2012 APPIC Internship Application Thread

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If you have location of the interview for the 4th, pls let me know

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Originally Posted by intern716092

If you have location of the interview for the 4th, pls let me know

did u make it!?

Originally Posted by psydperson

drink a lot of fluids and take some vitamin c. hope you feel better!

question for everyone: for those who have had interviews at college counseling centers (more specifically phone interviews), what types of questions have they asked you? any help would be appreciated thanks and good luck to everyone

So far I've done 3 phone interviews with college counseling centers.

1) All asked what I do for self-care.
2) All asked about my early career goals and how their college counseling center fits into my goals.
3) At 2 there is the opportunity to supervise another student, so they asked about my previous experience with supervision, what I will find challenging about supervision, and what type of supervisor do I think I will be.
4) 2 read me vignettes and asked what additional information I would want to know
5) 2 asked me what I would do if a student was considering suicide.
6) 2 asked me why they should choose me over other applicants

Some thoughtful and unique questions I got were:

1) "Tell us how you changed an intervention to address multicultural issues"
2) "What are some books or movies that have influenced you"
3) "How do you hope to be different when you leave internship?"
4) "Which professional person in your academic/clinical career has impacted you the most?"

Good luck!

Hi! Has anyone attended a children's hospital interview yet? I have my first on Friday, and would be happy to share my questions, as well. We are all in this together...good luck everyone!

Originally Posted by MsBella13

So far I've done 3 phone interviews with college counseling centers.

1) All asked what I do for self-care.
2) All asked about my early career goals and how their college counseling center fits into my goals.
3) At 2 there is the opportunity to supervise another student, so they asked about my previous experience with supervision, what I will find challenging about supervision, and what type of supervisor do I think I will be.
4) 2 read me vignettes and asked what additional information I would want to know
5) 2 asked me what I would do if a student was considering suicide.
6) 2 asked me why they should choose me over other applicants

Some thoughtful and unique questions I got were:

1) "Tell us how you changed an intervention to address multicultural issues"
2) "What are some books or movies that have influenced you"
3) "How do you hope to be different when you leave internship?"
4) "Which professional person in your academic/clinical career has impacted you the most?"

Good luck!

thank you!!
wow those "unique" questions seem pretty hard. especially the first one about changing an intervention! how did you answer that? i don't know what i would even say. lol

Originally Posted by MsBella13

So far I've done 3 phone interviews with college counseling centers.

1) All asked what I do for self-care.
2) All asked about my early career goals and how their college counseling center fits into my goals.
3) At 2 there is the opportunity to supervise another student, so they asked about my previous experience with supervision, what I will find challenging about supervision, and what type of supervisor do I think I will be.
4) 2 read me vignettes and asked what additional information I would want to know
5) 2 asked me what I would do if a student was considering suicide.
6) 2 asked me why they should choose me over other applicants

Some thoughtful and unique questions I got were:

1) "Tell us how you changed an intervention to address multicultural issues"
2) "What are some books or movies that have influenced you"
3) "How do you hope to be different when you leave internship?"
4) "Which professional person in your academic/clinical career has impacted you the most?"

Good luck!

Do you mind sharing where these places are?

1. Tell us about a supervision relationship that was hard/ didn't work and how did you address it.

2. Tell us about a case that in retrospect you would have worked with differently.

3. What kind of groups did you run? Tell us about a difficult group or moment in a group and how you handled it.

4. I got a lot of questions about my autobio essay and my dissertation topic.

5. what made you choose this path?

6. How do you like your program?

7. What would you want me to ask you?

8. What do you think about being in therapy as a therapist?

9. Tell us about a case in which you felt diversity/culture was a core issue and how did you handle that.

10. What do you think help patient/clients?

11. Tell me the most important thing you think someone should know about schizophrenia.

12. What were your outpatient/inpatient/ age groups experience (as in - talk about specific settings or populations)


My advice is to actually not be over prepared. I think what worked for me is to think of the question and see what it brought up for me. We all have plenty of experience, otherwise we would not be in the interview. So think about something that is alive for you at the moment. Be excited. Show how you feel about these issues. That's how I went about it...


Good luck everyone!

So I got a call from Columbia Adult for a second interview today.
And I happened to be with another applicant from a different program who got a call too at the same time.

