Prospective Students

Our doctoral program in Psychology is designed to foster high quality research and practice. Graduate students work closely with outstanding faculty and fellow students in a collaborative and collegial environment. Our program prepares students for both academic and practitioner roles and our graduates are found in academia, public service, medical, consulting, industry, government, and community settings. The Psychology Department offers graduate assistantships, tuition scholarships, research and professional travel funding, and an intellectually stimulating and supportive atmosphere that facilitates professional and personal development.

Admissions Information

Students may obtain a PhD in Psychology from Bowling Green State University within one of four doctoral program areas: Clinical, Developmental, Industrial-Organizational (I-O), Neural and Cognitive Sciences (NCS). Students enter our doctoral program with the intent of earning their PhD, and earn a Master's degree while working toward their doctoral degree. We do not offer terminal master's degrees. We do not offer an online PhD program.

Please review the pages below that describe our application process. We recommend learning about our different program areas and the interests of individual faculty members.

For further information, direct your inquiry to individual faculty members or contact our graduate program secretary:

Ms. Paula Watson (email: pwatson@bgsu.edu)

419-372-2301

Department of Psychology

Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green, OH  43403-0228 USA

  • Undergraduate Psychology courses: General Psychology
  • GRE required for Industrial-Organizational and Developmental Areas Only: Verbal, Quantitative, Writing.
  • There are no GRE minimum score requirements for the Industrial-Organizational and Developmental Areas. Clinical and Neural and Cognitive Sciences (NCS) areas do not require the GRE and GRE scores will not be used in the admissions process in the Clinical or NCS areas.
  • Importance of non-objective criteria: previous research activity, high; work experience, high; extracurricular activity, medium; clinically related experiences, medium; letters of recommendation, high.

Apply to our graduate program online through the Graduate College

Your application should include:

  • A personal statement
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • Scanned copies of official transcripts from all institutions attended. Individuals who are admitted to the program will be required to have official final transcripts submitted from each degree granting institution.
  • A resume or vitae
  • A nonrefundable application fee ($45 for domestic applicants and $75 for international applicants)
  • TOEFL or IELTS scores if your native language is not English

If admitted to our program, have your official transcript sent to: 

Graduate College
120 McFall Center
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403
United States of America

APPLICATION DEADLINES:  All materials need to be submitted by the following deadlines for our program areas:

  • Clinical - December 1
  • Industrial-Organizational - December 1
  • Developmental - January 1
  • Neural and Cognitive Sciences - January 1

Our department and our university celebrate and support students from many countries. Please visit International Students for more information about international student admissions.

Our department does not wish to slow down student progress by the duplication of previous graduate course work. Graduate work used in fulfillment of credits for a master's degree cannot be used toward the doctoral degree. However, there is a procedure to review graduate coursework earned elsewhere to determine if it is comparable to work in our program and if some program requirements may be waived. This process is initiated by the student upon entering the program and evaluated by a faculty review committee. We do not conduct preliminary reviews of student transcripts for prospective students.

Updated: 06/15/2022 04:20PM