Frequently Asked Questions

If your question isn't answered here, please reach out to [email protected]!

Application Information

The department offers a comprehensive research-based graduate program spanning areas of Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, Social and Personality Psychology, and Behavioral Neuroscience. Research in the department varies widely in both content and methods used across labs. Because the psychology department is fairly small, there may only be 1-2 labs focusing on specific topics. Collaboration among different laboratories involving research spanning different areas is quite common. The graduate program is designed to provide a broad base in psychology, while offering an opportunity for intensive research. In addition, supervised teaching is integral to the graduate career, and all students serve as teaching assistants for one semester each year.

Master's and doctoral programs and specializations in the following sub-disciplines are offered through Teachers College:

  • Applied Educational Psychology, School Psychology, Health and Behavior Studies Applied Educational Psychology
  • Health and Behavior Studies Special Education, Health and Behavior Studies Health Studies
  • Counseling Psychology/Psychological Counseling, Clinical Psychology, Psychology in Education
  • Developmental Psychology Programs, Psychology: Developmental
  • Psychology: Organizational I/O, Social-Organizational Psychology

For more information on degrees in Clinical Psychology and the other programs listed above, please visit the TC Programs & Specializations website. For information on application procedures for the programs listed above, please visit the Teachers College Admissions website.

Complete applications, including references, transcripts, and GRE scores, must be received by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Admissions Office by December 2, 2020 to be considered for entrance in September of the following year.

  • Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their application, GRE scores, transcripts, and supporting documents in accordance with the December 1 deadline which includes the day of December 1. Late applications are rarely considered. Although incomplete applications are included in the evaluation pool, incomplete applications are very difficult to evaluate for admission to this program.

  • Information about a grace period for submitting supporting documents and scores beyond the Psychology Department deadline is provided in Graduate School of Arts & Sciences FAQs. Please note that our department is better able to address specific questions regarding extenuating circumstances much closer to the application deadline. Please contact [email protected].

Psychology department admits students in the Fall semester ONLY.

Either a nonrefundable fee of $115, or a completed fee waiver will be required for the 2020 online application. Applications are not considered complete until the fee waiver has been processed or fee has been paid. We encourage applicants to check if they are eligible for application fee waivers through Columbia's Graduate School for Arts & Sciences website. Applicants who wish to request an application fee waiver should submit the fee waiver form after submitting their application. Any questions or inquiries on the fee waiver application process should be directed to [email protected].

Possibly! We encourage applicants to check if they are eligible for application fee waivers through Columbia's Graduate School for Arts & Sciences website. Applicants who wish to request an application fee waiver should submit the fee waiver form after submitting their application. Any questions or inquiries on the fee waiver application process should be directed to [email protected].

Due to COVID-19, the GRE requirement will be waived for FALL 2021 Admission (the Admission Committee will not consider the GRE scores in their decision).

Due to COVID-19, the GRE requirement will be waived for FALL 2021 Admission (the Admission Committee will not consider the GRE scores in their decision).

The code for the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is 2162.

Due to COVID-19, the GRE requirement will be waived for FALL 2021 Admission (the Admission Committee will not consider the GRE scores in their decision).

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences does not use department codes, therefore, the Psychology program does not have a department code. Accordingly, all application materials should be submitted to the GSAS admissions office only.

The following applicants must complete the English proficiency requirement (TOEFL or IELTS):

  • applicants whose native language is not English and who have received an undergraduate degree from an institution in a country where the official language is not English
  • applicants who have received an undergraduate degree from a non-English speaking country and are now studying at the graduate level in the U.S. or another English-speaking country.

For the 2021 season, in addition to the IELTS and TOEFL exams, GSAS is accepting the Duolingo English Test. Applicants can send scores to Columbia University, not the Psychology Department, using school code 2162. More information for international applicants can be found on GSAS website

Columbia University policy states that test scores must come from ETS. However, if the cost of sending test scores is a barrier for your in applying to the Psychology PhD program, please contact the department at [email protected].

