Armed with an interest in statistics and two earned degrees in psychology, Brittany Boyd was certain that she wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in psychometrics.
In the process of searching for a doctoral program, Boyd found Morgan State University, the only historically Black college and university (HBCU) to offer a graduate program in psychometrics.
She was intrigued.
“The campus is great,” said Boyd, a fourth-year doctoral student at Morgan State. “Then just the overall draw of an HBCU. I heard from friends that attended HBCUs about the sense of belonging that you feel on campus as well as this built-in mentoring experience that students have. That has definitely been my experience and had a lot do with why I chose Morgan.”
Though it may sound like an obscure discipline, simply put, psychometrics—a subfield of psychology—is defined as “the study of mental measurements,” according to Dr. Jocelyn Turner-Musa, professor and chairperson of the Department of Psychology at Morgan State.
Additionally, psychometricians “apply their knowledge of statistics and 
In 2006, Dr. Earl S. Richardson, then-president of Morgan State University, approached the Educational Testing Service (ETS) for assistance in creating a graduate degree in psychometrics. The program was approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission and the first student graduated in 2009. The university currently offers both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychometrics.
