Hello, everyone.
Thanks for coming in to the MSP webinar today.
Happy December.
Next week is Christmas.
Typically, this this webinar is actually, like, next week, but, of course, no one's gonna come on Christmas.
So but I hope everyone's having a great December.
Excited for the holidays wherever you are all around the world.
We're We're gonna get started here in a few minutes, but I want to make sure that there's some time for people to come in, give them a few more minutes.
But in the meantime, I'm gonna introduce myself.
My name is Charice Bennett.
I'm also an alumna of this program.
I graduated in May 2023, and now I work for the university talking about the program that I completed.
Michelle, do you wanna introduce yourself?
Hi there.
I'm Michelle Robbins.
I'm one of the admissions advisers over here at DMU.
I've been with DMU for a while, but only with this program just recently.
Anyway, welcome everybody.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for coming in.
In the meantime, I would love to know where you live, occupation, and what's your interest in what's your interest in psychology.
Psychology is applicable in any really, in any career, anything that you do.
So I I love to hear all the different backgrounds that everyone has.
It's really, really fun to hear.
So hello, Carol.
Good to hear from you.
Thank you so much for saying hi.
Thanks for coming in.
Australia.
Oh.
Nice.
Gosh.
What time is it over there?
It's probably, like, a twelve hour difference almost.
Crazy.
Love it.
Yeah.
There was actually one one other student in my cohort, I think, that was also from Australia.
I don't know why I say it that way, Australia.
But there's one there's one there's one professor that actually teaches a core a core course, and doctor Sadeo, he's actually in Australia as where as well.
So all of our grades were, like, twelve hours off.
So welcome, Carol.
Thanks so much for coming in.
Any of any of the other ones in the chat room?
We'd love to know more about where you live, occupation, life psychology.
Yes.
And I hate to say it, but I'm very addicted to Bluey right now.
So it's such a good show.
Nice.
I'm interested in psychology because I would like to understand more than mine.
Psyche oh, absolutely.
We do have a lot of, priests and sisters in the program as well.
It's really great for them.
Yeah.
So one of my backgrounds is that I was in ministry, when I was taking this course, so I just wanted to better my ministry.
I was a sacraments coordinator.
I did baptism, first communion, confirmation, and I also assisted with RCIA for children as well.
So I just wanted to better my communication as well as understand when families come to me and they need help.
I just want that that's why I took this course.
Fertility care practitioner.
Oh, yes.
Like, Thomas.
Okay.
Every time I read the summa, I want to cry.
And then I have to go to my best friend who is a Thomist at heart and have her explain it to me in layman's terms.
So I totally understand the love of Saint Thomas.
Just can't understand the dude.
Also, I've worked with people in home care.
There's not much positive oh, absolutely.
Actually, you'll learn a lot about positive psychology in the course.
We do a lot of Seligman stuff, character strengths, flourishing, so you'll hear a lot about positive psychology.
Hi, father Benedict.
We talked, I think, a week or so ago.
It's good to hear from you.
Let's see.
Anybody else?
Oh, there's a lot more people in ChatMail.
Yes.
Hello, everyone.
We're just gonna get started here in, like, a minute or so.
Just wanted to give everyone some time to come in.
If you have time, please go ahead and write where you live, occupation, why psychology.
I'd love to know more about everyone here in the in the webinar.
I don't want this just to be a place where you where we spout off information.
This program is fairly social as well despite the fact that it's a 100% online.
We like to meet everyone from all over the world and all backgrounds of life.
So take another minute here to write down where you live, what's your occupation, why psychology.
Psychology is a very prosocial degree program as well.
So it's it's it's great to meet other people from all over the world.
Thanks so much for coming to develop critical thinking.
Absolutely.
That's really great.
You'll definitely learn that here.
Okay.
Well, hopefully, people are still writing, but we're it's 05:35, and we don't want to waste anyone's time.
So we'll go ahead and get started with the webinar, and I'm gonna hand it over to my friend, Michelle, before I say hi, Kim.
Good to good to meet you.
Thanks so much for coming in.
K.
Hello, and welcome, everybody.
So, you threw me for a loop there.
Okay.
You did.
I'm fairly new in this program, so just I wanna put that out there.
Charice is very, very integrated with this program because she she actually went through it, which that's my hope to to start the program myself.
I'm very excited about this program.
But, we'll just point out a couple of things to you.
Nope.
Wait a minute.
Okay.
Charice, are we on the first page?
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
Just a just a splash, please.
Yeah.
Do you want me to go ahead?
Yes, please.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
No problem.
Oh, okay.
That's me again.
Sorry.
I'll get it together.
I promise.
You're in live time.
This is, this is live here.
Okay.
So we won't go through every single thing, but we will talk about, some of the things, here on this slide, that are interesting.
We'll point out, first of all, that we were established in 1999, and we are coming up on our twenty fifth anniversary.
