PsyD Webinar March 18

0:02Welcome to the PsyD webinar. I'm Bradley Cypher, and I'm the, PsyD, admissions adviser here at Divine Mercy University. Today, I'm going to unpack, the nature, of the PsyD program, in terms of all of its, interesting rich history, procedure for admission, and financial details, etcetera. Now, you will find my, phone and email in the chat box. So, I'd love to hear from you in an after, the the webinar today. Feel free to get in touch with me. I love talking to people. If you do have questions at any point over the course of the webinar, don't hesitate to, get get in touch with me either later on after the the webinar or ask me questions at the end, or go ahead and lodge them as you as we go along in the chat box, and I'll and I'll field them at the end of the of the webinar.

0:58So without further ado, let's get into it. This is the overview of the doctorates in clinical psychology at Divine Mercy University. Yeah. This here's me. A little bit about me. I actually, recently finished my own PhD, so I'm technically doc doctor Bradley Cypher. I, wrote my doctoral dissertation on addiction at Ave Maria University in theology. And, right, so I really am very interested in this interface between philosophy, theology, and psychology. And my mission right now, in this current role is to help people like you get into the field of their dreams as a clinical psychologist. That's a little bit about me. Now in terms of the school of Divine Mercy University, overall, we have two, institutions within within this overall, you know, one university.

1:47The school of counseling, which, offers an online program designed for people that wanna be master's level clinicians. And then we have the online excuse me. We have an in person, doctoral degree in psychology, which is here in Sterling, Virginia. It's totally APA accredited on campus program. And the Institute for Psychological Sciences also offers a master's of science in psychology, which is a totally, online program, that's not clinical. So our mission is to heal and honor the totality of the human person, by integrating psychological science with Catholic Christian anthropology. And in so doing, forming mental health missions are really the highest caliber, the rigorous academic and clinical training.

2:34And that's really what we're all about, what we do, why we do it. So here again, we're located, in Sterling, Virginia, which is just outside of Washington, DC, our nation's capital. It's truly a beautiful, ideal, resourceful location. Having done graduate school myself in sort of a far flung place, this is a wonderful place to be. It's such a fascinating area with lots of history, but also, you know, cultural and artistic, sort of happenings in the city. But also if you enjoy, the country life, we have that too to the West, in the Western part of Northern Virginia. Alright. Now we have a whole series of institutional accreditations that I think speak to our commitment to really, the highest academic standards, clinical and academic standards.

3:24Probably the most significant of all of them is this one, the APA, the American Psychological Association. This is one that we've been we, you know, we worked long and hard to acquire. In our early years, when we were first founded, we we were not APA accredited, and we, finally attained APA accreditation in 2015. And so this has really helped our students, in getting, into the psychological enterprise because, you know, getting into an APA school like us, Divine Mercy, can really help you a great deal. Because if you don't, unfortunately, this can provide a lot of friction when you try to get license because, you know, the APA is the one that actually doles out licenses and is very helpful, to boost your own credibility if you come from APA school.

4:10The other advantage is that coming from APA school is you it's much easier for you to get into an APA internship in your fifth year. And I'm gonna speak more about this, in a subsequent slide. But an APA internship is, really, you know, puts you in good stead in terms of where you get placed after graduation, and getting licensed thereafter. So it's really a great thing to go to an APA school and get more of that APA credibility going. Alright. Now a common question that I receive from from many, in my time in in this role is what is the difference between getting a master's in counseling and getting a doctorate in clinical psychology? Super common question. So, while there are a number of differences, I would say there are three major differences.

5:01The first has to do with a much more extensive treatment that you or excuse me, much more extensive training that you receive, in something like psychological assessment. This is maybe the most distinguishing feature of a clinical psychologist as distinct from a master's level counselor or therapist is precisely the ability to conduct, tests, you know, via personality assessments, cognitive evaluation, things like that. And this is a toolkit that we really kind of hone in on in the first couple years of this ID program. And therefore, our graduates are very well, prepared to administer these psychological exams once they finish, the PsyD program. The second major difference is the raw volume of clinical preparation that we receive at the doctoral level compared to the masters.

