For Students

We have a very interdisciplinary group. I never took a psychology course as an undergraduate (I was a philosophy and anthropology major). I have certainly accepted applicants who were traditional psychology or neuroscience majors, but an equal number of my graduate students majored in other fields such as economics, cell biology, anthropology, linguistics, political science, and English. The key thing is to have some hands-on research experience before applying. It will really strengthen your application of you have research experience working with infants, children, or adolescents. It is also helpful to be well versed in at least one kind of biobehavioral method. In the past, successful applicants to my lab who were not psychology majors made sure to take a few classes in experimental psychology and/or research methods prior to applying.

There is no one kind of experience that is necessary. Generally, successful applicants have had some direct involvement with children or adolescents in a laboratory setting or through work/volunteer experiences. I weigh letters of reference from individuals who have supervised applicants in a research setting very heavily. I once accepted an applicant who applied to graduate school while still an undergraduate. However, all of my current graduate students had a year or so of full-time experience working as a research assistant prior to starting graduate school. I worked in a research lab myself between undergraduate and graduate school and value the experience and increased maturity this affords to new graduate students. This full-time research experience is important because it gives you a chance to be sure it is really what you enjoy, and it gives me a way to assess whether you are good at it.

It is my policy not to have calls or meetings with prospective students prior to the application process. This is for reasons of fairness; it allows me to review all applications with an open mind and from the same initial starting point rather than privilege some applications over others. That said, if there are questions about my research or lab that you have that would be helpful to have answered as you prepare your application, I’m certainly happy to answer them. Just send me an email.

If you have questions about completing/submitting the UW Madison Psychology Department application itself, the best person to contact is our graduate coordinator, Kevin Belt. You can reach him at kbelt@psych.wisc.edu

You are welcome to send me an email to express your interest and tell me a bit about what you wish to study. I can let you know if I am likely to accept new students the year you are applying and can give you a sense of whether our research interests are aligned. To be fair to all applicants I offer personal interviews and phone/video calls by invitation only after I have reviewed all applications. If you are invited for an interview, I will do my best to cover travel expenses to Madison so that your personal finances do not create a barrier to admission.

I will read your entire application and try to put each applicant in context. So, no one piece of information overly determines my final decisions. I am looking to create a diverse lab, where people bring a variety of experiences, interests, perspectives, and skills to our group. I would say that letters of recommendation from professors and research supervisors and previous research experience are very helpful for me. I don’t care as much about the prestige of your undergraduate institution as I do about what you personally did to make the most of whatever opportunities were available to you. I read to see how motivated and intellectually curious an applicant is, and what they have done to show that genuine interest in studying human behavior.

The essay is also really helpful in reviewing applications. I have a separate FAQ below about the essay. The essay is most helpful if it really shows me your connection and interest in the work being done in my lab rather than feeling generic.

My experience as a professor is that undergraduate grades are the best harbinger of success as a graduate student. This is because students who are able to achieve consistently good grades seem to be the ones who are organized and come through in the end. Those are key components of success in graduate school. But I also know that people have all sorts of things that happen in their lives, and many have additional responsibilities they had to attend to while they were undergraduates, and that people’s maturity can peak at different times. And that sometimes college has a rough start before people hit their stride. All of that is ok and I am open to hearing your story. If your grades are not consistently strong, please just address it directly in your essay or in correspondence with me. Please also ask your letter writers to tell me why they believe your grades are or are not an accurate reflection of your scholarly potential and how they have seen you blossom and grow.

I see standardized tests such as the GREs as biased and not all that helpful. So I do not even look at them anymore and our department does not ask for them. I have never observed much of a difference in graduate student performance based upon GREs. Elbow grease and determination and creativity and positivity seem to be the best predictor of graduate school success.

Most of my students enter the Psychology department through the developmental psychology program, which offers tremendous individual flexibility. My graduate students have combined areas such as psychopathology, child development, neuroscience, neuroimaging, endocrinology, and cognitive science. I can also accept students through the anthropology department (Biological Anthropology) and the La Follette School of Public Affairs (Public Policy and Neuroscience Program). I will also consider applicants to the clinical program, though applicants who have a keen interest in applied clinical work may find that my lab is not the best fit. My primary interests are in the science of child development and socio-emotional learning.

I am happy to serve as the sole/primary mentor for graduate students, but I also enjoy co-advising students jointly with other faculty within developmental psychology and across other areas of the department as well. It is often really nice for graduate students to have more than one mentor in graduate school.

I read the essay part of the application very carefully. Most applicants write one generic essay and edit the last paragraph to include reference to a different professor at each university. This cutting and pasting is fine, unless it comes across as superficial. I read to try and determine how sincerely the work we are doing in my lab really fits with the kinds of questions and issues an applicant claims to want to study.

I especially value an essay that describes your aptitude and motivation for graduate study, including your preparation for this field of study, your academic plans, research interests, and your career goals. I am interested in reading about what your burning scientific questions are and what skills and experiences you have acquired thus far that leave you well-poised to address them. Please do highlight your academic achievements—this is not the time to be modest! I am also interested in hearing specifically why you have applied to Wisconsin and how you see our program and my lab as providing the educational environment that is consonant with your own career goals. Please tell me directly about your general research interests and explain why my lab is a good intellectual fit for you. I do not expect applicants to have specific research interests or study plans: developing those ideas is something that you work on in the early years of graduate training. But you should have a clear area of general interest.

For applicants interested in my lab, essays should not be overly intimate, self-revealing, or personal. To be bluntly honest, I am not especially compelled by essays about the pivotal moment or relationship or childhood experience when an applicant decided to help humanity by studying psychology. I do not view the essay as a personal narrative, but rather as a professional document that is an extension of your CV or resume. I really want to know about what scientific questions interest you, what evidence supports your contention that you have the skills to be a successful scholar, and why my lab is the right match for you. There is one set of exceptions to this advice: it is important for me to know if you have had to overcome special barriers or hardships, or if you have taken a leadership role in helping disadvantaged groups or individuals that have been historically underrepresented in higher education. Our society is not a level playing field and each of us has worked to overcome a variety of challenges in different ways. If there are issues that you faced as an undergraduate such as being a first-generation college student, coming from an economically disadvantaged family, having responsibility for caring for siblings or children, needing to work while going to school, or if the study of psychology is not common for people in your cultural background, please let me know. If your undergraduate institution did not have much infrastructure for research or senior theses and you had to create or seek out an opportunity for yourself, please share that information. This information helps me to place your record in context. Help me to understand the effort you devoted to making the most of your prior educational experiences and the preparation you will bring to enhance our lab group. In sum, your goal in constructing the essay should be to make a case for why I really would be making a mistake by not interviewing you!

I like to keep my lab group relatively small so that I can focus adequate attention on each of my graduate students. However, I certainly will read and consider all applications from students who express interest in working with me. I’m also happy to correspond more with you if you have further questions.