So we're super excited about that.
Let's see.
We can talk about the fact that we are accredited because that's important, with SACSCOC.
So that is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
So, basically, it just means that we meet their high standards, and we offer both masters and doctoral degrees.
We have agreements.
One of them is with, Cheve and that, they approve our programs in Virginia where our campus is located.
And, additionally, we're part of the NC SARA, and that is important because it allows us to offer our programs across state lines without needing separate agreements, or approvals from each state.
So it makes learning much easier all over the country.
So those are just a couple things I'll point out.
Did you have anything to add to that, Charice?
Yeah.
So Divine Mercy was founded in 1999 in December.
Like, literally, like, around Christmas time.
So we are coming up with our twenty fifth anniversary of the school, which I really love.
And, really, the main reason why this program was created was because we just offer a different kind of psychology here at DMU.
It was founded by a lot by, a group of psychologists who just didn't want to do the what is your what is your what are your symptoms?
Here's your treatment plan, your medication, and buy.
It was a little bit cold hearted, and psychology inherently in itself is not cold hearted at all.
We want everyone to to be to be flourishing.
We want everyone to heal.
And you don't have to be, of course, a counselor to he to help others heal.
Everyone in their own way can be a leader, can be a healer in faith wherever they are and whatever they do.
So, we wanted to make psychology, of course, a lot more accessible to everyone.
So that's why Divine Mercy was founded, and we're still here today twenty five years later.
Okay.
Oh, are you gonna take this one, Charice?
Nope.
Okay.
Alright.
So a couple of things here that are interesting.
Probably what drew you to us in the first place, is that we are 100% online.
All of the classes, on your schedule, everything, your books, your materials, everything is online, so easily accessible at any point.
Also, the other thing and mostly that makes us most special is that, we integrate psychology with the, the Christian Catholic Christian understanding, and it offers a unique focus on the whole person.
It's about combining the mind and spirit to foster healing.
So that's probably the thing that drew you to us as well.
The small student faculty ratio is important as well because, you'll get very close with your cohort and your professors.
And this is by design.
We do keep our classes smaller, but you'll have much better communication, more one on one.
You'll receive a lot more feedback than you typically would in a traditional psychology class or school.
Let's see.
Did I miss anything, Charice?
No.
You did great.
You're doing a great job.
This is my first webinar, so I'm really sorry.
I'm a little nervous.
Even though I can't see all of your faces, I imagine you there.
So I apologize if I'm not as, eloquent as Charice.
She's doing a great job there, but I'm going to encourage her.
So a couple of things again about about DMU.
Again, we are we are built actually on a Catholic Christian anthropology.
We have a book called The Catholic Christian Metal Model of the Person, where you you you learn how to view each person philosophically, theologically, and psychologically.
Physical, mental, and spiritual well-being are all components to a person's healing, and it's just a wonderful book.
You can actually go on Amazon.
You can buy it.
The first chapter is available on the website, And that actually, that was that's a really neat reading if you want to.
It's very accessible to someone who for me, who's not, like, too heavy on on reading or can't or English as a second language.
It's a wonderful book.
And then I was really fascinated by the individualized feedback because, honestly, as I think as an undergrad, the most feedback I received from a professor was my grade.
So it's nice that every week my professors are looking at what I'm doing, if I'm progressing, and making sure that I have adequate feedback so I can improve or maybe better my understanding of what we're learning.
So it's nice that the that the professors are a lot more, social in that way and a lot more, responsive.
See, look see, look, Michelle, everyone's happy.
Christina says you're doing great.
Thank you.
Guardian angels in there.
So all good.
You're doing great.
Keep going.
Okay.
So the benefits of this program.
First of all, you you will gain a deeper understanding of yourself and others, either personally or in your professional or your ministry.
All of these wonderful things.
You foster personal and professional growth.
I just said that.
Provide innovative solutions, to problems using psychological insights.
You will build skills to work effectively with diverse individuals in a changing world, ever changing world.
You'll develop strong communication and interpersonal connection skills, and that's definitely very important.
You'll a lot of people that are in this program work with a lot of diverse groups of people.
And I'd have to say the one thing about this program is that you truly will learn how to work with young people, and old older people, and different diverse situations that you'll come across.
I can also say that there are three goals for the MSP.
The first one is understanding yourself and others, and we refer to that as psychological literacy.
The second is personal and professional development, and the third are, skills to promote flourishing.
And, it was told to me that you don't have to wait to graduate until you can utilize all of these things that you're learning in class.
Everything is right away, you'll be using it with your family, with your friends.
So it's kinda cool.
You'll learn as you go, and, I can't wait to take my first class.
Charice?
Great job.
So I wanted you to understand that a key component of the program is really flourishing.
It's not just helping other people's flourish, but helping yourself flourish as well.
Because at the end of the day, we can't help other people flourish if we ourselves are not flourishing or understand the concept of flourishing.
