MAFP Advising and Assessment

Student Advising and Mentoring

Advising
Faculty in the MAFP program are highly committed to the development of our students through active advising and mentoring relationships. As both practitioners and scholars who are involved in local and national organizations and are active in the field of forensic psychology, we are able to mentor students in their pursuit of future academic challenges or forensic careers.

Students are assigned an advisor during orientation, and meet with their advisor formally on a quarterly basis. At that time, students receive written and oral feedback about their academic progress and mentorship regarding professional development. Students are encouraged to seek informal advisement and mentorship from faculty on a regular basis. First year students are also invited to participate in peer mentorship groups with second year students, and one‐to‐one peer mentoring with doctoral students.

Again, informal mentoring occurs between master’s students in the various years and with students in various programs, as they work together as clinic assistants and have doctoral students as lab assistants in the classroom. Finally, students are mentored in their professional development through their field placement supervisors and adjunct faculty members, many of whom are graduates of our master’s program.

Assessment Process
Students’ progress in the two‐year program is closely monitored. All students are assigned an advisor during orientation, and formally meet with their advisor each quarter to receive feedback on their academic, clinical, and professional development (including, but not limited to, adherence to ethical standards, cultural competency, self‐reflective practice, and interpersonal skills). This quarterly feedback to students integrates input from core and adjunct faculty members, and incorporates supervisor evaluations from field placement.

All students are provided verbal as well as written feedback during their quarterly advisement meeting. Students are encouraged to meet with their advisors on an as‐needed basis, in addition to the once quarterly meetings. Based on the quarterly feedback and responsiveness to the feedback, students are considered for advancement to preliminary candidacy after their first year. At that time, students may be: advanced, having completed all requirements; advanced, pending completion of all requirements; issued a warning, outlining necessary steps needed to remediate; placed on probation, with a specified plan and timeline in place that allows them to be removed from probation or results in them being terminated from the program.

Students are then advanced to final candidacy (i.e., ready to graduate) in the winter quarter of their second year, assuming they have maintained a “B” average, and completed the clinical and professional development requirements for the program. In order to graduate, students must complete 700 hours of supervised field placement experience. Many of our students complete much more during their two years in the program.

In addition to twice yearly evaluations from their field placement supervisors and quarterly evaluations from their advisors, students are required to successfully pass a clinical competency exam in the spring of their second year.