5:50And as you can see, I'm using these numbers from our very own, you know, masters excuse me, masters and doctoral level, programs. 30 as you can see, 3,500, at the master's level compared to 700 excuse me, 3,500 at the doctoral level compared to 700 at the master's. That's five times as much of a doctorate. So you're that much more prepared to to see people, to help people. And I think a lot of the social science literature out there indicates that maybe the most consequential element within therapy is precisely the relationship that's forged between clients and clinician. So if you are a very seasoned veteran, you've had lots and lots of clinical preparation, you have had lots of good supervision from doctoral level clinicians, you are in sort of a privileged position to help other people because you really know how to navigate those, that relationship between client and clinician and help people feel safe, heard, empathized, understood, and so on.

6:49That's a difficult thing to kind of skip over with with less training. So this is the definitely an advantage to the doctorate. The thought third and, third, but maybe, last but not least, of them is the dissertation. Any doctoral program with a salt will have a dissertation requirement, and ours is no exception. We distinguish broadly between two types of dissertation, the empirical and the theoretical dissertations. The theoretical tend to be more, idea driven. So if you love philosophy, you love theology, or you're interested in, psychological theory and how these theories impact, clinical, procedures and how they impact clients, that could be a great project, you know, thinking of your own interests and what are the gaps in literature.

7:37You you can sort of do a nice robust survey of the psychological literature and see where where are the gaps? Where are the Q and A? Where are, paths have not yet been explored? And therein, you could provide your own original and creative idea and add to the field. This is one of the fascinating beauties of writing a dissertation is you, really and without exaggeration, you are the expert weeds of everything and knows the literature better than anyone, really. And there you can be of unique service to your clients because, you know, you might have insights into a certain pathology, say, that they might struggle with that other clinicians don't have, but you're the one that did the research.

8:20You're the one that put the work, and so you're the one with the insight. Okay. The other type of dissertation is the empirical dissertation. As the name might suggest, this is much more driven toward data and, analysis, through data. So if you enjoy collecting data and then analyzing it and drawing conclusions using statistics, this could be maybe more your speed. I would say that at this stage in our university's history, we have a nice balance. I think we sure have been a nice balance between theoretical and empirical dissertations. Historically, we had, more of a heavy skewing toward the empirical excuse me, toward the theoretical just because, you know, of our our history and and our focus on integration with theology and philosophy.

9:08But in recent years, we've seen an uptick in the empirical side of things. So we're at a nice kind of equilibrium, if you will. And so that's sort of where we are with our program. Okay. The PsyD is a five year program. And the first four of which will be on campus here again in Sterling, Virginia. In the over the course of the first two years, you will acquire a master of science in psychology degree. And that is, you know, you you walk at a commencements, right, with everybody else and you're conferred your master of psychology degree. At the end of the fifth year is you're granted the PsyD degree, the the terminal doctorate, in clinical psychology. So you might think of this as having sort of two degrees conferred in in this one overall program.

9:57Okay. This is a nice overview of the the the curriculum that you you will encounter with us. It's truly an integrative and, you know, robust, I would say, curriculum. The first couple of years, you are, really getting into the, wonderful science that is psychology. You know, the first two years is so, very heavy in the academic side of things. Now in the second year, you well, I just back up for a minute. The first year, you don't see any clients. It's it's purely an academic year, and this is very intentional because we wanna kind of get you into the sort of, like, the theory of psychology first before you end up applying it. Right? And in the second year that's where you actually start to see clients.

10:39Maybe you might see two or three clients and you'll see them on our on campus clinic. So we actually have a an on campus clinic which is totally and exclusively devoted to doctoral students, and we see clients from the surrounding Sterling and Northern Virginia area. And that's where you you're sort of gets your first foray into the clinical, world. In years three and four now, this is where things become a little bit more hybrid, you might say, in a sense that not not in a sense that it's online or in person. No. The whole thing is in person. But what I mean by that is your time is divided, between your clinical hours and your academic hours. So, for example, you can see here, in the various structure of the program how the courses diminish as you move through the program.

