Overview of the Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology Program with Bradley Cypher

0:07Welcome to the PsyD webinar. I'm Bradley Cypher, and I'm the PsyD admissions advisor here at Divine Mercy University. The goal of today's session is to provide an overview of the doctoral program here at Divine Mercy University. So should you have any questions at any point during the presentation, please lodge your questions in the chat box, and I will be happy to field them at the end of the presentation. I've also listed my email as well as my Calendly link in the chat box. So please, I'd be happy to hear from you. Send me an email, register for a time to meet with me on Calendly, and I will very much look forward to speaking with you. Now before we get started, I would like to say a very, quick brief word about myself, explain sort of why I'm who I am, why I and why I do what I do.

0:58So when I was an undergraduate, I studied history, at the University of Mary Washington. And at first, I, you know, had plans on maybe going to law school and things like this. But as I became more immersed in my academics, I became more interested in, actually philosophical and and theological questions along with my, you know, history studies. And after graduation, I, was a teacher for a few years. You know, I taught history. I taught Latin. I taught, English among other things at a, at a Catholic school. And so that was enjoyable, but I I, you know, I wanted to I enjoyed teaching, but I wanted to teach at a higher level. And so, I decided to go to graduate school, and I went to grad school in theology.

1:42And I got degrees from Christendom College and Dominican House of Studies before, going to Ave Maria University for my PhD in theology. And while I was, you know, sort of immersed in my studies, I became increasingly interested with, mental health because, you know, of issues that were going on in my own life and in lives of others that I came to that I loved and my friends and family. I saw that, human flourishing concerned not just knowing what reality was and through the lens of philosophy and and sacred theology, but also, honoring the subjective nature of the human person. And so what during my course of studies when I was writing my dissertation, I decided to write about addiction. And so this was one of these, integrative projects where I use the insights of philosophy, theology, and psychology.

2:35And this is one of these these these projects that's very divine mercy as it were as our school is very much committed to the inter of the project between these three disciplines. And so as I learned more about divine mercy, I wanted to become a part of it. And so when the, chance to come here and work, emerged, I I seized I seized it, and here I am before you today. As my passion is to get people like you into, their dream career into the mental health profession as as specifically as clinical psychologists, as I care very deeply about, the mental health of of our worlds and the role that faith plays in helping, direct the psychological disciplines. Okay. So that's a little bit about me, in a nutshell.

3:22So without further ado, let's hop into the webinar for today where we're talking about the PsyD program at DMU. So Divine Mercy University is a Catholic graduate school of psychology. It was founded in 1999. At that point in time, we were known as the Institute of the Psychological Sciences. And our we expanded, you know, since our founding. We included a counseling program at the master's level, as well as a psychology program also at the master's level and a program in spirit reduction. So we changed our name from Institute of Psychological Sciences to Divine Mercy University to facilitate this growth, and that occurred in 2016. Okay. So in other words, we're one major university. We're one school, to have Mercer University, but we have, I should say we were one university with two schools.

4:14So we have a school of counseling, which offers, you know, a master's program, which is mostly online. There there are episodic, residency requirements for our counseling students, so they they come to campus from time to time. The Institute of the Psychological Sciences, we retain that name for our psychology programs, specifically, for the doctoral program, which is residential on campus. And then we have a master's program that's on that's entirely online. There's there's nonclinical. It's entirely nonresidential online program. So our university's mission is to provide students with an effective academic and educational environment that supports the integration of the psychological sciences and a Catholic Christian understanding of the person through teaching and learning both knowledge and critical skills.

5:01Also, to assist students intellectually and professionally as they prepare themselves to respond to the location as mental health professionals. We are located outside of the Washington DC area in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. So this is truly a wonderful area to live, to work, and to study. You have easy access to the city to enjoy all of the artistic and cultural opportunities that come with being near a major metropolitan area while also having easy access to, a lot of view a lot of beauty, a lot of natural beauty, to the west, part of Virginia where the Appalachian Trail, for example, runs down the western part of the states, states, or if you enjoy hiking, canoeing, camping, all of that is is also on access.

5:46So this is just a really rich and and wonderful area to, go to graduate school. So we have a series of institutional accreditation, of which we are quite proud. So we are institutionally accredited by SACS, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. SACS is recognized an accreditation agency by the Department of Education, and Divine Mercy has voluntarily participated in this accreditation process. We met or exceeded all of the standards and thoroughgoing evaluation. Also, we've been approved to participate by SHPE, the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia, and and the PsyD program has been recognized since 2006 as a national research designation program by the Association of State and Provisional Psychology Boards.

