MSc Degree Requirements
M.Sc. Requirements
The program’s emphasis is on the training of psychological scientists, regardless of the training stream. The M.Sc. program consists of graduate seminars and courses and a thesis project. We anticipate that students admitted to the M.Sc. program will be interested in, and capable of, continuing their studies in our Ph.D. program.
Coursework
An M.Sc. student must take:
**Two half-courses in statistics, experimental design, and/or computational foundations. This is typically satisfied either by taking 9551 and 9552, or by taking 9040 and 9041 (each a half-course). Other courses may fulfill this requirement, but note that students must obtain approval of any alternative options from their supervisor, other supervisory committee members, the chair of their training stream, and the graduate chair of the department.
**Two additional half-courses, which must be approved by the student’s supervisor, other supervisory committee members, and the chair of their training stream. These must be clearly relevant to the student’s development as a psychological scientist and will typically be courses taught within the department. Non-psychology courses may fulfill this requirement, but once again note that students must obtain approval of any alternative options from their supervisor, other supervisory committee members, and the chair of their training stream.
**Additional M.Sc. coursework as required by the training stream.
M.Sc. Thesis
M.Sc. candidates should complete a satisfactory thesis by August 31st of Year 2 of the program, especially if they intend to continue on in the PhD program, as admission to the Ph.D. program cannot be finalized until the thesis has been completed. Details regarding the M.Sc. thesis can be found here Thesis
M.Sc. Residency Requirement
We value all members of our departmental community and view in-person interactions between students, faculty, and staff as an important way of fostering collaboration and departmental cohesion.
Our graduate program is full time and requires two full years of study*; students are therefore expected to comply with SGPS policy requiring that any full-time student be geographically available to fulfill program requirements. Additionally, almost all GTA assignments require students to come to campus.
Students should be mindful of the fact that the program is under no obligation to accommodate long-distance studies or requests for online GTA assignments and that the choice to live far from campus does not justify requests for remote learning.
*Note that we do not “advance” students into the Ph.D. program after one year of M.Sc. study. This policy is in place to ensure that students have full support for six years of graduate study, two at the M.Sc. and four at the Ph.D. level.
