Well, I think now would be a good time to start.
Just wanna welcome all of you to the webinar for the master's in psychology program here at Divine Mercy University.
Just as an introduction, my name is Greg Shapiro.
Usually, I introduce myself as Gregory, and that's only because I'm often misheard as being Craig.
And I can't stand that.
Nothing wrong with that name, but, it is what I do.
But, nonetheless, you're always welcome to call me Greg or Gregory.
I'm the admissions counselor here at Divine Mercy, specifically for the master's in psychology program.
I have about five years experience, with admissions, helping students, guiding them through programs that are related to psychology or counseling or human services.
And, I'm really fortunate to be at a really solid university here.
We're located in Sterling, Virginia.
We're about thirty thirty five minutes outside of DC, which is where I live.
That's usually amount the amount of time it takes me to get here.
And so without further ado, I'm just gonna move forward to the next slide, and we're gonna go over what we will be discussing.
So first, and before by the way, I go into this, I just wanna remind everyone, as we're going through this, feel free to drop any questions that you have in the q and a or in the chat by the end of it.
You know, I'm happy to answer those questions for you so that we can we can, make sure this program is a good fit for you.
So to start, we're gonna just go over DMU, what the university entails, you know, really who we are, our identity, the schools of, study that we offer.
After that, that's when we're gonna go directly into the master's in psychology program.
And not only that, but also the new concentrations that we've just, rolled out.
And these are very new and a great opportunity for for those of you that are interested in tailoring the program to your interests and, and your goals.
Third, we're gonna discuss the vocational opportunities.
What you can do with this degree?
How this degree will be valuable for you?
And then fourth, this is when we're gonna go into the scholarships, ways of funding your education, ways of reducing the tuition.
So stick around for that.
In fact, I'm also going to provide for you a promo code on how we can get the application fee waived for you so that you don't have to pay for it.
So stay tuned.
We'll go over all of that.
So moving on, just to start with Divine Mercy University.
As I mentioned, our campus is located in Sterling, Virginia about thirty, forty minutes outside of DC, and, we're made up of two different schools.
We were established in 1999 just under the name of, IPS or the Institute for the Psychological Sciences.
And this is made up, of course, of the master's in psychology program, which is fully online.
And then we have the PsyD in clinical psychology.
That one is fully residential.
And then later on, we ended up, changing our status to university when we added the school of counseling, and that includes the master's in counseling program.
That one's hybrid.
So the courses are online, but then there are a couple of face to face excuse me, face to face components which involve residencies and practicum and internship.
So we have a lot of students that are now and then coming to campus for, for the completion of their residencies.
And along with that, I'm gonna move over to the next slide just to give you an idea of who we are even further.
This is our mission statement.
We provide students with an effective academic and educational environment that supports the integration of the psychological sciences and the Catholic Christian understanding of the person.
So this really is our bread and butter.
We're the only institution that has that focus in the psychological sciences, but also integrate the cap excuse me, the Catholic Christian teaching, the meta model of the person.
So students are well equipped in this program, not only through just the solid education psychology with our accreditation, but also the ability to, speak on behalf of spirituality if that comes up with clients.
Sometimes that doesn't.
A lot of people that work within this field, they're well equipped to talk about, you know, mental health challenges or, you know, certain certain things that are related to that, but they're not very well equipped to to speak on behalf of spirituality when that does arise.
Students that graduate with us, they can and that actually does put them ahead of the game.
So I will move on a little bit further.
And this goes into the accreditation.
We're accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
This is one of the seven major accrediting bodies.
So we are obligated to make sure that our curriculum is, is really hitting the bar of what's expected.
We wanna make sure that we're providing students a solid education within the social sciences.
We're also approved to operate by SHEB.
This is the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia.
And then at the bottom, as you see, the bottom right side, American Psychological Association.
We actually have this connection because, this is the accreditation for the PsyD program, but the way that it relates to the MS in psych program is that we do use the APA writing style.
So this is the top tier way of, of learning about psychology and really being prepared to enter into the field.
So now moving forward, we're just gonna go right into what the master's in psychology program entails.
So to start, it is 100% online, as I mentioned.
We're the only, program at Divine Mercy that is completely online from beginning to end.
You could be a hermit and from the beginning and the end, graduate never leaving where you are.
It's also an asynchronous approach.
So in other words, as a student, there are no set times for you to have to log in.
All the lectures are prerecorded.
You'll be engaging with your cohorts and your faculty through discussion boards.
And so this is a great way for especially those of you that do have a busy life, a busy home life, or busy work life to be able to, to to approach this program.
Now with that, as I mentioned, we're also regionally accredited.
That's what you do wanna look for when you're entering into a, any given university.
This program is also thirty three credit hours.
And along with that, in order to be eligible to apply, you must have at least a, a bachelor's degree with a 2.5 GPA.