I guess their still inviting people!

So they may still call you.

Originally Posted by The Hobgoblin

So I got a call from Columbia Adult for a second interview today.
And I happened to be with another applicant from a different program who got a call too at the same time.

I guess their still inviting people!

So they may still call you.

Columbia is the only program that I know of that does a second interview. Did you have to do a first interview in person, and then they decide who they'll invite back for the next round?

I didn't apply there, I'm just curious about how it works!

Email unpersonalized rejection this morning. That's it, done hearing from all sites! Woohoo!

This may be a silly question-but here it goes. Some of the sites listed in the APPIC directory that are not APA accredited, state in their materials that they are aiming for future APA accreditation. What would that mean to someone who completes one of these internships while it is non-accredited? If they do become APA accredited in the future, will current interns be able to claim that they completed an APA accredited internship?

no.

I also got a call from Columbia today

Originally Posted by ihearttherapy

I also got a call from Columbia today

Can I ask if you were called back by the person who interviewed you or someone else? Are they scheduling interview days or just individual interviews? Do you get a choice?

Originally Posted by TrapsForMice

This may be a silly question-but here it goes. Some of the sites listed in the APPIC directory that are not APA accredited, state in their materials that they are aiming for future APA accreditation. What would that mean to someone who completes one of these internships while it is non-accredited? If they do become APA accredited in the future, will current interns be able to claim that they completed an APA accredited internship?

The accreditation start is established from the date of the site visit. If the site visit occurs during your internship year (eg: before your date of successful completion), then you would have completed an APA accredited internship, even if the status was not in place at the time you matched. Sites cannot, however, predict when their site visit would be scheduled and in any case, it would not occur until after they have submitted their self-study. And there can be a long span of time between the site visit and the final accreditation if supplemental materials must be submitted after the visit. So planning to get accredited and getting accredited can cover a span of multiple years, given the complexity of the accreditation process.

Originally Posted by MsBella13

So far I've done 3 phone interviews with college counseling centers.

1) All asked what I do for self-care.
2) All asked about my early career goals and how their college counseling center fits into my goals.
3) At 2 there is the opportunity to supervise another student, so they asked about my previous experience with supervision, what I will find challenging about supervision, and what type of supervisor do I think I will be.
4) 2 read me vignettes and asked what additional information I would want to know
5) 2 asked me what I would do if a student was considering suicide.
6) 2 asked me why they should choose me over other applicants

Some thoughtful and unique questions I got were:

1) "Tell us how you changed an intervention to address multicultural issues"
2) "What are some books or movies that have influenced you"
3) "How do you hope to be different when you leave internship?"
4) "Which professional person in your academic/clinical career has impacted you the most?"

Good luck!

Thank you so much for this! Any types of questions that can get me thinking in interview mode or provide a heads-up on what could be expected is very much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to share these with us!

Originally Posted by MsBella13

So far I've done 3 phone interviews with college counseling centers.

1) All asked what I do for self-care.
2) All asked about my early career goals and how their college counseling center fits into my goals.
3) At 2 there is the opportunity to supervise another student, so they asked about my previous experience with supervision, what I will find challenging about supervision, and what type of supervisor do I think I will be.
4) 2 read me vignettes and asked what additional information I would want to know
5) 2 asked me what I would do if a student was considering suicide.
6) 2 asked me why they should choose me over other applicants

Some thoughtful and unique questions I got were:

1) "Tell us how you changed an intervention to address multicultural issues"
2) "What are some books or movies that have influenced you"
3) "How do you hope to be different when you leave internship?"
4) "Which professional person in your academic/clinical career has impacted you the most?"

Good luck!

I've had almost identical questions in my CC interviews (both were in person). I additionally was asked to do a role play in one interview with a client who was reluctant to come in for therapy and who was experiencing sexual identity issues. That was a pretty tough one!

Also, a site asked me the following question: "A client comes in and tells you that they come from the Kluck culture. How woud you work with this client?" So basically this was a made up culture. They were trying to see how you would handle counseling a client from a culture you were not familiar with. That was probably my wierdest question, but they told me I gave a good answer! LOL.

Best of luck to all!

