Ph.D. program requirements

Complete your graduate application at https://gradapply.clarku.edu/apply/.

The one-time graduate application fee is $75.

Please indicate your reasons for undertaking graduate study, research interests, and the faculty member(s) whose research is of interest to you. Include your current research interests as well as your long-range research, teaching, or other professional objectives. Reference any relevant published articles, books, research, inventions, or other creative work in your discussion.

Three letters of recommendation are required from academic professionals who have taught or supervised you and can attest to your academic capability.

• For your resume, please include all colleges attended, degree type, GPA, and month/year of graduation.
• Work Experience: List & describe in 3-4 sentences all work/internship/volunteer experiences. Please include dates of employment/participation and job responsibilities.
• Extracurriculars/skills: List & include dates of any extracurricular participation such as clubs, school projects, etc. Please also list any technical skills (especially computer/programming skills), or soft skills you have acquired.

Please include transcripts from all institutions attended (individual mark sheets, consolidated transcript, and confirmation of degree).

International applicants must submit official test score results from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Duolingo, or the Pearson Test of English (PTE-Academic). Applicants should check with the testing agency to ensure that their scores are still valid and that the agency will be able to send an official score report.

EXCEPTIONS: Students who are citizens of the following countries, or who have studied abroad (in person) and earned a degree at an accredited degree program at a university in these countries are exempt from the English language requirements:

Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada (except Quebec), Cayman Islands, Dominica, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Lesotho, Malta, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Montserrat, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Rwanda, Scotland, Sierra Leone, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, St. Helen, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, United Kingdom, The U.S. Virgin Islands, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.

It is not required for the Fall 2025 cycle but is strongly suggested for the Economics, Biology, Physics, Biochemistry, and Chemistry programs.

• Writing samples are required for Ph.D. Psychology, Ph.D. Geography, Ph.D. in History (Holocaust and Genocide History), and Ph.D. in Genocide Studies. Submissions should include a copy of one or more papers that the applicant has written that are good representations of their interests and how they think and write about them.
• The applicant should be the sole author of at least one of these papers.