Hey, everyone.
My name is Matthew Wen.
I'll be the one of the side e students that is currently, in a program at Divine Mercy.
I'm so glad that everyone was able to make it to the webinar today.
As we were still waiting for people to come in, I just wanted to introduce myself and, where I'm at right now and kind of what, I'll be kind of here for today.
So I'm a second year student in the Psydu program, and which means that along with classes right now, I'm also, part of the externship program that we have here at Divine Mercy called the IPS center, which is where and which is a clinic that we have where I'm actually seeing clients, over telehealth and in person, and practicing the skills that I've learned the first year and also the skills that I've been learning, throughout this year as well.
So I'll be here to answer any questions you might have.
So if you want, you can put your questions down in the q and a box, and I can answer them if I know the answer to them, but to the best of my ability.
Anything about my experience here so far or how it's been in the program or any questions that you might have that, you think that a second year in the PsyD program might be able to answer.
So, again, thanks for your patience, as we wait for people to come in and everyone to log on.
And if you have questions, please put them in the q and a box.
So it looks like we just got a question from Elizabeth.
Thank you for your question.
She's asking how many days a week are internships and classes?
That's a very good question, especially as, I'm trying to divvy up time.
So the fir every every year of the program is gonna be different depending on what year you're at.
There's gonna be a different, kind of balance between classes and seeing clients.
The first year is all classes.
My first year, I had about five or six classes per semester, and each class was about three to four, three or four hours long.
Now don't let that scare you because we're only having, every day, there was only about one or two classes per day.
So that's about anywhere from four to six hours per day.
That's just straight classes.
And then we always have, like, one day out of the week where we don't have any classes.
So about four days out of the of all the weekdays, you'll have classes for about four to six hours.
I mean, that's the first year.
Now, you know, I'm in my second year, and I'm taking about four to five classes.
So as, as client work increases, like, school work kind of balances out and decreases a little bit.
And so currently in my externship right now, the IPS center is actually attached to the Divine Mercy University, and I'm seeing my client for, an hour every week, and some of us have two clients that we see, that they see, so so for a total of two, face to face hours.
And then we have, like, note work, and then documentation and whatnot.
Then we have supervision for an hour as well, in which, a licensed clinical psychologist and one of our, like, mentors and educators would sit down with us, and we would talk about our client for about our clients for about an hour as well.
As the years go on, like, third and fourth year, the expectation to be in classes, will kind of decrease even more to two days a week as you're working at your externship or your internship.
And then by the fifth year, you'll have virtually no classes.
And you'll be, like, working on your dissertation if you still have to finish that up.
And then it it's almost like a full time job once you reach your fifth year.
If that answers your question, there you go.
If you are searching for any more clarifying questions, let me know.
Alright.
We have another question from Dayspring, and her question is, are you on campus?
And what is your experience been with that?
I am on campus.
The PsyD program is, entirely in person program, which means that all of our classes are in person, and I would have to commute to classes every, every day or as many times as I have classes throughout the day throughout the week.
And my experience has been great.
It's being in person is, I think, necessary for this program, especially as we're practicing our clinical skills and role playing, within our labs, especially, I I'm also taking a a an assessment class right now.
Well, actually, I've been taking assessment classes for almost three semesters now, in which we're learning, like, cognitive assessments and personality assessments, like the Rorschach and IQ test and whatnot.
And so those are very necessary to be in person in order for us to practice administering those assessments as well.
Our all of our professors are fantastic, and all of our faculty members are, very, very prestigious within their own fields and, there are each of their topics that they're they specialize in.
And so it's been great to interact with them as well.
For for most of the week, a lot of the society students are able to interact with each other as well.
There's daily mass.
There's confession on Tuesdays, and there's plenty of opportunities on campus, to mingle with everybody and to chat and to also, like, consult about clients sometimes and talk about our experience, with clients.
We have Joan, if if I'm pronouncing that correctly.
We have Joan asking how much of the PhD, program can be done online.
So like I mentioned before, the p h the the we have a side the doctor program that we have is a PsyD program.
It's entirely in person.
Last year, because of COVID, we had, the hybrid option where you could come in or be online.
But this year, especially with APA kind of regulations and accreditation, we've we've moved to back to in person.
As of right now, with all the COVID regulations that are coming out, we're all wearing masks, at the moment.
But, hopefully, the entire pandemic will kinda calm down a little bit.
I see Thomas joined.
Thanks, Matt.
Sure.
Okay.
What what we'll do is, if it's alright with everybody, I'm sure Matt was, very informative.
So I appreciate that, Matt.
So what we'll do is just go ahead and run through the overview, and then we'll go back to the q and a, if that's okay.
Sounds good.
Alright.
Again, thank you, Matt, and, welcome everybody.
My name is Tom Brooks, and I'm the vice president of enrollment marketing here at DMU.
I'll be your host this evening along with Matt, and, we'll go ahead and, get started here.
And like I said afterwards, we'll go into a q and a session.