Are any other sites giving applicants feedback that they are NOT going to be ranked following the interview process? One of my sites told us that following interviews they will be e-mailing us to let us know whether or not we are still being considered by them.

I don't know how to feel about this. Part of me feels that it will be helpful in creating my rankings, but another part is really concerned that this might be pushing APPIC policy.

Agreed, I think sites notifying students whether or not they will be ranking them is definately pushing the boundaries. I would think that is considered "ranking related information."

Sites are not required to give out this information, but they can choose to, as they are not revealing how they will be ranking you, but rather that they will not be. That could be useful information and some students might want to know but overall it shouldn't determine how you would rank.

The prohibition is on the topic of "where" you would be in the rank (from either party) because it complicates simply rating your preferences and leads to all kinds of potential politicizing, ruminations, and stress that are not healthy or equitable in a process that is stressful enough for all. Sites and students rank in their preferred order and the statistical gears do their work in the mysterious NMS machine.

It is not realistic to mandate that all sites let all students know who they are not ranking, as decision making can go very late in the process and a common view is that it is only demoralizing to get late-breaking disappointing news. It should not, in theory, change your order of preference.

Originally Posted by docma

Sites are not required to give out this information, but they can choose to, as they are not revealing how they will be ranking you, but rather that they will not be. That could be useful information and some students might want to know but overall it shouldn't determine how you would rank.

The prohibition is on the topic of "where" you would be in the rank (from either party) because it complicates simply rating your preferences and leads to all kinds of potential politicizing, ruminations, and stress that are not healthy or equitable in a process that is stressful enough for all. Sites and students rank in their preferred order and the statistical gears do their work in the mysterious NMS machine.

It is not realistic to mandate that all sites let all students know who they are not ranking, as decision making can go very late in the process and a common view is that it is only demoralizing to get late-breaking disappointing news. It should not, in theory, change your order of preference.

Yep. Directly from APPIC's match rules:

"Internship programs may choose to inform applicants as to whether or not the applicants remain under consideration for admission (e.g., whether or not the applicants will be ranked) but may not communicate any other ranking information."

Thus, a site can definitely let you know if they plan on ranking you, they (and you) just can't say much more than that.

Although as docma mentioned, I personally wouldn't let the notification influence my rankings. If they were my first choice before hearing that information, I'd still rank them as #1, as it won't hurt your chances of matching elsewhere. There's always the chance that they still do end up ranking you for some reason, such as that they sent the wrong email to you and never ended up catching the mistake.

Originally Posted by AcronymAllergy

Yep. Directly from APPIC's match rules:

"Internship programs may choose to inform applicants as to whether or not the applicants remain under consideration for admission (e.g., whether or not the applicants will be ranked) but may not communicate any other ranking information."

Thus, a site can definitely let you know if they plan on ranking you, they (and you) just can't say much more than that.

Although as docma mentioned, I personally wouldn't let the notification influence my rankings. If they were my first choice before hearing that information, I'd still rank them as #1, as it won't hurt your chances of matching elsewhere. There's always the chance that they still do end up ranking you for some reason, such as that they sent the wrong email to you and never ended up catching the mistake.

Thanks for posting the official policy. The site themselves has said that some students have really appreciated the feedback, but that it has been a somewhat controversial choice on their part. I know it probably shouldn't impact my list of rankings, but I think it could at some emotional level (e.g. hurt feelings from not being considered further). T

The site has made it clear that I can request not to recieve this information from them. Maybe I will choose that route instead.

Anyone else encountering this from other sites?

Originally Posted by mcs207

Thanks for posting the official policy. The site themselves has said that some students have really appreciated the feedback, but that it has been a somewhat controversial choice on their part. I know it probably shouldn't impact my list of rankings, but I think it could at some emotional level (e.g. hurt feelings from not being considered further). T

The site has made it clear that I can request not to recieve this information from them. Maybe I will choose that route instead.

Anyone else encountering this from other sites?

Definitely understandable. I can see how the information would be appreciated, but if you're going in with the intention of it not influencing your rankings at all, opting out might be a good choice.

Regarding your question, of the 7 or 8 sites I interviewed with last year, none contacted me afterward with respect to my status. Two did contact me at some point, although that was: 1) to have us fill out a site-specific track consideration list, and 2) to provide my match #.

