The PhD concentration in Applied Behavior Analysis is designed to be completed in 5-6 years. The last year is a predoctoral internship.
Yes. You will complete the requirements for a Master's prior to being advanced to doctoral candidacy.
Yes, we are accepting applications from those who already have a Master's degree in Psychology for the ABA concentration. Students will need to take classes offered during the master's portion of our degree if they have not already taken the equivalent classes. Therefore, having a master's degree may not speed up your degree.
Yes, if you meet the requirements for admission (e.g., 21 hr. in psychology at the undergraduate level); see admission requirements below. You would start in Year 1 and be required to take all of the course, research, and practicum experiences in the doctoral program.
That is, having a Master's degree will not speed up your degree. You would be earning another Master's degree and a PhD in psychology.
Classes and practicum experiences can run five days a week, and the courses are not online. On some days, your classes will start at 8 a.m. and go until 9 p.m.
In addition to classes, you are expected to be available in the lab and/or for your assistantship duties on campus as well as your practicum on campus and in the local community. Thus, it would be difficult to add in a long commute.
In the PhD ABA concentration, we plan to accept 2-4 students.
The Graduate Admissions Committee for the PhD ABA concentration reviews complete applications after December 4th.
Applications will continue to be processed and reviewed up until the cohort is filled, with the last date applications will be accepted being February 15th.
For the PhD ABA concentration, we hope to let people know about first round of interviews sometime in late January. Interviews will take place until the cohort is filled.
We offer competitive, full-time (20 hr./week) Graduate Teaching Assistantships each year for a total of 4 years. If you receive one of these, you will be helping with the teaching mission of the department by being a TA for a faculty member or, in later years, being an instructor of a section.
If your faculty research mentor, has a grant, you could be paid as a research assistants (RA) and help conduct the research on the grant.
Currently, we offer to pay some tuition per year to help offset costs for in-state tuition and fees. For the current tuition covered, contact the graduate coordinator. See graduate tuition rates and fees.
For students who are not NC residents, out-of-state tuition remissions are available for the first year.
If you have further questions, please email the Department of Psychology.