Our hope is that you'll get a lot of, you know, program information, and then Matt can tell you about personal experiences from his side of the world and and and, what he does outside of DMU.
So let me move this real quick.
Alright.
First of all, welcome to Divine Mercy University.
DMU is a Catholic institution comprised of two schools.
It is dedicated to the scientific study of psychology with a Catholic Christian understanding of the person, marriage, and family.
DMU was founded in 1999 as the Institute for the Psychological Sciences.
In 2014, the institute launched its MS in psychology program online with its focus educating working professionals.
We call it a helping degree.
The MS in psychology online does not lead to licensure.
In 2015, we changed the name from the IPS to, Divine Mercy University when we added the school of counseling, which is our second school.
And as I mentioned earlier, the two schools, school counseling currently houses, the MS in counseling, which is online, but they have a residency component, so we say hybrid as well.
Meaning that they come in once a year for about five days to go through everything from interviewing techniques to, just a ton of different things.
But they get to do it with their cohort, which they've been working with, you know, over that time and, you know, they get to know each other.
This affords them a chance to really get to to know each other and see each other face to face, as well as their instructors.
The other school is IPS, of course, which offers a PsyD in clinical psychology, and that's a campus based program, and the MS in psychology as well.
In addition to earning your PsyD, it's a and we'll get to that in a minute, but I do wanna let folks know they do earn their masters in clinical psychology as well during that five year program, in PsyD.
DMU Mission provides students with an effective academic and educational environment that supports the integration of the psychological sciences and a Catholic Christian understanding of the person.
We prepare students to respond to their vocation as mental health professionals.
Where are we located?
I'm not sure if Matt shared some of that with you or not, but, we are in Sterling, Virginia, right near Dulles Airport, and it is about 35 miles, I believe, or 40 miles to Downtown DC.
And then to the North and, West, you have, Northern Virginia and West Virginia.
And, as you can see from some of the pictures down there, that affords our students and faculty and everybody else that lives local the opportunity to kinda do whatever they really wanna do.
To the West, you have everything from hiking, white water rafting, zip lining.
I mean, it goes on and on and on.
Camping, you know, all the outdoor adventures you can imagine.
You also have a ton of history in in the area from the civil war, the, you know, you know, war of independence.
I mean, it goes on and on again.
And then, of course, you have Downtown DC, and then not far from us, you, you know, you have the Atlantic Ocean.
So you can be to the ocean in a couple hours as well.
So no no matter what you like doing in your off time, there's plenty to do in the in the area.
And, you know, it's kinda nice, our location, because you can get anywhere in about an hour and have quite a bit of fun based on what your, you know, hobbies are and what you wanna do.
Depending what schools you're looking at, you know, most schools should have accreditation, if not all.
It's no different for us.
There's a couple different levels of accreditation, and the first one is, institutionally accredited by the SACS dash COC, which is Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and a commission on colleges.
SACS is recognized as an accrediting agency of college and schools by the Department of Education.
DMU voluntary voluntarily participated in the accrediting process, and we have met or exceeded all standards in thorough evaluations.
And what that does is it SACS, allows your school to operate as a school, if you will.
And we are no different than, say, University of Virginia, Florida State, Wake Forest, any of these other schools.
They're all also SAC schools.
We also are approved by the state of Virginia through the State Council of Higher Education.
That allows us to operate as a business, if you will, within the state of Virginia.
The PsyD program in particular has been recognized since 2006 as a national registered designation program by the Association of State and Provincial Provisional Psychology Boards, and that's ASPPB.
And then we also are accredited by APA, the American Psychological Association since 2016.
And then for our online programs, we are, approved to participate in a national council for state authorization reciprocity agreements or what's known as NC SARRA.
That may may not mean a whole lot to you guys right now, but what it it means to our students and our graduates are that, one, you know, we're approved to provide title four funding loans, things like that.
And then when it comes to placement into your internships, you really wanna be in an APA internship site if you can be.
And, by being APA approved, of course, that allows us to, have our students participate in, competing for those APA, clinical sites.
Clinical psychology is a psychological specialty that provides continuing and comprehensive mental and behavioral health care for individuals and families, consultation to agencies and communities, training, education and supervision, and research based practice.
The, program structure and clinical experience.
The program can the PsyD program, let's make sure we're we're keeping everybody on track here, consists of a hundred and twenty two credit hours inclusive of both the MSci and PsyD degrees, and I mentioned that earlier.
It's a five year on-site program in Sterling, Virginia, and it prepares for licensure as a clinical psychologist.
Your first year, you you, start your coursework, of course, and then you start your dissertation research.
So right from the beginning, you're already trying to figure out what your dissertation is gonna be and then, you know, you start doing the research and preparation for that.
Year two is coursework and externship.
Year three, same thing, coursework and externship.
And again, year four, coursework and externship.
Sorry.
And then year five is your predoctoral in internship.
I'm sorry.
And you defend your dissertation, and there's no classes.
Some of the sites that you'll be, looking at for your internship, and there's actually many, many sites, but some of the local ones are St.
Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, DC, the psychiatric hospital in Washington, DC, the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg.
It's actually West Virginia.
And the bottom number you're looking at says 85% of students are matched with an APA accredited or APIC member internship site.
And that was during 02/1718.
And the last couple years, we've actually been closer to a 100%.
So it's it's a it's a very strong program course content wise, and we've built a very strong reputation through the graduates that have gone into their internships.
We get quite a bit of of, feedback from our sites, of course.
And much of that feedback is that our students are are either well prepared or better prepared than most of the folks they are competing against for those, internships.
And that, they're better equipped to go out there and and start practicing, you know, more advanced things.
And then also they learn a little bit quicker.
So we know what we're doing is is is good because the internships are telling us how well prepared our students are.
And our students tell us, you know, our graduates tell us that, you know, they feel more prepared and they're they're ready to take on more as they go through their internships.
Is a PsyD program right for you?
Alright.
Do you want to help people flourish?
Are you interested in the science behind human behavior?
Do you wanna become an instrument of healing through the psychological sciences?
Are you interested in performing psychological tests and assessments to diagnose your clients and create treatment plans?
And are you looking to start a career as a licensed mental health professional, specifically as a clinical psychologist?
So many of you are sitting there going, well, you know, I'm not quite sure yet, maybe.
Some of you are sitting there going, I got this.
I know this is exactly what I wanna do.
These questions are really good questions, but, you know, through your own personal experiences, do you find that your friends tend to gravitate to you for information?
Do you find that you tend to reach out and help people quicker than others?
Do you see that you you, almost hurt for others when they're hurting and you wish you could help them, you know, stop the hurting and start healing?
And these are things you've experienced and and you feel you probably stand a good chance of being a good a good therapist or at least, you know, keep moving forward and and learning more to figure out if this is actually something you wanna do.
The key areas of competency achieved through the PsyD program, foundations in psychological sciences and research, integrity and practice, assessment and diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, professional roles, and clinical practice from a Catholic integrative perspective.
First one is foundations in psychologicals and sciences and research.
Graduates will attain foundational, psychological sciences knowledge of biological, cognitive, effective, social, and developmental aspects of the human person, as well as history and systems of psychology, psychological measure measurement, research design, and statistical methods.
Graduates will have the skills necessary to conduct their own psychological research.
Second one, integrity and practice.
Graduates will be knowledgeable in the areas of diversity and ethics and display critical thinking, self aware and a reflective practice, and self care.
Graduates will demonstrate responsiveness to supervision and collegiality and professional comportment and professional practice.
Number three, assessment and diagnosis.
Graduates will be able to conduct clinical interviewing, perform intake evaluation, demonstrate knowledge in the administration, scoring, and interpretation of psychological assessment, integrate multiple sources sources of test data and clinical interview information into a written report, diagnose and develop a treatment plan.
Number four, therapeutic intervention.
Graduates will be able to demonstrate case conceptualization, treatment planning, building and maintaining the therapeutic relationship, psychotherapy skills, crisis management of urgent and special circumstances, and discharge planning.
Number five, professional roles.
Graduates will be able to function a variety of required roles of professional psychologists to include consultant, educator, supervisor, practice manager, and program evaluator.
They will be able to work collaboratively within interdisciplinary teams and with clients.
Clinical number six, clinical practice from a Catholic integrated perspective.
Graduates will have developed a Catholic understanding of the human flourishing in an individual person in marriage and family life and be able to integrate this with a psychological scientist in clinical practice.
Alright.
Some sample employment tracks.
These are just a few areas that some of our grads have gone on and, to to work in in the field.
Again, there's a ton more, but we could be here most of the night if we listed them all.
One of the areas is a licensed clinical psychologist.
Obviously, you can hang your own shingle and start practicing.
Clinic director, psychiatric technician, psychiatric crisis unit interviewer, community mental health social worker, drug abuse social worker, drug and alcohol specialist, certified alcohol or drug counselors, therapists, and they're labeled as CACs or CADCs, professional psychological resource advisor, psychological behavioral therapist, home project director, group home director.
Some of these do require additional education or certification or licensure.
And, most of that's relevant to whatever state you're gonna be practicing.
Once you graduate, whatever state you go back to, there may be other requirements you need to pay attention to as you go to work in that state.
So go through a couple quick student testimonials and then one video.
In the first video, in the first, shot, you James says in our clinical psychology program, the training is focused on healing the whole person.
Kristen says, I was drawn to the PsyD program out of a desire to serve others in a more profound way than my previous positions offered.
Timothy said that this school is not afraid to teach you what it means to be human at every level, psychologically, philosophically, and theologically.
That's why he likes it.
And then Kirsten said, I am so thankful for DMU.
The faculty members are very supportive and I've received a lot of hands on clinical experience.
Alright.
For the we're gonna do a quick video about a minute and a half, and then we'll move on to the rest of the presentation.
This is William Johnston, and, I'll let him tell you in his own words.
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 saw 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.
