Hello and thank you for your interest in the counseling program here at the University of Louisiana Monroe. My name is Dr. Thomas Foster and I'm the program director of the program. What I've done here is I'm putting together a presentation of all of the uh typically asked questions uh that I get uh about the program. So for this presentation, I'm going to cover uh these following uh topics. Um, are we 100% online? Are our courses synchronous uh or uh or are they asynchronous? Uh the length of the program, the cost of the program, what is TAVA, how practicum and internship works, what our ideal candidates are uh or applicants, and our admissions process. All right, let's get started. Okay. So, uh I get the question all the time, are we 100% online? And I can say yes. Our courses uh all of our courses are 100% online. So, what that means is uh like you won't have to come to campus uh for any class uh at any time uh for the counseling program here at ULM. So, you'll be able to, you know, stay where you're at. We have pe we have students that live all over the country and all over the world that uh never set foot uh in Monroe, Louisiana and and come to ULM's campus. Also, and I'll and I'll speak to this in a little bit, our clinical and school sites uh for practicum and internship, you're going to uh choose a site that uh that is near to you, that is local to you. So you don't have to travel to Louisiana for any reason whatsoever uh regarding your practicum and your internships. Um now the one thing that is a little different now moving uh starting in in 2026 is uh Krep has uh has added a new accreditation standard that requires counseling programs that are online to require students to attend two in-person residencies during the time they're in the uh they're in the counseling program. So this isn't just for our program. is for all online counseling programs that are KREP accredited. Now, this is a brand new standard and I really don't have too much too many uh details in terms how our uh in-person residencies are going to look at this time. Uh but once once we make some decisions and create a plan the um we will put it on our website uh and when chances are we're going to have a tab on our website that you know that says uh you know residencies or or something like that. So I would I I would encourage you to just check in periodically about uh you know to see if if those uh new requirements uh you know the details of the residencies are going to be on in place. But as for our courses, they are online. And as for uh the practicum and internships, yes, you know, you will find a site or a school uh or a clinical site or a school near to you uh that you'll be able to complete those requirements. Okay. Uh are our courses synchronous or uh or asynchronous? Uh I'm going to say they're both. Out of the 20 courses that you would uh take with us, 14 courses are asynchronous. So that means that um you know you're going to be able to complete the requirements of the course of these asynchronous courses more on your time. So you know you'll be able to uh you know log into Canvas. That's our um uh uh that's the platform that we use. Get into uh get into Canvas and read the materials, take the quizzes uh um you know watch our recorded lectures at times during the week that are convenient for you. Uh there are also six courses that are synchronous which means synchronous courses are when uh you're going to be required to zoom in with your class on a given day and time meet with your class and your professor uh and and and uh perform uh some specific activities for the course uh uh in in real time. Uh so the the synchronous courses are going to be more related to uh the skills or clinical skills building and also clinical supervision. So, for the skills building courses, we have three of them. Uh they're called um methods of counseling, group counseling, and advanced techniques and counseling. And for these courses, you're going to meet with your classes uh over Zoom on specific days and times of the week and uh practice those basic uh counseling skills with your class uh uh at those times. Now, for this for the skills building courses, you're not going to meet every week. Typically, you meet like, you know, anywhere from five to six times over the course of the semester. Uh, and and all of those times will be scheduled out uh way ahead of time. For the clinical supervision courses, uh uh uh for those synchronous classes, you will be meeting with your class every week for an hour and a half for clinical supervision. And that's for the practicum and the internship courses. Uh so that's uh in a nutshell that's that's how our um synchronous and asynchronous courses work. Now we do have a lot of asynchronous courses that offer optional synchronous meetings with your professors in your class. So there are a lot of courses now that offer um optional live coffee shop uh discussion boards. So once a week uh you know you might uh you'll have the option to zoom in with your class and meet with your professor and talk about the material for the week and ask questions, get clarifications, things like that and uh and just to you know just talk talk in more depth about uh the material. But once again uh those those um those are those are optional in the asynchronous courses. Okay. The length of the program full-time will be two and a half years to complete. Uh and that's uh year round and that typically takes about eight semesters. So uh that's our full-time uh uh uh trajectory. Part-time is three and a half years year round and it's extended out to 11 semesters.

