Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology Admission Requirements

Requirements for All Applicants

The Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology is a residential, full-time, five-year program that operates on a cohort model and begins in summer only. Applications are reviewed holistically, and the program considers the interviews, qualifications, and program-fit of the entire applicant pool when making final decisions about admissions and the automatic scholarships. 

ATTENTION: The GRE is now optional! It is still strongly recommended in order to enhance your application's competitiveness for admission and for the amount of the automatic scholarship. Applications with low GRE scores will be treated the same as those that do not include scores, so taking the test can only help your application.

1. Application Deadline: December 15 of the year prior to enrollment.
   • NOTE: All application materials, including recommendations, must be submitted by the deadline to be considered for an interview.
   • The GRE is now optional! It is still strongly encouraged to take the exam to strengthen one's application for admission and scholarship. Scores can be self-reported to nancy.crane@wheaton.edu and meet the deadline. Official score reports will still be required as soon as they are available.
     • Low GRE scores will not weaken an application because they will not factor into the admission decision or the amount of the automatic scholarship. Taking the test can only strengthen an application.
     • Take the GRE General Test, not the psychology test.
     • Competitive Quantitative score: 150. Competitive Composite score (Quantitative plus Verbal): 300.
     • Test scores must be fewer than five years old.
     • Wheaton College Institution Code: 1905.
     • There is a GRE At Home option.
2. Bachelor's Degree from a regionally accredited institution.
3. GPA 3.5 minimum.
4. Official transcripts from all colleges where a degree was earned or is currently being earned.
   
   • Applicants will be required to provide official transcripts from each institution where they have received or will receive a degree prior to enrollment in Wheaton College Graduate School. Applicants who have earned more than twenty-five percent of their degree from institutions outside of their degree-conferring school will be required to supply official transcripts for those credits in the event they are not explicitly listed on the degree transcript with course names and grades. Graduate Admissions will reserve the right to request additional transcripts as needed to meet departmental requirements or demonstrate proof of prerequisites.
   • E-transcripts preferred. Must be addressed to nancy.crane@wheaton.edu.
   • Mail paper copies to Graduate Admissions, Attn: Nancy Crane, 501 College Ave., Wheaton, IL 60187.
5. Application Form. Includes affirmations of the Statement of Faith and Community Covenant.
6. Three Recommendations, which are online forms.
   • Academic. A professor from whom you have taken a class is preferred. Alternative: a college-level instructor from whom you have not taken a class but has served as a mentor or advisor.
   • Pastoral. Can be a Christian leader from your church other than a pastor.
   • Professional. Someone with whom you have had a supervisor-employee relationship in a work setting is preferred but may also be within a ministry, internship, or volunteer role.
   • Recommenders can upload optional letters on their online recommendation page.
   • Recommendations from relatives not accepted.
7. Two Essays.
   • Personal Statement.
   • Professional Statement.
8. Resumé. Chronological. Include ministry/volunteer experience.
9. Sample Research Paper.
   • Ten pages minimum and follows APA Style.
   • Sole authorship. 
   • Group projects are not accepted, but a published article with multiple authors is acceptable if the applicant is the first author.
10. Application Fee. USD $50, non-refundable.

Interview Day

By invitation only. First or second Friday in February. Exact date to be determined.

• NOTE: All application materials, including recommendations (and the GRE, if taken), must be submitted by the December 15 application deadline to be considered for an interview.
• On campus. Virtual interviews available if needed.
• Applicants can indicate in the application form to be considered for both the Ph.D. and Psy.D. programs. The faculty will determine which program is the better fit for the applicant.

Our doctoral programs value the rich academic community of colleagues, including faculty, staff, and students, and we engage in a review process that includes the entire community.

Prerequisites

Eighteen semester-credit hours from the courses below. All prerequisites must be taken from a psychology department, not, e.g., an education, sociology, or math department. The courses can have different names at other schools. Students can apply before completing the prerequisites, but all eighteen semester-credit hours should be done before matriculation.

• General Psychology (required)
• Abnormal Psychology (required)
• Research Methods in Psychology or Statistics for Psychology (required)
• Physiological Psychology (required)
  • Can be taken remotely as a Wheaton summer tutorial.
• Optional courses to fulfill the eighteen credit hours.
  • Cognition
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Learning
  • Personality Psychology
  • Sensation/Perception
  • Social Psychology

Additional Requirements for International Students

International students, and permanent residents of the US whose native language is not English, are required to take either the TOEFL iBT Test,  IELTS Academic Test, or Duolingo English test with the minimal scores indicated below:

• TOEFL iBT Test: 100 with at least 20 in each category
• IELTS Academic Test: 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each category
• Duolingo English Test: 120

Applicants who wish to waive their English proficiency test, please refer to the English Proficiency page for details.

An International Transcript Verification Report is needed for students who completed degrees outside of the United States.

Please review Graduate International Admissions for full information.

Transfer Credit Policy for Ph.D. Program

Students can transfer up to twelve graduate credit hours from the following courses.

1. Biological Bases of Behavior
2. Cognition and Emotion
3. History and Systems of Psychology
4. Lifespan Development
5. Psychopathology
6. Social Psychology

• Where and how the credit is specifically transferred will need to be petitioned and negotiated after matriculation. The sole exception will be transfer credits that may affect first-semester course enrollment, which will be negotiated by correspondence with the chair of the doctoral Admissions and Academic Requirements Committee before or during orientation.
• No transfer credit will be granted for graduate-practicum or field-placement courses. All transfer-credit requests should be submitted by October 1 of each year.
• Courses with grades lower than B cannot be transferred. Wheaton uses semester credit hours. One quarter-hour from other institutions is equivalent to 0.67 of a semester hour.
• Graduate credit earned in biblical and theological studies will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Litfin Divinity School.

Time-to-Completion. Program data indicate that the vast majority of students entering the program with transfer credits will complete the Wheaton College Ph.D. program in essentially the same five-year timeline as students entering the program with a bachelor's degree only.

Additional Scholarship for All Accepted Ph.D. Students

The standard, automatic scholarship ranges between $24,000 and $44,000 total, prorated over four years. The fifth year of the program comprises the paid, full-time internship.

Additional Scholarship for a Completed Master's in an Allied Discipline. For Ph.D. program only. Students with a graduate degree in a field closely allied with clinical psychology (e.g., clinical mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy, and social work) will receive an additional scholarship of $10,000, prorated over four years, in recognition of prior training in a related discipline.