So this is sort of the, just what would regard you as being eligible to apply.
It doesn't have to be a background in psychology.
We have a lot of students that go into this with a different degree, and they decide that they wanna shift, you know, potentially their their careers or they just have a love for psychology, and this would be brand new for them, and that's absolutely fine.
Along with that, this is a degree this is what I would call a helping degree for those that want to either advance in their fields or maybe you're looking to, enter into a field that does not prepare for licensure.
And so, you know, just to clarify, this program as opposed to the other programs is a non licensure track.
And for some people that seems like a negative.
And if you are looking for very specific licensure, that would mean that you should be looking elsewhere.
But the benefit to it being non licensure is that it is very versatile.
There's no you know, I wouldn't regard it as being better or worse.
It's really just a matter of the positions one can go into simply doesn't require any type of licensure.
So it's actually step you wouldn't have to take.
So this is one of the benefits to this.
And then as I mentioned before, it's rooted in the Catholic Christian teaching of the person.
It's it's really part of our curriculum.
In fact, we even use elements of Thomism, you know, that sort of Aquinas tradition since our curriculum was formed by members of the Dominican order.
And then lastly, this program, in order to apply, you do not have to take the GRE.
So you can take a deep breath and relax.
It's it's something that's not required for that.
So moving on, we're gonna go into the new concentrations.
And, again, these are you know, they're brand new, but this is just a great way for students to really tailor the program to their interests.
And so you have three options.
One is the first one that we see, the marriage and family studies.
This is excellent for those that maybe you work in, in ministry or you wanna you wanna further your your work within, case management or serving as a, as a counselor's aide or a psychologist aide.
And for many people, that that means working with, with the family unit.
And having this background is a great way to really add some punch to your credentials.
The next one is the leadership psychology concentration.
And again, this is also good for those that have worked within, within ministries since leadership is really a big part of it.
But it's also great for those that might work within education or work within, a business environment or nonprofit, whether it's within HR or, if it's related to employee training or other sort of managerial positions.
And then lastly, we have the pre PhD concentration.
And it's just a good opportunity to further training in a field that that revolves around research and writing.
It's excellent for those that are looking to one day further their education and going into a PhD program.
Now one thing that you might be asking is, is this related to the PsyD program?
And so this would be different.
The PsyD is different from a PhD, and many of you might be aware of that.
And some of you are brand new to this, and that's absolutely fine.
PsyD is a doctorate in psychology whereas a PhD is a doctorate of philosophy.
And typically, getting a PhD means that you might go more to a field that's revolving around around, research or maybe something outside of that.
It could mean, doing clinical work, but this is great for those that might want to further their education in a PhD program, not a PsyD program.
So I just wanted to make sure that that distinguish that distinguishing element was there.
The next thing I'm gonna do is just highlight the three, electives that are shown.
So the top groups of courses that you're seeing, these are the standard courses that every student will be taking.
But then depending on the concentration that you choose, again, provided you decide to choose one, these are the the, the elective courses that you would be taking.
So within marriage family, marriage and family studies, you'll have the marriage and family systems theory, then you'll have human sexuality and then flourishing in relationships.
For the leadership psychology concentration, you'll be able to, have a focus in transform transformational leadership, excuse me, leading people, programs, and organizations, and then also applied leadership skills.
Again, this is a great sort of focus to have if if you're going to use it in sort of a way of, for instance, industrial and organizational psychology, something that might be revolving around more of a corporate environment or a or an organization.
And then lastly, for the pre PhD focus, there are some options on how you can rearrange this.
You can choose between two electives and then adding the PSY six twenty, which is, research and writing, Or you can do one elective and then in addition to that, adding an independent study and then also the research and writing course.
So I will continue on.
And now we're gonna go over the vocational opportunities.
And again, you know, the for a lot of you, you are right now just exploring your options.
You might not exactly know what it is that you'd like to do, and this is an opportunity to just look over, how many people have been able to apply this degree.
Many of you already know what you wanna do with this degree.
And for some of you, you're already in the field, but this is a great way for you to, just sort of advance in your field.
So the first thing I'll I'll cover is the health care and mental health services option.
For many people that get this degree, they do work within these fields and this is very popular with them.
So whether it's working as a within case management or within behavioral counseling or, working as a psychiatric technician or within rehabilitation centers, this is a great option for students to get this degree.
One thing I will preface is that, you know, for that first one, you see behavioral counseling.
For students that go into this field, you know, again, it's it's not designed to prepare students for for licensure, so you wouldn't be able to earn this degree and then apply for licensure as a counselor.
But you'll still be learning about counseling techniques.
So when I'm using the word counseling, I'm using it as sort of a lowercase c form.
So I do know people that actually do get this degree, and they are able to counsel individuals in different settings.
You know, not not in a licensed capacity, but they're able to work with those individuals.