And you can use this concept of flourishing in whatever it is that you do, whether you are a teacher, a fine a person in finance, priest, sister, or even a stay at home mom.
We have all gamuts of backgrounds in our program, and that's why this program is really great and can be app applicable in many situations.
I think that's it.
Good job, Michelle.
One more.
We got this.
Okay.
Foundational knowledge through core classes.
This is actually my my favorite slide because the classes are so interesting.
If you go online, definitely take a peek and read about the descriptions of them.
This is just a, you know, a very quick recap, but, you will have when I said about learning, different things about how people grow and change from birth to old age, that is your human growth and development across the lifespan.
The cognition, emotion, and motivation would be a favorite for sure because that one looks at how we think and how we feel and what drives us to act.
So, no matter where you're coming from, that's gonna be a really good one.
I think there's something for everybody.
You have I know we always point out the statistical analysis for psychology and the social science.
The reason we point that one out is because people like me that see that word statistics, statistical statistical analysis freak us out a little bit.
I'm told that this class doesn't actually have statistics.
You're not, doing any math, but it is, basically, showing you how to read the statistics.
Is that correct, Charice?
A little math.
A little.
Like A little math?
Think in the beginning, it's like, can you calculate the average of data?
Simpler math.
But when as you go continue in the class, you will learn a computer program that is common to use with, research psychology, and it's very easy to use.
So Eventually, the program will do all the math for you.
Oh, nice.
They're analyzing the research, basically, then.
Okay.
Yes.
Alright.
That's the class that would definitely freak me out.
But these are yeah.
The social psychology groups and diversity, there's where you're going to examine, how people interact, form groups, and respond to diversity and social influences.
So there's a lot of good stuff in here.
And these are I should stay.
I should say.
These are the eight foundation courses.
So depending it doesn't matter if you're taking leadership as a concentration or you're looking at marriage and family.
These are the eight core classes.
And what differentiates them from one another are the electives, and I believe Charisse is gonna be talking about that.
I will be talking about that.
I'm so excited.
Yeah.
So these are all core courses.
So everyone's gonna have to suffer through these.
It's gonna be fine.
Everyone works together to to get through it.
And, honestly, everyone has, like tends to have a very a favorite class.
Honestly, mine was developmental psychology, which is just the second course already.
And it's you you go through each each age group from, like, newborns to elderhood and go through what they're going through physically, cognitively, spiritually, emotionally.
It's so amazing that I it it helped me it helped me in my ministry whenever I had parents coming out to me, kids coming out to me, teenagers, or even grandparents who are, you know, babysitting their kids.
Like, I had I had such a great time with this class, and it opened my mind to just a love of psychology.
But as Michelle said, those were the eight core courses because we have 11 courses in total at in the in this master's in psychology program, and we have specific concentrations.
So if you can take just a minute to go to even list what concentrations you're interested in, I definitely wanna make sure I I focus on those while we're here because each concentration definitely focuses on a specific area of psychology.
Right?
And I just I I I don't know.
I love pointing this out every single time, but I'm, like, right here in the middle.
Yes.
So just in case, you know, if it is 100% online.
Are you looking right in your hands?
Or which one are you?
I'm in the middle.
I didn't even I wasn't expecting that.
I'm right here in the middle with my hand up high.
So but you can go and graduate.
You can go walk.
And I insisted.
I I spent my I spent my time and efforts into getting a master's.
I wanted to walk.
So you are able to walk, and you'll also be there with other graduates of the programs as well at DMU.
So go ahead and write what you're interested in in here.
Would love to know more.
And it is a beautiful graduation, I should say.
I go every year I've attended, and, lots of tears, lots of proud people.
Yes.
Very muchly so.
A lot of it's very pretty, and DME does a really great job with the receptions and and program orientate program things as well.
Pre PhD in here.
Okay.
Great.
Oh.
Awesome.
Charice will definitely have a lot to say about that one.
You should know that now if I'm remind me if I'm wrong.
Is it two or three weeks in, you do not have to or two to three classes in that you don't have to choose what your concentration is?
I I think because I'm the second class where you can choose the concentration.
I think so.
Yeah.
So if you are torn, you do have time.
You'll talk to your cohort.
You'll get advice, yeah, and your academic adviser.
You'll get a lot of advice, and you'll hear what other people are doing, and that might influence what you would like to do.
Yes.
Awesome.
What is human source self design, please?
Yes.
I will go over all of that.
And just so you know, I actually did self design, and I will go over what that is.
But I'm actually back now doing the pre PhD track.
So the track concentrations are actually meant to supplement you know, you you do need to choose a concentration for your to get a full degree, but you can always come back and do another concentration if you wanted to.
It was built that way.
So I'm now doing a pre PhD track, and I will explain that when I get there.
Oh, we had some q and a's in here.
Most interested in PhD human services.
Thank you.
