Experimental Psychology Section Organization

General Organization

The Experimental Section comprises all full-time experimental faculty members and is chaired by the Director of Experimental Training. The Experimental Section and its student representative meet periodically to conduct the business of the Experimental Section, although some of the work of the section is handled individually by the Director of Experimental Training and by the Experimental Admissions committee. When a section meeting is convened, a quorum of experimental faculty members (i.e., at least 50 percent, not including those on leave) is required to conduct any official business of the section. The responsibilities of the Director of Experimental Training are described Psychology Department Contacts for Graduate Students; the Experimental Admissions committee is described below.

Admissions Committee

Composition

The admissions committee is composed of four faculty members from the section and four student representatives. Faculty members are appointed to the committee for two-year terms by the Director of Experimental Training. The student representatives are elected for a one-year term by their peers. The term of appointment for a committee member begins with the start of the academic year.

Chairperson

The chair of the committee is appointed by the Director of Experimental Training for a term of one year.

Functions

The purpose of the admissions committee is to select new students for admission to the various tracks of the experimental section (i.e., social judgment and decision making, industrial-organizational, and health). The committee determines on a yearly basis the number of students to be admitted in the incoming class. Each fall the committee surveys all Experimental Section faculty members, asking whether each is interested in accepting new advisees for the following fall and, if so, how many. The committee also encourages faculty to update their department web pages, which describe the research interests, activities, and recent publications and grants of faculty in the section. Applicants are encouraged to use the website as a basis for listing three preferences for an adviser.

The committee reviews application materials submitted by candidates and prioritizes candidates according to the criteria the committee has set for admission.

Offers of admission are typically made no later than April 1. The committee does not fill all available openings if there are too few qualified applicants.

Following the completion of admissions, the Admissions Committee as a whole assigns temporary advisers to the new students, based on their knowledge of faculty interests and the students' stated preferences (see the section on Advisers for further details).