The Kroc Institute welcomes applications from students of high academic ability who have demonstrated their long-term commitment to peace and global justice. The Ph.D. program is highly competitive.
All applications must be submitted online by December 15. Applications missing required materials after the December 15 deadline may not receive full consideration. To ensure that all your materials, including recommendation letters, are received by the deadline, we suggest that you submit your online application as early as possible.
Please note: If you are interested in a master’s degree, you should apply to the master's program, not to the Ph.D. program. If you wish to apply for admission to both the Kroc master’s program and the Ph.D. program, two online applications are required.
Application guidelines
You are not required to apply separately to one of our partnering department in order to be admitted to the peace studies Ph.D. program. Also, if you are already enrolled in a doctoral program and seek to enter the Ph.D. in peace studies program, you must submit a formal application, even if you are currently enrolled at Notre Dame.
You may simultaneously apply for admission to the peace studies doctoral program and to the separate doctoral program of one of the five departments (history, political science, psychology, sociology, or theology), but this is not necessary. If you choose to do this, you must submit two complete applications one for each program. All application materials must be submitted separately with each application. Documents cannot be shared between applications. You must submit your transcripts, GRE scores, recommenders, curriculum vitae, new statement of intent and writing sample for each PhD application you submit. Apply to Ph.D. program »
In addition:
- The Statement of Intent accompanying the application should describe your areas of interest and experience as explicitly as possible and should list the faculty with whom you wish to study. (You do not need advance approval from this faculty member.)
- For students for whom English is not their first language, either TOEFL or IELTS scores are required.
- Scores from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) are required. Applications received without a GRE score cannot be considered.
- A writing sample, demonstrating skills in writing, analysis, and peace research, is required. If you send part of a longer work (for example, a senior or master’s thesis), please include an abstract of 250 words describing the whole piece and its argument.