So 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.
So, some of our, faculty members are highlighted here.
Doctor Lisa Klowicki is a program director, and she specializes in adolescent, adult, and couples therapy.
Diane Graves, doctor Graves is an assistant program director professor, specialize in child therapy and developmental psychology.
Doctor Anna Pecoraro is associate professor, clinical supervisor, specialized in addictions and trauma treatment.
Doctor Phillips Scrofani is a professor with us.
He is, he, his areas of of specialty is clinical psychology, clinical supervisor, and specialize in cognitive behavioral therapy and group therapy.
Doctor William Nordling, is a clinical supervisor, and he specializes, credentials in child, marriage, and family therapy.
He's actually one of our our professors that's nationally ranked, in in, child psychology.
And then doctor Paul Vitz is our senior scholar and professor, and he specialized in integration of Christian theology with psychology.
We move on to areas like licensing.
Is licensing required?
You really can't be a licensed psychologist in any state, I believe, at this point unless you have, your PsyID.
And, in order to practice, you do you do need a a license pretty much in every state.
When do you need it?
License licensing process begins after the student completes the practicum and internship and officially graduates from DMU.
States can and often do have additional differing requirements, and, students are responsible for checking state requirements where they plan to work and adhere to them.
These typically include national and state exams, and DMU will provide general information related to licensure during the student experience.
Matt can correct me where I'm wrong, but, in this in a PsyD program, you know, it is expected that our students do the research on whatever state they're gonna go back to to understand the licensing requirements.
And then, you know, they bring that to, the program director and or their adviser, to also talk through, what will be necessary to make sure that they transition from DMU to wherever they're gonna go in The United States or around the world and, you know, they get licensed as as they move forward.
You do have a a faculty adviser that works with you, and they they definitely will spend time to make sure you understand the process and how to research it and then, you know, help you with decisions on what you need to do as you you get through that research.
Who initiates the licensing?
Licensing is a student driven process.
It is important for the student to begin research of licensing requirements in the state he or she intends to work in as early in the program as possible?
And will students be fully licensed after graduation?
No.
Graduates must work approximately one year in a supervised clinical environment in addition to the other state requirements to be licensed.
The graduate may be required to obtain a provisional license for this year period.
Then you check your state requirements.
And again, your adviser will be able to help you walk through that.
So talk a little bit about investing in your education and what that really means.
All of you, well, let me rephrase that.
Everybody that's on here should have their undergraduate degree or on their way to getting it, meaning they're a senior this year.
So you already understand the concept of of investing in your education at an undergraduate level.
And, you know, kudos to you for making that investment.
Some of you are fortunate.
Maybe you had, you know, money put aside and was able to to, pay for your education out of pocket.
Many probably had to take out loans, get scholarships, grants, those kind of things.
But you you understood the value of the education that you're you're getting.
We use a little analogy here where, you know, something such as a car or even a house for that matter, you can put a lot of money into a car, and all a car does is depreciate.
Year after year, it just goes down.
And then depending how poorly you drive it or how well you drive it, you're either gonna keep it, you know, nice or maybe not so much.
And, but either way, most times your value is going down.
In education, it's a it's a pretty simple thing.
The more you invest in yourself in terms of of of time, knowledge, research, work, and then obviously money, the more you're gonna be able to take out into the world and and apply both in your work setting and, you know, as the video the gentleman in the video said earlier, you know, it's relevant to your personal life.
It's relevant to your professional life and and to you personally.
So, you know, you're not investing just in an education, you know, to learn, you know, simple things.
You're investing in an education that you learn qualities, you gain experience, and you do, you know, research in order to be able to to work in all kinds of different settings from a mental health perspective.
And And a lot of times that starts with yourself.
You start to learn to ask yourself questions about what you're doing, why you're motivated to do those things, and, you know, how to either enhance or change behaviors.
So your education is is you know, obviously, you're gonna earn money and those kind of things as you go out in the world and work.
But, you know, the other part of that investment is investing in yourself and those around you.
So what does it take to go to school at Divine Mercy University in terms of money?
It's a thousand $95 per credit.
It's a 122 credits as we mentioned earlier, and that adds up to a $133,590 This does not include fees and indirect expenses.
Indirect expenses are your housing, travel, things like that, you know, obviously, food.
And what we we shy away from at the university is trying to put a number on that, mainly because a lot of students have a different level of, how they wanna live.
Some students are pretty frugal, and they, you know, get several roommates and, you know, they try to limit how much money they're spending on on rent and, you know, anything associated with living, if you will.
They may eat ramen quite a bit, those kind of things.
And then there's others that just want a place by themselves and, you know, they have a, you know, a desire to to just little live a little differently, which means it may be a little bit more expensive for them.
So your indirect expenses really correlate to how well you manage your living situation.
And then, you know, if you're eating out every day, you know, spending $50 a day on, you know, restaurant food.
You know, that's one way.
And then there's others that, again, shop, and they pretty much eat, you know, minimally is what I call it.