Super interesting topic! None of my sites have mentioned letting us know if we're not being ranked, so I didn't realize that that happened.

With that being said, unless they were the only site where I had interviewed (in which case I'd rather know that I was unlikely to match), I think I'd really rather not know if a site wasn't going to rank me. If you don't get feedback on why you weren't ranked, which would allow you to improve your interview style, then there's really nothing useful to be done with that information. It just seems needlessly painful. With interviews, I'm eventually going to find out that I was rejected, so there's no sense in dragging that out. But if a site that interviewed me is my top choice and I match somewhere else, all I'll ever know is that I wasn't ranked highly enough to match there. That still seems better than knowing for sure that they weren't interested in me at all.

Originally Posted by FrdLcnKln

Can I ask if you were called back by the person who interviewed you or someone else? Are they scheduling interview days or just individual interviews? Do you get a choice?

I got called by a different person, and they set me up with multiple interviews for the same day. Sounds exhausting.

Originally Posted by psydperson

thank you!!
wow those "unique" questions seem pretty hard. especially the first one about changing an intervention! how did you answer that? i don't know what i would even say. lol

This year I'm working with a lot of young Black men, so I said something along the lines of how I'm not necessarily changing my interventions, but I've changed my style in how I present them, such as I'm a lot more conversational in the beginning of session as opposed to getting straight to therapy business, I self-disclose more often, and I use hip-hop & rap music to illustrate examples as well as I usually begin the group/individual session by asking if any of the guys have written anything since our last meeting because a lot of them rap/sing.

Originally Posted by psychRA

Super interesting topic! None of my sites have mentioned letting us know if we're not being ranked, so I didn't realize that that happened.

With that being said, unless they were the only site where I had interviewed (in which case I'd rather know that I was unlikely to match), I think I'd really rather not know if a site wasn't going to rank me. If you don't get feedback on why you weren't ranked, which would allow you to improve your interview style, then there's really nothing useful to be done with that information. It just seems needlessly painful. With interviews, I'm eventually going to find out that I was rejected, so there's no sense in dragging that out. But if a site that interviewed me is my top choice and I match somewhere else, all I'll ever know is that I wasn't ranked highly enough to match there. That still seems better than knowing for sure that they weren't interested in me at all.

That'd be my approach to it as well, although I could see someone wanting to know just for the sake of knowing. For something like post-doc, where the information could have very direct consequences on where you end up (e.g., if you're basing your decision of whether or not to participate in the match on what the site says, or have another offer in hand and are waiting to receive feedback from another site or two before committing), I'd definitely ask. But with the whole internship process the way it is, I can't think of many situations where knowing that information would change much for me (other than if I didn't match and were then going to contact the site to ask for feedback/constructive criticism).

Originally Posted by MsBella13

This year I'm working with a lot of young Black men, so I said something along the lines of how I'm not necessarily changing my interventions, but I've changed my style in how I present them, such as I'm a lot more conversational in the beginning of session as opposed to getting straight to therapy business, I self-disclose more often, and I use hip-hop & rap music to illustrate examples as well as I usually begin the group/individual session by asking if any of the guys have written anything since our last meeting because a lot of them rap/sing.

Wow.

Originally Posted by MsBella13

This year I'm working with a lot of young Black men, so I said something along the lines of how I'm not necessarily changing my interventions, but I've changed my style in how I present them, such as I'm a lot more conversational in the beginning of session as opposed to getting straight to therapy business, I self-disclose more often, and I use hip-hop & rap music to illustrate examples as well as I usually begin the group/individual session by asking if any of the guys have written anything since our last meeting because a lot of them rap/sing.

thanks for answering thats an interesting example. does anybody else have examples of how they would "change" an intervention for a specific group?

i had an interview yesterday and they asked me very vague/strange questions. a few were:
on a scale of 1-10 how ready are you for internship?
what do you think of supervision?
what do you think of dependence and autonomy and how do they intersect?
what do you think of law and ethics?
what conflict have you had with a colleague or classmate and how did you resolve it?
why should we pick you over all the other qualified candidates?

