Admissions Procedures and Requirements
The primary program faculty serve as an admissions committee and make recommendations to the UTC Graduate School on whether to accept or reject each applicant to the program. The admissions committee wishes to admit students that it believes will be successful in the program rather than to be highly selective, and the committee has developed admissions standards designed to serve that goal.
All application materials are submitted to the UTC Graduate School. The Graduate School notifies the program coordinator when an applicant's file is complete and ready for review by the admissions committee. Applications are considered for admission during the fall, spring, and summer semesters ("rolling admissions").
Admission to the School Psychology program is a two step process. The first step involves being admitted to the UTC Graduate School as a provisional student. The second step involves being admitted to the program as a degree student.
A provisional student is one who has at least a bachelor's degree and has met the admission requirements of the UTC Graduate School but has not yet submitted all materials needed to be considered for admission into the program. A provisional student can take up to nine (9) credit hours of program courses during one semester but should understand that these courses will not count towards a degree unless he/she is admitted to the program. He/she should also understand that a provisional student is not eligible for financial aid through the UTC Financial Aid Office.
An applicant becomes a provisional student by:
1) Filing an application for admission with the UTC Graduate School. An application form can be requested by phone at (423) 425-4666 or accessed on the web at http://www.utc.edu/Administration/GraduateSchool/forms/Applications.php
2) Paying an application fee of $30.00
3) Submitting all college transcripts. (To be accepted as a provisional student, an applicant applying with a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college must have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.50 or 3.0 during his/her senior year. An applicant from an unaccredited college must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.)
An applicant accepted by the UTC Graduate School as a provisional student can progress to the second step of the admissions process by submitting the additional information the admissions committee requires to consider admitting him/her as a degree student in the UTC School Psychology program. Degree students are eligible for financial aid through the UTC Financial Aid Office.
An applicant with a bachelor's degree seeking admission to the program as a degree student must:
*Submit scores (Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical Writing) on the Graduate Record Examination. Verbal and Quantitative scores will be combined with the applicant's undergraduate GPA to form an admissions index score. Students meeting or exceeding a minimum admissions index score of 1,000 will be considered for admission. (The admissions index score is calculated by multiplying the applicant's cumulative undergraduate GPA by 200 and adding to that figure his/her average score on the Verbal and Quantitative sections on the GRE.)
*Show evidence of having completed a minimum of 18 semester hours of undergraduate or graduate courses in psychology and/or education (with no grade below C) including three (3) semester hours in general or educational psychology, three (3) semester hours in child/adolescent development, and three (3) semester hours of characteristics of exceptional children. (An applicant lacking one or more of these courses can be accepted into the School Psychology program as a degree graduate student but must complete any missing course(s) prior to becoming a candidate for the Ed.S. degree.)
*Submit three (3) letters of reference from professors and/or community professionals familiar with his/her academic and/or professional work.
*Submit a personal statement describing his/her reasons for wishing to become a school psychologist.
An applicant with a graduate degree seeking admission to the concentration must:
*Submit transcripts of all graduate work. A student with a GPA above 3.0 on all graduate work will be considered for admission.
*Show evidence of having completed a minimum of 18 semester hours of undergraduate or graduate courses in psychology and/or education (with no grade below C), including three (3) semester hours in general or educational psychology, three (3) semester hours in child/adolescent development, and three (3) semester hours of characteristics of exceptional children. (An applicant lacking one or more of these courses can be accepted into the School Psychology program as a degree graduate student but must complete any missing course(s) prior to becoming a candidate for the Ed.S. degree.)
*Submit three (3) letters of reference from professors and/or community professionals familiar with his/her academic and/or professional work.
*Submit a personal statement describing his/her reasons for wishing to become a school psychologist.
Following his/her admission to the program as a degree student, each student has an orientation conference with either Dr. Guess or Dr. Helton. During this conference, students who lack professional experience in either education or psychology are encouraged to pursue volunteer opportunities in schools. The program faculty believes that such experience as a volunteer helps "contextualize" and make more meaningful the knowledge and skills that students will be acquiring during their initial courses in the program.
A new student orientation meeting involving new students, UTC administrators, and representatives of local schools is held once a year during the first month of the fall semester. The orientation is both informational and social.