So, you know, beyond the direct, which is the tuition, you know, think about that indirect because that's something that you wanna make sure you're taking care of while you're going to school.
Options, to, attend school from both a direct and indirect way.
We have federal aid for those who qualify, the William d Ford and federal direct student loan program, including unsubsidized Stafford loans and graduate plus loans.
The financial aid department will work with each student on an individual basis.
But to make it really easy on that part, at a graduate level, you have loans that's really backed by the government, and then you have loans that really are based on yours and or your parents' credit history.
And, you know, some students borrow, you know, beyond tuition and use that to live on.
Some don't.
While you're attending school at DMU, we also have scholarships, internal and external.
We have assistantships and federal work study programs.
Matt is one of our student assistants, and he can tell you a little bit more about his experience.
But you can earn up to $25,000 if you use all of your student assistantship hours and you're chosen for a student assistantship.
So that's another way to lower your cost of education, if you will.
And it's only ten hours, a week.
So it's a it's a nice way to, again, lower the cost of your education.
Then there's alternative financing.
Some of you are are have cash plans already available.
Some have private funds.
There's agencies and organizations that provide matching funds, possible grant programs, support groups, diocesan investments, and improve for veterans funding.
So if you're military, prior military, you have access to your family member's, GI bill.
That's another way for you to help pay for your education.
We have a lot of what we call diastan supported, religious and lay folks attending Divine Mercy University.
Off the top of my head, I think we have close to, 20 at this time.
They're being directly supported by a diocese and or parish.
And then there's another program called memorandum of understanding.
Some of you may already be part of a parish or a diocese or religious organization, that is participating in an MOU.
That's what a memorandum of understanding is.
And that can offer up to 20% off on your tuition right off the bat.
And if you aren't part of one, it's always good for you to inquire, through your admissions adviser and or me.
I run the program, and I reach out to parishes, diocese all the time.
And and, you know, we do all kinds of different things to to work with them so that over you know, once the agreement is signed, religious and lay can go to school here and get between 2025% off.
So for those of you that are dead set, this is where you wanna go.
You wanna move forward.
Keep MOU in your head because that's another way for you to get really quick, a really quick tuition reduction.
Some Some of the things I've already mentioned early, but in our scholarship side, we have early admission scholarships that goes up to $3,000, and we are we are actually gonna extend that here shortly.
So even this group will be able to participate.
The Newman scholarship, which is up to 5,000.
Faith and Hope scholarship, which is 2,000 to 50% off, and, normally, that's for priest or religious.
There's a patriot scholarship, of course, that's relevant to, you know, military, public servant scholarship, you know, EMTs, medical, teachers, folks like that, international student scholarship.
Is there if you can put it in a chat, you know, you know, I can't see it, but put it in a chat.
If we have any international students, I'd like to know because there's a section coming up that talks about that.
And if there's not, we'll go ahead and go past that.
But there are international student scholarships.
The diversity scholarship, matching scholarship.
The matching scholarship is up to $2,000.
And the easiest way to to talk about that is if you work, let's say, at a local parish or ministry or something like that, or you work at, you know, Bob's House of Pizza, and they love you and they wanna help you out and they wanna donate $2,000 towards your scholarship, they would send that directly to us and then we would turn around and match it up to $2,000 So it's it's a nice way for you guys to kinda self do some self funding, if you will.
There's There's a grant in aid scholarship up to $3,500.
Typically, that is not only for incoming students, but that's a scholarship we look at.
You know, five years is a long time, and students have things happen in life that that maybe they weren't prepared for or, you know, require money they just don't have so they can apply for a grant in aid and scholarship.
It's our way of making sure that we help students as best we can when they have a big need.
And then there's the PsyD scholarship, which is up to 50% off.
And, you know, I think this group's kinda missed that, but we're in the middle of talking about creating a second 50% scholarship and two more twenty five percents.
So right now there's a fifty percent and two twenty five percents, and then there's all these other scholarship offers, but, we're in the middle of talking with the dean and the president about, adding that for this last group.
Anybody that applies now would be interviewing in our March time frame, and, that's the last group interview.
So we're we're trying to make sure that they have the same options as the first two groups.
The society transfer scholarship was $2,500.
Then we have a couple of Saint Martin DePore scholarship, which is a thousand and Christendom scholarship.
If you graduated from Christendom College, it's 2,000, but we have several MOUs.
If anybody goes to, you know, Belmont Abbey, Ave Maria, I mean, we have a pretty long list of schools that we we provide, tuition reduction with as well.
So you're gonna ask about those schools, and we can tell you who's who's participating, who's not.
But these are all scholarships you can compete for, and, you definitely wanna put them in for the most part, almost all of our students get scholarships.
Entrance requirements.
The baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited or internationally recognized school.
The undergraduate degree in psychology is preferred.
It's not required.
And for those that are admitted without an undergraduate degree in psychology, we will be required to complete prerequisite courses during the first year of the program.
And really is just to help you get familiar with the terminology and and some basic understanding of psychology.