And Leslie Bennett, we shared a last name.
Awesome.
Career career opportunities with this program.
Yes.
We will go over that for sure.
So this is the first, concentration, marriage and family track.
We prepare students to encourage couples and families towards flourishing in a variety of settings, such as marriage prep, marriage arrangement relationship education programs, training mentor couples, etcetera.
So this is really good if you want to work with engaged couples, married couples, even even divorced, couples course.
This is a really great way to understand how marriage and family works because this first these are the three electives for this track, and that first one is actually another theology course, Catholic Christian marriage and human sexuality.
And then the bottom two are psychology courses, marriage and family interventions, as well as systems theory.
I feel really bad.
I can never remember which course it is that you actually are trained to become a marriage prep facilitator.
But this is, again, really great for those who want to work with families.
K?
And one of one of the I think she's still on the front page of the Divine Mercy website, Emily Ledum.
She was actually a director of marriage and family in her diocese, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
I'm so bad.
Anyway, she was a director of marriage and family in her diocese and now runs her own clinic.
She actually has I think I think she has some graduates of this of the counseling program that she has in her clinic, and she just runs the clinic.
So very amazing.
So really good if you wanna be a coordinator or be a part of, like, family service organizations, director of early childhood education programs.
So, again, this is really great for those who want to work with families and married couples.
So this is the, the human services track.
A little bit more on the counseling side, This concentration is intended for students who want to work in settings that focus on meeting human needs and promoting flourishing, like, more in a one on one setting.
I actually took two of these courses.
I took relationship intervention skills and group counseling, and I'm kind of bummed.
I heard the personality course was amazing, and I kinda regret it.
I might actually go back and take it for fun.
But these were really great courses if you want to work with people more one on one.
Right?
So good career opportunities for this particular, track or if you wanna be a human services professional, not licensed counselors, grief and loss counselor, those who you know?
I I know I met someone who was working with those who have immigrated to The US, trying to get them to help them be more assimilated here in The US.
There's so many places that you can use these kinds of, classes.
So, personally, this I I don't know.
Michelle still finds it hard to believe, but I'm not very good at talking to people.
So What?
So when I that's the reason why I took some of these courses was before I took this master's program, I was I did not know how to talk to people.
I was actually an engineer by trade.
And for those science focused people, for me, a plus b equals c.
Right?
Just tell me what you want, and I go solve it.
I'm a problem solver.
But that's not what people want, nor is that what people need.
A lot of people just want someone to listen to them, to encourage them, support them, be with them, accompany them.
They a lot of people don't can't you know, I'm when people were coming to me in ministry, they weren't asking me to solve their problem.
They were looking for someone with empathy, someone who understands your situation, someone who can help them.
So, these were really great courses for that kind of one on one communication work.
And we have our third track here called leadership, trans individuals who are responsible for leading people, programs, and organizations.
Believe it or not, we do actually have usually, sometimes, we have some VPs or finance or human resources people in our in our program that just really want to better their communications people, but also know how to lead people as well.
Because this is a great track for those who want to become a leader and know and want to create leaders as well.
K?
So these are the three electives for that for this track.
Transformational leadership, leading people, programs, organizations, and applied leadership skills.
So, again, really good for those who want to be a leader, want to be a better leader, want to create leaders as well.
Know what kind of leader you are.
So human resources, executive and nonprofits to become you know, I've seen people who actually use this track to move up promotionally, like, in an educational or ministry setting.
One of my friends actually became a career coach.
Really good things that you can do with this track.
K.
And I mentioned earlier that there was a self design, and, basically, it means that you can really choose your electives.
K?
So you have you can choose three electives here.
This first row is marriage and family, the second row is leadership, and the third row is the human services track.
So really, if you want to choose the electives you want, you want to, you know, mold it better to what you need in your in your program or in the work that you do, this is really good for you.
K?
So, for example, I did relationship intervention skills, transformational leadership, and group counseling.
K.
Because I was actually leading a lot of small groups at my parish, and I just wanted to learn more about how to lead lead small groups.
So, again, you can really tailor this to what you want.
So really good for those in ministry.
K.
Leaders in ministry really tailor the program to how you want it.
So this is a really good flexible track.
For those who are hardcore researchers or want to be a hardcore researcher, this is your pre PhD track.
This concentration is designed for individuals seeking careers in research related fields or wanting to pursue doctoral level studies.
So I don't know if you know this yet or if you've seen it on our site, but we are developing a PhD in psychology, that will follow the MSP program, this master's program.
So if you do end up deciding to go into the PhD track, this pre PhD track is awesome.
K?
Because all 33 credits will be able to transfer over into your PhD program, and you'd only have 60 credits left to complete.
K?
So this particular track will culminate in a thesis.
So you will have to come up with a research topic, defend your proposal, get it approved through the ethics board, do the research, and then do a final defense because psychological research does require data collection, does require some kind of, some kind of, idea towards, like, behavioral or mental illness or, you know, something in the psychology realm, not just a theological one, for example, or philosophical one.
