所有学生的博士课程是由学生与教职顾问和博士委员会共同开发的。除了满足研究生院的要求外，预计该计划还将反映学生的背景和职业兴趣。博士课程的主要步骤包括：大约一年的课程工作后进行候选人资格考试，任命博士委员会，与博士委员会进行课程计划会议，课程工作完成后进行全面考试，论文提案会议，最后论文的口头答辩。拥有博士学位的学生，如果硕士学位是在教育心理学或与之密切相关的领域并且包含论文，则可以直接开始博士学位课程。如果硕士学位不是教育心理学或与之密切相关的领域，则可能会要求学生修读硕士水平的基础课程和/或完成论文。任
Doctoral programs for all students are developed individually by the student working together with a faculty adviser and doctoral committee. Beyond meeting the requirements of The Graduate School, a program is expected to reflect a student's background and career interests. The major steps in a doctoral program include: a candidacy examination after about one year of course work appointment of the doctoral committee program planning meeting with the doctoral committee comprehensive examinations after course work has been completed a dissertation proposal meeting the final oral defense of the dissertation Students who enter the doctoral program with a master's degree can begin the doctoral program directly if the master's degree was in Educational Psychology or a closely related area and included a thesis. If the master's degree was not in Educational Psychology or a closely related area, the student may be required to take basic course work at the master's level andor complete a thesis. Any student who has not completed a thesis in Educational Psychology or a closely related area will be required to complete the equivalent of a pre-dissertation research exercise.