Program

Program

Program Description

The Psychology and Law training program requires 63 credits of coursework and a dissertation. (Graduates are not eligible to become licensed clinical psychologists.) This track trains students to generate knowledge at the intersections of psychology and law as academicians and applied researchers. The track emphasizes research training, drawing on areas of psychology such as social, cognitive, developmental, and experimental psychology, decision and policy sciences, and evaluation research methods. If you are interested in any of the other training areas in psychology (e.g., Clinical), please click the link below to view the Psychology Department website.

Admission Requirements

  • Graduate Online Application: Click here to apply
  • Personal Statement
  • Transcripts
  • Letters of recommendation
  • Application fee: $75 USD
  • International students may have additional requirements. Learn about them here.

GRE scores are not required

Tuition, Fees, and Financial Assistance

All students admitted to the Psychology & Law PhD program receive full tuition remission and a yearly stipend for five years. Students are eligible for health insurance for a nominal fee.

Degree Requirements

The Psychology & Law curriculum consists of 63 credits. The following courses are required:

  • Statistics I & II
  • Statistics I & II Lab
  • Research Methods & Design I & II
  • Experimental Psychology & Law
  • Advanced Statistics Elective 
  • Research Practicum I & II
  • Ethics
  • Electives (24 credits in Psychology and/or Law and/or Advanced Statistics/Methods)

Core courses (choose 3 from the list below)

  • Cognitive/ Social/ Developmental/ Physiological/ Psychometrics and Advanced Social/ Developmental/ Cognitive/ Physiological

Additional requirements:

  • First Doctoral Exam – research project/MA thesis
  • Comprehensive Examination – grant proposals and/or psychological bulletin article
  • Second Doctoral Examination – review of domain relevant to the dissertation
  • Third Doctoral Examination – dissertation

Psychology & Law Faculty Accepting Students for Fall 2025


Program Director: Margaret Bull Kovera, PhD

Got Questions?

About the Psychology Department or other training areas: please click here

About the application process, materials, website, or to apply: please click here

About doctoral student funding: please click here

About being an international student: please click here