Psychology and Neuroscience (PhD)

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 A- average.

Psychology and Neuroscience Programs

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

Clinical Psychology Program

General Admission Requirements:

All students entering this program must normally satisfy the general requirements for admission to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. These include:

• Completion of a four-year bachelor's degree (or equivalent) at a recognized university with a GPA at or above the minimum required by the program
• If English is an additional language, demonstrate abilities through a language competency test. You may request this requirement be waived if you completed your degree at a recognized university where the language of instruction is English and English is one of the official languages of the country where you completed your studies.
• For doctoral studies, completion of a thesis-based Master's degree or its equivalent, or meet the requirements for direct admission/transfer into the doctoral program.

Program Admission Requirements:

Important: Due to a technical error with our new application platform, on the application portal you will be asked to upload a Research Proposal. Please upload your Statement of Research Interests in this slot (i.e., you will upload the Statement of Research Interests in two different places). You are not required to submit a separate research proposal as part of your application.

Admission into this program is subject to the following minimum requirements:

• If required, TOEFL iBT scores of at least 92, or IELTS (Academic) scores of at least 7.
• For direct admission, applicants will typically have completed a Bachelor's Honours degree in psychology, or in an appropriate adjacent area such as cognitive science or social behaviour to be competitive.
• Applicants with a Master's degree in psychology (or a closely-related field) may be eligible for advanced placement within the program.

Admission into this program is competitive. Meeting these minimum requirements does not guarantee admission.

Additional information on the application process, deadlines and supplementary material requirements can be found on the program's website.

Direct admission to PhD from a Bachelor's degree

Clinical Psychology at Dalhousie is a fast-track program open to applicants who do not hold a Master's degree. Students who hold a Bachelor's Honours degree are initially admitted at the Master’s level, where they will complete 1–2 years of coursework (and a research project, not a Master's thesis), before transferring into the PhD program.

Transferring from Master's to PhD

Only MSc Psychology and Neuroscience students who were assessed and approved for admission into the PhD Clinical Psychology program are eligible to transfer to the PhD.

Exceptional Admission and Prior Learning Assessments

The Faculty of Graduate Studies will consider exceptional admission requests when requested by the graduate program. Please contact the program directly if you wish to enquire about exceptional admission or prior learning assessment procedures. Not all programs support exceptional admission requests.