Overview
Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851, Saint Joseph's University is celebrating 150 years of academic excellence. Saint Joseph's, Philadelphia's Jesuit University, is home to 3,500 full-time undergraduates and 2,900 graduate and nontraditional students. The school's strong liberal arts tradition fosters rigorous and open-minded inquiry, maintains high academic standards, and attends to the development of the whole person.

With the recent awarding of a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, Saint Joseph's University is one of just 132 colleges and universities in the United States to be recognized by the most prestigious of all academic honor societies as well as to hold AACSB International accreditation for its business school and accounting program. Only three institutions in Philadelphia and nine of the twenty-eight Jesuit colleges and universities nationwide can claim both endorsements.

Students in the psychology program study on a full-time basis. Sixty percent of the students are five-year degree-seeking candidates, while 40 percent are two-year degree-seeking candidates. About 70 percent of the students are women. The majority of the students have an undergraduate degree in psychology. Of those attending the program, 20 percent go on to study in a doctoral degree-granting institution, 40 percent work in research, and the remaining 40 percent work in the private sector, with the majority employed by pharmaceutical companies.

The Location and Community
The University is located in eastern Pennsylvania in the suburbs of Philadelphia, only 15 minutes from downtown.

Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
The Saint Joseph's University graduate program in psychology is designed to provide students with a solid grounding in the scientific study of psychology. Students may concentrate studies in the fields of behavioral neuroscience, conditioning and learning, developmental psychology, health psychology, human memory, neuropsychology, or social psychology. Regardless of the particular concentration chosen, graduates of the program have a firm foundation in the scientific method and the skills with which to pursue the scientific study of psychological questions. The program is designed to complement the strengths and interests of the present psychology faculty members and facilities and reflects the current state of the discipline of psychology. It consists of a traditional and academically oriented 48-credit curriculum and requires the successful completion of a qualifying comprehensive examination and an empirical thesis project. The graduate psychology program is a full-time course of study. Classes are scheduled on weekday afternoons. The program is designed for successful completion over two academic years.

Facilities & Resources
The Francis A. Drexel Library supports the academic programs of the University with a collection of 348,000 volumes. In addition, 1,400 current periodical subscriptions, 800,000 microforms, and more than 4,000 titles are available electronically. The Drexel Library also has extensive business resources, and it serves as a selective depository for U.S. government documents. The library provides access to a wide range of computerized databases via a local area network and individual computers within the facility. All online databases are also available on the campus network and can be accessed from off-campus with a University ID number and password. In addition, the library's World Wide Web homepage contains a selective subject guide to resources on the Internet to assist users in their searching.

Expenses and Aid
Tuition per credit hour for the graduate program in psychology for the academic year is $985.

Financial Aid:
Through guaranteed loan agreements with lending institutions and state agencies, such as the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency and the New Jersey Department of Higher Education, students can secure long-term loans at low interest rates. Saint Joseph's initiates an electronic loan application and forwards it to PHEAA, the guarantor. Stafford loans are either subsidized or unsubsidized. A student may borrow up to $18,500 per academic year. All full- and half-time students (at least 6 credits per semester) are eligible to apply for federal aid. Students may elect to finance part of their tuition through a deferred payment program offered by the University.

Competitively based graduate assistantships, which include tuition benefits and stipends, are awarded to second-year students on the basis of merit, with support available for first-year students depending on funding opportunities.

Money is available for conference participation for all graduate students.

Housing/Living Expenses:
Saint Joseph's University is located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, only 15 minutes from Center City. Off-campus apartments are available within walking distance of both the campus and the local train station.

How to Apply / Application
Students are required to have completed a bachelor's degree with either a major or minor in psychology. For those students without a psychology major/minor, a minimum of 12 undergraduate credits in psychology (including courses in introductory psychology, research methods, and statistics) must be completed. All applicants are asked to submit a complete undergraduate transcript, official scores from the Graduate Record Examinations (including the psychology specialty examination), three letters of recommendation/references, and an essay describing their interests and goals of graduate education in psychology. Students with an undergraduate GPA below 3.25 may be admitted on a probationary basis.

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