Prospective Students
We are glad you are considering Mississippi State University for your graduate education!
* Application Deadlines - Please note that the Cognitive Science doctoral degree program expects applications to be completed by January 15th. The master's degree programs conduct rolling admissions but it is to your advantage to complete your application prior to February 1st. While we review master's applications received through May 1st, most spots are typically filled by then. In fact, we recommend master's degree applicants complete their applications by January 15th to ensure adequate time for their applications to be compiled by the Graduate School and made available to the department.
* Admission Criteria - Prerequisites for admission into the graduate program include all the general requirements of the Office of Graduate Studies and the following courses at the undergraduate level:
- for all applicants - statistics, experimental psychology, and biological/physiological psychology;
- for the cognitive science doctoral program - introductory cognitive psychology;
- for the clinical master's program - abnormal psychology;
- for the master's program in experimental psychology - psychology of learning.
The applicant without all of the undergraduate course requirements may be admitted into the graduate program contingent upon making up any deficiencies as soon as possible. Requirements for admission into the graduate program are as follows: three letters of recommendation, an official score on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general test, and transcripts of all college/university work. The applicant not meeting the GPA requirement of the University (2.75) may receive provisional admission (described below) if the other factors (e.g., publications, work experience, excellent grades at the end of an undergraduate career) suggest the potential for successful graduate-level work.
* What do successful master's degree applicants look like? Successful applicants tend to have undergraduate GPAs above 3.5 and Verbal + Quantitative scores of higher than 1000. It is important to note, however, that the admission process weighs other variables as well (e.g., letters of recommendation, scholarly and applied experience, etc.). Depending on the overall quality of the application, applicants with lower than typical GPAs and/or GREs sometimes are offered admission and applicants with higher GPAs and/or GREs sometimes do not receive admission offers. In recent years, almost 50% of applicants are offered admission to the program and the majority of those receiving offers decide to enroll in the program. The number of new students joining the program in any given year typically ranges from 8 to 11.
* Provisional Admission - If a student does not meet the GPA (2.75) admission requirements of the program, the student may be admitted provisionally. In that case, the student must attain a 3.00 GPA on the first nine hours of graduate courses at MSU after admission to the graduate program. Transferred and unclassified graduate hours do not apply. If a 3.00 is not achieved, the student may be dismissed from the graduate program.