6:29And probably most notably of of all is that we are, accredited by the APA, the American Psychological Association since 2016. And finally, Don Murphy has been approved of state in in the National Council for State Authorization reciprocity agreement. So as you can see, we have, basically every accreditation, relevant to our line of work. Now, when it comes to distinguishing clinical psychology from, say, getting a master's in counseling, for example, both types of clinicians, both of the masters and at the doctoral level, do wonderful work, in terms of the clinical practice as a psychotherapist. But one key differentiating factor among a few others when it comes to becoming a clinical psychologist at the doctoral level is the focus on testing.

7:22So the psychological assessments that come with getting a doctorate, are very much part and parcel to our curriculum in the PsyD program at Divine Mercy. So you're going to get very well educated in the entire battery of psychological assessment, from IQ testing or cognitive testing, to all the hosts, personality assessments, including the Rorschach, test, the MMPI, big five among others. Okay? So that's sort of, you might say, the bread and butter of clinical psychology that you will encounter, here at Del Marcy. The doctoral program is a five year program. It includes a hundred and twenty two credit hours, all told. It does also include a master's degree in passing on your doctorate degree.

8:09So in other words, after the first two years of successful coursework, you will be awarded a MSci degree. That MSci is not a in itself, a stand alone degree or to be a clinician. Okay? So, you know, God forbid, if you got into the program and you needed to leave after, the masters, that would not, in fact, prepare you to become a clinician of of any kind, because it's it's really meant to be part of the PsyD, and it's really kind of a a you might say again, like a degree in passing on route to the getting to the terminal doctorate. Now I wanna say a bit about the specifically about the curriculum itself, in the doctoral program. So if you take a look at this slide here, you can see that there's a great deal of coursework involved, especially within the first two years.

8:59Okay? The first two years, you know, I I like to draw the analogy to medical school, because there's so much there's so much similarity. For example, see how the coursework starts out rather dense. Right? And there's lots of coursework. Then as you as you move through it, you can see how it diminishes somewhat. Right? So the idea is that, when you come here, you there's lots of psychology knowledge that you sort of imbibe and kind of get under your belt as it were. But then as you move through it, the clinical piece becomes a lot more important and prominent. So you'll start to see patients. Beginning in your second year, you'll probably see a couple of patients, maybe two or three. We kind of ease you into it.

9:42And then by the third and the fourth year, you're probably seeing between seven and nine clients. And then finally, in your fifth year, this is where you go off to your internship much again, going back to the medical analogy. If you're a a medical student, you go to a residency. In psychology, you go to an internship. Okay? So you would you would apply to a doctoral internship in your fourth year hoping to get matched into that internship in the fifth year. Yeah. And these, can be all over the country, these internships, Some of which are are local. We've had a good many students in the past go to local, internships and do very well. Many of them are APA accredited. But many others go go all over the the nation, depending on where you wanna specialize in, regardless of whether it's a demographic focus in the case of work wanting to work with children or adolescents, or if you wanted to say, you know, work with an elderly population, or anything in the middle, you know, an adult population as well.

10:47Or if you wanted to do specialized, studies in addiction or bipolar, schizophrenia, or whatever the pathology might be, typically, there's a kind of an internship that suits those, interests. Okay. On the academic side of things, there's a couple of things to see. The first is is that this is a full year long, doctoral program. Okay? You're going to be engaged in studies, all year long, including the summer. As you can see, you know, there are certainly, summer courses in which you will become, engaged with as well as clinical duties that are ongoing during the summer months. Okay? Typically, students will pitch their dissertation proposal in the second year. So the goal is by the end of the second year that you submitted your proposal and it's been accepted by the faculty.

11:38And then another major milestone to point out is in the third year. So the idea here is that you take your comprehensive exams in the summer of year three, and God willing, you pass that. And then provided that you've also passed the, dissertation proposal, you're officially a candidate, in psychology here at Divine Mercy University, a PsyD candidate. Okay. I think that's we've said, all that needs to be said with the the curriculum. So, you know, if you have any questions about that, feel free to lodge a question in the in the chat box, and I would be happy to talk about it later. Okay. A couple of questions to discernment. You know? Is is this right for you? You know? Do you have a calling to become a clinical psychologist?