So it does have to have some kind of psychological topic.
And you can finish this in six in six consecutive terms.
So there's this one credit course, Psy six twenty, that you have to use for six terms, k, in total.
So this is really good.
Like, let's say, if you want to teach psychology in the future, if you wanna become a research assistant, data analyst, do some kind of work in the higher education level, this is a really good top, really good track for you.
And you can really focus on the research topic that you want.
So, for example, mine is more focused on discernment, vocation, and character strengths.
I I thought to myself when I was in college that I wish I had discerned my major a bit more.
I wish I had known a little bit more of what to do.
Because, honestly, I only went to engineering because I was good at calculus and math, and that was not enough discernment because now I'm doing psychology.
So, so I wanted to do a thesis topic on what character strengths can we, can we intervene with with college students, and what's their sense of calling as well as the impact on their mental health.
So that's my thesis.
But, again, you can really choose the kind of thesis topic that you want.
We have really great topics right now.
There was one on church hurt and religious identity.
There was one on, religiosity and pornography use.
A lot of great topics out there.
And if you're interested in that, you can always email me, and we can talk about what potential topics that you're interested in.
K?
Last but not least, the bioethics track.
So this is a slightly different track for those who are interested in it.
So I said you get three passes, then, you know, three electives, but the electives for the bioethics track is through the National Catholic Bioethics Center right here, NCBC.
And through that, through that organization, you're gonna take four modules here down here in the corner.
So this is really good for those who are constantly, you know, encountering ethical situations in health care and just really want to understand what how to make good choices in in that sense, whether in the beginning of life, research vaccines, or end of life.
There's a really great module for that.
And if you just want the certificate in bioethics, that is a possibility as well.
So you would take three core courses, one academic writing course, and then the electives to complete that certificate.
So we have a lot of options here at DMU.
So I know I think Leslie was asking for career opportunities.
This is a great slide.
If you want this slide, I can always forward this to you.
K.
So those in social mental health positions, this is a great list for that.
Those who want to do organizational, corporate company work, nonprofit work, you can also do work in government or law enforcement.
Actually, having a master's in psychology, I've heard, can actually bring you up a pay grade if you end up working for the government.
Those in ministry appear in the top right and then education.
K?
So do keep in mind here that this particular master's in psychology is a lot more broad in application.
K?
You can really do a lot more with it, and you can really move up in the world as well, which is a master in psychology.
It's a really good thing to have in your resume and looks really good for, you know, future prospects.
So learning style.
I know I don't know how many of you have done online learning before, but this is a 100% online course.
So it is through a learning management platform called Canvas.
It's fairly easy.
It's fairly intuitive.
We have modules every week.
There are weekly due dates, and you really have the ability to work anytime, anywhere.
So I remember even logging in to Canvas on my phone while I was on a cruise, And I was still able to see, like, what homeworks were coming up next, and I was able to see what quizzes were coming up.
So there was really continuous access to the online platform.
And there's many different ways to learn.
All of the videos are prerecorded, so you can really work and work on your own time throughout the week.
Now, again, there are weekly due dates.
So as long as you're able to meet those weekly the weekly classwork, you can really learn anywhere anytime during that week.
The majority of the work is paper writing.
So I don't know how y'all feel about paper writing, but as an engineer, I had maybe one writing class in my life.
But I made it through, so it is possible.
K?
There's a lot of student resources and writing resources for every student.
There's 20 fourseven tutors, 20 fourseven librarians.
I mean, you have the opportunity to really be supported here at DMU even if writing is not your strong suit.
And again, that weekly individualized feedback from the professor.
So we do do APA style writing, and that's part of the and that's just part of the psychology realm.
Everyone writes APA style.
But don't worry.
There's plenty of time to get used to APA style writing.
Substance abuse counseling.
Okay.
Thank you, Val, for that.
And how many hours a week is good to invest in a good learning experience?
Very good question, Carol.
So, Michelle mentioned it earlier.
There's two ways to complete the program, and she'll explain that.
There's a sixteen month track and a twenty six month track.
Basically, it equates to two classes at a time or one class at a time.
So if you each class, I would say, averages about ten to fifteen hours a week, which was which was what I did.
I only took one class at a time, and it was just right.
I was a full time worker.
And I don't know for those who have done ministry before, but it's not a nine to five job.
It's more like weekends and evenings whenever you can meet people.
So, just one class at a time was perfect for full time workers or if you have a family situation that requires more of your attention.
But if you do have the ability to work, you know, two classes at a time, that's about thirty hours a week of work.
You can finish in just sixteen months, which is just over a year.
K.
Hopefully, I answered your question, Carol.
K.
So if you are interested in the admissions process, Michelle will enlighten you on this.
Alright.
So let's start with a lot of these things are standard.
