Admissions Decision Criteria

For our M.A. program, we expect a cumulative GPA of 3.0 for your entire undergraduate record, or a GPA of at least 3.0 for the third year and outstanding work in your final undergraduate year (3.5 or better). For our Ph.D. program, we expect a cumulative GPA of 3.5 for your undergraduate record or graduate work with a minimum GPA of 3.0 or better (9 or more credits). Students who have degrees, or coursework and experiences in a related field generally stand out as more prepared for graduate work in HDFS.

HDFS graduate students enter the program with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from a range of disciplines, including:

• HDFS
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Education
• Nursing
• Rehabilitation
• Parent education
• Social work
• Counseling
• Marriage and family therapy
• Public health
• Early intervention services
• Positive youth development

Application Fee Payment Requests

The UConn Graduate School, when funds are available, may offer a waiver of the graduate application fee for some qualified individuals.

• As a thank-you for service to the United States, active-duty military service personnel, veterans, guardsmen, and reservists qualify for an application fee waiver.
• In recognition of past and current barriers to graduate education, The Graduate School offers a diversity-based application fee waiver program. (10/30/2024: We were informed by The Graduate School that they exceeded the number of diversity-based application fee waivers approved for this fiscal year and have stopped accepting new applications.)

More details regarding qualifications and fee waiver request processes are available through The Graduate School's web page about fee waivers.

The Department of Human Development and Family Sciences may, in cases of extenuating circumstances, pay the application fee for a graduate applicant. If you feel your extenuating circumstance may qualify, please carefully follow the instructions below:

• All requests from applicants that the department pay for their application fee MUST BE RECEIVED by the Department NO LATER THAN December 12 at 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
  • Send your Personal Statement and CV via email to HDFSgradprogram@uconn.edu. In your email, list the name(s) of a maximum of three faculty advisors you would be interested in working with if you were to be accepted into the program.
    • We suggest reaching out to your desired faculty advisor(s) to introduce yourself and learn more about their work if you have not already done so.
  • The faculty advisors you list will then look over your CV and Personal Statement and will provide feedback to our department heads.
    • After the department heads’ review, should the decision to pay your application fee be supported, the Department will pay for your application through the application portal, Grad Slate.
  • Regardless of outcome, we will notify you of our decision before the December 15 admissions deadline.
    • *Please note: We will do our best to give you an answer as quickly as possible.*

Faculty Interests

Faculty in the HDFS Department come from a variety of backgrounds and have a wide range of expertise and research interests. Applicants with questions about specific faculty interests should visit our “areas of research specialization” pages. Each specialization page includes links to faculty doing research in that area.

Funding

HDFS graduate students are most typically funded by research and/or teaching assistantships. Some students receive university fellowships and scholarships. Other students receive external fellowships. Please visit the funding page for more information!

Students admitted to the doctoral program for full-time studies receive financial support from the Department. This support generally covers up to 4 years and includes an assistantship, tuition waiver, and an option of health insurance benefits. Please visit Financial Support and Funding Opportunities for more information.

Some funding may be available at the M.A. level, contingent on Department and/or individual faculty needs and opportunities. For further details concerning Departmental and UConn funding sources, please refer to the most current version of the HDFS Graduate Handbook.

Graduate School degree-seeking students who meet the criteria listed below are eligible:

• Regular (not Provisional) status (taking 6 or more credits per semester),
• Maintain a cumulative average of at least B (3.00) in any course work taken,
• Eligible to register for courses (i.e., must not have more than three viable grades of Incomplete on his or her academic record),
• Enrolled in a graduate degree program scheduled to extend through the entire period of the appointment or reappointment,
• Be a full-time student, counting course work and/or its equivalent together with assistantship duties throughout the period.

International Students

Guidelines

One place to look for Department guidelines is the current version of HDFS Graduate Handbook. The Handbook provides extensive detail on the structuring of the HDFS graduate program, and is a useful resource for both prospective and continuing HDFS graduate students.

Students can refer to the University of Connecticut Graduate School Catalog for University-wide requirements for all UConn graduate students, as well as descriptions of the graduate courses UConn currently offers.

The Department will consider transfer credits for courses not credited to another degree and will also entertain requests for waivers of required courses that are comparable to completed courses.