You have to have a minimum GPA of three point o on a four point o scale.
Applicants with a cumulative GPA of less than three o may be considered for admission on a case by case basis.
And, really, the way we look at it is, if your Q and A of GPA GPA is three point o, but your program GPA, let's say, is I'm I'm sorry.
Your Q and A of GPA is less than three o.
We look at your core course per or your core program GPA to see if that's higher, and then we actually look at, you know, stuff relevant to psychology or counseling courses you may have taken.
And we look at GREs and several other things.
So you're not eliminated.
We just have to take a look at you a little differently.
The application process.
One, you complete the online application.
Two, our financial aid office begin working with you upon receipt of the application.
Number three, consistent communication is maintained.
One of the things that that I tell everybody in this ID program, you know, especially this time of year, because you're like, you know, hey.
Graduation's coming up soon if you're still in school.
You got a lot of things ahead of you.
But trust me, that time between May and August when you start classes, it goes quick.
Matt can probably tell you his experience, but one of the things I hear from students all the time is I I was shocked how quick everything went right after the holidays until I showed up here.
It just seemed like it was a minute.
So, you know, you gotta be in communication with your admissions folks, financial aid, the program folks, anybody that you're gonna deal with, all that needs to be, you know, constant.
And you need to make sure that if you have any questions, any concerns, any anything you need to talk about, please reach out to us.
We would definitely help you out, and we'll get you to the right people.
Number four, once all documents are submitted, you go competitive applicants are interview invited to an interview on-site.
Not everybody actually gets invited to an interview.
Really, it's based on we take a look at the whole package, and then the, program, the PsyD program folks take a look at you on paper, and they say, here's the ones that we'd like to have interview.
Most folks know that they gotta meet the entrance requirements.
So if you've met the entrance requirements, unless something comes back from your recommendation, like somebody says, don't let this person go to your school, they're crazy, which you probably chose wrong then, is, that's where you get knocked out of the box, if you will.
Otherwise, you know, your admissions folks will work with you, and they'll they'll make sure you're you're going down the right path.
Alright.
All applicants will hear back with an admission decision, by, in this case, March.
We, the next group interview is March 4.
And if you had a pen, make sure you write that down.
March 4 is a group interview.
March 9 is the decision date.
And then this year, we're doing something a little different.
March 11, we were we are going to have a on-site visit day for all the students who have been admitted.
And we, our first group interview was back in, November.
And then our next one is actually, the twenty first, and then the last one is in March, as I mentioned.
So, the first two groups, one will be doing it virtually, which is the one on the twenty first.
We decided to to do that as a virtual so people didn't have to travel with all the travel issues that are out there right now.
But the, November, December group did, come in and they they got to do their visit day on campus.
So we felt it was, you know, appropriate to allow everybody to have a visit day.
And right now, the idea is that anybody interviewing in the March session, it will be live unless, you know, something happens with, you know, more COVID things and stuff like that, but it seems like it's going in the right direction right now.
And then once folks have been, you know, told they're admitted, they work with admissions, and other department chair other department personnel to make sure they get through the online orientation.
They get set up for, you know, their living arrangements.
Basically, they're preparing to come here and start courses, and then classes begin in August 2022.
How to complete your application package?
It's important that you know this right here because, sometimes people get caught up and they they drag this out when they don't have to.
There's two parts.
The first one is the, part one, which is inclusive of your application fee, and that's really just the actual application online that you'll do.
And then you'll have your other paperwork like essays, your resume, transcripts, GRE scores.
All of those things are what we call part two.
So we tell anybody that's seriously interested to go ahead and get part one in because what that does is it also tells financial aid and student success that you're now an applicant, and you're starting the process, and they reach out to you to take care of the areas they need to do in order to support you during your admissions process.
As I mentioned, there are essays as you have three recommendations at and then I'm sorry.
You have essays, and then you have recommendations.
The three recommendations, at least two of which must be academic in nature.
Official transcripts from all post secondary institutions, and then your official GREs, as I mentioned earlier.
And, please make sure you put the DMU school code of 5639 within and if you've taken one within the past five years, that can be used.
You just need to go back and have them send us the scores.
So application deadlines, we we just finished up with the December 31 group.
It says interview January 14, but because of of some of the COVID issues, we moved it to the twenty first and made it, a virtual group interview.
The next one, application deadline is February 18, and the interview date again is March 4.
The decision date is March 9, and then, again, we'll have a, an open house on March 11.
If, if everything's okay, travel's fine, all that kind of stuff, I imagine we'll do the regular standard in person group interview on March 4.
So I would tell you all that that are really interested in doing this to make sure you think about that, both in terms of cost to get here and, the time to do it.
Okay.
First, I'll say thank you.
Sorry.
And second, I'm gonna go ahead and ask Matt to come back on and maybe talk a little bit about, his experience, tell you a little bit about what he does outside.
I'm sure he, already asked him answered some questions.
But, Matt, maybe you can jump back on.
Sure, Tom.