The application portal can be found here. You don't have to fill out your application all in one sitting, as you can save your work and come back to your application later. The application deadline is December 2, 2020. We highly recommend completing your application materials well ahead of this deadline in case you have any questions or there are unexpected difficulties with the application portal.

The application process is entirely web-based, therefore, the application should be completed and submitted on-line. If prospective students are unable to submit application materials such as supporting documents on-line, those documents should be mailed to the GSAS Office of Admissions at:


Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
107 Low Memorial Library
535 West 116th Street, MC 4304
Columbia University 
New York, NY 10027

** Applicants should not send any materials to the Psychology Department **

Yes, you may check the status of your application on the Application Status screen. You will be able to access this screen only after your application has been submitted.

Yes! In fact, we highly encourage you to reach out to any faculty members you are interested in working with via email prior to applying to check whether they are accepting students in this cycle. You can find contact information for faculty members on our Department website here. 

We recognize that this can be an intimidating process to email a potential advisor! For advice on how to contact a faculty member to see if they are accepting students (and even a template email for reaching out), we recommend these resources from the Tufts University Psychology Department. After you contact faculty, some may ask to schedule a call before the application is due. 

  • In this case, Columbia University requires a score for an English proficiency test. International students may, instead of TOEFL, submit results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) administered in foreign countries by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), the British Council and IDP Education Australia: IELTS Australia. The Graduate School normally requires a score of 7 or higher on IELTS. For the 2021 season, in addition to the IELTS and TOEFL exams, GSAS is accepting the Duolingo English Test. Applicants can send scores to Columbia University, not the Psychology Department, using school code 2162. More information for international applicants can be found on GSAS website. 
  • Exception: International students who have earned a bachelor's degree from a U.S. institution or from an institution in an English-speaking country, and have studied there for at least two years, are not required to take the TOEFL or IELTS.

No, but international students must hold the equivalent of an American university baccalaureate (B.A.) and be fluent in both written and spoken English. International applicants who are not natives of English-speaking countries must take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in time for the score to be included with the completed application. Exam information is available from TOEFL, Box 6151, Princeton, NJ, 08541-6151 or ETS.

Applicants can contact the International Students and Scholars Office and GSAS to determine if their degree is equivalent to an American university degree. For example, on the GSAS website, applicants with questions about their 3 year Bachelor's degree will note that "GSAS is now accepting applications from students earning 3 year Bachelor's degrees in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Australia, South Africa and any country which is a participant in the Bologna Process."

Admission Information

Admission information can be found at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences website.

For more general graduate school admissions resources, please feel free to reach out at [email protected], or look through some of the following materials:

Columbia's Psychology Department is relatively small, and the number of graduate students admitted can change from year to year based on the GSAS budget and whether faculty members are looking for new graduate students. Incoming PhD student cohorts in the department over the past several years have ranged from 3-11 students. 

There are no rules or quotas regarding admittance of international students. For general information about Columbia University enrollment statistics, visit the Columbia University Facts website. 

The department begins the review process after December 2 when all applications have been received, and invites selected students for prospective student admission interviews in February. These interviews will also allow prospective students a chance to get to know faculty and current students. Notification from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences about admission decisions will be e-mailed mid-March.

Students will be notified of all decisions by e-mail by the end of March. After applicants submit their application materials, they can view the status of their application on the Application Status screen. Please note that Columbia does not post the admissions decisions online.

Practical Program Information

Before beginning the application, you should identify one or more faculty members with whom you'd like to work. Graduate students typically apply to the program to work in the lab of one primary advisor, though students will find a formal secondary advisor at the end of their first year, and often collaborate with many faculty members. Only full-time Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, and Professors are eligible to supervise Ph.D. research as primary advisors. You can find the profiles of core faculty members here and the list of approved dissertation sponsors here. Please note that Lecturers-in-the-Discipline, Adjunct Professors, and other Affiliated Professors are not eligible to supervise Ph.D. research. 

