Guidelines for Preparing the Doctoral Program Application Essay
The Admissions Committee will use your essay to help determine your readiness for doctoral education
and how well the program and concentration that you are applying for matches your interests and goals.
Please consider the bulleted prompts below when organizing your thoughts. You may add additional
information than what is prompted by the questions.
The quality of your writing will be a factor in the admissions decision. Doctoral work, in particular the
dissertation, requires a high level of academic writing. You do not need to use citations, but if you do
reference the work of others, in-text citations and references should be in American Psychological
Association (APA) format. If necessary, refer to the official APA site: APA style.org.
Personal/Professional Motivation
The doctoral journey is a challenging one that few start and many do not complete. A key characteristic
of successful students is having clear goals that align with completing a dissertation and a doctoral
program. These goals are essential for remaining motivated throughout the process.
• What are your professional goals?
• What are your personal goals?
• How does this degree program and concentration relate to those goals?
• How do you plan to use this degree?
• Why are you interested in pursuing a doctoral degree?
Overall Ability to be Successful
Doctoral course work along with the research and writing of a dissertation require significant
investments of time and energy. Before beginning this process, it is important to consider how you will
rearrange your life and routines to support your doctoral work.
• How will you balance personal and work requirements with doctoral education?
• What plans do you have to help you overcome challenges that could possibly impact your ability
to make timely progress?
Please take time to proofread your essay, as spelling, grammar, sentence structure and tense, among
other considerations, do matter. Your essay should be between 650 and 1,000 words
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