11:27So there's more courses in years one and two than there are in three and four. And they and, again, that's totally intentional. So you're might see between seven and nine clients in years three and four compared to the two or three, that you'll see in there too. Now in the fifth year of study, this is the, off campus internship. Okay. So you, much like a medical student, would apply to a residency. In psychology, you apply to a internship, and the internship could be really any anywhere in the country. I would say that typically, and the ideal situation, is that you would get into an internship that's based and circle around your own interests as a budding clinical psychologist. So, you know, if you're interested in, psychosis or bipolar, like, as in terms of pathologies, you can sort of find internships that that focus on the broad psychopathologies.

12:22Or you might be interested in certain demographics. So you might be interested in, the elderly population or in young adults or in adolescents and children or whatever your whatever the case may be. There's typically there's an internship that that is out there for you. And as I mentioned kind of in an earlier, slide, the internships that we require our, people to apply to are APA accredited in the first round. So all the first round applicants are are required to apply to, APA internships. And and we did extremely well this past year. I think somewhere in the order of over 90% of, you know, our, PsyD students got into an APA, accredited internship. So that bodes well for for all of you listening.

13:06And we've done very well in the past with with this APA internship placement. And that I think, will continue, as we continue to grow a program. Now these are some just overall, you know, discernment questions, in terms of your own, you know, were you whether or not this is for you. So, I mean, do you wanna help people flourish? Are you interested in the science behind human behavior? Do you wanna become an instrument of healing, the psychological sciences? Are you interested in performing psychological tests and assessments to diagnose your clients and create a treatment plan? And are you looking to start a career as less than a health professional, but specifically as a clinical psychologist?

13:46And do you have the ability as I to work with all types of clients for more acute care? It's more challenging and sort of long term and client cases. So if these questions are are resonating with you, then the yeah. After all, this might be, just a program for you. Now another common question I receive is, well, okay. How does, DMU compare to other APA accredited programs? And to that I would say, two things. The one is that we are actually quite, you might say, similar, to a lot of the APA programs because we abide by the same standards and metrics of other APA schools like foundations in psychological science, integrity and practice, assessment and diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, and professional roles.

14:33But we are distinct in this one peculiar and important consequential way, namely that we are Catholic and we're proud to be a Catholic Christian school. And so we see the human person from the, really the inheritance of sacred, tradition and scripture. We we see the human person as a, a being as made in god's own image with, ineradicable dignity, and so therefore is the object of respect, charity, love, empathy, etcetera. Now, another common question I get is, well, okay. Now that I have my PsyD, where would I end up after graduation? Right? Where would I go? And the beautiful thing about psychology is that it's so, flexible, and there's so many different things you can do with it. It's not like, you know, just like this one thing that you can do, but it's very diverse.

15:24There's so many different facets within psychology. Quite exciting. So these are a number of different, settings where you might end up. So working in a psychiatric hospital, if you would prefer to work in an institutional setting with the traditional medical establishment, this can be very, interesting and rewarding. The other thing is military establishment. So the, military, the armed forces is really, in recent years, they've awakened to the reality of mental illness, especially, dealing with, soldiers, veterans that have dealt with PTSD in combat situations. And so, a lot of well, some of our doctoral alumni have gone on to serve in in the military in that capacity as a military psychologist, helping our veterans heal from their emotional wounding that occurred, when they were, after, you know, in battle.

16:16Private practice, though, might arguably be the most common, or the most popular, you might say, of of all of them. It is easy to say see why because there's a lot of individual freedom that that's kinda baked into having your own private practice. Right? You know, you can set your own hours. You can see the people that you wanna see, the demographics, and so on, that's of interest to you. Outpatient clinic or working in a clinical facility also quite quite common place or working with other mental health professionals, master's level clinicians, social workers, counselors, etcetera. And then also and as a diocesan consultant, this is an interesting one because, as we are Divine Mercy University, we have a really, sterling reputation, I would say, among Catholic diocese across the country.