Okay. the cost of the program. Uh the credit uh our our tuition for each credit hour is $550. So if you multiply that by 60 hours because we're a 60-hour program, that's going to be approximately $33,000 in tuition dollars. Now, I'm going to just say that does not include taxes. That doesn't include you university fees. That is just the the tuition for uh for the classes. And that $550 uh uh tuition is for both in and out of state students. So we don't have different rates different tuition rates for uh instate and out of state since we're a graduate program and we're online. Um it's just it's the same tuition rate of 550. The residency cost is to be determined. All of this will uh eventually end up on our uh website uh on on our residency. If you click on our residency tab, it's not there yet, but it it will uh maybe by the time that you you watching this now, it might already be there. So, I would uh check and see if it's there. But the residency uh cost is uh there will be a fee uh related to the residence. Um also travel costs, lodging, food, all of that will be um you know that you're going to want to uh include in with the residency cost. Also, uh there's going to be a cost a fee for a TA account. Uh Tivera is going to cost $200 for an to purchase an account through Tivera. You might be wondering what Tivera is. We'll just go right to that. Tivera is a is a company that we are allied with. uh and uh they are an information management system that helps us to collect, compile and store evaluation data for uh on students uh for accreditation issues. Um also uh to your Tivera account will help you to collect and compile your evaluation data for practicum and internship courses and more importantly to uh to uh to be you you're going to be able to enter all of your clinical uh hours and uh uh for your practicum internship and store them get them approved by your supervisor and store them in TA as well. Now, once you purchase an a TA account, it's a onetime purchase of $200, approximately $200, and um and it's a lifetime account, so you will always have access to your approved clinical hours logs uh and which you will need to um uh when applying for lensure. And if you ever wanted to go to another state and you have to reapply for lensure, you will continually uh uh have those, you know, that that documentation if you ever need it. So, uh and this is something we require of all students who are admitted into the program is to purchase a TEA account. Typically, when you're when you're admitted in, we wait until the beginning of summer and then I'll send everyone an invite for Tivera. You click on the invite and then you can set up your account. Okay. How does practicum and internship work in an online program? Well, we are um you know, like I said before, you're going to find a site that is near to you. So, it doesn't matter if you live in California or Maine or Delaware or Florida that you know, we have students all over the country and like I said, even worldwide. So, you know, you're going to be looking locally to where, you know, uh in clinical sites or schools, depending on your concentration focus, and you're going to be uh you're going to be doing the research and finding out which of these uh sites uh offers uh internship opportunities and if they might have some that are open uh around the time that you're going to be starting your practicum and internship. Now, this I will say this is one of the things that uh that falls primarily on the student's shoulders when uh um uh you know uh while while they're in the program is to go out and do that leg work to find a site that that you're interested in. We do offer activities in our first year classes that will facilitate this process because it can take, you know, it can take a little time to find the right site. So, we do facilitate and support you, but ultimately it's it's going to be the student to to uh find uh and and secure the site that they want to uh they want to complete their hours in. Sites do need to be approved that we do have standards developed for the sites uh in order to um that are that are completely aligned with our KRP accreditation. So uh you know so we need to investigate and make sure that uh that these sites do offer all of the opportunities that KREP is uh uh wanting you to experience and but once they are approved then you'll be able to start your uh practicum and internship at the at the appropriate time. uh you will receive supervision from your on-site supervisor uh during your time at on you know on-site and also you'll be uh logging or you'll be zooming in with your uh practicum and internship classes to receive group supervision uh uh from your class. So in a nutshell that's how everything works. What is the ideal candidate? I I get this question quite a bit and I always tell people they're going to be disappointed because, you know, they they want, you know, a concrete like we look for X, Y, and Z. Uh we look at everything, but nothing specific. Uh and and people are always disappointed when I say that, but really what we what we try to do each year for each cohort is we we try to build a cohort that is complex and unique and uh and very individualized and so you know so uh and so so and that's made up of a lot of different experiences. So yeah, we look you of course we look at GPA. GPA is very important uh and you know but we also look at work experience and and and we we we try to pull in people that have a diverse array uh of of work experience. So you know we we we we accept students in who are right out of college who have never worked a day in their life that are going straight into graduate school. And on the other end of that continuum, we, you know, we look for people that have had 20 to 30 years of of work experience in a specific profession and they're coming back to retool uh and become clinical mental health or school counselors. And then we look for everything in between. Uh so that way we have a full cohort of people that have had a range of very little work experience all the way to a whole lot of work experience. And then also type of work experience. We look at that as well. We look for uh candidates who yeah who you know might be working in the mental health field as case managers or as you know or whatever. But we you know we also look for teachers and we look for accountants and people uh uh and professors and doctors and lawyers and people who work in the ministry and military. We we look for as as a diverse array of of uh of type of work of workplace background as we can because you know we we like pulling in