Right here.
Alright.
Got any questions out there for Matt?
We have some really good questions in the chat.
And maybe you can help me out with this, Tom.
We had a question from Elizabeth right here.
Are there housing for families, or would I have to stay off campus?
I'm I'm a single guy right now, and, I decided to house with a couple of other PsyD students here, and we're we're all renting out a house out here, maybe ten, fifteen minutes away from school.
So that's the option I chose.
But I as far as I know, there's no there's no housing on campus specifically.
There's none.
Yes.
So then you would have to find it within the area, places to places maybe rent out for for for the bid.
And, if you have questions, please put them in the chat, and I can answer them.
That's my ability.
As we're waiting for questions, I could tell a little bit, and talk a little bit about, like, what Tom was mentioned before about all the things to do out here in Virginia.
And he's right.
Within an hour's drive, you can end up in the mountains.
You can end up at a river.
You can end up, in Downtown DC, where there's a ton of nightlife.
It's a big city out there, great place to shop.
We have a huge mall out here, and there's plenty of places to eat out here.
There's there's a ton of things to do, especially with, with your classmates such and your cohort that you're gonna get really close to.
I'm very close with everyone in my cohort.
And we try to make it a, we try to make it a thing every week to go out with the priest and all of ours, all of our classmates to dinner.
And we we try a new place every single week, and, we're we're not running out of places yet.
I sometimes go down to the Smithsonian's in DC, which are free, and just look at there's there's so many things to to do down there.
Elizabeth here is asking, by integrating Catholicism into our practice, is the population we work with limited?
Whenever I try to introduce even a holistic approach with my clients, there's some pushback.
So that's a really good question, and we talk a lot about that, almost every single class that we have.
Every single class that we take, there is an integration piece of integrating the Catholic Christian model of the human person, within our practice and what that looks like practically and clinically.
Now the idea of integration and, how we integrate Catholicism within our practice, is mainly focused on how we view the person in case and then I conceptualize the person.
So, for example, say I receive a client that has depression or suffering from anxiety because depression and anxiety kind of go hand in hand sometimes.
We're taught in every single one of our classes how to view that person through the lens of essentially, God and, try to see that person, through the lens of faith and how to cater to that person, via the tools that were given by psychology.
Now a lot of internship and externship, interviews will revolve around that question because, they they know that Divine Mercy is well known for integrating spirituality and their Catholic faith within, viewing the person.
And so they'll ask us, oh, you're from Divine Mercy.
How do you integrate your faith within your practice?
And we're taught how to answer that.
And so, hopefully, that provides a little, peace in in knowing that, that this is on the table.
And we are because we're an APA accredited institution, which is very necessary, especially in today's world with psychology, the APA is actually looking at, right now and recently, adding spirit a spiritual component within their expectations for all psychologists.
And so we're actually on the forefront of that in in pushing for a a a closer look at spirituality.
I'll answer the, transfer credit.
Sure.
There are some credits that be that could be transferred.
That's something that actually would require you to submit your transcripts and then a request for, evaluation for transfer credits.
And, that's done through the registrar and the program.
Great.
And then, Matt, maybe you can talk a little bit about your student professor ratio and maybe even about, you know, your adviser and how all that stuff kinda works.
Sure.
Yeah.
So our our student to professor ratio is actually pretty low.
I would say it's about, seven to maybe nine students per professor that we have here.
Now that's granted, again, a lot of us are on externship, and a lot of us are on internship as well.
However, we have plenty of opportunities to interact with our professors.
And I'm I'm I would say, personally, that I, I'm close with most of our professors as they are so available to just, you know, walk into their office and just have a chat with them.
Each cohort, will vary in size.
My cohort has about 11 students in there.
The next cohort, above us has about twelve, thirteen students.
So it's actually really low and well, actually, I might change that actually.
Seven to nine students is actually pretty high.
Maybe, like, four four to five students per professor, actually.
So, there's there's plenty of there's plenty of opportunities to have those one on one talks with professors and definitely get some mentorship from them as well.
Appreciate that, Matt.
Anybody else got some questions?
Thank you, Elizabeth, for your your questions.
And if you have any more questions, let me know.
Alright.
Well Sure.
I know I wanna focus on trauma works.
So would I choose a faculty member based on that?
So some of our faculty have worked with, trauma work.
But all of our all of the faculty, that we have at Divine Mercy, all teach us, at least two classes, maybe even three or four sometimes.
If you want to focus on trauma work, there's there's definitely professors.
I I I'm not personally working on trauma work.
There's definitely professors that you can talk to about that that specialize within that field.
And I know, like, for example, William Johnson, who you saw in the video, is is getting, he I've spoken to him before, and he and he definitely has the support that he needs to do his work as he's on externship right now and working I I believe he's working at the VA.
I'm right now working, to apply for externships right now, and I'm actually applying to a couple VA sites as well.
And so we'll be working very closely with those with PTSD and whatnot.
So And, I I'll add two things to that if if it's okay.
Sure.
