• October 2024, August 2025

• One month before each start term.

• Master’s degree or equivalent: Students with a Theology degree or equivalent are given 12 credits of advanced standing and are only required to take 48 total credits. GPA over 3.0 in any field of study.
• Professional Experience: 10 years as a practitioner in a professional practice, such as minister, lawyer, nurse, teacher etc. (This information will be confirmed via the annotated curriculum vita explained below.)

If you meet the above requirements, submit the following:

• Application: Completed and signed at eastern.edu/apply
• Official Transcript(s) must be submitted from all colleges attended, including both conferred graduate and undergraduate degrees. 
  • Learn How to Request a Transcript from your previous school(s).
• Annotated Curriculum Vitae: An Annotated Curriculum Vitae follows the format of an annotated bibliography. For each entry, there is an annotation of a few sentences describing the achievement, accolade, work experience, etc. Its purpose is to provide information to the readers that goes beyond what a person might find out from a standard resume.
• Initial Artifact Description: A detailed description of the artifact that might become the focus of the doctoral research (300-500 words), uploaded in an essay format. 
• Personal Essay: This statement contains the applicant's reasons for undertaking doctoral study (1000 words). This essay will also be used to demonstrate a student’s writing ability.  
• 3 Recommendations:  
  • 3 letters of recommendation for study and evidence of Professional, Academic, and  Personal competency. 
    • The professional reference must be from a present or past colleague in the same profession
    • The academic reference must be from an instructor of a course you took as an enrolled student.  
  • Email your references a link to our Recommendation Form and ask them to fill it out on your behalf. 
• Interview with the Director of the PhD in Professional Practice.
  • You will be contacted with more information and to schedule this interview after we have received all of the required materials below.

• A formal doctoral assessment will be undertaken at the end of Phase 1 (see Curriculum Webpage) in which students present a portfolio of a work-product (or artifact) for continuation admission into the next phase of the program. 
• To advance to Phase 2, a student must also achieve a GPA of 2.7 or above. (B-)
• Upon successful completion of this phase, the student will be approved to continue to the next phase of the PhD in Professional Practice.