as many different kinds of uh of um of work experience as possible. And then also uh academic background and academic diversity in terms of you know what your major was in in your undergraduate or graduate degrees that you know yeah we love psych you know psych backgrounds uh you know psych undergraduate sociology undergraduates but we also uh celebrate English uh uh degrees and history degrees and and business and education and uh master's degrees and a number of different things or even doctoral degrees or law degrees. So, you know, we like pulling in as much academic diversity as possible to enrich the cohorts that we're building each year. Uh so and you know and we look at other things in terms of uh applicant interests uh you know people who maybe have traveled uh or are involved in other types of things like if you're involved in like uh you know running culture or triathlons or you know just you know anything that is is really that that stands out that can make uh you know that can contribute to the complexity and uniqueness of uh of the program. So, you know, we we we look at everything uh but nothing specific. Okay. What is the admissions process? The first part you have to apply through the graduate school. Now, if you get on our website, click on the admissions tab and uh uh it'll it'll have a portal there that you'll click on and then you'll be able to develop uh your uh application um uh your online application for the graduate school. Once you set up an online account, there'll be an opportunity for you to pay two application fees. One for the graduate school, one for the counseling program. Pay both fees. And once you do this, the your your uh your application portal will completely open up and you and you'll be able to uh uh uh submit the needed documents to complete your application. So, the needed app uh the needed documents uh materials that you need to submit. First off, transcripts. Please have all of your undergraduate and graduate transcripts electronically sent to ulm and the graduate school will get them and they will put them into your account. Uh also provide a letter of interest uh with a link to a threeinut video. So, uh, at the top of the of of the of the letter of interest, just have that link there that we can click on and we can see, uh, you providing, uh, a threeminute video. And, um, the what you need to write about in your letter and what you need to talk about in the video. Uh, it's all in our admissions, uh, uh, tab. You click on that tab, you scroll down, it'll have instructions on exactly what we want you to write about and talk about uh for the um you know for for that uh uh you know for that requirement. Also, we're going to need a current resume and if you can provide your GPA on the education parts of your resume, that's extremely helpful. And also three letters of recommendation. Now, the the requirements for the letters of recommendation are found on our uh on the admissions website. read through it. It'll tell you exactly the kinds of letters we're looking for. But what you need to also know here is that uh I guess in terms of process is that once you open up your account fully, you're going to be able to send uh requests online uh requests through an email to your recommenders and they'll be able to open up a portal and attach their letter of recommendation to that portal and send it directly to us. and then from there we'll be able to put it into your account. So don't don't have your recommenders send me their letters uh or send them to the graduate school. Use the portal in your uh your uh your application account to do this. So all right. All right. The admissions deadlines. We have two deadlines for and and we we are a fall cohort model uh only. So we don't take people in the spring, we don't take people in the summer. We only take people in the fall because we want everyone to go through the program together, but we have two deadlines for this. So, uh, November 15th is our priority deadline. That's when all of the seats are open, and that's when you're going to have the best chances of of of being considered, uh, and and interviewed and accepted into the program. Uh and uh so if you can get everything in by November 15th, then then you know you'll uh then the graduate school will uh send us your file, your application file for review. Now, if you don't get everything in by November 15th, you will be delayed until March 15th. This is the this is our next final deadline for uh for the following, you know, uh cohort year. So let's say you find us in December or January and you say, "Oh, I really want to apply to the program." You still have time. you have until March 15th to get everything in. So, but I will say this, the priority deadline is is going to be the better deadline to apply for because once again, all the seats are open. Now, after that deadline, we're going to fill a certain number of seats, you know, uh at that time. Maybe we'll fill a lot, maybe we'll fill just a little, but you know, uh until the March 15th deadline comes around, there's going to be less seats to fill at that point. and uh and and you know and it's going to reduce the chances uh for um for admissions. So for admission. So all right if you run into problems with applying we have a team here to assist you. So if you have general questions about the program itself please email me. My name is Dr. Thomas Foster. I'm the program director of the counseling program and my email address is t foster.edu.

If you have general questions about the application process, go to our admissions ta uh web uh uh portal or web, you know, go to our website, click on the admissions tab, and you're going to find uh the admissions uh uh assistant coordinator uh their name and their uh email address, and you can reach out to them. Once you apply, they should be reaching out to you anyway to uh to make contact with you. But if you have questions about like the application process in general, go to them. If you have technical problems, then there's going to be someone on our admissions uh uh website uh through counseling uh name and and email address that you can contact them if you're having uh technical issues. So just once again use our website. It's very resourceful and the admissions uh the admissions tab uh will will help you with all of this. So, all right. Well, once again, thank you for your interest in our program. Uh, and if, um, hopefully this has been, uh, informative and helpful for you. If you have any questions, please reach out to me, Dr. Thomas Foster. Uh, so everyone have a good day today. Thank you.