The, nice thing about, Divine Mercy University is, we actually, house the Green Cross, trauma program Mhmm.
Training program, and we provide training on campus to actually run run through one of the doctors in, psychology and counseling, a gentleman, named Ben Keyes.
And it's for all folks who specialize or want to specialize in trauma.
And, they have you know, doctor Keyes has taken several students from DMU as well as several students from the Green Cross program.
A lot of the folks that attend that aren't necessarily our students.
They come from all over, for the training.
But, they've been to, Charlottesville when that happened a while back.
They went down and worked there.
They've been in the border of Mexico working with single moms with kids and, you know, all the, you know, trauma that goes on with that kind of stuff, being stuck in a camp with your child and, you know, very little going on outside of that.
They've been to Lebanon.
They've been to several different places.
They're going somewhere this year, and I I don't I can't remember where it's at.
I apologize.
When is it going to Tanzania?
Tanzania.
So Yeah.
They look for for areas where they can go in and do really good work Mhmm.
Get get exceptional on the job training, if you will, after the classroom experience.
And, it exposes our students especially to a lot of things that they may not ever see again.
But, you know, if you're interested in trauma, training, you definitely came to the right place.
Yeah.
I I am glad that you mentioned that, Tom.
Yeah.
Because the Green Cross program that we actually run is actually really popular, and there's actually a lot of participants that attend.
And and I've heard a lot of great things about doctor Keyes.
I haven't personally met him myself, but I hear a lot of good, work that's coming out of the trauma work that they do down there.
I've been prompted to to let you guys know that, because of, my the externship that I'm working at right now within your so if you if you are, participating within or if you're enrolled in the PsyD program in your second year, the externship that everyone participates in right now is, at the IPS clinic, which is the clinic that where we see clients, and that's run directly out of Divine Mercy.
And so all I have to do is go downstairs and go into the clinic, and then, I see my clients in that area.
So it's connected right with us.
And so it actually makes, seeing clients and taking classes really easy because go to class, and then after class or on one of my days off, I go into the clinic so I can see clients as well.
And that and that is under supervision, so you're not Yes.
Going in there and just kinda winging it.
Yeah.
No.
Yeah.
I I I had mentioned before that, and I'll I'll say it again just in case for for the new people that came in, that, I am heavily supervised by a supervisor.
And for for every session that we have with our clients, for every hour that I see my clients, I also have an hour of supervision in which we kind of break down how the session went, and, also, we talk about, how we want a treatment plan and how we want to approach, every single thing that comes up within, the sessions.
And so I I actually feel very supported and very confident, right now, especially within my clinical skills, especially as it pertains to seeing clients, real life clients face to face.
Very nice.
Alright.
Elizabeth is asking, what if we are accepted to the start in August, but we would like to place a year hold.
Is that possible?
I'm not sure why the question, but what I would tell you is and I say this to everybody.
If you are trying to figure out how to fund your education or what impediments may be out there to keep you from going, talk to your admissions adviser.
My assumption is all of you have been talking to Steve, Showalter, and, Steve can help you work through all those kind of things.
If it's for other reasons, what I would say is this.
If you know you can't start in August, then don't apply for August.
Wait.
Put your application in at the very beginning of next year, for the 2023 class, Because when you defer your start date, you know, it's not frowned upon per se, especially for good reasons.
But if something happens and you already know you are gonna defer, and then something happens next year where you can't even start in 2023, you know, God forbid, but now you're asking to defer a second time, and then it becomes kind of a little bit of a problem.
It's viewed as maybe you're not as committed to your coursework as you need to be, so you kinda get dropped to the bottom of the rung.
And I I don't mean that sound harsh, but, you know, if you're asking that question now, I would tell you to think long and hard about when you need to apply based on your situation.
But, again, have a conversation with Steve Showalter or myself, and we'll we'll see what we can do to help you out and maybe give you some guidance on how you can start in the fall if that's even an option.
Can we use three employer recommendations?
I'd say try and go back and find an academic recommendation.
It doesn't even have to be from a grad school if that's where you you last attended.
If you stayed in touch with a a grad professor and an undergrad, try to get one or two from them, and then, of course, you can use employer recommendations as well.
Yeah.
That's something that you'll work through with the admissions, advisor and go from there.
Alright.
Any other questions?
Matthew, I appreciate your time and your your, knowledge that you shared with the folks on the on the webinar here.
And, I thank all of you that attended.
And, please reach out to Steve, myself if we haven't reached out to you, in the next day or so.
And, if you haven't started your application, and you think you really wanna do this, get your application going part one, especially.
We're coming down to the end of the wire of of getting all that done, and it may seem like, you know, a month away is not that long.
But you definitely wanna get part one in so you can get the other stuff going as well, and you get through the financial aid process.
Thank you all.
I appreciate your time.
This will be recorded and sent out so you can catch up on stuff if you missed it or you wanted to go back and kinda review something.
And, again, you have all of us as resources to reach out to.
Thank you, everyone, and, have a great night.