The following faculty members may be supporting graduate students in the upcoming year: Mariam Aly, Dima Amso, Chris Baldassano, Peter Balsam, Niall Bolger, Lila Davachi, Geraldine Downey, Carl Hart, Larisa Heiphetz, Tory Higgins, Niko Kriegeskorte, Bianca Jones Marlin, Janet Metcalfe, Kevin Ochsner, Valerie Purdie Greenaway, Daphna Shohamy, Rae Silver, Herb Terrace, Nim Tottenham, and Sarah Woolley. 

If you are interested in working with one of the Columbia Psychology faculty as your primary PhD advisor, you should contact them before applying to make sure they are accepting students this year. We recognize that this can be an intimidating process to email a potential advisor! For advice on how to contact a faculty member to see if they are accepting students (and even a template email for reaching out), we recommend these resources from the Tufts University Psychology Department. After you contact faculty, some may ask to schedule a call before the application is due. 

If the faculty member you want to work with is indeed taking students, then you can go ahead and fill out the application!

Students are guaranteed funding for 5 years, and many students complete the program within this period. Some students elect to take a 6th year or more to complete their research, and funding for additional years is sometimes available (though not guaranteed) through GSAS Teaching Fellowships.

The PhD program is a full-time program. 

All students accepted to the Ph.D. program in psychology receive a multi-year Faculty Fellowship which provides tuition, health and insurance fees, and an annual stipend for five years (as long as students are making excellent progress in research, classes and teaching responsibilities). The stipend level is adjusted each year to keep pace with the rate of inflation. In 2019-2020 the stipend was approximately $30,00 for the academic year and approximately $10,000 for the summer of 2020. 

Yes! Although funding is provided for five years, we recognize that many students may require additional financial aid. We encourage prospective students to direct any questions about financial aid to [email protected] (psych-specific) and [email protected] (GSAS financial aid office). 

Financial aid resources from GSAS:

 

Financial aid resources not specific to Columbia:

Columbia University provides a number of housing options for graduate students. Most accommodations are apartment shares in graduate student apartment buildings; there are a few studio and one-bedroom apartments in University buildings. All are located within a ten-minute walk to campus. On average, a single bedroom in an apartment costs about $1,025-$1,550 per month, a shared double about $670-750 per month. More information can be found on the Columbia University Housing website.

Students who are interested in a terminal master's degree should consider the Programs & Specializations at Teachers College. TC offers masters programs and specializes in multiple sub-disciplines in psychology as seen in the answer to question #9.

Separate from Teachers College, our research-based Psychology program is a five-year consecutive series of classes and research culminating in the Ph.D. degree. Students usually earn a master's degree by the end of their second year, through the completion of research leading to a master's essay and an oral presentation of the master's essay to faculty and other graduate students.

All students are admitted into the five-year Ph.D. program, and every student must fulfill all of the degree requirements. Previously taken courses will be evaluated on an individual basis. The program's emphasis, however, is research and there are very few course requirements.

  • Teachers College offers masters and doctoral programs in the following sub-disciplines in psychology:
    • Applied Educational Psychology, School Psychology, Health and Behavior Studies Applied Educational Psychology
    • Health and Behavior Studies Special Education, Health and Behavior Studies Health Studies
    • Counseling Psychology/Psychological Counseling, Clinical Psychology, Psychology in Education
    • Developmental Psychology Programs, Psychology: Developmental
    • Psychology: Organizational I/O, Social-Organizational Psychology
  • Columbia Business School also offers a Doctoral Program with fields of study which may be of interest to psychology students (Management, decision risk and operations, and Marketing). Additionally, Columbia Business School offers the MBA, Executive MBA, and Executive Education. Because psychology is such a broad subject, the other related disciplines at Columbia which may be of interest to students are too numerous to list here. We encourage prospective students to explore Columbia's offerings through their website listed above.