Ph.D. in Aging Studies

Admission Requirements

The Ph.D. in Aging Studies is a research-oriented program designed to train future researchers and leaders in the field of aging. The program admits students who show exceptional promise to become strong academic, public sector, and corporate researchers. Students are encouraged to enroll in the program full-time (9 credits in fall, 9 credits in the spring, and 6 credits in summer) until graduation.

Program Admission Requirements

  • A Bachelor's Degree
  • GPA of 3.25
  • Completion of the GRE within the last 5 years with preferred scores of at least the 50th percentile on Verbal, 30th percentile on Quantitative and 50th percentile on Analytical Writing
  • Applicants where English is not the language of instruction must also submit a TOEFL iBT score of at least 79 which corresponds to a score of 600 on the old TOEFL test
  • Submit single authored writing sample
  • Research statement including past preparation and career goals
  • Three letters of recommendation from individuals familiar with your work and/or research

The School of Aging Studies has changed to a regular admissions format and is no longer a direct receipt program department. All required application documents must be uploaded directly to the online graduate application, preferably as an Adobe PDF. Please do not submit application materials to the School. The USF Graduate Admissions Application form can be found online at

Your GRE and TOEFL scores should be sent electronically to the University of South Florida with the following USF Institutional Code: 5828

Deadline for receipt of application is December 11.

For more information, please email Dr. Debra Dobbs at ddobbs@usf.edu