Bachelor's degree, you need a bachelor's degree from an accredited university.
Also, you must have a 2.5 GPA.
Now that's standard.
If you wanna be competitive, you want at least a 2.75 GPA.
I'm gonna come back to the two letters of recommendation.
Okay.
And there's a reason for it.
The resume.
You need a good resume, and the written statement of intent is basically, a 500 word, a one page statement of how you came to this program, your intent with this pro with the master's degree, what you wanna do with it.
You know what?
Can you articulate that a little better?
It's just I don't wanna miss mislead with that.
So think about it this way.
Your personal statement is your best time to show who you are.
So Yeah.
Write about a page, half a page to a page about who you are, what you're looking at, and what you intend to do with the program.
Kind of like it's akin to the cover sheet on a resume.
Oh.
You know?
Here's your opportunity to speak about who you are and exactly what Charice had said.
Mhmm.
Okay.
And I'm gonna come back to the two letters of recommendation because it says two letters of recommendation.
I like to look at it as, two recommendation request.
The letters of recommendation sound a little scarier, but, really, this is you wanna line up three to four, maybe even five to six people instead of two, and here's why.
This is the spot in the application where, applicants are are truly at a stop.
They're at a standstill because maybe their, recommenders are away on vacation, or they don't check their email.
And so you'll be waiting on them to do that that letter of recommendation or recommendation request.
It's not a letter, although there are places as you move through your let me back up a little bit.
Going ahead of myself here.
So as you move through your application, you'll come to this point, and, it'll ask for two.
Like I said, you wanna have a little bit more so that you don't get tripped up here, but it'll have a hyperlink.
So you'll copy that, and then you'll send it to the people of your choice.
And and it's it's just simple process for them.
There are places for them to write some thoughts out, but it is not like a a letter.
So I'll say that.
You can ask your professor, teacher, supervisor, managers, your pastor, or your priest.
And they're basically people that know you well, that can speak to your character and your abilities, your, potential for growth, all of these things, all the wonderful things to make sure they're good people.
And if we happen to get all six, five or six, four, five or six of those letters in, we'll take the best two and upload that into your record.
Did anybody have any questions regarding this part of the process?
Probably not.
I think it's pretty standard.
It's kind of just, like, five things, like transcripts, resume, personal statement, and two recommenders.
So not a lot of admissions, process.
So you can actually get this done in a week or two.
Transcripts now can be sent via email, which can be which they can send it over to us in an hour.
Very easy.
K?
But I do wanna mention the TOEFL IELTS.
If you are not a native English speaker or from a native English speaking country, we do request TOEFL.
And the reason for that is, again, this this program is paper writing heavy.
Now you may you might be a very good English speaker, but we all but we also need to write English.
So that's the main reason for the TOEFL is to see your writing ability, and we wanna make sure that you will you can flourish in the program.
So if you are not a native English speaker, you would have to take the TOEFL.
K?
Mhmm.
And you're sorry.
I forgot to mention the mandatory, virtual orientation, which would be fun.
I would think that's fun.
It's nice to meet other other people, honestly.
So Alright.
And so here's what everybody really wants to get to, the nitty gritty.
So is it affordable?
Yes.
It really is.
We have the standard ways of paying for your education.
And because we're accredited, we do have the, the grants, the federal grants.
Let's see.
We have your if you're working, you might wanna ask about tuition assistance.
Not tuition assistance.
Tuition reimbursement.
That's something that you're gonna wanna check on.
Most, employers do offer that.
Another option is if you're part of a parish or a diocese, then you have things available to you, extra.
So you definitely wanna check with that.
I have a list of things that are available if you belong to a parish or a diocese.
So you can all reach out to me if you'd like.
I'll put my, email in the chat or Charice, either one of us, and we can send that to you.
DMU has our own scholarships and grants, and there's there's a lot of them.
It's definitely very doable.
We do have cash plans as well, and they are interest free.
So it's, kind of like when you go and you you buy a new car and you set up your payment.
Only when you drive, your your degree off of the lot, so to speak, it's not going to depreciate.
So that's a good thing.
So let's see.
Did I miss anything?
We are a Yellow Ribbon School, and we do, support, VA VA benefits.
I think did I catch it all?
I do know.
There are a lot of financial aid.
When you go through your process, you'll have a one on one meeting with the financial aid department representative, and they'll walk you through this as well.
There is a place I don't know if you've seen on the Internet on on the website, and it has a net the the net, calculator.
So you can actually see what your costs would kind of estimate at just to help you.
Oh, thank you for putting that in there, Charice.
Yeah.
Val said, I belong to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
I'm interested in knowing more information.
Perfect.
So one of the things that I actually encourage everyone to do if you are part of a diocese is to actually check the diocese diocesan website for financial aid.
Like, some people won't even know that a website exists for their diocese, but most diocese already have a website.
