Prospective Students

Please do not send emails directly to Dr. Penn about admission to the UNC clinical psychology program or his lab.  Instead, if you have any questions about the application process, or would like to learn more about the Clinical Psychology Graduate Program at UNC, please follow this link. 

If you are interested in being a member of my lab, you should note that there are a number of rich research and training opportunities in this area. This includes the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health which houses the Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (STEP) for chronic schizophrenia, and the Outreach and Support Intervention Services (OASIS) program, for first episode psychosis.  Also, Central Regional Hospital in Butner, NC (30 minutes away) provides treatment for inpatients with psychotic disorders.

Lab meetings (both individual and group) are held every two weeks.  Students are expected to be involved in research throughout their UNC careers, and are encouraged to publish their thesis and dissertation.  I also encourage students to attend the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy (ABCT), as well as to present their work there.

You should apply to work with me if you have interest in social cognition in schizophrenia and/or psychosocial treatment for schizophrenia. Our lab has an excellent reputation: students from my lab have won the “Wallach Award,” given to the top graduate student in the clinical program, five times! We seek students who are not only outstanding academically and intellectually, but are also, nice, down-to-earth people (which we consider very important to our lab group). During the interview process, I take the opinions of my lab very seriously, as we want to create as fun and supportive atmosphere as possible.