17:05And so our alumni are often hired by diocese to carry out psychological evaluations for personnel. And and by that, I it could mean anything from, you know, working with clergy just in general or working with seminary applicants, you know, young men that are applying to become priests. Usually need a psychological evaluations for to assess their fitness for, priest and ministry. And that, of course, is, done by clinical psychologists. And what better, person to do that job than, somebody from Divine Mercy? Alright. These are a few of our doctoral alumni that are speaking to their experience with us, in the doctoral program. James Wallovich has said in our clinical psych program, the training is focused on healing the whole person.

17:52This is a big thing with with us at DMU. We we very much pride ourselves on honoring the totality of man, right, not reducing man to less than really what he and she really is, which is, again, a being made in God's image. Kristen Long, I was drawn to this IB program as I have to serve others in more profound way than our previous positions offered. Timothy White, the school is not afraid to, teach you what it means to be human at every level psychologically, philosophically, theologically. That's why I like it. And Kirsten Curtis, I am so thankful for DMU. The fact that nurse are very supportive, and I received lots of hands on and clinical experience. Now, speaking of PTSD, this is William Johnson who, is on on the cusp of graduation here at DMU, and this is his story.

18:44You know, he came from a military family and has continued to heal, others that have suffered from PTSD and other military related traumas. Hi. 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've sought in terms of my formation. Both the philosophy and theology core, 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.

19:59So 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. Alright. This is a video of a recently graduated alum. This is 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 DMU not only provides DMU not only provides students with strong academic skills, but also prepares them for a career in psychology. I personally benefit from mentorship with academic advisors 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.

21:19Catholic principle, especially in hope, love, and faith are very valuable and certainly helped me become a better clinician. Okay. I have one more video. This is that of Isaiah Lamb. He is in his final year of the doctoral program here at Divine Mercy. I think he's actually gonna be graduating, this May, so this is exciting. Anyway, this is, like, sort of an a clip into his story, his life story. He was a Catholic seminarian before joining us. So let's listen to Isaiah Lane. I'm originally from the state of South Dakota, and so I grew up there most of my life, went to school at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, was I studied psychology there, but I kind of intended to go into the medical field.

22:18And then after, kind of in the midst of my undergraduate, I, assumed that I wanted to go to the seminary, the Catholic seminary, to study to be a priest. And so I had this love for psychology that was kind of there, I think, from an early age, just wanting to know how people function, why they do the things that they do. And then I found myself in seminary learning all these philosophical truths about humans. One of the first courses I took was, philosophy of the human person, right? Person's body and soul and that there's this profound dignity attached to to being human. Later discerned out of the seminary, returned to Nebraska to finish up my degree, and, deciding at this point, well, I don't really want to go into, medicine, but I do, like, have this desire to care for people.

23:07And I also have learned, again, like this philosophy about humans and and their goodness. So I took a year off. I built pipe organs for a year. I always love telling people that. It's a pretty unique job. It was fun. But ultimately, that led me, I decided to then do a year of service with the homeless in Denver with an organization called Christ in the City. And there, I like to say that all the things I had been learning about and dreaming about psychology, philosophy, it was this incarnational experience of encountering people on the street in this profound suffering, mental anguish, I mean, substance abuse, what have you. And just actually experiencing that firsthand made everything kind of click for me.

23:56Like, okay, I have the ability to, affect change and bring hope to people in the worst moments of their life. And so for me at that point it was just very clear everything was starting to converge and I, felt more so that I wanted to pursue psychology. And so DMU was kind of my first choice because everything that I had been learning about kind of just, again, converged here, right? The psychology, the philosophy, the theology, and it just seemed like the perfect fit. So I applied and long story short, I got in and in my second year now, and it's been absolutely more than I could have hoped for. I've had so much knowledge shoved in my brain the last year. I, like, don't even know how it's possible, but it's just been a beautiful and awesome journey.

24:48Alright. Now this is a quick sneak peek into our faculty. Just a few of them here. This is our dean, doctor Bluckey. She's specialist in assessments and therapy. In the middle here is doctor Graves. Overall, I would say she's a specialist in child and developmental psychology. To the right is doctor Ariana. She's our, director of clinic. These guys actually were among the founding, faculty members, dating back to late nineties, early two thousands era. Really kind of the very genesis of our school rests upon their shoulders, you might say. Doctor Strafani, recently retired and specialist in CBT and group therapy, doctor Nordling in child marriage and family. And then, doctor Vitz, my personal hero, he might say, whose life story is very much bound up with the school in particular because he actually, believe it or not, was an atheist, when he was a young man, and then converted to Catholicism.

