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Admissions

PHD IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

ALL APPLICANTS
    • Completed and signed Application for Admission, including:
      • Religious Autobiography and additional essays
      • Application fee:
        • Early application deadline (November 1) : The application fee will be waived if you submit the application by November 1.
        • Final application deadline (December 1) : $50 non-refundable application fee for applications submitted between November 2 and December 1. You may pay your application fee online with a US credit card, PayPal, check, money order, or international bank transfer.
    • Official transcripts of all postsecondary schools attended, showing a bachelor's degree earned from an accredited institution. An undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 or higher is considered competitive.
    • All applicants with a bachelor’s or a master’s degree* in psychology or a closely related field with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) are welcome to apply to the PhD Program with no additional prerequisite coursework needed. Applicants with a bachelor’s or a master’s degree* in an unrelated field must achieve a passing grade in five basic psychology courses (including Statistics)** prior to enrolling in the PhD program.
      • Please note: If you do not have prerequisite course work completed or your course work is in progress, please contact the Admissions Office at admissions@fuller.edu for further details
    • Four references: one pastoral and three academic. Academic letters should come from writers who know you well in a professional or educational context. Ideally, a referee is someone who has known you for at least a year and with whom you have had substantial contact within the past year. Referees that can comment directly on your potential for success as a researcher and psychologist are particularly desirable.

  • An official Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score (Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical Writing) from a test taken not longer than 5 years previous to the date of application. Scores achieving 151 on the Verbal section, 152 on the Quantitative section, and 4.0 on the Analytical Writing section are considered competitive.
    • To request a waiver of the GRE requirement, applicants should write a formal letter to the Admissions Committee explaining reason(s) for requesting a waiver of this requirement, with supporting evidence if pertinent. Petitioning for a waiver does not guarantee the waiver will be granted.

Petitions for waivers should make a compelling case that the GRE score results will not adequately represent the applicant's PhD readiness. Petitions requesting a waiver of the GRE requirement will be considered on a rolling basis, but may take up to six weeks. To ensure sufficient time to take the GRE test if a petition is not approved, applicants wishing to petition should submit letters of petition as soon as possible, but no later than October 1st.

  • The GRE Psychology Subject Test (PGRE) score is not required, but can be included as a part of your application.
  • You are encouraged to submit a formal vita or resumé along with your application. If you need assistance preparing a vita, you may find www.apa.org/careers/resources/academic/vitae-tips.aspx to be helpful. Your vita can be submitted to the Admissions Office as an e-mail attachment to admissions@fuller.edu or by mail to the following address:

Office of Admissions
Fuller Theological Seminary
135 N. Oakland Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91182
USA

  • If your native language is not English or your medium of instruction for all post-secondary education is not English, you must either submit a test score of the Test of English as a Foreign Language ( TOEFL) taken within the past two years or the International English Language Testing System ( IELTS), Academic Format, taken within the past two years. Please click here for additional requirements.

Clinical Psychology interviews are offered to selected applicants as part of the decision process. Early application interviews are offered in late January. Regular application interviews are held in mid February. An invitation to interview is not a guarantee of acceptance to the program.


*(From an accredited college or university)

**(One course must be Statistics, the four remaining courses can be selected from the following areas: Intro to Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Social Psychology, Physiological Psychology, Personality Theory, Research Methods, Psychological Tests and Measurement).

U.S. PERMANENT RESIDENTS AND INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS

APPLICATION DEADLINES

Online application opens: August 1

Early application and file completion deadline: November 1

  • Submit the application and all other required documents by application deadline
  • Applicants should take the GRE and PGRE (if applicable) by October 1 at the latest in order for the score to be reported to Fuller by the November 1 deadline
  • Clinical Psychology interviews are offered to selected applicants as part of the decision process. Early application interviews are offered in late January. An invitation to interview is not a guarantee of acceptance to the program.
  • NOTE: Incomplete applications will be processed for the Final application process (see below)

Final application and file completion deadline: December 1

  • Applicants should take the GRE and PGRE (if applicable) by November 1 at the latest in order for the score to be reported to Fuller by the December 1 deadline
  • Clinical Psychology interviews are offered to selected applicants as part of the decision process. Regular application interviews are held in mid February. An invitation to interview is not a guarantee of acceptance to the program.

Notification date (for early and final applications): March 7

Please allow ample time to submit a completed application (including all references, transcripts, GREPGRETOEFL, and/or IELTS Academic Format score[s], and supplementary materials) by the December 1 deadline.

PAYING FOR GRAD SCHOOL

Attending seminary is an investment in your future. We want to help you see more concretely what it costs to pursue a degree at Fuller, as well as the kinds of support available to you to potentially offset that cost. Click here to find average tuition for each of our programs and several questions and answers about your financial aid options with links to more information.

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Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation:
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
Phone: (202) 336-5979 / E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org