Applying for Admission

Important Information for Applicants 

  • The deadline for graduate program applications is Dec. 1st (see below for details).
  • Final decisions regarding offers of admission will be completed by mid-February
  • Information regarding the Psychology Graduate program and the application process is included on this website.  If you have a specific question about the application portal that is not covered here, you may contact the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences .  If you have specific questions in regard to the requirements for our graduate program, or the process of applying, please contact our Department Registrar, Fredericka Grant.  For questions about whether a particular faculty member is accepting new students, you may reach out to them directly (and some faculty include this information on their lab websites) or check here for whether faculty members are planning on admitting new students.
Application Deadline: Completed applications should be received at Yale by Dec. 1st. It is especially advisable to begin the application process early. A common problem in reviewing applications is that some are incomplete in some respect at the time the review begins and are therefore temporarily set aside. If these applications remain incomplete, they may never be reviewed by the departmental admissions committee. Accordingly, it is important to allow sufficient time for the independent information (transcripts, letters) to arrive at Yale in time to be processed.
 
Fee waivers: Information on how to apply for a fee waiver is located here:
Application Fees & Fee Waivers
 
GREs: Although providing scores from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test is optional, the department strongly recommends you submit them as part of your application. There are options for fee waivers and reductions on the GRE website. The GRE Subject test in Psychology is optional and the department does not have a strong recommendation on submitting these scores.
 
Transcript: A record of your academic performance (“unofficial transcript”) is required and should be “uploaded” to your on-line application. An official grade transcript is neither required nor necessary for the review of your application. 
 
Letters of recommendation and writing samples: Students must submit three letters of recommendation and are encouraged to submit samples of their research work. 
 

Applicants should indicate primary faculty members in the department with whom they would be interested in working in their applications. Because of the emphasis on close contact with faculty members in research, as well as effective student participation in small class groups, only about fifteen new students out of about seven hundred applicants can be admitted each year. Applicants should realize that the total number of applicants is many times larger than the number that can be admitted, and, further, individual feedback on applications is not possible. A fine academic record, evidence of research experience and potential are weighed together in the admission decision process.

To apply:
Online Application to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

By filling out the form supplied in the Graduate School application, applicants will automatically be considered for all Yale financial awards for which they are eligible. A complete Bulletin of the Graduate School, which describes all graduate programs and provides general information, is available from the Graduate Admissions Office.