Application Information
Applicants must have earned a bachelor's degree from an accredited university prior to beginning our program. Any undergraduate major is acceptable. There is no minimum GPA requirement for the program, and the GRE is not required; however, the program is competitive, and applicants who are most likely to succeed in a post-graduate program will be selected.
REQUIRED Application Components for DOMESTIC Applicants (Deadline for Fall 2025: April 15, 2025)
1) Completed online application: http://postbacc.ce.uci.edu/
2) Statement of purpose (to be uploaded with your online application; recommended length 500-750 words). In your statement, please answer the following questions: What kind of psychology-related education or training do you have, if any? What are your academic and career goals? Why do you want to enroll in our program – what do you hope to gain from this program, and what area(s) of psychology are you most interested in? If you are interested in gaining research experience, which faculty in our department would you most like to work with, and why? (You can view a list of our faculty att: https://ps.soceco.uci.edu/faculty and a list of our affiliated faculty at: https://ps.soceco.uci.edu/pages/affiliated-faculty-and-lecturers). If you are interested in gaining internship experience, what kind(s) of internship experiences (e.g., what kinds of position or organizations) are you looking for?
3) Resume or CV (to be uploaded with your online application)
4) College academic transcripts from all institutions attended (unoffical transcripts are OK) - you may upload unofficial transcripts with your online application OR you may arrange to have your official transcripts to be sent to Dr. Joanne Zinger via email at joanne.zinger@uci.edu
5) Two letters of recommendation (from current or former professors, graduate students, employers, supervisors, managers, and/or program directors who know you well in an academic, volunteer, and/or employment setting). If you graduated from college less than two years ago, we strongly recommend that at least one of your letters be from a professor or graduate student. You should arrange to have your letters of recommendation to be sent to Dr. Joanne Zinger via email at joanne.zinger@uci.edu
6) Submission of non-refundable $75 application fee (to be submited with online application).
OPTIONAL Application Components for DOMESTIC students (Deadline for Fall 2025 admissions: April 15, 2025)
1) (Unofficial) GRE Scores (to be uploaded with your online application). If you have taken the GRE, we encourage you to upload an unofficial copy of your GRE scores with your application.
2) Diversity Statement (to be uploaded with your online application). A limited number of partial fellowships may be available to students who meet the UC definition of diversity, which includes individuals who are underrepresented in higher education with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, and geographic region. For more information on the UC definition of diversity, visit: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/4400.html. If you would like to be considered for one of these fellowships, please upload a brief diversity statement (recommended length 250-500 words) in which you indicate why you believe you would be a good candidate for this fellowship. In this statement, you may wish to comment on any specific circumstances about your background (e.g., special achievements, obstacles, and/or interruptions to your schooling that you overcame to complete your education to date), and you may wish to include how these experiences, your research interests, and/or your career objectives contribute to the University’s goal of diversity.
Important Note: The documents that you'll be uploading (e.g., statement of purpose, resume/CV, etc.) are uploaded at the VERY END of the application - so, you'll need to submit your basic information and click through several pages of the application before you get to the page where you can upload your documents.
REQUIRED Application Components for INTERNATIONAL Applicants (Deadline for Fall 2025 admission: February 15, 2025)
1) Completed online application: http://postbacc.ce.uci.edu/
2) Statement of purpose (to be uploaded with your online application; recommended length 500-750 words). In your statement, please answer the following questions: What kind of psychology-related education or training do you have, if any? What are your academic and career goals? Why do you want to enroll in our program – what do you hope to gain from this program, and what area(s) of psychology are you most interested in? If you are interested in gaining research experience, which faculty in our department would you most like to work with, and why? (You can view a list of our faculty att: https://ps.soceco.uci.edu/faculty and a list of our affiliated faculty at: https://ps.soceco.uci.edu/pages/affiliated-faculty-and-lecturers). If you are interested in gaining internship experience, what kind(s) of internship experiences (e.g., what kinds of position or organizations) are you looking for?
3) Resume or CV (to be uploaded with your online application)
4) College academic transcripts from all institutions attended (unoffical transcripts are OK) - you may upload unofficial transcripts with your online application OR you may arrange to have your official transcripts to be sent to Dr. Joanne Zinger via email at joanne.zinger@uci.edu
5) Two letters of recommendation (from current or former professors, graduate students, employers, supervisors, managers, and/or program directors who know you well in an academic, volunteer, and/or employment setting). If you graduated from college less than two years ago, we strongly recommend that at least one of your letters be from a professor or graduate student. You should arrange to have your letters of recommendation to be sent to Dr. Joanne Zinger via email at joanne.zinger@uci.edu
6) Submission of non-refundable $75 application fee (to be submited with online application).
7) (Unofficial) copy of your TOEFL or IELTS score report (to be uploaded with your online application). Note: If the dominant language of your home country - or the country in which you earned your bachelor's degree - is English (e.g., Canada, England, USA, etc.), you can petition to waive the TOEFL/IELTS score requirement (by filling out a waiver on the application form).
8) Copy of your passport (to be uploaded with your online application)
9) If you are requesting an I-20: Financial statement showing a minimum of $42,857. Applicants requesting an I-20 are required to submit a bank statement certifying that the applicant has sufficient funds to cover tuition and living expenses. The bank statement must be dated within the last 6 months, and it must include the account holder's name, total funds/amount in the bank account, and the bank's official stamp/seal. If the applicant is not the bank account holder, the bank account holder must complete the Statement of Financial Support. [The financial breakdown is as follows: $11,052 tuition + $8,000 program fee + $75 application fee + $16,500 off-campus room & board + $1,755 health insurance + $1,575 transportation costs + $2,400 personal expenses + $1500 books & supplies + $42,857].
10) If you currently have an I-20 from another school and are transferring that I-20 to UCI: Copy of current I-20
11) If you currently have an I-20 from another school and are transferring that I-20 to UCI: F-1 Visa (from passport)
12) If you currently have an I-20 from another school and are transferring that I-20 to UCI: CBP admission stamp in your passport of I-94 retrieval record or the front and back of your I-94 form, if you have one
OPTIONAL Application Components for INTERNATIONAL Applicants (Deadline for Fall 2025 admission: February 15, 2025)
1) (Unofficial) GRE Scores (to be uploaded with your online application). If you have taken the GRE, we encourage you to upload an unofficial copy of your GRE scores with your application.
2) Diversity Statement (to be uploaded with your online application). A limited number of partial fellowships may be available to students who meet the UC definition of diversity, which includes individuals who are underrepresented in higher education with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, and geographic region. For more information on the UC definition of diversity, visit: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/4400.html. If you would like to be considered for one of these fellowships, please upload a brief diversity statement (recommended length 250-500 words) in which you indicate why you believe you would be a good candidate for this fellowship. In this statement, you may wish to comment on any specific circumstances about your background (e.g., special achievements, obstacles, and/or interruptions to your schooling that you overcame to complete your education to date), and you may wish to include how these experiences, your research interests, and/or your career objectives contribute to the University’s goal of diversity.
Important Note: The documents that you'll be uploading (e.g., statement of purpose, resume/CV, etc.) are uploaded at the VERY END of the application - so, you'll need to submit your basic information and click through several pages of the application before you get to the page where you can upload your documents.
Application Deadline:
Applications are accepted and reviewed once per year. The deadline to apply for Fall 2025 (which starts in late September 2025) is Monday, April 15, 2025 for DOMESTIC students and Thursday, February 15, 2025 for INTERNATIONAL students. (All your application materials must be RECEIVED in our office on or before this date). The admissions committee will carefully review each application, and applicants will be notified individually within six weeks of the application deadline.