How to Apply | Penn State College of Health and Human Development

How to Apply to the Dual-Title Doctoral Degree in BBH and Social and Behavioral Neuroscience

BBH doctoral students interested in having a degree that reflects interdisciplinary training in social and behavioral neuroscience as relevant to the domains of research expertise within BBH (e.g. integrating neuroscience techniques and perspectives to understanding integrative or interactive influences of biological, behavioral, psychological, sociocultural, and environmental variables on health across time scales and levels of analysis), may apply to pursue a dual-title Ph.D. in BBH and Social and Behavioral Neuroscience.

Social behavioral neuroscience reflects the study of how brain development and function influence, and are influenced by, social, environmental, and behavioral variables. The dual-title Ph.D. program provides students with additional training in an integrative neuroscience program in order to enable them to pursue innovative interdisciplinary research with intellectual sophistication.

Admission Requirements

Students must apply and be admitted to the graduate program in BBH and the Graduate School before they can be admitted to a dual-title degree program. Applicants interested in the dual-title degree program may note their interest in their applications to BBH. Students must apply and be admitted to the dual-title degree program in Social and Behavioral Neuroscience prior to taking the candidacy exam and must be in good standing in the BBH program. Students admitted to the BBH program will be admitted to the dual-title program in Social and Behavioral Neuroscience upon the recommendation of a Social and Behavioral Neuroscience Program faculty member in BBH.

Additional admissions requirements are listed in the Admissions Requirements section of the Social and Behavioral Neuroscience Bulletin page.

Degree Requirements

To qualify for the dual-title degree, students must satisfy the requirements of the Ph.D. in BBH, listed above. In addition, students pursuing the dual-title Ph.D. in BBH and Social and Behavioral Neuroscience must complete the degree requirements for the dual-title Social and Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D., listed on the Social and Behavioral Neuroscience Bulletin page.

The Candidacy Examination committee for the dual-title degree will be composed of Graduate Faculty from BBH and must include at least one Graduate Faculty member from Social and Behavioral Neuroscience. Faculty members who hold appointments in both programs’ Graduate Faculty may serve in a combined role. The chair of the candidacy committee must be a member of the Graduate Faculty and an affiliated member of the SBN program or an affiliated member may be appointed as a co-chair. There will be a single candidacy examination, containing elements of both BBH and Social and Behavioral Neuroscience. Dual-title graduate degree students may require an additional semester to fulfill requirements for both areas of study and, therefore, the candidacy examination may be delayed one semester beyond the normal period allowable.

In addition to the general Graduate Council requirements for doctoral committees, the doctoral committee of a dual-title doctoral degree student must include at least two members of the Social and Behavioral Neuroscience Graduate Faculty. Faculty members who hold appointments in both programs’ Graduate Faculty may serve in a combined role. If the chair of the committee representing BBH is not also a member of the Graduate Faculty in Social and Behavioral Neuroscience, the member of the committee representing Social and Behavioral Neuroscience must be appointed as co-chair. It is expected that the outside member of the doctoral committee serves as the second Social and Behavioral Neuroscience representative. Exceptions (e.g. having both Social and Behavioral Neuroscience committee members from within the home department) must be approved by the Social and Behavioral Neuroscience Steering committee. The Social and Behavioral Neuroscience representative on the student’s doctoral committee will develop questions for and participate in the evaluation of the comprehensive examination.

Ph.D. candidates must complete a dissertation on a topic that reflects their original research and their education in both BBH and Social and Behavioral Neuroscience. In order to earn the dual-title Ph.D. degree, the dissertation must be accepted by the doctoral committee, the head of the graduate program, and the Graduate School, and the student must pass a final oral examination (the dissertation defense).

Student Aid

Graduate assistantships available to students in this program and other forms of student aid are described in the Student Aid section of the Graduate Bulletin. Students on graduate assistantships must adhere to the course load limits set forth in the Graduate Bulletin.

Courses

Graduate courses carry numbers from 500 to 699 and 800 to 899. Advanced undergraduate courses numbered between 400 and 499 may be used to meet some graduate degree requirements when taken by graduate students; Courses below the 400 level may not. A graduate student may register for or audit courses below the 400 level in order to make up deficiencies or to fill in gaps in previous education, but not to meet requirements for an advanced degree.