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Welcome to the Doctoral Center

grad capWelcome to the Doctoral Center! The Doctoral Center is a one-stop shop for locating resources to help with the dissertation and applied doctoral project. This site contains resources to help with all of the elements of the dissertation or applied doctoral project. In addition, the Doctoral Center houses all guides, templates, slide decks, and rubrics for the five-chapter dissertation and three-section applied doctoral project.

Please take a few minutes to look around. Navigate to the guides and within the guides using the table of contents on the left. Resources are frequently marked to differentiate the degree programs using the Dissertation Student Experience (DSE) vs. the Applied Doctoral Experience (ADE). All guides, templates, and slide decks are organized under "Program Specific Resources" by School or College.

For questions about these resources or for assistance in finding a resource, please email DissertationCenter@nu.edu


JFK SOPSS PhD Guides & Templates

The documents and information below are for students in the JFK School of Psychology and Social Sciences - PhD programs with a five-chapter dissertation. These resources are for students in the PhD-Psy and PhD-MFT.

Dissertation Policies
Dissertation Proposal/Manuscript Template
Dissertation Proposal Presentation Decks
Oral Defense Slide Decks

JFK SOPSS DMFT Guides & Templates

The documents and information below are for students in the JFK School of Psychology and Social Sciences - DMFT program with a three-section Doctoral Project. These resources are for the DMFT only.

What is a DMFT Doctoral Project?

Both MFT doctoral programs have a capstone experience. Students complete a basic research dissertation in the PhD program. They find a gap in the literature that matters, meaning there are implications for communities, families, individuals, and/or professions if that gap isn’t filled, and design a theoretically informed study to fill that gap. Thus, the PhD dissertation is not an applied study (like conducting a treatment outcome study or collecting and analyzing post-services satisfaction surveys for a community agency). 

In contrast, students in the DMFT complete a doctoral project. The project is intellectually equivalent to the dissertation, but has an applied, real-world element to it. Students identify a need, whether local, regional, or national, and design a project to begin addressing that need. For example, students might design or evaluate a program, develop a strategic plan for an organization, or evaluate the initiatives of a state MFT organization. Many DMFT students often select a project in their current workplace that can demonstrate their administrative and doctoral level systemic training to improve or advance needs of their current organization. 

Applied Doctoral Project Policies
Applied Doctoral Project Proposal/Manuscript Template
Professional Presentation Defense Slide Decks