor, Psychiatry

• Feeding and Eating Disorders
• Psychometrics
• Tobacco Use Disorder

Assistant Professor Adjunct of Biostatistics

Peter Salovey, 23rd President of Yale University

Reflecting on 11 years of leadership and thanking the yale community.

Good evening, everyone. 

I am now in my forty-fourth year at Yale.  The first twenty-two were spent happily as a graduate student and then faculty member in the Department of Psychology.  And the next twenty-two (more or less) as a dean, provost, and president.  As much as it is a cliché to say it, it is true:  I couldn’t have imagined the first time I set foot on this campus that I would be standing here decades later celebrating eleven years as your president.  There is a kind of symmetry in the numbers:  44, 22, 11.  Forgive me for doing a little “rounding” to make that all work.

It is the privilege of a lifetime to serve the institution that I love.  To reaffirm its traditional mission – education, research, preservation, and practice – and to promote its broader impact on the external world.  And I know Marta feels similarly.

I recall the day in November 2012 when Ed Bass, as senior fellow of the Yale Corporation, telephoned me and asked:

              “If you were to be offered the presidency of Yale, would you accept it?”

The conditionality of that question was a little confusing, and I put my hand over the receiver and said to Marta, “I think Ed is asking me to be Yale’s president.”  Marta replied, “Just say ‘yes.’”

So I said, “Yes.”  And Ed said, “okay, then.”  … And hung up!

A bit discombobulated by that brief interaction, imagine my confusion when about two hours later Ed called back and said:

              “The Corporation would like you to be president of Yale.” 

I was tempted to reply, “Didn’t you just ask me that question a couple of hours ago, Ed?”  Instead, I said, “Wonderful. When do you want to announce it?  And Ed said, “tomorrow or, perhaps, the next day.” 

So, I had just one evening, really, to put some thoughts down on paper to read at that announcement, and those words have been our blueprint ever since.

It was a cold and rainy November day in New Haven – all the leaves were down, and the sky was grey – and we gathered in the Common Room of what was then the Hall of Graduate Studies.  Among other comments made that day, I said:

Yale needs to be more unified – less respectful of boundaries and borders between schools, disciplines, departments, and programs.  Eleven years later, we have the Jackson School of Global Affairs, the Humanities Quadrangle, the Wu Tsai Institute for Understanding Cognition, the Tobin Institute for Economic Policy Analysis, the Institute for the Foundations of Data Science, the Center for Carbon Capture, the Planetary Solutions Project, the Schwarzman Center… and so many other multidisciplinary or multisector parts of campus.

I said Yale needs to more innovative – more willing to think about how our research and scholarship can improve the world, while deeply respecting knowledge for its own sake.  And now we have Yale Ventures, TSAI City, and about 200 new patents each year.  We are number one among universities for the amount of venture capital attracted by graduates who are women (on a per graduate basis).  Number one!  Our schools of public health and engineering are being reconceptualized in ways that will dramatically increase their impact.  And our much enhanced partnership with our host city of New Haven reflects a more innovative approach.

I said, we need to be more accessible, welcoming to campus the most talented students from any neighborhood in the world, regardless of their family circumstances.  And in the last ten years we have more than doubled the number of our students eligible for a Pell grant or, like my mother and father or like Marta herself, are the first in their families to attend college. 

We have Rick Levin to thank for first championing the idea that Yale College needed to be larger and planning two new residential colleges.  We have Steve Adams and David Geffen to thank for making our music and drama schools tuition free.  And we have Ed and Sasha Bass to thank for allowing the Peabody Museum to be free of charge to all visitors. I could go on and on about the increased affordability of the medical, law, and divinity schools (and others) – this is what it means to be a more accessible university.

I argued on that wet day in November 2012, that if we did these things, an exceptional university would be – in a nod to the slang of the day – “even more excellent.”  And today we are more excellent.  Our faculty members are more diverse than ever, and they have been awarded major prizes and been elected to the academies in greater numbers.  Even the football team has a winning record this last decade against Harvard!

But no president of a great university does any of this alone.  There is mentoring.  And a team.  And family support.

I was very fortunate to have had wonderful mentors in college and graduate school.  Rick Levin was my role model for this job, especially while I served as one of his deans and then as provost.  He exemplified for me and so many others a commitment to first principles like the Woodward Report, academic freedom, and equal opportunity.  And, on so many occasions, he would ask those of us who served with him to imagine “what is the right thing to do,” and then to just do it.

