Prospective Graduate Students

Although the ERPAS team involves and welcomes graduate students from other universities and disciplines, the majority of our graduate students are doctoral students in the School Psychology program at North Carolina State University (NCSU). The NCSU School Psychology program offers both a Master’s/Specialist’s degree and a doctoral degree. The program is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and approved by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP).


If you are interested in applying to the NCSU School Psychology program and you are specifically interested in working within our research team, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. John Begeny (john_begeny@ncsu.edu) if you have any questions.

Frequently asked questions

Prior to making contact with Dr. Begeny or other members of the ERPAS team, it will help to review the NCSU School Psychology program website and ERPAS website because many prospective students’ questions can be answered with the information found within those two websites. Questions not answered in those websites are strongly encouraged.


Answers to the questions most commonly asked by prospective graduate students are as follows:

  1. Will Dr. Begeny be accepting new graduate students to work with him, starting in the upcoming fall semester?

The answer to this question varies each year depending on numerous factors; however, a simple answer is typically, YES. Dr. Begeny usually tries to involve one or two new doctoral students during each new academic year. Overall, if you feel like your professional interests are aligned with Dr. Begeny’s professional interests, you should apply to the NCSU school psychology program and clearly articulate in your application how your interests seem to be a good fit with Dr. Begeny’s and other members of the ERPAS team.

UPDATE AS OF OCTOBER 2020: For the upcoming 2021-2022 academic year, Dr. Begeny will not be accepting new doctoral students. Currently there are 9 doctoral students on our team and adding additional students in the coming year would not allow for sufficient mentorship for all students. If you are specifically interested in NC State and the work of our team, please contact us if you have any questions. You should also know that our work can and does often involve graduate students from other universities -- so even if you are not studying at NCSU, interested students could still get involved with our team.


2. What does Dr. Begeny look for when reviewing applications of prospective graduate students who want to join our research team?

There is no simple answer to this question because Dr. Begeny and the other members of the NCSU School Psychology program selection committee consider several aspects when making decisions about who to admit to this graduate program. The NCSU School Psychology program website offers a lot of information about the qualifications a student should have to be a competitive applicant.


In addition to those qualifications, Dr. Begeny strongly considers a highly qualified applicant as one who:

  • Clearly shares one or more of the professional interests stated in Dr. Begeny’s professional biography and description of interests.

  • Values diversity in its many relevant forms and actively strives to improve his/her/their own intercultural consciousness.

  • Has a strong passion to improve social justice, such as by advancing educational equity and related mechanisms that afford individuals and communities more opportunity and greater empowerment.

  • Values and strives to learn from the knowledge, expertise, and/or experiences of all individuals, including but not limited to professionals devoted to education.


3. What research is going on as part of Dr. Begeny's research team (i.e., the ERPAS team)?

Please click here for more information related to this question.