12:19So do you want to help people flourish? Are you interested in the science behind human psychology? Do you want to become an instrument of healing through the psychological sciences? Are you interested in performing a psychological assessment or test to diagnose your clients in a creative treatment plan? Are you looking to start a career as a licensed mental health professional, specifically as a clinical psychologist? And then finally, do you have the ability and desire to work with all types of clients for more acute care to more challenging long term client cases? Okay. So we have a series of goals in our program that we do aim to inculcate in all of our students by the time that they graduate, and these are as follows.

12:59So, foundations in psychological science and research, integrity and practice, assessment and diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, professional roles, and then clinical practice from a Catholic and integrative perspective. So I'm going to talk about all of these in a little bit more detail. You might notice how the first, several of them are quite common for, you know, a lot of Psyvey programs that are also APA accredited. The last, though, is quite peculiar to us. Right? We're Catholic, and we're very proud of that. We integrate theology and philosophy, into, not just the courses that are specifically, integrative studies courses, but also throughout the psychology curriculum. The questions of life's meaning and the bearing that has on clientele practice is the very essence of what we do here at Divine Mercy University.

13:53So we're I'm gonna talk about each of these in turn. The first, foundations in psychological science and research. Graduates will attain foundational psychological science knowledge of biological, cognitive, effective, social, and developmental is, aspects of the human person, as well as history and systems of psychology, psychological measurement, research design, and statistical method. Graduates have the skills necessary to conduct their own psychological research. Two, integrity and practice. Graduates be knowledgeable in the areas of diversity and ethics and display critical thinking, self aware and reflective practice, and self care. Graduates will demonstrate responsiveness to supervision, collegiality, and professional compartments in professional practice.

14:35Three, assessment and diagnosis. Graduates be able to conduct clinical interviewing, perform intake evaluation, demonstrate knowledge in administration, scoring, and interpretation of psychological assessment, integrate multiple sources of test data and clinical interview information into written reports, diagnose, and develop a treatment plan. Four, therapeutic intervention. Graduals be able to demonstrate case conceptualization. Excuse me. Treatment planning, building, maintaining a therapeutic relationship, psychotherapy skills, crisis management, urgent, special circumstances, and discharge planning. Five, professional roles. Graduates being able to function the right or required roles for professional psychologists to include consultants, educator, supervisor, practice manager, and program evaluator.

15:19They'll be able to work collaboratively within our teams and with clients. Six, clinical practice from a Catholic and interactive perspective. Graduates will build a Catholic understanding of human flourishing and individual person in marriage and family life and be able to integrate this psychological sciences in clinical practice. Okay. So as you might imagine, getting your doctorate will avail a great deal of opportunity to you, and this manifests itself in the different settings in which you might find yourself practicing as a clinical psychologist. And these are just a few among many. So working, for example, in a psychiatric hospital is a very common one. In fact, one of our recent PsyD graduates, doctor Charles Russell himself works in a, psychiatric hospital.

16:04He works alongside, an entire medical team comprised of physicians. So, especially, psychiatrists, those with MDs and DOs, and nurses, as as he says, a whole gaggle of nurses. But among other medical practitioners too. And you would be as the clinical psychologist on the team, you would be the mental health expert. In particular, as I mentioned before, should the patient need a psychological assessment or therapy, that would be your piece of the puzzle. Right? So and there are other components that, require healing of this person. You know, certainly, the other experts in the team would, weigh in. But when it comes to the mental health piece, especially the nonpharmacological piece, that would be your domain.

16:50Right? So when let's just say that the patient perhaps needed, a psychiatric medication. Right? That would certainly be the domain of the psychiatrist. Right? You know, the medical doctor. But you as a psychologist, again, it's sort of like you're the the testing and the therapy is sort of like where you shine. Also, of of notice, is military establishments. Now, the military, of course, you know, has a great deal of money that they're now, willing to spend on getting their people help treatments, especially with a very common phenomenon of PTSD and trauma that this has a lot of, veterans, and and a lot of these people need help. And this is where, again, a Divine Mercy doctoral graduate, could do very well indeed.

17:38In fact, you when it comes to the fifth year when you apply to that, some of the most lucrative, internships are in within the military, say, in the veterans affairs, departments, simply because they're very well funded. And so this is an authentic interest for you. This can be a fantastic, career, path for for, a divine mercy, doctorate, degree holder. Yes. Also, of course, you know, the probably the most common one, though, is, surprisingly working in private practice. Right? You know, being able to go off on your own, have your own business, hang your your shingle outside, and see people on a an entirely private basis. And you might, in fact, should you want to get into league with other clinicians, you know, either at the master's or at the doctoral level and, you know, expand that product practice to be an association, of other practitioners.

