The Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences (CLPS) is dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of mind, brain, behavior, and language. It offers three Ph.D. programs: in Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Psychology.
Ph.D. students are accepted by the department and formally choose one of the three programs after completing the first year. Visit each program's webpage for more details.
Please see the Brown Graduate School web pages for general application requirements. We require applicants to submit GRE General scores; non-native speakers of English are also required to submit TOEFL scores. We do not require completion of specific coursework; rather, we accept students from a diverse range of training programs and with very different research backgrounds. Experience with research and some familiarity with appropriate methodological and analytic tools is a plus. Submission of an original writing sample with the application is recommended.
A critical element in judging applications is our assessment of the fit between the applicant’s intellectual and research interests and those of one or more faculty members. We strongly recommend that you carefully read the departmental website before applying, giving particular attention to the research descriptions supplied by each faculty member. Many applicants have found it useful to correspond with individual faculty members before applying, but this is not required. Please note that we cannot estimate the probability of being admitted before you have applied. Our admission decisions are based on the complete application, which is considered by multiple members of the faculty.
Admission to the CLPS Ph.D. programs is highly selective. About 10 percent of applicants are invited for interviews, and about half of the interviewees receive offers of admission. Students accepted into the graduate programs normally receive financial support for five years.
The department does not accept students interested in obtaining terminal master’s degrees.
- More about the Cognitive Science Program
- More about the Linguistics Program
- More about the Psychology Program