Originally Posted by psydperson

thanks for answering thats an interesting example. does anybody else have examples of how they would "change" an intervention for a specific group?

i had an interview yesterday and they asked me very vague/strange questions. a few were:
on a scale of 1-10 how ready are you for internship?
what do you think of supervision?
what do you think of dependence and autonomy and how do they intersect?
what do you think of law and ethics?
what conflict have you had with a colleague or classmate and how did you resolve it?
why should we pick you over all the other qualified candidates?

Those are weird, and some definitely pull to give the "correct" answer. I would hope none of us say something like, "I think I'm above the law, especially when I run stop lights" or something like that

double wow...

If we are wow-ing at the same thing … TRIPLE wow!

Originally Posted by Mole

If we are wow-ing at the same thing … TRIPLE wow!

we are. it'll percolate.

Originally Posted by Mole

If we are wow-ing at the same thing … TRIPLE wow!

Let's try to be informative with our criticisms here. I think all the "wows" are because of the description of the population as "young black men", and the list of interventions being related to a general theme of "rap music." In addition to "black" maybe not being the culturally preferred label, I think many people see your choice of interventions as being based on stereotypes, rather than on the actual needs of the population. While focusing on interest of group members can be an effective strategy for engaging clients in group therapy, the lack of more specific information about the population, type of group, setting, etc., may lead to the conclusion that your choices were insensitive and prejudicial. If this is the reaction you are getting from this board, you might consider being careful when using this example during an interview.

Originally Posted by PerhapsMaybeOk

we are. it'll percolate.

WOW (shaking my head)

Originally Posted by ClinicalABA

Let's try to be informative with our criticisms here. I think all the "wows" are because of the description of the population as "young black men", and the list of interventions being related to a general theme of "rap music." In addition to "black" maybe not being the culturally preferred label, I think many people see your choice of interventions as being based on stereotypes, rather than on the actual needs of the population. While focusing on interest of group members can be an effective strategy for engaging clients in group therapy, the lack of more specific information about the population, type of group, setting, etc., may lead to the conclusion that your choices were insensitive and prejudicial. If this is the reaction you are getting from this board, you might consider being careful when using this example during an interview.

Good feedback! Actually thinking and writing those words out makes me wonder if whatever criticisms I may have could possibly have no impact on the OP. Good for you for taking the time to offer some.

Originally Posted by DoctorSiggy

Agreed and don't settle on that 10 session CBT thought record stuff. Get them to pay for the good stuff......... that analytical 3x's weekly for 3 years...

I went to South Shore if you want tips.

Originally Posted by psychRA

Columbia is the only program that I know of that does a second interview. Did you have to do a first interview in person, and then they decide who they'll invite back for the next round?

I didn't apply there, I'm just curious about how it works!

Yes, they invited me to a first meeting with a post doc, I guess for screening, and then after a bout a month + called to invite me to the second phase, which would be 3 half an hour interviews with 3 different people.

Hey all, just checking in since I have several hours in an airport, and putting off working on my article

I'm almost halfway done, and so far, the interviews have not been as stressful as I first assumed, and in fact, would say they have far exceeded my expectations. I love all the sites I have visited, and intrigued by how sites run similar programs, although I know that they are catering to their population and $$ issues.

I think coming in prepared for the financial burden has been really helpful for me since so far, I have only paid for gas for my car rentals. I have so many points I've saved up and/or signed up for, that I haven't spent much out of pocket except for the application fee and my interview clothes.

That is not say I'm not worried about the matching imbalance, it is quite worrisome, but there's little I can do at this point, and constantly thinking about it will just stress me out further. This is when mindfulness-based strategies come into play, and I acknowledge the worry and then just gently remind myself that regardless of the match, I am a competent and qualified applicant and future psychologist.

Anyway, if any of you know who I am through the interview trails, feel free to shoot me a PM and we can share our experiences. I'm more than happy to do so!

February 24th cannot come soon enough!

So far I've heard back from Penn State's child clinical track, interview on the 2nd or 3rd, and from University of Arkansas, interview date January 30th.

Both came via email first, then a follow up phone call from the professor I hope to work with.

Best of luck everyone.