18:36Also very common is, you know, working either in an outpatient clinic or in clinic or in a clinical facility, something like a addiction rehab, center, where you would, you know, be the doctoral level clinician, amongst other clinicians, you know, again, at either the masters or the doctoral level. And then this last one here, diocese and consultation. This is a huge one, especially for Divine Mercy graduates because what will often happen is diocese will have applicants, apply to become seminarians, and a lot of these seminary applicants require testing. And this testing is to ensure that these people, have sort of psychological, makeup that would make them, effective and good priests, good ministers, of the church.

19:24And so, again, this is one of these things that there's testing involved, and this is where the doctorates the doctoral on this or alum, would shine because you have such a thoroughgoing, training and testing, in in all the different batteries of tests where you would be able to provide the needed evaluation. Okay. Now we've had legions of students come through our school, and they've enjoyed a great deal of success, in the world of psychology after graduation. And these are just a few of our alumni, from the PsyD program that has spoken to the to our program. So Jane Rolovich has said, in our clinical psychology program, the training is focused on healing the whole person. Kristen Long, I was drawn to the study program and desire to serve others in a more profound way than my previous positions offered.

20:13Timothy White, this school is not afraid to teach you what it means to be human at every level psychologically, philosophically, and theologically, and that's why I like it. Kirsten Curtis, I'm so thankful for DMU. The faculty members are very supportive, and I received lots of hands on and clinical experience. Okay. This is a story of a current doctoral student with us, William Johnson, is in our in our PsyD program, and he is speaking as I was before about the role that the military now has with funding, psychological research, but also getting their people treatments. He came from a military background, and he has developed a great deal of interest in trauma and PTSD. So let's hear his story.

21:06Hi. My name is William Johnston, and I'm a PsyD student at Divine Mercy University, currently approaching the end of my third year in the program. Military service runs in my family, and, and so both my grandparents served. My parents both served. This door, the PsyD program at Divine Mercy University opened the opportunity for me to continue to get back to conduct research and hopefully implement a more robust program to treat PTSD as it relates to combat veterans. DMU has certainly provided the integration that I saw in terms of my formation, both the philosophy and theology for in addition to the psychology curriculum, has provided me growth in terms of my faith, and my role as a husband and father, and, of course, a psychological clinician.

22:04So in essence, the Catholic Christian meta model of the human person is is why I'm here, both for my own sake as well as the sake of my future clients. Okay. Very good. So we do have another, alumna story here. This one, was a recently graduated from our Saudi program. So let's hear her story. I would say that being a student at DUI Mercy University or DMU is one of the best thing that happens to me. I really appreciate a great support from faculty members and also classmates. I have gained a great deal of knowledge in all aspects of clinical practice, research, and also professional development. DMU not only provides students with strong academic skills, but also prepares them for a career in psychology.

23:08I personally benefit from mentorship with academic advisor and clinical supervisors. As a person, what I most appreciate from DMU is that its mission helped broaden my perspectives in understanding a human person through the lens of Catholicism. Catholic principle, especially in hope, love, and faith are very valuable and certainly helped me become a better clinician. Hey. Very good. Now we offer a generalist program in psychology, which means that we don't have a particular focus, say, in one special area of psychology, such as forensics or forensic psychology or educational psychology rather, our faculty have an expertise that spans the curriculum of psychology. So you're going to get coursework in all the different fields from social, personality, adolescent, and child psychology.

24:12In addition to all of the intense training, with a clinical setting, so all the different clinical modalities, from CBT, to group therapy and marriage therapy and family therapy, DBT, EFT, internal family systems, the whole shebang. Okay? Now, so I would do wanna speak about a few of our faculty members here. Doctor Lisa Kolecki is our dean. She's a specialist in assessment and therapy. Doctor Diane Graves is, the assistant program director, and she's a specialist in child and developmental psychology. Doctor Elena Oriana is our director of clinical training. You're bound to run into her and especially in second year when you, begin your clinical work here on CMU. And the three gentlemen here at the bottom were actually were among the founding faculty members from our school dating back to the late nineties.

