Graduate study in psychology: 1971-2004

This article traces the evolution of graduate study in psychology in the United States and Canada during the past 3 decades. The authors summarize the 2003-2004 characteristics of graduate programs and departments in psychology and compare these data to those obtained in 1970-1971, 1979-1980, and 1992-1993. The most recent data were obtained from the 2005 edition of Graduate Study in Psychology and were based on 495 institutions, 601 departments, and 1,970 graduate programs. Information is presented for both entire departments (e.g., faculty characteristics, student profiles, admission criteria, Graduate Record Examination and grade point averages, tuition costs, financial assistance) and individual graduate programs (e.g., areas of study, number of applicants, acceptance rates, enrollment statistics, retention rates). Particular attention is devoted to the emergence of PsyD programs in professional psychology, the ascendancy of neuroscience programs in academic psychology, and the steady rise in acceptance rates across programs over the past 33 years.