Admission Requirements

Applications are reviewed twice per year, once during the Fall [Oct.1) and again in the Spring [Feb. 1], for consideration of admission of applicants into the Graduate Program in Psychology. Students are admitted in September and in January. Two types of admission are recognized: Unconditional Admission and Conditional Admission. For an applicant to be  admitted Unconditionally, the applicant should meet the following requirements:

• A GRE (Graduate Record Exam) composite score   (Verbal + Quantitative) of at least 1000 and preferably higher. The minimum score accepted on the Verbal Test is 400, and the minimum score accepted on the Quantitative Test is 400. 
  Applicants are encouraged to take the Psychology Subject Exam of the GRE and to submit these scores as well as their GRE scores as part of their initial application. In a competitive situation, higher scores on the Psychology Subject Exam of the GRE will be given preference.
• A Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.00 or higher on the last 60 hours of undergraduate work.
• A GPA of 3.00 or higher on the last 12 hours of undergraduate psychology.
• Satisfactory completion of the admission application, including 3 letters of recommendation and a 500 word essay by the day of deadline.
• Clear admission to the Graduate School at the University of Texas - Pan American (UTPA). Note: Clear admission to the Graduate School of UTPA is a prerequisite for admission into the Masters Program in Clinical Psychology.  Thus, all applicants who are interested in applying to the Masters in Clinical Psychology must apply first to the Graduate School of UTPA. Contact the Graduate School of UTPA to obtain applications from them.

Conditional admissions have certain contingencies attached to admission such as requiring additional undergraduate work to be completed with a grade of "B" or better and within a certain timeframe or other similar condition placed by the Graduate Admissions Committee on an applicant at time of admission.  The conditions of admissions are required to be cleared by the applicant before Unconditional Admission status can be granted. 

The Masters in Clinical Psychology admits no more than 10 applicants total per year.

Deadlines, refer to the date the complete application is due, for admission into the Masters in Clinical Psychology:

Enrolling in courses before being officially admitted into the Masters in Clinical Psychology

It is possible for a student to take limited courses in the Graduate Program in Clinical Psychology even though they have not been admitted into the Masters in Clinical Psychology. Students admitted into the Graduate School at UTPA, but who have not been admitted into the Masters Program in Psychology, may  take up to 12 hours of course work required for the Masters Degree in Psychology with consent of the faculty teaching that course. Once admitted into the Masters in Clinical Psychology, these hours will count toward the Masters Degree.

Academic Requirements Following Admission:

Students are required to obtain a grade of "B" or better in all graduate courses. A grade of "C" in any graduate course places the student on "Academic Probation" for the following semester. If no grades are below "B" during the following semester, the "Academic Probation" is lifted; however, obtaining another grade below that of a "B" while on "Academic Probation" automatically results in termination from the graduate program in Clinical Psychology.

Students who do not enroll in the program for two consecutive semesters are automatically terminated from the program. If a student decides not to enroll in the program for any given semester, it is advisable that the student notify in writing the program director of their intent to discontinue in the program for any given semester.