Look up look, what nonprofits there are, what's in your area.
Definitely look at that look that up.
Now the cash plans, I think, was a really great draw because you are you have to pay your tuition for each semester.
Mhmm.
So if you have a spring, summer, and fall, you pay before the the semester starts.
But you can actually set up a cash plan where it's more divvied up every month.
So if you're in the spring, you can take two to three months to pay back that that tuition interest free through DMU, which I think is really, really wonderful, really helpful.
Didn't hit the wallet quite as hard.
So definitely something to to sign up for.
Okay.
So here is the nitty gritty, the tuition and the fees.
Basically, you are looking at a thirty three credit hour, class.
So it consists of 11 courses.
Your tuition, the entirety of that is part of that is a technology fee that's tacked on, per class, and, that covers things like online platform access and tech support.
We also have the residency fee.
Yes.
You have a residency.
It is during the seventh week of your of your program.
It's a Friday and Saturday.
It's just two days, and it's pretty much the entire day.
And you'll get more information on that, but I've heard it's it's wonderful.
I actually want to sit in on one of these.
You get to meet with your, your your group of people, your your class, and also your professors.
So, it's a really lovely time.
And, so there's the residency fee.
Did I miss anything, Charice?
Yeah.
No.
You did a great job.
We'll talk about the sixteen month versus Yeah.
The twenty six month because there is a difference with that.
Mhmm.
And 876 per credit.
Now I know that the the amount looks scary here, but DMU actually does does a really good job in trying to find a scholarship and a or a grant for every student.
Now this is, like, the most anyone will ever pay, but no one actually ever pays this huge amount.
Again, we have that financial aid representative that will reach out to you in the process of your admissions that will work with you one on one to find the best financial plan.
And think about it as well as divvy it up per month.
Like, divide it by the number of months that you want to do, either the sixteen month or the twenty six month.
Right?
So you don't even have to pay all this out, of course, out of pocket.
Honestly, what I did was I did a third scholarship, a third out of pocket, and a third student loans.
I only I came out with, I think, 8,000 in student loans, which actually wasn't bad.
Right?
So think about it more long term.
Think about something that you can, you know, give up just a couple day a couple days a week, and that money does add up fairly quickly.
So, again, we will have a financial aid representative that will help you find the best financial plan for you.
Alright.
Now Charice already mentioned this, the two tracks that we have available.
I refer to them as the speedy race course and then the scenic route.
So the sixteen month, if you think about it, just over a year, you could be finished with your your degree and get on with things.
The other bonus to that is that your your tuition is, reduced.
So you can see there.
You get a slight reduction.
The twenty six month, again, either one of these, whichever one you're looking at.
It just depends on how much time you can devote to your schoolwork and your classes.
And that's totally up to you.
If you wanna take your time and take one class at a time and savor savor that and let it marinate and you do the twenty six month, and you'd be finished in just over two years.
So, that really is based on how you how much time you wanna devote to your classes.
Right, Charice?
Yes.
Oh, me again.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Oh, she's springing them on me here.
You can do that.
Alright.
So, basically, we want you to be able to look at these four questions and, really kind of assess, you know, where you are and and how you're feeling.
You know, if you can answer honestly yes to each one of these, then why not move forward?
Why not, you know, make this your New Year's resolution or, you know, just to get into it?
Honestly, you would wanna ask yourself, like, how's it gonna feel when you finish?
You know?
When you have this degree and you have this goal in your mind and you know?
I think Charisse can say it better.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
No problem.
Honestly, the whole point of the master's in psychology program is that you discern really if this is the bright the right path for you.
And then these are four questions that can help you discern whether or not this is the right program for you.
Will it help you attain your goals?
Think about your future.
What do you what are you thinking about one, two, three years from now?
What do you see yourself doing?
Do you see yourself doing and going to another career path, helping people in a different way?
Like, this is a really great program for that.
Remember how applicable and diverse and flexible this program is.
Does it fit your schedule?
Right?
It is fairly flexible, but are you willing to devote the time to complete the paper the paper writing, the quizzes?
Really think about that.
Do the financial options help?
I mean, we are also here to help you on the side.
If you have any other questions about financial aid, you can always talk to me or me or Michelle.
I'm happy to help you out with that because, again, we do try our best to find a scholarship or a grant for every student, some kind of tuition assistance.
So we will we can answer more about that later.
And, really, can you commit to the successful completion of the program if if accepted?
We do want you to complete the program.
Right?
And we don't want to see you struggle.
We do have disability services, writing resources, student services that will help you and assist you throughout your program.
You can always ask them.
Yes.
We do have accommodations for those who request it.
So we just have all these options in our program, though I think everyone can can really benefit from that.
K?
That being said, are there any other questions while I'm here while we're here?
It was asked about, Amelia was asking about the LPC certification.
Okay.
The LPC certification, you cannot complete an LPC certification in sixteen months.