25:44And then, there's sort of a a very interesting story the back behind that there where he actually, while he was on on routes to converting to Catholicism, he was also, at New York University of all places as a professor. And it was there that, he penned his first book called psychology as religion, the cult of self worship. It was a very provocative book. Highly highly recommend it to anyone interested in doctoral studies with us, because it was from his story and his conversion to Catholicism that the school was born. So, doctor Hovits is is a great man. And now that he's retired, we're all miss we all miss him dearly. Okay. Now once you finish the, you will take your licensure exams at the national and the state level, and then you will also be required to do about an actual minimum period of postdoc supervision.

26:41And then we have actually a very strong imperfect, but very strong licensure rate of ninety five percent, from the past decade of data. So, you know, you're overwhelmingly likely to to pass. Now in terms of the funding for the program, it's a thousand $1.70 per credit for a 122 credits. It's a $142.07 40, over five years. Of course, that does not include, you know, indirect expenses like, you know, housing, food, and so on. Surely, for American students, the FAFSA form is is available for you. We also offer on campus house excuse me, on campus, employment, on a part time basis. So if you wanted to take advantage of that, you certainly could. Now we also have a whole slew of institutional scholarships on offer, and you can apply to them.

27:32My recommendation is, only apply to the scholarships once you're notified that you've been admitted because I wouldn't want you to apply it for, scholarships. God forbid, you got turned down. Now our most, you might say, generous scholarship is the 50% off merit scholarship. And the way this works is this is not a scholarship to which you apply specifically, but rather, it's something that's granted after you've gone through the interview process, the application process, and you come to campus and get to interview you. The faculty will rank all the applicants, in their order and the first the top, maybe three or four of them will receive a merit scholarship ranging from half to 25% off tuition.

28:18Alright. Requirements for admission. You must have at least a baccalaureate degree, bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited school. It's great if you've studied psychology, but it's not strictly necessary. We've had plenty of people that have come to us that are, not psychology majors. You know, they majored in anything from engineering and and hard science to the arts and humanities, music, and so on. We do require people have at least a three year GPA. If yours is not quite there, maybe it's like a two eight or two nine in that in that arena, get in touch with me and let me know. There might be an exception that that could be made. So just just, again, you know, email me, call me, text me, whatever, and then we can talk about it.

29:02Now, if this sounds like something that you could benefit you and get you to where you wanted to go with your with your life and your career, the next step would be an an application, an online application. Okay? And this is a very simple first step. It's basically a data entry form. And you, you know, put in things like where you live and where you went to school, and there's some basic financial, questions. At the end of the the form, it will ask you for people who might possibly recommend you to the program. There you wanna put in, work supervisors and or professors that you've had. And please stick to one or both of those categories. Please know, you know, friends or significant others or even coworkers.

29:50We don't we kind of would rather you not pick those people because we really want somebody that has observed you, that's been over you, and and can really comment, with Dory. Okay. So that's that would be the first the first step, right, is the online application. These are to kinda give you a sense of the cycle. Right? So, we have just finished up, recruiting, for the fall of twenty five start for for the doctorate. We are now beginning to receive applications for the fall of two thousand and twenty six. So the PsyD program has an annual start every fall. Well, technically, it's sort of, like, mid to late summer, but that's you get the idea. So what that means is we are now, you know, we're getting into a new cycle, and we have the early admissions scholarship date deadline is, October 24.

30:42It's a Friday, 2025 coming up here in October. And that would what that means is, you know, getting your application, etcetera. And before that date means that you would be eligible for, a $3,000 tuition remission in the first year of study. And you would also, get be eligible for, the 5025% off merit scholarships. So that's an advantage to applying early. I I I highly recommend it. It's always a good idea to get in sooner rather than later because, you know, this is a very popular program, and things fill up quickly. So the sooner you get things in, the more likely, you are to succeed. Alright. Now once, you have finished the online application, that's think of that as sort of like step one.

