FAQs

General instructions are available through the Graduate School (including an FAQ page); guidance for international applicants is available on the International Admissions page. You may apply through either of the departments in which our program is housed: the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education (program code: COCP; Education) or the Department of Psychology (program code: PSYC; Behavioral/Social Sciences). Your application will be considered by all faculty in the program, regardless of the side to which they are affiliated. The University of Maryland offers a financial need-based application fee waiver program. General questions about the admissions process should be directed to the Graduate School. For department-specific questions about your application, send an email message to cscott18@umd.edu (Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education) or PsycPhD@umd.edu (Department of Psychology). 

To be considered for admission, a complete application should be received by December 1, 2025 by 11:59 pm EST.  Applicants applying to the Counseling Psychology program have a “best consideration” date of November 18, 2025.  This means that the Counseling Psychology program will start reviewing applications submitted by November 18th, but you have until December 1, 2025 before 11:59 pm EST to submit your completed application.

Faculty accepting new students for the 2026-27 include: Delida Sanchez (EDUC), Jioni A. Lewis (EDUC), Richard Q. Shin (EDUC), Derek K. Iwamoto (PSYC), Jonathan Mohr (PSYC), and Terrill O. Taylor (PSYC).

We do not give preference to students who contact us. We wish we could arrange for applicants to visit faculty members, but, unfortunately, we cannot do this due to the large number of applications we receive each year.  

Simply name all of the faculty members who seem like they may be good matches for you as an advisor. 

We are a unified doctoral program that is housed in two departments. All applicants may apply to the program via CHSE or PSYC. Typically, applicants apply to that side of the program where they would most like to work with a specific faculty advisor. Regardless of the side to which an applicant applies, the admission offer usually will come from the same side of the program as the faculty advisor with whom the applicant is initially paired. Admissions are determined by the faculty as a whole, and students are considered to be part of the joint program once they begin their studies. Our joint program is viewed by the American Psychological Association as a single program. 

In most respects, students have the same experience regardless of the department they join. Students take virtually all of their courses together and receive the same high-quality training in research and practice. However, some facets of the program differ for students housed on the two sides of the program. For example, CHSE and PSYC are located in different buildings, and students tend to spend more time in the department with which they are affiliated. Students’ workspaces are usually assigned by their department, and students’ paperwork and bureaucratic processes are typically handled within their department. Also, the details of funding arrangements differ by department. Additionally, there are some differences in coursework based on the department in which students are housed (e.g., statistics courses). Despite these differences, we believe that students develop a strong sense of connectedness across departmental lines due to the cohort model on which our joint training program is based.

Our faculty members review applications in December and select a pool of applicants for virtual interview. Applicants who are not contacted by mid-January to schedule a virtual interview are likely no longer being considered for admission. These virtual interviews are typically conducted in late December or early January. Based on these interviews, we invite a smaller pool of applicants to our Interview Day. Notifications of admission and waitlist status are made by phone or email soon after Interview Day, usually by mid-February to early March. Students who are not admitted to the program will be notified by mail or online through the application system during this same period.

We tentatively plan to have our Interview Day on Friday, February 6, 2026, along with an informal gathering with current students the night before. Please keep the date open in case you are invited for an interview. Past applicants who have attended our interview day have reported that it provided an excellent opportunity to get to know current students and faculty, and get a feel for the program.

Currently the GRE is not required for doctoral applications. The Counseling Psychology Program will not use GRE scores in admissions decisions this year. 

A bachelor’s degree in psychology or a closely related field is desirable but not required. We give strong preferences to applicants who have completed a minimum of 15 credits in psychology, including introductory or general psychology, statistics, and three additional courses (in areas such as theories of personality, developmental psychology, social psychology, or cognitive-behavioral psychology). A strong background in math and statistics is helpful.

The typical applicant who is competitive has a GPA of 3.5 or above for the last 60 hours of the baccalaureate degree, and a graduate GPA of 3.75 (if a previous master’s degree has been earned). We look for experience in areas relevant to both research and counseling, as well as evidence of interest in and motivation to conduct research. 

All students are admitted for the fall semester only, and we have admitted approximately 3-6 students per year in recent years.

No. Only persons who are willing and able to carry a full schedule of courses (e.g., 10 credit hours per semester) will be admitted.

All of our students are given financial assistance. In recent years, all of our students have had assistantships or fellowships that provide tuition remission and a stipend. For more information, see our Financial Information page. 

No. Our program offers only a doctorate. Many programs in Maryland and beyond offer a terminal master’s degree. The following links will take you to websites of accreditation organizations listing the master’s programs that have met their accreditation standards:

• Master’s in Counseling and Psychology Accrediting Council (MPCAC)
• Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)
• Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (CAMFTE)
• Counsel on Social Work Education (CSWE)

Students who begin the program having completed graduate-level courses at other universities may petition to have courses count in lieu of program-required courses, except for some counseling psychology courses that must be taken at UMD. The courses that must be taken at UMD are listed in the “Required Courses” section in the Program Handbook, which can be downloaded from this program website through the menu option for “Our Training Program.”

Course waivers are considered when previously taken courses clearly replicate program-required courses and students have earned satisfactory grades in those courses. Petitions for course waivers are submitted to the student’s advisor by September 15th of the first year in the program. Faculty review petitions in a closed faculty meeting by October 15th of each year. We cannot evaluate the previous coursework of individual applicants before they are admitted to the program.

A previously completed master’s thesis must be reviewed by a committee of three faculty members from the Counseling Psychology Program to be approved for research competence. Over half of the empirical master’s theses completed elsewhere have been approved in the past.

We ask that you check to make sure your questions are not answered on our website since it is a comprehensive source of information about our program. If questions remain after using this online resource, then please feel free to contact one of our program training directors: Richard Shin and Derek Iwamoto.