Graduate Application Instructions Graduate Application Deadlines

Graduate Application Instructions

We recommend that you download these instructions and follow them carefully. The

Department of Psychological Sciences is accepting applications for all its graduate

programs.

Graduate Application Deadlines

December 1

• Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program

• Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences (CaBS) Ph.D. Program

• Industrial and Organizational (I-O) Psychology Ph.D. Program

February 1

• Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) M.S. Program

February 15

• Industrial and Organizational (I-O) Psychology M.S. Program

o We will be offering a completely online program starting Fall 2021

All steps must be completed and all materials received by program application

deadline to ensure full consideration for admission for the fall semester.

Steps to Complete and Submit Application

1. Click on the Auburn University Graduate School Application and click on Apply

Online to create an account.

2. Choose your Planned Course of Study:

• Select one of the following Department of Psychological Sciences Graduate

Study options from the drop down list of majors on the Graduate School's online

application.

• Psychology/Applied Behavior Analysis MS (Non-thesis)

• Psychology/Clinical/PhD

• Psychology/Cognitive and Behavioral Option/PhD

• Psychology/Industrial/Organizational Option/PhD

• Psychology/ Industrial/Organizational MS (Non-thesis)

2. Admission Term:

• We only admit students to start Fall semester each year, so on the

Graduate School's online application indicate admission for "Fall" and the

correct year.

• Applications that indicate Spring or Summer semester or a year of

admission for which the application deadline has passed will not be

considered.

3. Input your Biographical Data

4. Input your Educational Background:

• The names, dates of attendance, majors, GPAs, and degrees earned for all

universities/colleges you have attended.

• Even if the GPA question is not asterisked on the online application, you still

must answer it in order to be considered for admission to our programs. Please

enter your institutions in the following order:

• The institution from which you earned/will earn your primary Bachelor's

degree (i.e., the one that is in psychology or the field most closely

related to psychology);

• If you earned/will earn a Master's degree prior to starting our program,

enter the institution(s) that granted you the degree next;

• Institution(s) not listed above at which you did any bachelors level

coursework;

• Institution(s) at which you took graduate coursework but from which you

did not/will not earn a graduate degree prior to starting our program.

• Upload Unofficial Transcripts:

• Please upload unofficial transcripts from each institution attended or currently

attending. Official transcripts are not necessary for submitting application.

• We will inform you if you need to submit official transcripts. If you are asked to

submit official transcript, instructions for doing so may be found at the end of

this document.

5. GRE scores:

• The GRE is waived for applicants for Fall 2021 admission.

• Do not enter your scores or have your scores sent to Auburn University if you

took the GRE.

6. Input the Contact Information for Letters of Recommendation:

• You will enter information about your letter writers on the online application and

they will be sent e-mail prompts with directions for uploading their letters to that

system.

• Check with your writers before starting the online application to verify whether

each one agrees to submit the letter online via that system.

• All letters submitted online must be received by the system by the application

deadline for your program.

• For a writer who will not submit the letter via the online system:

• enter the letter writer’s information in the recommenders’ section of the

online application

• answer “no” when asked if the writer will be submitting online

• the writer should instead mail the letter to the Psychology department

(NOT to the Graduate School) per the following instructions: writer

should use letterhead stationary of their institution, sign the letter, seal

the letter in an envelope, sign over the envelope’s seal, and mail the

letter to the address below such that it is RECEIVED no later

than December 1:

Thane Bryant

Department of Psychological Sciences

226 Thach Hall

Auburn University, AL 36849-5214

7. Upload your Statement of Intent: You will be required to upload a Statement of

Intent prepared according to the following guidelines:

• Describe experiences (e.g., research, work in applied settings, relevant paid or

volunteer work) that stimulated your commitment to the discipline of psychology,

explaining the nature of your special interests, indicating your long-range

objectives in pursuing advanced study in psychology, and stating your reasons

for wanting to attend graduate school in psychology at Auburn University. Please

specify faculty who best match your research interests.

• For Clinical there is no length limit but most applicants submit a 2 to 5 page

(double-spaced) statement.

• For CaBS and I/O applicants, your statement should be no more than 2 pages

and should be single-spaced.

8. Upload your Diversity Statement: You will be required to upload a Diversity

Statement prepared according to the following guidelines:

• Auburn University values diversity and inclusion. Please include an essay

(maximum of one page, single-spaced) describing how your educational,

professional, clinical (if applicable), or personal (e.g., cultural, economic or social)

experiences prepare you to contribute to the department's emphasis on diversity

and inclusion during your graduate career at AU. These contributions may come

in the form of research topic, research population, clinical work (if applicable),

professional service, personal perspective, and more.

9. Identify and Rank Faculty with Whom You Would Like to Work:

• You will be required to enter the last names of three professors in our department

with whom you would like to work, ranked as first choice, second choice and third

choice.

• Type just the last name - no titles like "Professor" or "Doctor". If the name is

hyphenated, type the full hyphenated last name (e.g., for "Ana Franco-Watkins"

you would type "Franco-Watkins").

• If you are applying for the ABA or I-O master’s program, simply type "ZZZ" in the

boxes.

10. Upload your List of Psychology Courses Taken:

• List all psychology courses you have taken or will take by the end of Spring

2021 semester.