31:32So, again, if this is making sense to you, this first step is the online app. And then after that, send you wanna think about these other things as kind of, like, next steps thereafter. So, we do will eventually require, some admissions essays. You know, there you talk about, well, why you you wanna be a psychologist? Why DMU? What are you some of your research interests? Things like of that nature. Your resume, do update that and send that into us. I just mentioned the procedure for, the recommendations. Right? You wanna reach out to them, your recommenders, and tell them, hey. You know, applying to this the study program. I'd appreciate your reference. And then the transcripts. Right? You depending on your level of education, if you have an undergraduate degree, send that.

32:14If you have a graduate degree, send undergrad and graduate. Right? So everything that's post secondary after high school. The last thing, is the GRE. So the GRE is a, requirement. There there there's no exception, I'm afraid, to this rule regardless of your education. I mean, sometimes people ask me, well, I have a a master's or I have a PhD or whatever. Regardless of of, your educational attainment, the, GRE is nonnegotiable. It must be received. You have to take it. And it must be you have we must have taken it within the past five years. If you took it prior to that, so, like, before, you know, that era, then we that's considered the the dates are the the scores are dated, and they have to be retaken.

32:59Okay? So bear that in mind. The jury, is required. Alright. Now finally, if you happen to be an international student, bear a couple of these, things in mind. The first is that if you have a degree from a a school that does not provide, like, an American style, GPA, you know, if the different international schools have different ways of evaluating grades, They will have to be evaluated by an evaluation service. I I the one I recommend to people is educational perspectives. You can see the website here, edperspectives.org. It's it's really good service. That's the so that that they will evaluate your transcript and distill it into an American GPA. And the last thing, you know, if if English is not your primary language, then, you know, you have to take the TOEFL.

33:57Right? So, you know, if you were educated in a in a language that was not English, like, let's say you went to school, you know, grade school, and and then secondary school, and it was all in Spanish, and then, you know, you you did a degree, you know, in Spanish and so on, that would mean that, you know, English would not be your primary language, and then you would have to take the TOEFL. Right? So, if you have any questions about that and whether or not, you know, you you have to take the TOEFL, let me know, and we can talk about it because that can be, you know, an important, consideration if you're not, you know, if English is not your primary language. So okay. That is all I have for everybody.

34:37Let me see, what questions you guys had. Let me look at this chat box here. Alright. Julia Garcia. Do you know of any online program similar to what you to what Divine Mercy offers? APA accreditation. I have masters. I'm interested in a PhD program, but I have a family and will not relocate to Virginia. It's a great question, Julia. So, I have some bad news, about this. The thing is is the a the the APA is actually quite strict about, who they accredit. And for the most part, they're they only accredit, in person, on-site, on campus programs like our own, you know, like Divine Mercy. So I'm afraid, like, there might I think there's only one of them out there. I think it's called the Fielding Institute that that might be hybrid, so you can check it out.

35:32But Gross Emoto, for the most part, it's just not it's just not a thing. Alright. Kenosha, doctor Bradley, will this webinar be saved and sent to the participants? Great question. It will be recorded. It's being recorded right now, and it will be posted, on our website. So if you go to our websites, our YouTube rather our YouTube, channel, we have this will be recorded and posted on our YouTube channel, in the coming weeks. So stay tuned for that, and you can revisit it. Alright. Eric, love to change stories. I can relate. Glad to hear that, Eric. That's you know, the I I'm glad you mentioned that because, you know, change is what we're all about, because it's in terms of where our students start with us and and then where then where they evolve to become as as doctors of psychology.

36:26It's it's really a wonderful thing to experience, and and they become healers, and teachers and professors and researchers, and it's just a beautiful thing. So I'm glad you noticed that. Yeah. Yeah. So, can I show yeah? It's it's only gonna be on our, YouTube page. Not it won't be emailed to you. Just so you just so that you're aware of that. Alright. Let's see. Julia, I have to go. I have a client in five minutes. Let's see. Smith. Yep. Smith, you're welcome. Glad glad I could be helpful. Sagita, totally welcome. Ruth, absolutely. You're most welcome. Let's see what else. Trudy, I have two master's degrees, one in forensic psychology. Do I so let's take the first year. The answer is yes. So this is another piece of maybe that might come as bad news for for you, Trudy.

