Become a Psychologist

Director of Graduate Student Teaching: Lois Putnam

Degree Programs: M.A./M.Phil./Ph.D.

Designed to provide a broad base in psychology, this program offers an opportunity for intensive research. Advanced seminars are offered in three basic areas of psychology: cognition, psychobiology and neuroscience, and personality and social psychology. The department is relatively small; each year it admits fewer than ten full-time students. The obvious benefit to such a highly selective system is that it affords graduate students the opportunity to become acquainted with all research conducted in the department by faculty as well as fellow graduate students.

The program is a five-year consecutive series of classes and research culminating in the Ph.D. degree. Nonsequential M.A.s and degrees in Clinical, Counseling, Organizational, Educational and School Psychology are not awarded through this department. For information pertaining to application procedures for nonsequential M.A.s or degrees in the areas mentioned above, please contact: Teachers College, 525 West 120th Street, Room 146 Horace Mann, Box 302, New York, NY 10027; (212) 678-3710.

All students accepted to the five-year program receive a fellowship, which supports tuition, health and insurance fees, and an annual stipend through the fifth year, provided that they maintain good academic standing. All fellows receive equal awards. Fellowships are awarded in recognition of academic achievement and in expectation of scholarly success. Teaching and research experience are considered an important aspect of the training of graduate students. Thus, graduate fellowships include some teaching and research apprenticeship.

In addition to the regular Ph.D. program in psychology, there is also a joint Ph.D. program with the Department of Sociomedical Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health. This Ph.D. is designed for individuals who wish to combine training in psychology with training in social influences on public health and medicine. For more information, see Sociomedical Sciences.