Application Requirements (for foreign prospective students)

Portfolio structure and assessment

1. A photocopy of the diploma and academic transcripts. 
Background in psychology is not required. Diplomas received at the non-Russian universities have to be officially verified (more information at the International Admissions Office).

2. Motivation letter in English.
Write it as follows:
Part 1 (short paragraph):  write about your interests and why have you decided to apply for a master’s degree.
Part 2: tell about your research projects if you have done any (e.g. your thesis work): 
write the topic(s) and briefly describe the results;if you published a project or presented it at a conference, write about it. Tell about any of your scientific accomplishments (e.g. scholarships or grants that you might have received);
write about your job experience, especially if it was somehow related to your master’s program application.
Part 3 (most important one) describe what areas of social psychology would you like to study. Be as precise as you can – your goal is to show that you understand what social psychology is about and that you know what you want;
if possible, formulate a research question or a topic that you would like to work on; visit the program’s website https://www.hse.ru/ma/socpsy/ and International Laboratory of Socio-Cultural research https://scr.hse.ru/. Study the scientific interests of the program’s teachers and the lab researchers and describe whose scientific interests are close to yours and why; write about your motivation and personal characteristics that will demonstrate your will to study diligently. 

Important: 
The commission will need to see from your letter that you are a) motivated, b) competent and c) possess scientific or applied potential in the area of social psychology.
Please use active (not passive) voice and describe examples.
The letter should have 500-1000 words, not longer.
The letter must not be a copy of your CV – it should rather be an addition to it!

3. Summary on 5-10 pages for your final qualifying work (research paper) in English.
We accept the summary of the thesis in the field of psychology or close to it: sociology, ethnic studies, cultural studies, linguistics, marketing, economics (topics related to the economic behavior of the individual), history, philosophy.
The summary should consist of the following sections:
Aim of study;
Problem statement;
Hypotheses;
Methods;
Main results;
Conclusions and directions for future studies
OR
Instead of the summary you can describe a project (5-10 pages) of a new scientific study that fits the field of the master’s program (social, cross-cultural, economic or organizational psychology). The project should include the following parts:
- Introduction (goal, usefulness of the study, scientific problem statement);

Theoretical basis for the study that allows to create the hypotheses;
Research questions or hypotheses;
Possible methods of the study;
Expected results;
Scientific and applied significance;
Literature references.

The summary and the project proposal are interchangeable and are equally evaluated, so you need either one OR the other. They have to be formatted according to the APA standards.

4. CV in English.

Please specify: contact details (residential address, e-mail, phone), education , place of work, grants, internships, publications (if any)
The list presented above includes compulsory documents that are necessary for portfolio review. An applicant can also attach extra documents that might increase the final evaluation score - publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings, conference participation certificates. Publications need to be applied as separate documents (or as a list of online links leading to the publications).

Certificates of English language proficiency.

For admission to the English-language program "Applied social psychology" it is also necessary to demonstrate English proficiency. In the presence of certificates of international examinations with required scores applicant is exempt from the qualification examination of English language. The required scores are:  TOEFL PBT – 577; TOEFL IBT – 90; Academic IELTS – 6.5 (every part no less than 6.0); Cambridge Proficiency in English – any score, Cambridge Advanced English – A, B and C.  If the candidate has not received the required number of points on the international exam in a foreign language, the certificate should still be attached to the portfolio. 
Exceptions for  those who plan to study on HSE track: applicants for whom English is a native language, and who received basic education entirely in English.

The portfolio must be uploaded through online application form here: https://www.hse.ru/en/admissions/graduate-apply

Portfolio evaluation