Ph.D. in Criminal Justice

Admissions Information

The NSU Criminal Justice Institute offers a program leading to the Ph.D. in Criminal Justice degree. Applications are accepted year round and can be accessed at the following link: Apply Online.

A non-refundable $50 application fee (payable online) must be forwarded to process your application

Please send all required supplemental application information to the following address:

Nova Southeastern University
Enrollment Processing Services (EPS)
Attn: Criminal Justice Institute
P.O. Box 299000
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 33329-9905

Fax unofficial documents to (954) 262-3609 or gradschool@nova.edu.

Official electronic transcripts may be sent to electronictranscript@nova.edu.
Note: External Institutions only.

An application for admissions will not be considered complete until all of the following documents are received:

At this time, admission to the PhD program is limited to a maximum of 20 students; Apply now!

Admission to the Ph.D. program requires:

  1. Complete all parts of the Application for Admissions form.
  2. Submit official transcripts from each post-secondary school(s) attended.
  3. One of the following must be submitted/satisfied:
    1. copy of a successfully defended master's thesis;
    2. GRE score of 300 or better on the combined verbal and quantitative sections based on the new score reports (Effective November 2011) or a combined score of 1000 or better on the old score reports.GRE® test scores are valid for five years after the testing year in which you tested.
    3. Sample of published work from a refereed publication within the criminal justice or related discipline;
    4. successful completion of J.D. or doctorate in related field
  4. Provide a personal statement of 300 words detailing the student's goals, research interests, and special qualifications for the program.
  5. Provide three original signed letters of recommendation that refer to an assessment of the individual's capacity to successfully handle graduate-level academic work. Letters may be from employers, professors or others in the student’s life that have had sufficient opportunity to observe and evaluate the student’s dedication to the field of criminal justice, his or her academic or professional background, the student's level of interest as well as his or her capacity for intense academic study.

    PhD Application Term PhD Application deadline PhD Interview Period
    Fall May 25th June
  6. Completion of a master's degree from a regionally accredited program.
  7. Provide a current copy of your Curriculum Vitae.

***Admission decisions will be made within ten days after the interview period. PhD applicants will be notified of their admission status via regular mail.

Foreign Coursework

Undergraduate and/or graduate coursework taken at a foreign institution must be evaluated for U.S. institution equivalence. A listing of all courses and grades and an overall GPA (on a 4.0 scale) also must be included. It is the applicant’s responsibility to have coursework evaluated. To see a list of evaluation services please visit the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services website: http://www.naces.org.

If you have any questions regarding the application process or related to the Criminal Justice Institute, please contact us at (954) 262-7001 or email us at cji@nova.edu.