25:02Doctor Striffani is a specialist in CBT and group therapy, doctor Nordling in child, marriage, and family. And doctor Vitz's work really hinges at the intersection between theology, Catholic theology, and modern psychology. In fact, doctor Vitz's own story, is really part and parcel to the founding of Divine Mercy. In fact, as a young man, doctor Bitz was an atheist, believe it or not. You know, he was, he went to University of Michigan and majored in psychology and then went to graduate school at Stanford. And this whole sort of period of time, he he lost his childhood faith, you know, in in in a way that many, academics, you know, that in a way that secularism is sort of, has a hegemony within the academy today, he became part of that sort of institutional thinking, you might say.

25:52And then when he, you know, graduated with his doctorate, he got a job at New York University back in 1965. And it was there that he met his now wife, Timmy Bitz. She was a professor of French at the time. And Timmy was actually, believe it or not, an even bigger a bigger atheist than than Paul was. And so she was so, so much of an atheist that she actually got rid of all any reference to God in their wedding vows, believe it or not. Not. So they had a sec a very secular beginning of their relationship, but, what ended up happening is once Timmy became pregnant, with their first child, doctor Evits, Paul, you know, he had a little bit of a life a quarter life crisis, you might say, because he thought to himself, well, I mean, what am I gonna tell my my children about the meaning of life and why we're here?

26:44And are we really just sort of the an amalgamation of of of atoms and and we just where we live for a while and then we we pass out of existence and, like, that's all there is to it. You know? And it was kind of very materialist atheist kind of picture. So this prompted a search, and he wanted to know what was the meaning of life. And so he ended up reading all a great deal. He read GK Chesterton and CS Lewis among other, Christian and Catholic apologists. And at the end of the search, he came down to, four different options as as it were. So the first option was, basically, careerism and a kind of almost like a kind of narcissism really, you know, self promotion, self aggrandizement. As a professor, there, you know, he had plenty of opportunities to do that, to make himself, you know, a big deal in the field.

27:34The second option would have been, sort of new agey spirituality and Buddhism, things like that, which, you know, was big at the time in the late sixties, early seventies. The third option was Marxist and leftist politics. So he had been involved in leftist politics, from his days at Stanford, and he was he was in California for, I think, eight years. And that was sort of his his gig for a while. And following the the dictates of Marx, you know, the idea that, you know, metaphysics is irrelevant and really philosophy should, bring about social change. Okay. So this is very much, you know, something that doctor Bitts was already accustomed to. And then the final, possibility was Christianity, Catholicism in particular.

28:23And in a in a final, you know, examination of all these options, this saw from, frankly, from the position of reason that it was actually, you know, Christianity that made the most sense, despite the cultural narrative to the contrary that was very popular in the academy at the at the time and still very much is to this day. And so what happened is he converted to Catholicism, as did his wife, and this was happened over the course of the nineteen seventies. And then he reached another problem, another sort of complication, you might say, in his life journey in a story, which was, okay. Now that I'm Catholic and my wife is Catholic, what am I gonna do? And in this very secular, you know, environment at NYU at the time, in a very secular discipline, you know, psychology.

29:10And so this prompted, yet another intellectual journey. It's like so he examined the course of the twentieth century humanistic psychologists, especially Abraham Maslow, Rogers, Eric Frum, among other people. And he saw that a common denominator that, you know, sort of held them all together as it were was this concept of self actualization. You know, the idea that, you know, the human person, the individual self is our own end, and, like, the meaning of life concerns basically fulfilling our own desires, you know, and living a rather self absorbed existence. And, that saw that this was rather at odds with the gospel, you know, as Christ describes. So as because for Christ, it's sort of like for human life, what does it mean in human life?

29:58It's really found in others, you know, and giving yourself to the other, and then, of course, in God, the love of God and the love of others. And this stands at large, this kind of self absorbed, narcissistic, you know, self actualized kind of philosophy of the humanistic psychologists. And so this publishes this, what became known as a very seminal work, and it came out in 1977. It's called psychology as religion. I highly recommend it to you, if you're interested in this. And there this caused a huge, kind of rippling effect in the psychological community. Many people really, really liked it and others didn't at all for obvious reasons. But people that got wind of it, doctor Strefani, Phil Strefani and, Bill Nordling, you know, were reading this at the time, and they said, oh my gosh.

30:49Like, we gotta get in touch with this guy. This is such a great this is such a good idea. So these three got in league with each other, and they said, oh, like, this is great. What are we gonna do about it, though? So they decided to found a school that really kind of brought together Catholic theology, good, solid, realist philosophy, and the best insights of modern psychology. And bring this together, this would be a truly interesting, different, unique, but really powerful school that was unlike any other in many in some respects. And so the sure enough, that's exactly what they did. And they got together in the nineties, and they were planning. And finally, they came together in '99 and founded Divine Mercy University, then known as the Institute of Psychological Sciences.

