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Frequently Asked Questions

  • General information about the GRE scores, GPA, and letters of reference

    • Yes. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) [general test only] must be taken and results received by the Graduate College before your application is considered complete. Please allow time for the Graduate College to receive your scores and process and deliver your file to the School Psychology Program prior to the deadline. The GRE is waived with an earned master’s degree or doctorate from an accredited university.

    • No, but an applicant must have competitive scores in the verbal reasoning, quantitative, and analytical writing sections.

    • The admissions committee considers all components of the application and does not deny admission based on a single criterion. Like the GRE, an applicant's GPA should be competitive.

    • Letters of reference (LOR) should be written by individuals who are in a position to speak to the applicant's academic qualities, ability to successfully complete a graduate-level training program, and personal qualities/traits. Therefore, an applicant's former university or college faculty members are considered to be ideal referents. If it is not feasible for an applicant to obtain LOR from former faculty members, LOR should be sought from employers or work supervisors who can speak to the applicant's work ethic, collegiality and personal qualities/traits. LOR from friends, family members, etc. are typically only able to address an applicants personal qualities/traits.

  • Questions about applying to the program

    • No. Although some may find it helpful to have an undergraduate degree in the field of psychology or education, it is not required to apply to our program. Many applicants have been accepted into to our program with undergraduate degrees in a field other than psychology or education, done very well in their course work, and gone on to be outstanding school psychologists.

    • An applicant’s Official Transcripts, must include three (3) undergraduate prerequisites courses with a grade of a “B” or better. “Below are general descriptions of the three prerequisite courses.  These may be from any regionally accredited community college, college, or university.

      Abnormal Psychology (or equivalent course)

      A course in “Abnormal Psychology (or equivalent course)” is a psychology class where the main content of the course covers child and adult mental health disorders including: the characteristics, causes, theories, and treatments of the major categories of psychological disorders based upon the classifications of the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual -Fifth edition or the International Classification of Diseases – 11th ed.

      Developmental Psychology  (or equivalent course, such as Lifespan Development)

      A course in “Developmental Psychology (or equivalent course, such as Lifespan Development)” is a class where the main content of the course covers the psychology of human life-span development, including: intellectual, social, emotional, biological, and environmental aspects within the context of the major theories of cognitive, social and emotional development.

      Statistics (or equivalent course)

      A course in “Statistics (or equivalent course)” is a class where the main content of the course provides an introduction to statistical methods including: descriptive statistics, principles of statistical inference and common hypothesis testing techniques such as z test, t-tests, analysis of variance, correlation and regression, and selected non-parametric tests.

    • Below are general descriptions of course content for prerequisite courses. These may be from any regionally accredited community college, college, or university.

      Abnormal psychology. (or equivalent course)

      A course in abnormal psychology is a psychology class where the main content of the course covers the characteristics, causes, theories, and treatments of the major categories of psychological disorders based upon the classifications of the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual -fifth ed. or the International Classification of Diseases – 11th ed.

      Developmental Psychology (or equivalent course, such as Lifespan Development)

      A course in developmental psychology is a psychology class where the main content of the course covers the psychology of human life-span development including intellectual, social, emotional, biological, and environmental aspect within the context of the major theories of cognitive, social and emotional development.

      Statistics (or equivalent course)

      A statistics course is a class where the main content of the course provides an introduction to statistical methods including descriptive statistics, principles of statistical inference and common hypothesis testing techniques such as z test, t-tests, analysis of variance, correlation and regression, and selected non-parametric tests.

    • No. Only those individuals who have been accepted can take courses.

    • Perhaps. If you want to transfer in a course to replace a required course, we must be able to verify that it is equivalent to the course for which you want it to substitute, and as per Graduate College policy, the course cannot have been used for credit toward another degree. For us to review it appropriately, the Graduate Advisor will need a copy of the syllabus of the course you have taken elsewhere. Program faculty will review it to check for equivalency. Again, please be aware that any courses that were used as credit toward a degree that you have already earned cannot be used toward another degree.

      Please note: You may find additional information about transferring credit here: http://mycatalog.txstate.edu/graduate/registration-course-credit/course-credit/

    • Faculty will continue to accept applications beyond January 15 until May 1 or until all new student openings are filled, whichever comes first.

      If you missed the May 1 deadline or all new student openings have been filled, please apply for the following application cycle. 

  • Questions about admission to our program

    • There are a limited number of available openings in the School Psychology program each fall. Completed applications submitted by the January 15 deadline are considered first. Applications received after January 15 will be reviewed only if there are still openings for the fall and will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis, with no guarantees for admission consideration.

      An applicant offered admission into the program has until April 15th to accept or decline the offer. Although the vast majority of qualified applicants accept or decline immediately upon notification, some choose to wait until April 15th or later to accept/decline our offer. This means, if you submit after January 15, you may not hear from the program regarding your status until after April 15th. 

      Once enough applicants have accepted our offers, the process is closed and all remaining applicants are notified by the Graduate College that they were not admitted.

    • Faculty begin reviewing all available applications after the January 15th deadline and the names of qualified applicants are submitted to the Graduate College as soon as they are reviewed.

      As per Graduate College policy, successful qualified applicants will receive a letter from the Dean of the Graduate College notifying them they have been accepted for graduate studies at Texas State University to pursue a Specialist School Psychology (SSP) degree in School Psychology.

      Within three days of receiving notice from the Graduate College, the School Psychology Program Administrative Assistant will send successful qualified applicants a packet that includes the procedure for accepting and confirming plans to attend as well as other important program information. 

    • Although faculty do their best to notify applicants of their status in a timely fashion, there are many factors that determine when an applicant is notified. Therefore, all applicants will be notified of their status as soon as possible.

  • General questions about the program