Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology Admission Requirements

Requirements for All Applicants

The Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology program is a full-time, five-year, residential program that operates on a cohort model and begins in summer only. It is not offered in an online or hybrid format. The program considers individual and group interviews and the qualifications and qualities of the entire applicant pool when making final admissions decisions. Applications are reviewed holistically.

1. Application Deadline: December 15 of year prior to enrollment.
   • NOTE: All application materials, including GRE scores and recommendations, must be submitted by the deadline to be considered for an interview.
   • Unofficial GRE scores can be self-reported to nancy.crane@wheaton.edu to make the deadline. Official score reports will still be required as soon as they are available.
2. Interview, by invitation only: Interview Day in early February. Exact date to be determined.
3. Bachelor's Degree from a regionally accredited institution.
4. GPA 3.5 minimum.
5. GRE General Test.
   • Competitive Quantitative score: 150.
   • Competitive Composite score (Quantitative plus Verbal sections): 300.
   • Test scores must be fewer than five years old.
   • For registration information and test-center locations, go to ets.org.
     • Wheaton College Institution Code: 1905.
   • There is a GRE At Home option.
6. 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 25% 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 their original transcript with course names and grades. Graduate Admissions will reserve the right to request additional transcripts as may be needed to meet departmental requirements or demonstrate proof of program-specific prerequisites.
   • E-transcripts preferred. Must be addressed to nancy.crane@wheaton.edu.
   • Mail hard copies to Graduate Admissions, Attn: Nancy Crane, 501 College Ave., Wheaton, IL 60187.
7. Application Form. Includes affirmations of the Statement of Faith and Community Covenant.
8. Three Recommendations, which are online forms.
   • Academic. A professor from whom you have taken a class preferred. Alternatives: 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.
   • Letter writers can submit a letter of recommendation, the online recommendation form, or both.
   • Recommendations from relatives not accepted.
9. Two Essays.
   • Personal Statement.
   • Professional Statement.
10. Resumé (chronological) or curriculum vitae (CV). Include ministry experience.
11. Sample Research Paper.
    • Ten pages minimum and follows APA Style.
    • Sole authorship. No group projects are accepted but a published article with multiple authors that the applicant is first author is acceptable.
12. Application Fee. USD $50, non-refundable.
13. Interview Day, by invitation only: February 7, 2025.
    • On campus. Virtual interviews available if needed.
    • Applicants may request in the application form to be considered for both the Ph.D. and Psy.D. programs. The faculty will then determine which program is the better fit for the applicant, and if an interview invitation is extended, it will be for the recommended program.
    • NOTE: All application materials, including GRE scores and recommendations, must be submitted by the deadline to be considered for an interview.

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

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

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

• Courses with grades lower than B cannot be transferred. Wheaton uses semester credit hours. A quarter-hour from other institutions is equivalent to 0.67 of a semester hour.
• Where and how the credit is to be specifically applied in transfer will need to be petitioned and negotiated after matriculation. The sole exception to this will be for transfer credits that might affect first-semester course enrollment.
• No transfer credit will be granted for previous graduate-practicum or field-placement courses. All transfer-credit requests should be submitted by October 1 of each year.
• 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 time as students entering the program with a bachelor's degree only.

Additional Scholarship for a Completed Master's Degree. 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, pro-rated over four years, in recognition of prior training in a related discipline.