31:33Okay? And then we've been growing ever since. I mean, that's sort of like the genesis of our of our founding. But the rest, as they say, is history. You know, we now have four wonderful programs. The doctorate was the original, the OG, as they say. The the the first program that was with us from the beginning, and it's still the case today, our flagship, doctoral program. So that's the the story, the genesis of, you know, Divine Mercy University, which really originated with this great this great man, doctor Paul Bitz. Okay. So to bring things down to earth just a little bit, this is, a bit about licensing. Certainly, to get licensed as psychologists and as in many other similar professions, you know, in law or in medicine, you know, you get your doctoral degree, and then you have to take the board exam to get become an attorney like the bar or to to get your, to a physician to take the the state and national exams.

32:26The same is true, to do psychology. You finish your PsyD, and then you're in in a apprentice for about nine to twelve months. And then you take your your, state and national exams, and then you're a clinical psychologist, totally independent, licensed by the APA, and there you have it. And you're off you're off and running. Okay. These two charts depict a distinction that I like to draw. It could be helpful between buying something that's just rather material in case, like, car is a great example. It's like the the value that is going to diminish rather rapidly. By total contrast, though, when you invest in education I'm not just talking about any old education. But in cycle in psychology, this is a field that is absolutely booming.

33:14Okay? This it's growing on a rate of 30 higher than, basically, the average profession in America. And that is because we are undergoing we're in the midst of a mental health crisis. The culture is sort of coming apart at the seams. We find so many people that are alone. They're isolated. They're addicted. They're depressed. They're without hope, frankly. And so for all of these reasons, this profession is on the up and up. Okay? There's a ton of demand for therapists, good therapists that are that have strong moorings in the Catholic tradition, and divine mercy is the parag the paragon of that tradition and indeed. So, what another thing to consider is that there's a huge demand for testing.

34:03Okay? And the only people that can really do tests without supervision for the most part are psychologists. That's like again, as I said, that's the bread and butter of psychology. So this is another function of supply and demand. There's a ton of demand and not that money not a whole lot of supply. Do you stand to do incredibly well, as a clinical psychologist? So it's very much an investment that pays, pays for itself, you might say. Okay. Now the investment, the is $1,001.70 per credit for a 122 credits over five years is a $142.07 40. Now that does not include fees or indirect expenses such as, you know, housing, gas, food, things of this nature. Many of our students do get a federal aid, so the FAFSA will become available most likely, this coming December for this coming year.

34:53And, also, we offer a number of ways of defying excuse me, defying costs so that very seldom, if ever, does do our doctoral students pay this full sticker price. Most people are gonna get some sort of tuition, remission in the form of a a number of things, including work study, scholarships, things like this. Okay? So for example, in when it comes to work study, we offer that sort of throughout, the program on campus. In the first couple years, it's it's probably going to be jobs, such as working with me and my colleagues in the admissions office or in the business office side. In years three and four, though, once you have your masters, you can become a teaching assistant. You can help the professors teach their classes, which can be very interesting.

35:40Right? You're applying the psychology that you now that you now have. And then we have a whole slew of scholarships to which you could apply. Right? This one in particular is, a proposed to all of you listening now because we are very early on in the this is really sort of the first webinar of the admission cycle for 2024, 2025. So provide that you get all of the elements of your, application in prior to, October 25 is the deadline, which I'll talk about in a minute. You're gonna get 3,000 off of your first year's tuition. Okay? In addition, all these other scholarships that you see listed here today are those that you would be able to apply to individually. And I certainly encourage you to take a look at our website, divinemercy.edu, and see which ones apply to you because there are, certain things that are irrelevant to some and not to others, for example.

36:34We also offer merit scholarships, and these are our sort of, like, our top, biggest money scholarships. They range from half off tuition as our very best one, and they go down to 25% off tuition. And these are scholarships to which you don't specifically apply, but they're rather they're awarded to students based on, well, merits. So the faculty will evaluate all of our applicants in the all their respective interviews throughout the coming year, and then they'll dole out the top merit scholarships to the most deserving students. So, you will only be eligible for for for, consideration for these scholarships if you apply early, though. So our last interview in March is is too late. But so that you're, interested now, that you're hearing this now is really going to be helpful because you're going to be able to get into an earlier interview and be considered for these top, merit scholarships.

