Psychology & Neuroscience Master's (MSc), Doctorate (PhD)

How to apply

Departmental Requirements


Admission deadline: Clinical Psychology Program - November 15th Psychology & Neuroscience Program - December 1

Incoming students must have a 4-year honours bachelor degree from a Canadian University or its equivalent elsewhere. The honours degree should be in the area of intended study with at least a B+ average.

Clinical Psychology Fast-Tracked Program

Candidates for the program in Clinical Psychology must have an honours degree or equivalent in Psychology. Students entering with a bachelor's degree will be registered in an MSc before being "fast-tracked" to the Clinical PhD before the end of the first year, without completing a master's thesis or obtaining a master's degree. Students entering with a graduate degree will be admitted directly to the Clinical PhD program and may be eligible for advanced standing within the program. Whether applying with a bachelor's or a master's degree, applications should clearly indicate that they are interested in being considered for the Clinical Psychology program.

Psychology and Neuroscience Program

Students with a bachelor's degree and wishing to enter the PhD program in Psychology or Psychology/Neuroscience should initially register in the MSc program. Applicants should clearly indicate whether they wish to be considered for the Psychology or the Psychology/Neuroscience program.

 

General admission requirements

The Faculty of Graduate Studies sets the minimum admission standards that are required for entry into graduate programs. Individual departments may require additional qualifications of their candidates, and enrolment limitations usually mean that successful applicants possess qualifications that considerably exceed the minimum requirements. For more information on additional qualifications please see the program you are applying to on the graduate program page.

Common admission criteria

Master's degree (MSc)

  • Four-year Bachelor’s degree
  • Minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B average) in the last 60 credit hours of study
  • Degree granted by university of recognized standing

Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD)

  • First-class thesis Master’s degree or its equivalent
  • Minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B average) in the last 60 credit hours of study
  • Degree granted by university of recognized standing
  • To read more about degree requirements for admission to PhD programs, refer to section 3.3 of the Faculty of Graduate Studies Calendar.

English language proficiency

Students for whom English is not their first language and who did not complete their previous degree at an English-speaking university will need to submit proof of English language proficiency.

Dalhousie accepts a number of different English proficiency test scores:

Test Name Minimum Acceptable Score
Internet-based TOEFL 92
Written TOEFL 580
MELAB 85
IELTS 7
CanTest 4.5 (with no band score lower than 4.0)
CAEL 70 with no band score lower than 60
Dalhousie College of Continuing Education (CCE) A-


      Department GPA requirements

      Psychology GPA minimum 3.3.


      Application process

      1. Application form

      Please go the Faculty of Graduate Studies website for application information and forms. If you are applying for the Fast-Tracked Clinical PhD Program please apply for the PhD program even if you do not have a Masters.

      If you are filling out the paper version this must go to the Registrar's office, not the department.

      2. Application fee

      This payment can be made online by way of the methods listed in the body of the application itself. If you are not able to pay online, please contact the Office of the Registrar to make payment. Do not send your payment to the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

      3. Confidential Reference Letters

      • Applicants to the Psychology stream and Neuroscience stream must submit at least two letters from two different referees.
      • Applicants to the Clinical Psychology program must submit three letters from three different referees, at least one of which must focus on the student's clinical experience and/or suitability for work in clinical psychology
      • Reference letters may be submitted by your referees using the Dalhousie e-ref Electronic Reference System; the referee will be sent an email and directed to a secure website to complete the reference form. It is critical that you supply a university, teaching hospital or government email address for your referee (i.e., not Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, or etc). Your referee will not receive an invitation to provide a letter if you do not supply one of the specified email addresses. It may take at least 5 days for referees to receive a link to their emails after you have paid for your application.
      • Alternatively, if your referees does not have a university, teaching hospital or government email address they may complete a confidential referee letter form and should be encouraged to attach a more detailed letter to accompany this form. This form should be emailed to gradprog@dal.ca.

      Please note we do realize reference letters come in after the application deadline. Please make sure that all reference letters are submitted no later than the 10th of December as the admissions committees meet soon after that time.

      4. Transcripts

      For application purposes, unofficial academic transcripts and degree certificates (if degree conferral not stated on transcripts) are required for each post-secondary institution attended. Please email gradprog@dal.ca an unofficial copy of your transcripts. Transcripts should include your first and last name, degree and program type and name of degree issuing university.

      Should you be accepted for admission to your program of choice, all official and final transcripts will be required for each post-secondary institution attended. They will be required within 90 days of the start of your program. If you only completed a course(s) at a university or post-secondary institution, official transcripts are required as well.

      Please see the Faculty of Graduate Studies site (under transcripts) for information on how to submit official transcripts. HERE

      5. GRE Scores

      GRE scores are not required or considered.

      6. Research Interests

      A letter from the applicant indicating your research and career interests. There is no page limit for this statement but it is usually no longer than 1-2 pages. This can be emailed to the department at gradprog@dal.ca.

      • Clearly specify the graduate program to which you are applying (e.g., Clinical Psychology) and mention — by name (preferably in boldface print) – any faculty members with whom you have corresponded and/or with whom you would be particularly interested in working.
      • If you have not completed an honours degree, you must detail the independent research experience and core coursework (e.g., research design, statistics) that you would like to have considered as “equivalent to honours”.
      This can be emailed to Gradprog@dal.ca

      7. Application cover sheet

      All applicants are asked to complete and include the Graduate Program Application Sheet with their application (PDF). If you are applying for the Clinical Psychology Program please click that box even if you don't have a Masters. This can also be emailed to gradprog@dal.ca

      10. Electronic Supplement

      Please see our Application Information Spreadsheet. It is an electronic form that will ask you for much of the same information that you provided on the Application cover sheet. We require this electronic form IN ADDITION to the completed cover sheet. You can go through this without inputting anything (except which program you are applying to) to see what it looks like. If you get logged out for some reason you can repeat it as many times as needed.

      11. TOEFL Scores

      International applicants whose native language is not English:  TOEFL scores are to be mailed to the department.

      Unofficial copies can be emailed to gradprog@dal.ca but an official copy has to be mailed from the testing center.

Finding a Supervisor

If you are planning to apply for a thesis or research based Master’s or PhD, you might need to find a supervisor before you begin the application process. To find out if securing a supervisor before applying is required or recommended, please check with the graduate program you applying to.