Joint Degrees

Students admitted to any doctoral program in Social Sciences may subsequently petition the University to create a joint program with another department. Such individually-created joint degree programs begin in the second year of graduate studies or later. In all cases, students complete the separate program requirements for each degree, with no additional residence requirement, and write one Ph.D. dissertation that separately meets the dissertation requirements of each department. One such established program in Psychology is the Joint PhD in Business and Psychology. Other programs that have had joint students in Psychology include the Department of Comparative Human Development and the Department of Linguistics. 

Joint PhD in Business and Psychology

The Joint Program in Psychology and Business was established in 2009, and is overseen jointly by the Behavioral Science dissertation area at Chicago Booth and the Department of Psychology in the Division of the Social Sciences. The aim of this program is to connect the large number of social, cognitive, and organizational psychologists at Chicago Booth and within the Department of Psychology. To qualify for the joint program, a student must be admitted into either the Psychology or the Business graduate program. PhD students in Psychology or Business who want to earn a PhD in Psychology and in Business will need an adviser in both schools. The adviser from the program the student was initially admitted into will be a primary adviser and the one from the other program, the secondary adviser. Once the student and the faculty member agree on the advising relationship, the student applies for Joint status after completion of their first year in the primary program.