They also have the ability to recognize certain mental health challenges that people are facing.
That way, if they need to refer them to the licensed professionals, they'll have the ability to do that and know which professionals they refer them to.
And moving on, fields within within ministry or within education, these are also very common.
A lot of our students who go into this degree are actually consecrated religious.
They are, priests, deacons, religious sisters.
You know, they've been they they've gone into a a religious vocation.
And so for many, of them and many of you perhaps, this is a great degree to have if you're working with a parish, if you're communicating with individuals, or if you're working within the diocese, whether it's within marriage and family or even victim's assistance.
Beyond that, for many people, they actually use it within seminary.
So they might need to use it for, just for me with with formation for the seminaries and being able to, assist the seminaries that way.
And then also with education, having a master's in psychology can set you up for being a, an educator within psychology or working within, a community college as an instructor.
It could also lead to different sorts of different sorts of positions within higher education.
So there's a lot of sort of, there's a broadness within this degree.
For the next one, for a lot of people, they get this degree also work within government positions.
So whether it's federal or state or local, this is also very common.
So it could it could go between working within rehab or working within, employee counseling or even something like parole officers.
Having a a master's in psychology is great for these fields, especially since for many of these positions, they're looking for those that have critical thinking skills, and that's the sort of thing that you're actually gaining.
These are the skills that you're learning within a master's in psych program.
And going forward with child and family service organizations.
So, you know, whether it's something like day care agencies or after school programs, with head start programs, this is very useful.
For many people, they it is related to social services.
So, you know, something like child protection, you know, I would almost relate that to something like case management.
But working within family services or being a child care supervisor, that's very common for this as well.
But also working within nonprofits.
So maybe it's within research or doing, serving as a data analyst or, organizational consulting.
So these are sorts of other options that people can go into after earning this degree.
And then lastly, within, more of a business environment, so jobs in business, sales, marketing, advertising, for a lot of people, again, this degree is just great because, when it comes to going into these fields, because of the communication skills that you learn and also the writing skills.
These are very valuable in these sorts of environments.
For a lot of people, having a background in psychology can really set you up for success within HR.
It can work within advertising or being in employee training, within employee training.
So, you know, again, whether we're looking at the general position the the general, approach to the program or if you wanted to choose leadership psychology.
Leadership psych psychology is certainly a good option for those that might be looking into one of these types of positions.
So that covers the vocational opportunities.
I'm gonna go over the tuition.
I know this is what a lot of you have been looking for.
So we're gonna go over that along with the scholarships and ways to reduce your tuition.
So I'll just start with the two different tracks, and you're also seeing two different tuitions here, and I'll explain that in just a moment.
But as a student, you have the choice to either pursue full time, which means completing the degree in sixteen months would be very fast, or doing a twenty six month track, which is considered, part time, which is also a lot shorter than many other programs, but this is sort of a way for you to, have some time management if that's something that you're needing.
So let's say that you're a student and you decide to do the sixteen month track.
That means that as a student, you'll be committing about twenty five to thirty hours per week toward the program.
So it is more rigorous.
For some of you, you might be saying, you know what?
I I work full time and I have a family, and I have these responsibilities.
I also have my hobbies that I take very seriously, and I I don't wanna give those up.
That's fine.
That's absolutely fine.
And for many students, we're happy to work with them.
And a great option for those that do need that extra time within their schedule would be doing the part time approach, which is twenty six months.
For those of you that are doing it that way, that means that you're committing about fifteen to eighteen hours per week toward the program.
So it's not as rigorous as sixteen months, and it does mean it's a little bit longer.
But it did it does give you more, more free time within your schedule.
Now as you're seeing, as I mentioned, there are two different tuitions.
And the reason why is because every time that you're working within a term that has two courses, that second term ends up being 25% less.
And so with that, that's why the sixty month track comes out to being, just a little little over 25,000.
Whereas, if you're doing the twenty six month track, it is a little bit more.
You're not getting that that, 25% off, so that one comes out to a little over 28,000.
But, again, I'm gonna go over other ways on how we can get your tuition reduced.
So first thing I'm gonna just cover is ways of funding.
For many people, they're trying to figure out if they wanna use student loans or payment plan.
Some of you might be military, and we do work with the GI Bill.
We work with Yellow Ribbon.
Sometimes employees that work with certain places will do employee tuition reimbursement.
That's always a good option if, if your employee is open for that.
But there are different ways of doing this.
So you'll have those options.
And that just covers this next slide.
You know, we do offer scholarships and grants as well and, which we're about to cover.
But if you decided that you didn't wanna use student loans and you got to do a payment plan, which just means that you're doing a pay as you go option, that option is there for you as well.
So the next slide, this is what a lot of you have been looking into.
These are the different scholarship options that we have available.
And as you see, we have a few, a few options here.