HDFS Graduate Program

As a student in the UConn HDFS graduate program, you are part of a small community of individuals dedicated to conducting cutting edge research, learning how to translate research to real world settings, and learning as much as possible. This environment creates the opportunity for connection and collaboration with other students and faculty. You have a diverse group of people in the HDFS department within reach, all willing to help you succeed. It is an inclusive and supportive experience, which promotes excellent learning environments and opportunities, both inside the classroom and in real world experiences.

Among the numerous strengths of the UConn HDFS graduate program is that it is multidisciplinary—with faculty members from a variety of backgrounds, disciplines, and experiences. Further, while large enough to offer this diversity in faculty expertise, the program is still small enough that students are privy to individualized mentoring. Our student-centered advising model allows students to tailor their plan of study to meet their research interests and specific career goals in academic and/or applied settings. Armed with quantitative and qualitative tools to address research questions with a range of techniques, students are trained to do research at the intersection of advancing basic scientific knowledge and developing knowledge that can be directly applied to real world settings. Our research works to understand individual and family development, and to see this knowledge used to improve the human condition.

HDFS at UConn is unique for a variety of reasons. Importantly, the program is multidisciplinary, with faculty hailing from a range of disciplines and researching individuals and families across the lifespan and multiple contextual settings. The program also stresses diversity and culture, with graduate courses and many faculty’s programs of research considering diversity on a number of dimensions, such as gender identity, sexual identity and orientation, race and ethnicity, culture, disability/abilities, religion, economic status, disparities, and local community functioning and norms. Further, at the core of all of our training and research in HDFS at UConn is an interest in identifying processes and mechanisms for individuals’ and families’ health and wellbeing across the lifespan. To do so, our program teaches and employs both quantitative and qualitative methods and applied/translational science while offering individualized mentoring that enables students to tailor their graduate program to meet their research interests and diverse career goals in academic and applied settings.

Graduate courses are typically very small. They include comprehensive readings, assignments, and projects that provide valuable knowledge and skills. Classes tend to be highly interactive and discussion-based, allowing each student to connect to the material in a way that best fits individual research goals and interests. This design also provides an excellent opportunity for collaboration with classmates and faculty that may help to open up new perspectives on topics.

Class sizes in HDFS depend on the class but are generally small, with most containing fewer than 15 students.

Graduate students participate in a range of research projects in the HDFS department and other departments and centers. By the time they graduate, most students have worked with multiple mentors. Learn more about the various research opportunities within the department by visiting faculty members' pages.

Absolutely! A list of current students, including their areas of study and advisors, can be found on the Community of Graduate Students page.

Our department offers individualized mentoring by way of student-centered advising model. Students can tailor their graduate plan of study to meet their research interests and specific career goals in academic and/or applied settings, often collaborating with faculty members other than their primary advisor, including their Masters or dissertation committee members to garner additional experience and expertise.

Students craft an individualized plan of study to take courses from the 5 areas of specialization, methodology and statistics, and professional development. Many students take one or more courses from other departments. Students who complete a concurrent certificate program take specified courses to meet that certificate’s requirements. Learn more about all of the HDFS courses we offer in the Graduate School catalog.

Yes! Our students frequently publish in top developmental, family, health, and other journals. They are also required to present their work at national and international conferences. See lists of students’ publications and presentations for specific examples.

Many students serve as teaching assistants during their graduate training. In addition, students with interest in teaching their own classes usually have the opportunity to teach one or more courses during graduate school. The HDFS department and UConn provide formalized training, and the department provides individualized mentoring to prepare and support you in this experience.

Daily life as an HDFS graduate student would typically consist of attending a few classes, working on course assignments, completing assistantship tasks, working on a research project, or grading papers from TA courses. Daily life will depend on your year in the program, your assistantship assignments, your classes, etc.

Graduate Student Life

In addition to the faculty and students in the department, HDFS graduate students have access to a number of resources within and outside the department. The department houses several centers: the Center for Applied Research in Human Development, the Center for the Study of Culture, Health, and Human Development, the Rohner Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection, and the Child Development Laboratories (a model early childhood care and education program and early childhood teacher preparation site). The University of Connecticut is ranked the best public university in New England and among the Top 20 public universities in the U.S. Faculty and students collaborate with researchers from around the university, including in Psychological Sciences, UConn Health, and Sociology, and are involved in centers across the University, including the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP), and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.