37:32In terms of entrance requirements, so what do you need to have to apply? Okay. All you need is a baccalaureate degree from any regionally accredited institution or school. We while it's true that we do prefer that you studied psychology, and I think that could be very advantageous as you're have already a a good familiar with the field, in no way is that required. We've received many, many, applicants and students that have matriculated in the past that have had no psychology background what whatsoever and have done very, very well. Everything from the hard sciences and mathematics and physics to the arts and the humanities and and the social sciences and everything in between. Okay? So we do need, a minimum, a three o GPA on a four o scale.

38:20Now if it's you are, in the position where your GPA is somewhat less than that, especially if it's like a two eight, two nine, don't despair. I would encourage you to, again, reach out to me, via email or a register of time in Calendly, because it might not necessarily be a deal breaker, you know, provided that you're able to offer, you know, a compelling explanation as to, you know, what happened, why did why was my GPA as low as it was. We can make exceptions. So, if that's if that's you and you're in that boat, let me know, and and we'll see how we can help you. Now in terms of the application process, this is what, this is how it works. Okay? So if all this is making sense and you're convinced that this is for you, these are the next steps.

39:06The first thing is the online application. Okay? And the online application is, as it suggests, it's it's you can go to our website and you can find it online. It's a very easy kind of, straightforward data entry kind of thing. A lot of it is basic, facts about yourself, where you live, your email, your phone, things like this, where you went to school. And then toward the end of the application, it will ask you about who might be able to recommend you to our program. Okay? And there, all you need to do is put in the person's name, their phone number, and an email, and then you can submit. Notice, however, though, that this once you do that, your recommenders will not be contacted. Okay? So you don't need to necessarily get their permission, or anything like that.

39:58If you don't want to, you can simply put in their data, and then you later can reach out to them and say, hey. You know, I'm applying to Divine Mercy's, you know, doctoral program. Would you be able to recommend me? Okay? And then you would send them the link to the online portal to for them to submit online. And it is an online in process. It's not a letter, a recommendation, which, you know, I can explain in more detail, you know, should you want to, you know, proceed, and I can explain that later on more. Okay. So the program does start then, on 08/18/2025. K? And this is this this slide is helpful because it gives you a nice sort of overview of the deadlines here. Like I said before, early admit scholarship deadline is October 25.

40:45So that's where you get your 3,000 off of your first year's tuition. And then the so while the final application deadline isn't until, February 21, these are the interview dates. So these are the days that you would be coming to campus on campus on-site to interview for the doctoral program. Okay? Now like I said before, to be considered for a merit scholarship, you need to get into either the November interview or the January. The marks, you will not be considered. Okay? There's a lot of advantages, I think, to getting it early, because, you know, this is sort of where, historically, we've we've hand out most of the merit scholarships. Okay? So there's a you know, you know, that will certainly work in your favor if you get in early.

41:30At the same time, this November interview is very, very popular. Okay? So it is competitive. I for that reason, I highly, highly recommend, you know, getting things done sooner rather than later so you're not excluded, because this is gonna I'm telling you, like, this is gonna fill up quickly, and you don't wanna get kinda bun you know, sort of bumped to the next, interview because it's very good to get into this guy. Okay. Now once the online application is submitted, what else do you have to do? Okay. So these are is as follows. You do need to write, compose two essays. Each of them are 500 words a piece, admissions essays explaining why you want to study with Divine Mercy, what field of psychology might you want to research for your dissertation, and why you wanna be a psychologist in general.

42:20Okay? So they're very basic questions. Two two five hundred word essays a piece, very easy. And then updated resume, we'll need that as well. Okay? Send that to us. And then, as I was saying before, when it comes to recommendations, you want to make sure that your recommenders are either professors or a work supervisor. Okay? Here's what we don't want. Okay? We don't want friends, family, spouses, therapists, nothing personal. So we want to make sure that these are, totally professional or academic in nature. Okay. Again, if you have questions about that, let me know. We also will need, of course, official transcripts, from your all of your post secondary institutions. And then finally, the GRE.

43:10So the GRE is in fact required, and there's no exceptions to this regardless of how well educated you are. I mean, you could have a PhD, but you would still have to provide the GRE. I mean so as long as you've taken the GRE in the past five years, that's that will suffice. So if you if you took that, even a few years ago, it still will work. If you've never taken the GRE or if your GRE is dated, you will have to take it again. Okay? However and this is an important caveat. The GRE is hardly the most important part of the admissions process. So we're not looking for a perfect score by any means. We're not frankly, we're not we don't even have a minimum score. Okay? So that should give you an idea.

