Ten Steps in Senior Tutorial Programs
Step One: Apply to PSP
Step Two: PSP Provost and Faculty review application
Step Three: Prospective student is accepted
Step Four: Accepted student meets in person or by telephone with PSP President in order to select an appropriate arrangement for tuition payment and prepare a PSP Contract which both student and President sign. At this point, prospective student is formally enrolled in The Professional School of Psychology.
Step Five: The enrolled student indicates whether he/she wishes to participate in one of the established tutorial programs or in an individualized tutorial program based on one of the six individualized tutorial models.
Step Six: If the student selects an established tutorial program, then he/she meets with the senior tutor who has established this program to design and plan for this program (often in conjunction with other newly-enrolled students who wish to participate in this established tutorial program. If the student selects an individualized tutorial program, then the PSP President and Provost identify a potential senior tutor for this student. The student then meets in person or by telephone with this prospective senior tutor to discuss the student’s educational interests and needs. Both the student and prospective senior tutor determine if there is a good “fit” between student and tutor. If the fit is not good then the President and Provost identify another prospective senior tutor, and this process is repeated until the student finds a good fit with his/her educational needs and interests, as well as his/her own preferred style of learning and/or schedule and format for meeting with the tutor.
Step Seven: The student and senior tutor meets to design and initiate their senior tutorial program. In the case of some established tutorial programs and Model Six (Cohort-Based) individualized tutorial programs this planning is done by a newly-convened group of students in conjunction with the senior tutor. The senior tutor may or may not conduct the entire program and the tutorial design is frequently reviewed and modified to meet the shifting interests and needs of the student, as well as the increased appreciation by both the student(s) and tutor of the most effective way in which to interact in their dynamic tutorial-based interaction.
Step Eight: Early in the senior tutorial program, the senior tutor and student begin to discuss and design the specific portfolio process that will be used to document the student’s achievements in the PSP doctoral program.
Step Nine: the student and senior tutor will often begin to discuss or even being to plan for and engage in the dissertation project very early in the tutorial program (especially if the student is engaged in either the individualized Model One, Model Two or Model Four tutorial programs). Formally, however, the dissertation can not be initiated (or at least not completed) until the portfolio has been completed and approved by the senior tutor and all required course work is completed (at which point, the student is advanced to doctoral candidacy).
Step Ten: the student completes his/her doctoral dissertation process and is awarded the doctoral degree from The Professional School of Psychology.
Resource Links:
Register by contacting the Patti Erck at the Professional School of Psychology by telephone at (916) 641-6542 Ext 1 or e-mail pattie@psp.edu