An LPC certification requires sixty graduate plus hours as well as seven hundred clinical hours.
Our program only offers, you know, half of half of those courses, so this is not one for licensure.
This is really for those who want to help people outside of the clinical realm.
If you're looking for an LPC program, you're gonna look I highly recommend you find a CACREP accredited program.
Well, we do have one here at DMU.
We have a master's in counseling program if you wanna be a counselor.
It is, we can forward your information happily to the other admissions adviser that does the master's in counseling program.
So if you are outside of The US, however, we have had students that use this program to become a counselor in that in another country.
So The US is fairly strict on who can become a therapist, who can become a counselor, but we've had other students in in Africa, in Asia complete this program and become counselors in their country.
We just don't offer the practicum part.
Think about it.
We are 100% online, so it's just not practical in that way.
Any other questions while we're here?
I mean, feel free to leave a note.
This is actually technically the end of the webinar, so we're just gonna hang around for a few more minutes.
If there are any other questions, feel free to reach out.
But thank you so much for coming in.
It's great to have some inter some interfacing on chat as well.
Thank you, Christina.
Thank you, Carol, father Jack, Amelia, all those who or Val, whoever asked.
Definitely write oh, raise your Ishrat Saba.
If you can write your question on chat or write it in the q and a, we can definitely help you.
And I'm gonna give a big round to Michelle.
I know that y'all are here.
But she did a great job for her first webinar.
You guys are gracious.
Can I proceed still proceed PhD if I take the human services?
Yes.
You can.
You would have to do your thesis in your first year PhD.
So regardless, a thesis would be required.
So you can either take it as a as a master's or you can take it as PhD.
And our PhD in psychology is also 100% online, so it's very helpful, again, for those who are international.
K?
An email for contact.
Leslie, you can see my email on the screen here.
C bennett, literally the exact same spelling.
Two n's, two t's.
Okay.
I think I would be emailed the counseling program, school watch, school counselor, marriage and family.
Looking for a Catholic focus.
Perfect.
Because our program our master's in counseling program is also Catholic.
So please reach out to me.
Here's the email or reach out to Michelle.
Well, what is the website that can spoil your programs for for Merry Christmas, Carol.
Thank you so much for coming in.
It was great to meet you.
Isra, here's the website, www.divinemercy.edu.
K?
Few more minutes, but great job, Michelle.
Thank you.
So proud.
You did it.
Not to that.
Oh, well, I have a lot to learn.
You got this.
Merry Christmas, Carol.
Yes.
Thank you.
Www.divinemercy.edu.
Okay.
Maybe that's better.
So that's a link link.
So perfect.
Thank you so much for coming in.
Anyone else while we're here?
Few more minute or so.
Yay.
Thank you, father Jack.
A great job, Michelle.
See?
The more you do these, the easier it gets, honestly.
Not that bad.
Plus you don't have a lot of eyes on you either, so it's a little bit easier.
That's true.
Yeah.
It'll be easier if I just jump in the classes, see, and go through it with everybody else.
You should.
It's actually really fun.
Mhmm.
It's really done a graduate online program, and I loved it, but there was not a whole lot of integration, with the class and the professors.
And I wish I would have known about Divine Mercy.
I certainly would have chosen this absolutely hands down.
Honestly, what what one of the things I found interesting is that while you're learning about flourishing for yourself, you're also sort of, like, healing along the way as well.
Right?
Because there's just some things that you have to process for yourself.
And while you're learning about human behavior, how people think, do, what motivates them to make decisions, you're also looking at yourself.
So there's a there's a good aspect of healing in the program as well.
It's not part of it's not it's, like, not part of it part of it, but flourishing is a part of it.
Right?
So it's part of it.
Really cool.
What is LPC certification?
LPC is licensed, professional counselor.
That's if you wanna get licensed, as a therapist or a counselor in your state.
Again, our per our we do have a K CREP accredited master's in counseling program that fits the education requirements of all 50 states.
So if you are interested in that, let us know.
K.
I'd like to ask again about the classes.
She'll said classes are held on Fridays and Saturdays to hold.
Oh, no.
I apologize.
I I may have confused you.
No.
Though, that is for the residency, which is a onetime thing.
It's the seventh week into your classes.
It is only one time.
It's a Friday and a Saturday.
I'm sorry.
The rest of the time, it is asynchronous.
Mhmm.
A lot of the lectures are prerecorded.
So, really, you can work on your own time.
But there is a onetime virtual residency in your first class.
K?
Thank you all so much for coming in.
Hopefully, we interchange you tonight.
Isra, no.
This is not a counseling program.
This is a psychology program.
So you would have to look at a counseling program near you.
Highly recommend a K Prep accredited program, and we can forward your information to the master's in counseling admissions adviser.
K?
Thank you so much for coming in.
Thanks, Michelle.
Great job.
Thank you.
See you later.
Bye.
Take care.