I am a strong believer that university presidents have only three primary bullet points in their job descriptions:  Articulate a vision, hire and cultivate a team to execute on that vision, and raise the financial and political resources to realize it.  A university president is more like the conductor of a symphony than a head of state.  He or she needs to bring out the best in each musician, and that usually is accomplished performing as an ensemble. 

I have been blessed with committed and astute provosts, vice presidents, and deans.  And the teams in the President’s Office and at 43 Hillhouse are exceptional. Working together has been one of the most gratifying aspects of serving as president, whether ensuring the safety of our students, employees, and community during a pandemic; beautifying the campus while adding new facilities; reaching for the stars when recruiting faculty; or holding a celebration where we can bask in reflected glory.

And then there is family.  These jobs are not easy on loved ones.  There are late nights, considerable travel away from home, and plenty of stress.  Marta has been a committed partner, and my most enjoyable moments have been when we celebrate Yale together.  She has been a wise counselor, and certainly kept all of this from going to my head. 

Finally, my parents were there to enjoy my inauguration in October 2013. They were already in their 80s. My mother was spotted all over town carrying a large box containing a Lithuanian Coffee Cake from Claire’s because she heard it was my favorite.  The hardest part of being president, though, was not campus controversies or crazy social media posts that suddenly turn into headlines, but rather that my parents are not here now.  In four successive years, we lost my mother, Marta’s father, my father, and then my father’s only sibling – his brother (the infamous Uncle David, his distinctive voice and Bronx accent known to many Yale administrative assistants on various parts of campus).  Marta and I miss them all.

These are not easy times for colleges and universities.  Since 2015, according to Gallup, Americans expressing confidence in higher education sank from 68% to 59% among Democrats and from 56% to an astonishing 19% among Republicans.  Americans believe that they can’t afford college, that the impact of universities is not the transfer of knowledge or innovation or leadership skills to society but rather indoctrination, and that campuses are an elite monoculture.  We know that these impressions are mostly inaccurate, but we need to do a far better job making sure diverse voices and opinions can be heard, and helping our fellow citizens understand why American higher education is the envy of the world and a key to social and economic mobility, let alone to critical thinking, the search for truth and meaning, and a fulfilling life.  We need to re-earn the public’s trust.

I am optimistic.  My grandparents arrived in this country with very little.  They had no formal education.  And what they earned subsequently was wiped out by the Great Depression.  But they believed in learning.  My mother studied to become a nurse and my father a chemist and, ultimately, a university professor.  And I stand before you having served more than a decade as the head of an Ivy League university.  In most of the world, that can’t happen in two generations.  But it can here, and it is an obligation of our country’s oldest educational institutions to alter the trajectory of families, just as they have changed the course of history. 

In the years to come, I will be here – whether helping to complete the For Humanity Campaign; teaching, advising, and mentoring students; or collaborating on new research projects.  And I look forward to having even more (and less time-pressured) opportunities to join you for coffee or a meal. 

Thank you for the kind words – Josh, Margie, Donna, Cappy, Chip, and all those who appeared on the videos – and thank all of you for making these last 11 years so special. 

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Admission Steps

Psychology - affective, social & cognitive psychology - phd, admission requirements.

Terms and Deadlines

Degree and GPA Requirements

Additional Standards for Non-Native English Speakers

Additional standards for international applicants.

For the 2025-2026 academic year

See 2024-2025 requirements instead

Fall 2025 quarter (beginning in September)

Final submission deadline: December 2, 2024

Final submission deadline: Applicants cannot submit applications after the final submission deadline.

Degrees and GPA Requirements

Bachelors degree: All graduate applicants must hold an earned baccalaureate from a regionally accredited college or university or the recognized equivalent from an international institution.

University GPA requirement: The minimum grade point average for admission consideration for graduate study at the University of Denver must meet one of the following criteria:

A cumulative 2.5 on a 4.0 scale for the baccalaureate degree.

A cumulative 2.5 on a 4.0 scale for the last 60 semester credits or 90 quarter credits (approximately two years of work) for the baccalaureate degree.

An earned master’s degree or higher from a regionally accredited institution or the recognized equivalent from an international institution supersedes the minimum GPA requirement for the baccalaureate.

A cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for all graduate coursework completed for applicants who have not earned a master’s degree or higher.

Official scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), C1 Advanced or Duolingo English Test are required of all graduate applicants, regardless of citizenship status, whose native language is not English or who have been educated in countries where English is not the native language. Your TOEFL/IELTS/C1 Advanced/Duolingo English Test scores are valid for two years from the test date.

