I appreciate your interest in the Psychology and Social Intervention (PSI) PhD program in the Applied Psychology department at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. The admission process can be daunting and we appreciate your personal inquiries and questions about the program. To make the admission process equitable, I am providing prospective applicants with general – and equal – information about what our program looks for in a PhD applicant. 

Where can I get information on the doctoral admission process?

You can get all the information on the PSI program here: https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/programs/psychology-and-social-intervention. The program holds an online information session for all prospective applicants where faculty and students discuss general topics about the program, including the admission requirements, research conducted by members of our research program, and funding packages, among other things. This will also be a great opportunity for you to ask questions to students and faculty about the program. You can check the website for the dates and times of the information sessions and to rsvp as well.

An important distinction between our program and other programs is that faculty members in the program do not directly admit students. Instead, the admissions committee pays close attention to the match between the candidate and the program as a whole to decide on whether to admit a prospective student.

Where can I get more information about your work?

For more information on my research, you are welcome to check my lab website cuartaslab.com or my NYU personal page https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/jorge-cuartas. Please note that I try to keep my website updated and thus it provides you with a good sense of my ongoing research projects and publications. This will give you a sense of the kind of topics I am interested in and give you insight into whether our research interests align.

You can also access my Google Scholar page which has updated information on published work.

Are you able to meet and discuss my interests/ application prior to my acceptance?

For practical and ethical reasons, I do not communicate or meet (either in person, via zoom, or on the phone) with prospective applicants prior to admission. In addition, I do not read draft personal statements or other materials outside the department admissions process. On the practical front, I receive numerous inquiries from prospective applicants throughout the academic year and simply cannot make time to respond substantively to prospective applicants. On the ethical front, I believe strongly in leveling the playing field and do not wish to favor applicants who have received advice on how to connect with prospective advisors or who have connections to me via my research network. Furthermore, personal connections with faculty may not really yield that much benefit as our program reviews applications as a whole, and individual faculty do not get to directly choose who gets admitted. Please note that before we make final decisions on who gets admitted into the program, there will be an interview day where shortlisted applicants will get to visit the campus and to have one-on-one discussions with their desired mentors, graduate students, and researchers in the department. Those who are unable to physically come to campus will still attend the interview day online. 

What does the program look for in a PhD application?

Here are some things I look for when I read a PhD application, but please keep in mind these are my personal opinions, and other readers of your application may look for different criteria. 

In my opinion, the personal statement and recommendation letters are the most important pieces of the application package. In your statements and letters, I seek to learn about:

1. The specific topic or question you are interested in and your future goals. While you do not need to have a very narrow research question or your dissertation topic clear by the time of application, I expect to learn about specific interests and goals (e.g., prevention of violence against young children in the home in X country) rather than general topics of interest (e.g., prevention science).
2. Your motivation for this topic or question, including how your experiences inform your decision to pursue a Ph.D.. Provide a compelling narrative on how your professional and academic experiences prepared you to pursue a Ph.D, what you learned in these experiences, and how these experiences shaped your research interests. 
3. How PSI could contribute to developing your research agenda and goals. Describe why you are a good match for the PSI PhD program and how the program and faculty can contribute to achieving your objectives. You should also identify specific faculty you are interested in working with.

In addition, I am particularly interested in working with students who:

• would like to develop strong quantitative skills and use causal inference, longitudinal analysis, and measurement methods (among others). You can demonstrate your interest in quantitative methods through coursework, work experience (e.g., as a research assistant), and/or in your personal statement;
• are interested in intervention, policy, and translational science, including development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions and policies and using scientific findings to catalyze broader impacts (e.g., public conversation, dissemination of findings);
• have prior research experience. You do not need multiple peer-reviewed papers by the time you apply to a Ph.D. program, but having significant experience working on research projects (e.g., as a research assistant) will help you succeed in a Ph.D. program. 

Can you provide me with feedback if my application is unsuccessful?

Unfortunately, providing this sort of feedback is typically not possible.

*Dr. Michelle Twali and Jorge Cuartas adapted many of these responses from a document written by Dr. Dana McCoy.