And you have the ability as a student to apply up for four of them and receive up to two.
And as you're seeing those numbers on the top, right side, 25, 35, 50%, these are, I'd say, more common numbers.
The 50% is the maximum amount that we could award someone.
So we never have the, you know, we we we never offer 100 scholarships, and the reason why is because we wanna give every student an opportunity to get their tuition reduced.
So if this is something that you may be interested in doing and, you know, having an additional way of getting this this cost reduced for you, there's always a way for that.
And, you know, hopefully, you and I will be able to have a one on one and discuss this option and, you know, there's always a way for this.
So moving forward, another way of reducing your tuition is through a partnership.
Now these are some examples of partnerships that we do have, and some of you might actually be connected with these.
And if so, let me know.
You know, the the tuition reductions do sort of range between, different organizations.
If you're not part of these, however, there are other options in how we can get this reduced.
We do this through what we call a memorandum of understanding.
And, for instance, let's say that you are a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Health or whatever parish you belong to.
If your parish is not currently, in partnership with Divine Mercy, but you want it to be, what we could do is get you connected with the VP of admissions.
And provided your parish is open to that, with that partnership, we can get your tuition reduced by about 20%.
So, again, you know, this is just another way on how we can get that cost lowered for you if that's something that you're looking for.
And so lastly, that brings us to the very end of the, presentation.
And I did promise you a promo code so that we could waive the application fee for you.
Typically, the application is $55.
But if you plug in the code c c m m p, so that stands for Catholic Christian Meta Model person, and then 1999, the year that we were established.
Once you complete the application or you get to the point at the end where you're supposed to plug in your payment options, instead you can plug in that code and then that's going to waive the fee so that you won't have to pay for it.
So that brings us to the end and also above, of course, that's my telephone number.
You're always welcome to give me a call if you have any questions.
You're even welcome to text me.
I I'm happy to text back and forth with you if that's just a little bit more doable for you and then, of course, my email address below that.
So, hopefully, there are some questions for me.
I'd be more than happy to address those.
I'm gonna do that right now.
So it looks like there is one question.
Are any undergraduate credit hours in psych required as most schools have?
That is a great question.
No.
That is not a requirement.
You know, if you have a let's just I'm being hypothetical, of course.
Let's just say that you have a bachelor's in music theory.
You know, while it's very different from a psychology degree, that's fine.
As long as it's at least a 2.5 GPA, that would render you eligible.
Now it looks like there's another question.
Is it necessary to choose a concentration?
Must that be chosen at the start of the program, and do they increase excuse me, increase in time or cost?
Very good questions.
So first question, no.
It is not a requirement.
Some of you might really not be interested in in choosing these concentrations.
It's really not, within your passions.
That's fine.
You you can you're more than welcome to do the, you know, what I would regard as general psychology.
And then if do you have to choose that at the start?
It's certainly helpful.
The sooner we get that information, the better.
But, you know, if you're in the program and you let's say that you start your first semester and while you're in your first semester, you would wish that you'd chosen, let's say, pre PhD.
You can always relay that information to the registrar and to the student success adviser, and they'll be able to get that readjustment for you.
You don't wanna wait too much longer because at some point, you might pass that point where those electives are being, offered.
So that's one thing to keep in mind.
But it wouldn't be too late if you are enrolled in one and then you decided to switch to another.
Or if you were enrolled in one, decided that you wanted to actually just do the the, general approach.
There's some there's some flexibility there.
And then your other op question was, do they increase in time and or cost of the program?
No.
Not at all.
So these electives are not necessarily added on.
They're just, more customized within the program.
So you're still going to be taking the same excuse me, the same amount of courses as if you were doing the general program.
These are just a little bit more, customized to your interests.
Oh, and one thing I'll also highlight while I have you.
For many of you, you might be wondering when our next start date is.
Our next start date is going to be our fall semester.
That's starting on August 18.
That's going to be our start date.
We have time to get you enrolled.
So if this is something that you wanted to take some time to review and maybe you wanna talk it over with your family or just look at your schedule, take your time in doing that.
You know, we we still got some time to, get you enrolled.
Typically, the application process only takes about a week to two weeks long in completion, so it's not expensive.
And, again, the GREs are not required.
You won't have to worry about that either.
Alright.
So it looks like that's the end of it.
For some of you, you might not have questions right now, and that's fine.
They might pop up later.
So feel free to write down my number, write down my email address.
When those questions come up, reach out to me.
I'd love to take that time to speak with you, to learn about your career goals, your interest in this degree, answer those questions, and even things that maybe we didn't cover.
Maybe these are there are some questions that are more, related to your personal circumstances or, or your interest in this, and I'd be more than happy to discuss that.
So with all of that, I will be letting you all go.
I thank you all for joining me today.
Thank you all and, excuse me, have a great day and God bless.