• List them in the chronological order in which you took them.

• For each course, please provide the course title and your grade in the course

("NA" if no grade has been assigned yet). List undergraduate courses first, then

graduate courses.

11. Upload your C.V./Resume:

• The CV/Resume is your opportunity to highlight your accomplishments including

relevant research experience, publications, awards, volunteer work, and skills.

12. TOEFL Test Scores

o For International Applicants/Non-native English Speakers Only:

o To be considered for admission applicants must submit the following

documentation of English language proficiency:

o the internet-based TOEFL (iBT) with minimum total score of 79 and at

least a 16 on each section other than speaking and a minimum of 23 on

the speaking section; OR the Test of Spoken English with a minimum

score of 50 plus either the paper TOEFL with minimum score of 550 or the

computer TOEFL (cBT) with a minimum score of 213; OR IELTS

(Academic) with a minimum Overall Band score of 6.5 AND a minimum

Speaking section score of 7.

o Scores meeting or exceeding these requirements must be officially

reported directly by ETS to the Auburn University Graduate School and

must be received by the Graduate School no later than the application

deadline for the program to which you are applying.

o In order to achieve delivery by the deadline, you typically must have

completed the test and ordered a score report for the Auburn University

Graduate School a minimum of 6 weeks prior to the deadline.

o Please note that even if you have earned a degree from a U.S. or other

English-speaking institution, if you are a non-native speaker of English you

still must provide these test scores in order for your application to be

considered.

o Any request for exemption from this requirement must be submitted to the

Graduate School's Director of Admissions, Theresa Morgan

(morgatk@auburn.edu). The ETS Institution Code number to use to have

your scores reported to Auburn University's Graduate School is 1005.

13. Pay Graduate School application fee.

• $60 application fee ($70 for international students)

• Special note to McNair Scholars seeking application fee waiver – please review

the information at least 4 weeks before your program’s application deadline.

IMPORTANT: We cannot view your application information until you have paid the

fee and received all materials including transcripts, test scores (if applicable), and letters

of recommendation

Additional Notes

A Note About Letters of Recommendation.

• Once you have submitted your completed application with fee, recommendation

letters sent electronically via the online system will be automatically associated

with your application as soon as they are received

• Log in to the online application to check the status of your letters.

A Note About "Additional Forms" section of the Graduate School's Online

Application.

• This section says that the linked forms “may be necessary to download, print and

mail to the Graduate School Admissions office.” These forms (a Medical Form for

all incoming students and, for international students only, a Statement of Finance

and a Transfer-In form) play no role in the program’s consideration of your

application for admission.

• Do not submit any of them unless/until we offer you admission and you accept.

Additional Information

Procedure: After the Graduate School evaluates your credentials, they make them

available to our department.

• Generally, our admissions committees begin meeting shortly after deadline.

• Finalists may be invited to an open house or interview on campus or by

telephone.

• Offers of admission and alternate status are usually made by March 31 or earlier.

• Offers of admission must be accepted by April 15 so that the status of alternates

may be resolved shortly thereafter.

Official Transcripts: Official transcripts are not necessary for submitting application. If

you are invited to interview, we will at that time contact you directly and ask you to

provide official transcripts to the Graduate School as follows:

• Electronic Transcripts:

o The Graduate School accepts electronic transcripts sent from domestic

institutions.

o Make sure your institution sends your electronic transcript to Auburn

University GRADUATE Admissions.

Some institutions by default send electronic transcripts to Auburn's

UNDERGRADUATE division, which will result in the transcript NOT

being received by the Graduate School. That is why it is important

to tell the issuing institution to send the electronic transcript

specifically to “Auburn University GRADUATE Admissions” at

"gradu[email protected]".

o Applicants with previous coursework at Auburn University:

Be sure to list Auburn University as a previous institution on the

Graduate School's online application.

You do not have to order a transcript to be sent from Auburn

University to the Auburn University Graduate School - the Graduate

School will obtain your Auburn transcript directly from the Registrar.

• Paper Transcripts should be sent to:

Graduate School

106 Hargis Hall

Auburn University, AL 36849-5122

Financial Aid:

• For Fall of 2021 admissions, all Ph.D. students are offered a full tuition waiver

and a graduate assistantship. There is no separate application for this.

• ABA master’s students typically receive an assistantship and tuition waiver.

There is no separate application for this prior to admission.

• I-O master’s students may seek available assistantships from other units/office’s

on campus.

• For Federal Financial Aid information (e.g., student loans), contact Auburn's

Financial Aid office at 334-844-4367.

Catalog: The Auburn University Bulletin may be accessed along with other Graduate

School documents via their web page.

Previous Graduate Work: Students seeking exemption from a departmental

requirement based on completion of similar graduate work elsewhere discuss this with

departmental faculty after enrolling.

• Where appropriate, the faculty will determine whether earlier graduate work,

including theses, may be substituted for Auburn departmental requirements.

• Policies and procedures for transferring prior graduate work may be found here.

The Clinical Psychology PhD program subscribes to the Council of University Directors

of Clinical Training (CUDCP) Policy for Graduate School Offers and Acceptances.

Questions about the departmental application process should be addressed to

Thane Bryant via e-mail: bryangt@auburn.edu