37:23The way this works in terms of transfer credits is, let's say you have a master's in psychology or master's in counseling, etcetera, and you wanna get a SID. You might be able to transfer up to 18 credits from from those master's programs, and that would certainly lighten the load in certain semesters in in which those those transfer credits would happen. But it's not as if we would lop off a year or two years or even three years right from the program, for somebody that had a master's or two master's or however many master's or doctoral degrees you might have. You still it would still take you five years to to finish the program. Right? So bear that in mind. I mean, you know, for that reason, I typically another common question I get is, and we're like, should I get a master's first if some people like that that are contemplating, should I get a master's first, before applying this ID?

38:19And typically, the answer is no because of the the reason I just mentioned. Right? It just will slow you down. It will make you spend more money. You know, but if you have if you haven't have a master's degree, that's that's can be also be a very powerful thing. Right? Because, you know, many of our applicants don't necessarily have a master's degree, and that can really kind of, strengthen your application if you happen to have one. But if you're if you're don't if you don't have a master's and you're contemplating, oh, look. I really want a doctorate. Should I get a master's? The answer is usually no. Unless the only exception I can think of that is somebody who, maybe has a sort of a middling or lower GPA and wants to demonstrate, you know, that that they can handle the academics.

38:59But if that's you, talk to me, and we'll we can see whether that makes sense. Okay. Alright. What else do we have here? Sangeeth, if a person has completed master's earlier, will he tell any difference in waiver of any amount of time? Yeah. I just just answered that. Jacob, doctor Cypher, could you explain the campus part time jobs and scholarships? Yes. Jacob, thanks for asking that. So, the way this works is, the part time jobs are distinct from the scholarships. Right? So the on campus employment, usually, that's a, a part time gig on campus, usually between ten and fifteen, hours a week. I mean, maybe twenty would be on the high end. So you you can certainly take those jobs. And I mean, I did that when I was a doctoral and graduate student.

39:48So I definitely helped pay for for for things on the way. Now as to the scholarships, that's a little bit of a different thing. Broadly speaking, there are the two types of scholarships. Right? There's the merit scholarships, which you don't specifically apply for. You're just sort of considered everyone's considered for a merit scholarship in the early interviews, and then they pick, like, the top three or four. Right? The other scholarships are sort of, you might say more ad hoc. They're particular to certain, demographics or people with certain, if you look at our website, I highly recommend you look at our website because on the financial aid page, it details all the different scholarships and what we offer and who can apply to them and what are the requirements for, applying to them.

40:38And, again, I I really think that that would be something that would be, like, the last thing you would do after you apply and are admitted. Only when you're admitted then would you consider, you know, going down and looking at the scholarships because otherwise, it's sort of like, well, what's the what's the point? I didn't I didn't get in, unfortunately. Trudy, also two years in a PhD. Yeah. I hear you, Trudy. That's that's really good. At the same time, I'm afraid that, you know, even having a doctorate does not sort of wipe away two or three or however many years of the program. Because of APA standards and because of APA accreditation, the 18 credit transfer is is the cap. That's like the max that we were able to receive.

41:22So, if you have other questions, be happy to talk to you, offline here. So I think that's it. Let me just double check. I think I might have a couple other questions. Anonymous. Is it possible to receive this ID online, live in the city? No. Not our program and and and not most APA accredited programs. So it's it's an on campus kinda thing. Are priests required to take the GRE test? Yes. Regardless of your state and life, regardless of whether you're a layperson or a cleric, religious, the the GRE is is required for everybody. And is there a hybrid option for a priest looking to take this program? No. There's no hybrid, society program, regardless of priest, lady, religious, etcetera. Okay.

42:13I think, I've mentioned everything. Let's see. I saw. Yep. So, folks, wonderful to have you all on board today. I look forward to hearing from you. Take a take a please, phone me, ring me, email me. That's in the and it's in the chat box, bcipher@divinemercy.edu. I look forward to hearing from everybody, and God bless you. Bye bye.