Clinical Pastoral Education FAQ

Is it required?
- Not at all. However, it can fulfill the internship requirement for the MDiv degree.
Can I receive credit for it?
- Yes. For one Unit of CPE (a full-time summer, or part-time during the academic year – 400 hours), a student will receive 6 transfer elective credits upon completion.
Can I receive funding for it?
- Yes – as of 2021, YDS funds $4,000 work study for a CPE unit.
I am an MAR student – can I take CPE?
- Yes, indeed! Highly encouraged. (Only MDiv and MAR students are eligible for funding and credit at this time.)
Do I have to take Negotiating Boundaries first?
- No, not for CPE.
How do I apply?
- Visit ACPE.EDU to download an application. There are a series of short autobiographical essays that you have to write. My recommendations:
  - Keep essays to about one page single spaced if you can. They are reading student essays from folks who are in middle age and have had to edit much,
  - Be honest about how you feel/felt when you describe your experiences. The will be looking for self-reflection, not just what happened.
  - Don’t agonize about it too much.
When should I apply?
- For the full-time summer units, students should apply in early January – although more competitive programs will accept applications in the fall before. For the part-time academic year units, anytime during the spring semester is recommended. CPE programs accept students on a rolling basis, so the earlier you submit, the better your chances of getting accepted.
How many programs should I apply to?
- Totally up to you, but I would recommend 2 – 3 sites gives you better options.
I have a job (like in a church, for instance) that I work on the weekends, can I still work?
- Depends on the program. Each CPE site has different programmatic structures – for example, Yale-New Haven has regular weekend oncalls that require the intern to stay the night in the hospital, while Norwalk Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital do not require weekend work. Apply to the sites that best fit your needs.
Are all the sites hospitals? Or are there other types of locations?
- Hospitals are by far the most numerous, but there are other kinds of sites like prisons, re-entry programs, hospice centers, and the like.
Do you keep a data-base of where other students have gone? Can I talk to them about a site I am interested in?
- We have records for the most recent years, and are happy to give you their contact info, if the students agree.
What are the part-time programs? When do they happen?
- Part-time programs run at most of the local hospitals, and usually go from October – March, but the time periods vary. Yale-New Haven has two programs that coincide with the fall semester and spring semester, but this is unusual for the New Haven area hospitals. Doing CPE during the academic year is especially challenging because a student is juggling their academic work while working in the hospital several hours per week. Students interested in this kind of unit should plan their courses carefully – taking a lighter load if at all possible, keeping in mind that they do not get credit for CPE until after they have finished the unit.
Do I have to take Pastoral Care beforehand?
- Not required, but certainly recommended. At this time, Andover Newton runs a pre-CPE course in the spring semester (usually beginning after spring break) that is a great preparatory instruction.
When should I take CPE?
- Many YDS students take CPE during the summer after their first year, as CPE is a great discernment tool for ministry. But this is not necessarily the only way – the second summer is also fine. And we can even fund (although not offer credit) CPE units during the summer post-graduation. A handful of students take CPE during the academic year, but by far the majority take it during the summer.
Do I have to take it near New Haven?
- Absolutely not. You can take CPE anywhere there is an approved ACPE site, and there are many throughout the country. If you would like a summer at your parents’ or grandparents’ home, or somewhere you feel would be a safe harbor – do a site search on the ACPE.EDU website, and see if there’s a site nearby. I highly recommend this – as it gets the student outside the Yale bubble. I would not recommend a long commute, because interns would be driving home quite tired. However, we have many wonderful sites within driving distance of campus.
I missed the orientation in October. Is that a problem?
- No. But before you contact Jenny Davis, please watch the orientation video from 2020 below.
I missed the “Meet the Supervisor” day in October. Can you tell me more about the different local sites?
- I can do better than that, you can watch the most recent recorded info session below: