Requirements for All Applicants
The Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology is a residential, full-time, five-year program that operates on a cohort model and begins in fall only. Applications are reviewed holistically, and admission decisions are made in consideration of the entire applicant pool.
ATTENTION: THE GRE IS NOW OPTIONAL!
For 2026 admission, the GRE is not required. Applications are reviewed holistically, and applications without GRE scores will receive the same full and fair consideration as those with scores.
- Application Deadline: December 15 of the year prior to enrollment.
- NOTE: All application materials, including transcripts and recommendations (and GRE if you take it*), must be submitted by the application deadline to be considered for an interview.
- Bachelor's Degree from a regionally accredited institution.
- GPA 3.0 minimum.
- Official transcripts from all colleges where a degree was earned or is currently being earned.
- Applicants will be required to provide official transcripts from each institution where they have received or will receive a degree prior to enrollment in Wheaton College Graduate School. Applicants who have earned more than twenty-five percent of their degree from institutions outside of their degree-conferring school will be required to supply official transcripts for those credits in the event they are not explicitly listed on the degree transcript with course names and grades. Graduate Admissions will reserve the right to request additional transcripts as needed to meet departmental requirements or demonstrate proof of prerequisites.
- E-transcripts preferred. Must be addressed to nancy.crane@wheaton.edu.
- Mail paper copies to Graduate Admissions, Attn: Nancy Crane, 501 College Ave., Wheaton, IL 60187.
- Application Form. Includes affirmations of the Statement of Faith and Community Covenant.
- Three Recommendations, which are online forms.
- Academic. A professor from whom you have taken a class preferred. Alternative: a college-level instructor from whom you have not taken a class but has served as a mentor or advisor.
- Pastoral. Can be a Christian leader from your church other than a pastor.
- Professional. Can be someone with whom you have had a supervisor-employee relationship in a work setting is preferred but may also be in a ministry, internship, or volunteer role.
- Recommenders can upload an optional letter on their online-recommendation page.
- Recommendations from relatives not accepted.
- Two Essays.
- Personal Statement.
- Professional Statement.
- Resumé. Chronological. Include ministry/volunteer experience.
- Sample Research Paper.
- Ten pages minimum. APA Style.
- Sole authorship. Group projects are not accepted, but a published article with multiple authors is acceptable if the applicant is the first author.
- Application Fee. USD $50, non-refundable.
Interview Day
By invitation only. First or second Friday of February. Exact date to be determined.
- On campus. Virtual interviews available if needed.
- Applicants can indicate in the application form if they would like to be considered for both the Psy.D. and Ph.D. programs. The faculty will recommend a program to the applicant.
Our doctoral programs value the rich academic community of colleagues, including faculty, staff, and students, and we engage in a review process that includes the entire community.
Prerequisites
Eighteen semester-credit hours from the courses below. All prerequisites must be taken from a psychology department (not, e.g., an education, sociology, or math department). The courses might have different names at other schools. Students may apply before finishing the prerequisites, but the courses should be completed before matriculation. (Physiological Psychology can be completed during the summer before or after enrollment.)
- General Psychology (required)
- Abnormal Psychology (required)
- Research Methods in Psychology or Statistics for Psychology (required)
- Physiological Psychology (required)
- Can be taken remotely as a Wheaton summer tutorial.
- Optional courses to fulfill the eighteen credit hours.
- Cognition
- Developmental Psychology
- Learning
- Personality Psychology
- Sensation/Perception
- Social Psychology
Additional Requirements for International Students
International students, and permanent residents of the US whose native language is not English, are required to take either the TOEFL iBT Test, IELTS Academic Test, or Duolingo English test with the minimal scores indicated below:
- TOEFL iBT Test: 100 with at least 20 in each category
- IELTS Academic Test: 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each category
- Duolingo English Test: 120
Applicants who wish to waive their English proficiency test, please refer to the English proficiency page for details.
An International Transcript Verification Report is needed for students who completed degrees outside of the United States.
Please review Graduate International Admissions for full information.
Automatic Scholarship for Psy.D. Students.
ALL PSY.D. STUDENTS are offered an automatic scholarship of between $24,000 and $44,000 total, prorated over four years. The fifth year’s pre-doctoral internship is a salaried, full-time position.
Transfer Credit Policy for Psy.D. Program
Students may be admitted to the Wheaton College Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology with prior graduate work. A maximum of thirty semester hours of transfer credit, which can include a maximum of fourteen elective hours, may be applied to the Psy.D. Program, including any credit that was applied to completed M.A. degrees in clinical psychology or theological studies.
- The only exceptions to this policy are Wheaton's M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling or M.A in Marriage and Family Therapy, in which case thirty-six semester hours may be transferred.
- No transfer of credit will be granted for graduate-practicum or field-placement courses. Equivalencies for credit from Wheaton's M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy are cited on the "Approved Credit Transfers from Wheaton M.A." listing. All transfer of credit requests should be submitted by October 1 of each year.
- Where and how credit is specifically applied in transfer will need to be petitioned and negotiated after matriculation. The sole exception will be transfer credits that may affect first-semester course enrollment, which will be negotiated by correspondence with the chair of the doctoral Admissions and Academic Requirements Committee before or during orientation.
- Courses with grades lower than B cannot be transferred. Wheaton uses semester credit hours. One quarter-hour from other institutions is equivalent to .67 of a semester hour.
Time-to-Completion. Program data indicate that the vast majority of students entering the program with transfer credits will complete the Wheaton College Psy.D. program in essentially the same five-year timeline as students entering the program with a bachelor's degree only.
*Taking the GRE is entirely up to you. We look at the whole picture, and your strengths matter most.
- Scores can be self-reported to nancy.crane@wheaton.edu and will meet the deadline. Official score reports will still be required as soon as they are available.
- Take the GRE General Test, not the psychology test.
- Test scores must be fewer than five years old.
- There is a GRE At Home option.
- Wheaton College Institution Code: 1905.
