Department of Psychology

Priority of Consideration Deadline

Friday, December 2, 2011 is the priority of consideration deadline for applying for Fall 2012 admission to the Psychology MA or PhD program. We are unable to guarantee that the Department will review applications that are received after this priority of consideration deadline.

Application Forms and Checklist

Please see the Application Checklist for a complete list of materials required for the application to the Psychology graduate program. It is also a good idea to review our webpage outlining ways to increase your chances of admission to our program, as this is a good general source for suggestions on how to strengthen your application.

Part of the application requires completion of the online electronic application form, which is available after mid-October, at http://horizon.ouac.on.ca/ryerson/grad.

Admission Requirements: Master of Arts (MA)

1. Students may be admitted to the MA program if they have graduated with a four-year approved undergraduate honours degree (or equivalent) in Psychology. In some cases, applicants with degrees in other disciplines will be considered, particularly if they have completed a broad range of psychology courses.
2. Applicants must have completed an undergraduate degree program with a minimum A- grade point average in the last two years of study. Although this is a requirement to have applications reviewed by the Department of Psychology, an A- average does not guarantee admission.  In addition, note that final admission decisions may take into account the entire academic record (not just the last two years of study).
3. Although there are no specific course requirements at the undergraduate level, we recommend that applicants have completed at least one undergraduate statistics course (preferably in psychology), an honours thesis (or equivalent an research experience), and psychology courses from a wide range of core areas (e.g., abnormal psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, history of psychology, personality, perception, social psychology, etc.).
4. Please see the Application Checklist for a complete list of materials required for the application.
5. An interview will be required for short listed applicants.  Interviews can occur in person, or over the telephone for applicants who are unable to visit campus. Applicants will be contacted if they are among those invited for an interview.
   

Admission Requirements: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

1. Note that most of our PhD spots are reserved for our own Masters students, so we anticipate having very few positions available for direct entry into the PhD program.
2. Applicants for direct admission to the PhD program must have completed a Master's program in Psychology at a recognized university.
3. For admission to the PhD program, a Master's degree with at least A- standing and demonstrated research capabilities, are required. It should be stressed that admission to the PhD program will not be permitted until after the successful completion of a Master's degree.
4. Please see the Application Checklist for a complete list of materials required for the application.
5. Students admitted for direct entry to the PhD program from programs other than Ryerson's MA program in Psychology may be required to complete certain additional courses at the MA level in order to meet requirements for registration in the province of Ontario.  This is only relevant for applicants to the clinical psychology field.
   

Open House

If you are interested in applying to our graduate program, we hold one Psychology MA and PhD Open House every year, usually in the third week of October. The Open House is a presentation about the program (approximately 1.5 hours long, from 6:15 pm to 7:45 pm), followed by a chance to meet with and talk to our graduate students and faculty (7:45 pm to 9 pm). This event is optional for applicants to attend. Our next Open House will be in October 2012; details will be posted on this webpage by August 2012.

For those of you who were not able to attend our most recent Open House (on October 20, 2011), please see the slides of the presentation.

Psychological Science Lab Tour (for Psychological Science Applicants only)

For Psychological Science applicants only, we hold one Psychological Science Lab Tour every year in October, on the same day as our Open House (usually from 4:30 to 6 pm, just before our Open House). This event offers Psychological Science applicants a chance to tour the many labs doing research in Psychological Science at Ryerson. Our next Psychological Science Lab Tour will be in October 2012; details will be posted on this webpage by August 2012.