The minimum TOEFL/IELTS/C1 Advanced/Duolingo English Test score requirements for this degree program are:

Minimum TOEFL Score (Internet-based test): 80 (including a minimum of 26 on the speaking section)

Minimum IELTS Score: 6.5 (including a minimum of 8 on the speaking section)

Minimum C1 Advanced Score: 176 (including a minimum of 200 on the speaking section)

Minimum Duolingo English Test Score: 115

Additional Information:

Read the English Language Proficiency policy for more details.

Read the Required Tests for GTA Eligibility policy for more details.

Per Student & Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) regulation, international applicants must meet all standards for admission before an I-20 or DS-2019 is issued, [per U.S. Federal Register: 8 CFR § 214.3(k)] or is academically eligible for admission and is admitted [per 22 C.F.R. §62]. Read the Additional Standards For International Applicants policy for more details.

Application Materials

Transcripts, standardized test scores, letters of recommendation.

Required Essays and Statements

We require a scanned copy of your transcripts from every college or university you have attended. Scanned copies must be clearly legible and sized to print on standard 8½-by-11-inch paper. Transcripts that do not show degrees awarded must also be accompanied by a scanned copy of the diploma or degree certificate. If your academic transcripts were issued in a language other than English, both the original documents and certified English translations are required.

Transcripts and proof of degree documents for postsecondary degrees earned from institutions outside of the United States will be released to a third-party international credential evaluator to assess U.S. education system equivalencies. Beginning July 2023, a non-refundable fee for this service will be required before the application is processed.

Upon admission to the University of Denver, official transcripts will be required from each institution attended.

GRE scores are optional for admission to this program. Applications submitted without scores will receive full consideration. Every application undergoes a comprehensive evaluation, including a careful review of all application materials. If you choose to submit test scores, you may upload your Test Taker Score Report PDF, which is considered unofficial. Official scores must be received directly from the appropriate testing agency upon admission to the University of Denver. The ETS institution code to submit GRE scores to the University of Denver is 4842.

University Standardized Test Policy

Three (3) letters of recommendation are required.  Letters should be submitted by recommenders through the online application.

Essays and Statements

Personal statement instructions.

Please prepare approximately 2-3 pages of typewritten, double-spaced autobiographical material which will be considered confidential. Please be aware that the review committees may contain graduate student representatives. Indicate the source of your interest in psychology and the reasons why you wish to pursue graduate studies in your chosen area of specialization. If you have had practical experience (work or volunteer) in psychology, please describe it. If you have been in another area of academic study or employment, discuss your change. When and how was your attention directed to our graduate program? Indicate how the specific features of our training program would facilitate your professional goals.  In your autobiographical statement, please state which faculty member(s) you would like to do your research with. Explain why the faculty’s research interests represent a match with your own training goals and your career plans. Please type the name(s) of your proposed mentor(s) on a separate line at the end of your autobiographical statement so as to facilitate screening. Mentors can be from any program. So, for example, clinical child applicants may list a faculty mentor that is not a member of the clinical child faculty. If there is one person you are primarily interested in, name one; if there are two who you are interested in, name two. There is no advantage to naming just one person or naming two people. What is important is the rationale for your choice.

Diversity Statement Instructions

The University of Denver values diversity, equity, and inclusion, recognizing that its success is dependent on how well it values, engages, and includes the rich diversity of constituents. Diversity is defined broadly. Applicants are required to include an essay (maximum of one-page, double spaced) describing how their educational, professional, clinical, or personal (e.g. cultural, economic or social) experiences prepare them to contribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion during their graduate career at DU. Contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion may come in the form of research topic, research population, clinical work (if applicable), professional service, personal perspective, and more. To learn more about diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Denver, please visit https://www.du.edu/equity .

Résumé Instructions

Please submit a résumé that includes publications, professional presentations, awards and scholarships, professional experience (both research and clinical), and membership in professional organizations.

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Financial Aid Information

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Your submitted materials will be reviewed once all materials and application fees have been received.

Our program can only consider your application for admission if our Office of Graduate Education has received all your online materials and supplemental materials by our application deadline.

Application Fee: $65.00 Application Fee

International Degree Evaluation Fee: $50.00 Evaluation Fee for degrees (bachelor's or higher) earned from institutions outside the United States.

Applicants should complete their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by February 15. Visit the Office of Financial Aid for additional information.