43:56The more important thing is that you take the test and do your best. Okay? Because there are as you can see from the slide, there's a whole lot of other things that are going to have to happen, for you to have your application con considered to complete. Right? But the GRE is is morally something that just needs to get done. Okay. It's it's great if you do well. You know, that certainly will set you apart. But if you don't do well, please don't despair because, I don't know if we've ever turned anyone away nearly on the grounds of having a little GRE. So that should, you know, be a point of consolation to many. Okay. If you are an international students, please know that you you know, especially if your, degree program that you, degree that you have was not did did not have an American GPA attached to it, it will have to get evaluated for an American GPA distillation.

44:52So I would go to either west.org or educationalperspectives.org. Okay? And go to the website and then submit your to them, submit your, transcript for evaluation to, American Parlance, and then have that sent to us. Okay? The degree that you had from whatever the foreign country was needs to be the equivalent of American bachelor's degree. Okay? And that too needs to get sent to us. And if it's not in English, it must be, translated into English. And, of course, this is, you know, this is your responsibility to, make sure that that happens. And finally, and this is an important point often misunderstood, which is, if you're not a native English speaker, let's just say that, you know, you converse mostly in a foreign language.

45:46Like, you know, English is is sort of not your primary language, then you will have to take the TOEFL test, okay, to to prove that, you know, you have a a high level of English competency. However, if it's the case that, you know, you may have let's just say your native language is Spanish, but, you know, you've been in America, you know, basically your whole life and you're used to English, you do most of your business and personal affairs in English, you would be considered a English as your primary language even if it isn't your native. Okay? In which case, you would not need to take the TOEFL. Okay? So if that if that is unclear to you, please let me know, and I'd be happy to help you sort that out because that's important point.

46:28You can avoid, you know, taking one of their standardized test if English is your primary language, the one that you, you know, do most of your affairs in. Okay? Okay. That is all I have, for everyone. I'm gonna take a look at the chat box here and see what questions popped up. Okay. Let's see. Q and a. That's right. Okay. Chris, please can someone be a clinical psychology where it doesn't have psychology background? Yes. So, Chris, that that's what I was saying earlier in that one slide. Right? So even if you don't have a degree in psychology, like, or any background, you can still apply to, our doctoral program. Because we've had, you know, people from all different walks of life and all different disciplines apply.

47:17As long as you have a bachelor's degree, you can apply. Okay. Okay, Victor. Is it possible to get most, if not all, of those scholarships? What are the conditions to acquire some or all of those scholarships? Okay. Great question, Victor. So it's not possible to get, like, all the scholarships. You can maximally apply to four of them and receive two of them. Okay? So there are there are limitations that come with that. Okay? So if you have more questions about that, again, let me know. Okay. Juliana, what if you don't pass the comprehensive exam? What is the acceptance rate for PsyD at DMU, and what is the lowest GPA typically accepted? Can we tour campus before we submit an early application in October?

48:01Okay. So I'll take the first one first. If you don't pass the comprehensive exam, I believe you would probably be allowed to retake it, I think, once. But, I mean, that's pretty rare to fail, frankly, at the comprehensive exam, because you're typically so very well prepared, by the coursework and by the professors that by the time you get to that, you know, after basically three years of coursework So you know, there's a very high likelihood issue that you're gonna pass. If you don't, then I think there's something there's something awry, but for the most part, people do pass. The acceptance rate for side d, at DMU, though so those numbers when it comes to, like, acceptance rate, stuff like that, that's all on our website.

48:49If you go to, divinemercy.edu, and you go to data outcomes, subversity, that's all listed there. And there you'll find all kinds of data from, acceptance rate, attrition, retention, you know, graduation rates, things like that. However, when it comes to acceptance, our acceptance is usually somewhere between 3040% on average per year. It depends on the year, but that's usually where it where it, lies. And then can we tour campus before, we submit an early application? The answer to that is maybe. It depends on a lot of factors, you know, scheduling, things like that. But if you're interested in a in a in a visit, do let me know, and we might be able to set that up. So Okay. I think that covers it.

49:39I think so. Good. Okay. Excellent. Everyone, wonderful to have you. Again, let me know if other questions arise. I'd be happy to field them. Send me an email, bcipher@divinemercy.edu, and we can set up a time to meet. And I look forward to talking with all of you. Take care. God bless. Goodbye. Bye.