Requirements for Graduate Students: Developmental Program
During the first year, each student should formulate a general plan of study with their advisor. In addition to departmental requirements, program requirements are as follows:
Methods
Students must take two graduate-level methods or statistics courses. These can be in any department, but they must be approved by the program (submitted to head of program).
Developmental Courses
Students must take three graduate-level courses taught by faculty in the developmental program. These can be either regular courses or seminars. Substitutions (e.g., a course in developmental psychopathology or developmental neuroscience taught by faculty outside the program, including at UNC) must be approved by the program (submitted to head of program).
Other Requirements
Students are expected to regularly attend the developmental working group meetings. They are required to give at least two talks in this meeting: prototypically one on their masters work early in their tenure, and one on their dissertation work later in their tenure.
Students are required to complete a research practicum in a lab other than their advisor’s by the end of their third year. This is prototypically with another developmental faculty, but exceptions are possible with approval. The practicum can be method- or content-based, and students are expected to continue their work in their primary lab (to some degree) during this time.
Students are required to fill out a Graduate Student Activities Report at the end of each school year. Early in the summer they will receive written feedback from the developmental faculty on their progress for the year.