General PhD Info | For Prospective PhD Students | For Current PhD Students
Information on Doctoral Study for Prospective Students
How to Apply? -- Graduate Division and Departmental Requirements
To be considered complete, applications for graduate study must include
- Both Graduate Division and Department of Educational Psychology application forms. Application for Admission
- Official scores on the Graduate Record Exam Aptitude Test.
- Three recommendation forms attesting to academic and professional strengths. Academic recommendations are preferred.
- Transcript(s) of all prior undergraduate and graduate course work.
- For non-native speakers of English, a minimum TOEFL score of 600/250 unless waived in accordance with Graduate Division guidelines.
- Evidence of research and writing competence (e.g., master's research thesis, a published or publishable article, or a coherent research proposal).
[NOTE: Applications for admission to the PhD program are considered for the fall semester only and must be received by February 1 (applications from international students are due January 15).]
Why choose Educational Psychology? -- From PhD Students
George Harrison (Current PhD): I chose this program because it suits my career goals (and I heard it was a good program from my MA advisor-Graham Crookes-and other grad students). I want to further develop as a teacher, a teacher trainer, an administrator, and as a researcher in studies that are informative to teachers. At the same time, I especially like how the EP program here at UH not only assumes, but expects that you have a specialty that is outside of the field of EP (a domain, e.g.). EP will give me a strong foundation upon which I can base research and practice in my own field.
Brian Lawton (MEd Graduate and Current PhD): Initially, I was interested in EDEP as a means to help me understand how to conduct good educational research and how this is tied to understanding the cognitive\learning development of individuals. I became interested in program evaluation later on and realized that EDEP provides the foundation for many of the principles of program evaluation (e.g. assessment, statistics, learning theory, etc.). Really, to me, it is a program evaluation degree. I think what interested me the most is how flexible the program is and how it provided the support to fit individual academic needs.
Alice Taum (MEd Graduate and Current PhD): I have been taking at least one class a semester since graduating from the Educational Psychology program with a master’s degree. I had not decided whether or not I would continue on toward a doctoral degree, but knew that the courses that I was taking were positively influencing my work as a manager in a program evaluation office at the time. What finally motivated me to apply for the Educational Psychology doctoral program was the department’s decision to develop a program with clear course requirements that I knew would challenge me. I knew that the improved rigorous structure would provide me with broad understandings across major areas in Educational Psychology (Learning and Development, Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation; Research Design and Data Analysis; graduate seminars, and courses outside the department) making me a competitive employee in the academic work force once I completed the program.
Linda Venenciano (Current PhD): As a teacher-researcher I often observe classes, either for the purpose of collecting data for research or for mentoring teachers. The EP program offered an opportunity for me to develop a broader understanding of teaching and learning. Being a mathematics teacher, I was especially drawn to this program because of the balance between the quantitative and qualitative course work. I'm fascinated by the numerical analysis but I know it doesn't capture the complex dynamics of classrooms. The EP program acknowledges the need for a balanced analysis and I believe this course of study will ultimately help me develop my own strategies for understanding phenomenon.