GRADUATE PROGRAM

General Information About Graduate Training

The Graduate Student Body

Fifteen to twenty-five new students are admitted each year out of 300 to 400 applicants. Currently the department has 110 students enrolled in various phases of PhD training. Our department admits highly qualified students who are strongly committed to research and scholarship. Click here to visit the Graduate College.

Financial Support

Within budgetary limitations the Department of Psychology aims to offer 50-percent-time research or teaching assistantships to all students in good standing during their first four years of graduate study. Most 50-percent-time assistantships pay $12,000 to $13,500 for the nine-month academic year. Additional assistantships are often available during the summer months. The University also offers fellowships paying between $12,500 and $18,000 for the academic year to specially qualified students.

Highly qualified applicants should also apply to federal programs (e.g., NSF) for fellowship support. Assistants holding appointments for 25 percent or more time and all fellowship holders are exempt from tuition and some service fees.

The Office of Student Financial Aid at (312)996-3126 can provide you with information on student loans and other types of financial aid.

Academic Skills

For well rounded academic training, all students are provided the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant for a variety of psychology courses, both lecture and lab. Students are given the option to be a TA for a core course in their own area, or for courses in a different division. As a part of this training, students may lead their own small discussion section, help the professor prepare exams, proctor and grade exams, give a guest lecture and hold office hours. To prepare for this experience, all students are required to enroll in a 1 hour/credit teaching colloquium in their first year. During this course, students receive training in the basic skills needed to serve as a psychology teaching assistant.

After completing all requirements for the MA, students can choose to enroll in the Teaching Practicum. This is a year long training that culminates in students serving as an instructor for the course of their choice. During the first term students are mentored in planning and preparing a course. During the second term, students serve as the instructor for the course. This is a great opportunity for graduate students to try out the role of instructor, and provides them with invaluable skills that should make them more competitive for academic positions. In addition, following completion of the Teaching Practicum, students may have the opportunity to serve as an instructor for courses as the need arises in the department.

Brown Bag and Colloquia

The intellectual life of the department is enhanced by weekly brown bags (i.e., special topics seminars) offered by each division. In addition, there are several specialty brown bags offered including Psychology and Law, Health Psychology, and a Journal Club offered by the social division. During the brown bags, faculty and students present their latest research and discuss important scholarly topics in their field. Invited presenters from other UIC departments and Chicago-area universities also enrich the Brown Bag series. The department also sponsors a dynamic colloquium series with presentations by nationally renowned scholars from diverse specializations.

Facilities and Equipment

The department is located in the Behavioral Sciences Building (BSB), a fully equipped facility designed to serve the needs of the behavioral and social sciences. Physical facilities of the department include seminar rooms, animal laboratories, human research labs, clinical observation rooms with one-way observational windows and video-recording and biofeedback equipment, a computerized classroom and graduate student computer lab, the Office of Applied Psychological Services, and faculty and graduate student offices. The Office of Social Science Research, located on the 3rd floor of BSB, provides additional research space. The department maintains its own computers with full Internet access for graduate student and faculty use. These include Macintosh and Windows based computers and printers. The departmental computers are hooked to a university/departmental LAN and have a variety of software and Internet services available for access. These include Systat, SAS, SPSS, Mystat for statistical work and WordPerfect for Windows, and Word for word processing work.

BSB is located close to the Main Library and to University recreational facilities. It is approximately one mile from the University's health sciences colleges located on the west side of campus. A free shuttle bus connects the two sides of campus, providing easy access to the Library of the Health Sciences, hospitals and clinics, and other research, clinical, and teaching facilities.

Transfer Credit

A student who enters the graduate program with a master's degree in psychology may be granted 32 hours of credit toward the 96 semester-hour requirement for the PhD degree by the Graduate College. The decision as to whether courses taken at another university may be considered in lieu of UIC Department of Psychology requirements is a departmental decision made after the student has entered the program.

Housing Services

The UIC Housing Office operates a number of campus residential facilities. The student residence halls have single dormitory style rooms and provide meal services for graduate students. The Single Student Residence (SSR) has two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments as well as two-, and three- bedroom suites. For further information regarding campus housing, call (312)355-6300.

Students interested in finding off-campus housing may check with the Campus Housing at 220 SRH, 818 S. Wolcott, Chicago, IL, 60612. Listings of privately owned housing, including furnished and unfurnished apartments, roommates wanted, houses for rent or sale, and rooms for rent are available for inspection. Listings are also posted on the Campus Auxiliary Services bulletin board on the first floor near the main entrance of Chicago Circle Center. Persons listing housing accommodations have signed a pledge not to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. For further information regarding off-campus housing, call Mary Jones at (312) 355-6300