Over thirty years ago, the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, became the first professional school located within a major research university to award the Doctor of Psychology degree. We remain one of only a very few Psy.D. professional schools at a public institution with the infrastructure and scholastic dynamism to qualify among the Association of American Universities' 62 leading universities in the United States and Canada. GSAPP has been referred to by outside evaluators as the "gold standard" of professional psychology schools and as "arguably the best program in the country."

Instruction began in 1974 with two specialties: clinical and school psychology. The School Psychology Program, evaluated by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education Certification (NASDTEC), was granted program approval in 1979 for both Certification as School Psychologist and Certification as Director of Student Personnel Services. The latter certification is available to advanced students with three years of school experience.

An organizational Psy.D. specialty (which no longer is admitting students) was established in 1988, at which time the Department of School Psychology was reorganized to become the Department of Applied Psychology.