The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana was one of the first accredited schools to embrace the field of psychology since the 1800s. According to UIUC's psychology department website, graduate students at UIUC belong to one division, with each one having different curricula: biological sciences, brain development, clinical/community research, quantitative studies, visual cognition and human performance and developmental child psychology. Prospective students holding a bachelor's degree are required to have a grade point average (GPA) of 2.75. Enrolled students must complete a minimum of 96 graduate credit hours to obtain a master's degree.
Although the University of California at Los Angeles offers graduate Ph.D. training, it does not offer a master's program. Graduate areas of study include behavioral neuroscience, clinical research, cognition, development, health psychology, learning and behavior, quantitative psychology and social psychology. The graduate school of psychology is geared toward preparing students to work effectively as researchers, educators and professional researchers. A master's degree is not required to apply for the graduate program.
University of California at Berkeley has five main graduate programs under behavioral neuroscience: plasticity and development, clinical science, cognition, brain and behavior and social-personality. While a Bachelor's or Master's degree in psychology is not required for admission into the graduate program, a degree in related fields such as social sciences, biological or cognitive studies is important to have. It is essential to have at least one year of laboratory or field research experience in psychology before an applicant applies to Berkeley.
According to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, its graduate program prepares students in "distinguished careers in research, teaching, and as experts in the public and private sectors." What makes Brown unique is that it trains its grad students to assess information and trends in their fields. Brown University's graduate curricula includes linguistic studies and psychological sciences.
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, includes 39 faculty members from departments across the university including Psychology, Human Development, and Neurobiology and Behavior. Only Ph.D. candidates are admitted as Cornell does not have a Master's program. Perception, Cognition and Development, Social and Personality Psychology, Behavioral and Evolutionary Neuroscience are its only graduate degree programs.
University of Texas at Austin as of 2010, was ranked in the top-tier for psychology graduate programs, according to College Crunch. Graduate areas of study include: clinical psychology cognitive systems, behavioral neuroscience, developmental psychology, individual differences and evolutionary psychology, social and personality research, and perceptual systems. UT at Austin requires graduate school applicants have at least a satisfactory Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score in the verbal and quantitative portion, a bachelor's degree and at least 12 hours of psychology courses in the field of base-level psychology, a course in experimental methodology and research experience.