Originally Posted by ClinicalABA

Let's try to be informative with our criticisms here. I think all the "wows" are because of the description of the population as "young black men", and the list of interventions being related to a general theme of "rap music." In addition to "black" maybe not being the culturally preferred label, I think many people see your choice of interventions as being based on stereotypes, rather than on the actual needs of the population. While focusing on interest of group members can be an effective strategy for engaging clients in group therapy, the lack of more specific information about the population, type of group, setting, etc., may lead to the conclusion that your choices were insensitive and prejudicial. If this is the reaction you are getting from this board, you might consider being careful when using this example during an interview.

Well, it's my turn to say "wow" because I see I've been totally misunderstood (which is easy to do via internet).

I think it's interesting how my interventions can be judged as "stereotypical" "insensitive" and "prejudicial" because, as you said, I did not provide any elaborate information about my clients, the group, or the setting. Those are pretty big words for someone who has slim to no information about me and what I'm actually doing with my clients, and are definitely not 3 words my peers would use to describe me.

According to Sue & Sue's text "Counseling the Culturally Diverse", they recommend that "elements of African/African American culture should be incorporated into counseling. This can be achieved through readings, movies, music..." which is what I have done and has worked for me with my clients.

The list of interventions also included using self-disclosure more often and being more conversational in therapy, which has nothing to do with rap music.

As far as "black" not being the culturally preferred label...In my experience living in NYC and Miami and interacting with many Blacks & African-Americans, the term Black may be preferred because some people of Caribbean, Haitian, or Jamaican descent feel the term African-American doesn't accurately describe them. I ask clients which term they prefer and I generally use Black for my own personal reasons.

If you or anyone else has concerns about my diversity sensitivity, please address it in a PM.

I know that I probably should have sent an email given that it is way past their interview notification date (Dec 9), but I was wondering if anyone heard anything (invite or rejection) from Woodhull.

Hey all, I have a quick question which I initially posted as a separate thread (by mistake). I was hoping current or prospective interns might be able to answer about the internship at the Texas Child Study Center in Austin, TX affiliated with Dell Children's Medical Center. The internship is currently listed as non-accredited on the APPIC website: http://www.appic.org/directory/program_cache/1219.html, but it's a very good training site and I can't imagine it will remain non-accredited!

Also, it's a real bummer that is that that is the only internship site in Austin, as I was really hoping to have some options in that area. I am wondering if anyone knows whether they are in the process of getting accredited? If so, any ideas when that would go into effect (potentially by next application season)?

Thank you for any information!

Accreditation is an expensive and VERY time consuming process and some sites simply can't afford the means or staff time to complete it, so don't assume it will come along quickly anywhere. If you want to consider a site in these circumstances, you need to research their outcomes and see whether it is a valid risk/trade-off for you. You can find lots of discussion on this site about accreditation vs. unaccredited and there is a good posting on the APPIC site about the hazards. That said, you can also find a site that is too poor for accreditation but a rich site for your training objectives and it is worth the risk. A quality site will be comfortable discussing this with you candidly and will let you know where their grads have worked and been licensed despite lack of APA accreditation.

Awesome, very informative response. I have definitely done research (on this board and elsewhere) about accreditation vs. unaccredited, and would never go to an unaccredited internship (under any circumstances). I was hoping for some information specifically about that program. Another option would be to contact them directly, but I thought there may be some applicants on the board who had already gathered information about the Texas Child Study Center site. Thanks!

Originally Posted by samantha721

I know that I probably should have sent an email given that it is way past their interview notification date (Dec 9), but I was wondering if anyone heard anything (invite or rejection) from Woodhull.

I also have not heard anything (yes or no) from Woodhull. I assumed it was a no and not notifying me was an oversite, but now that I know at least one more person has not heard from them, I will contact them as sites are supposed to let us know one way or another.

I just saw the questions about Woodhull. I was contacted about an interview in December and interviewed prior to the new year. I am not sure if they are finished interviewing but they did send out an email with dates for December and early Jan. Either way, they should notify you if nothing else but for piece of mind.

I had my interview and so I'm done with Phase I (other than ranking my 1 site and the 18 APA ones that didn't interview me).

If I don't match in Phase I, I'm hoping it's because a lot of sites all chose the same 100-500 applicants or so to interview and rank so they'll have a lot of spots left for Phase II.

Good luck to everyone!

Originally Posted by Duck Duck Goose

I had my interview and so I'm done with Phase I (other than ranking my 1 site and the 18 APA ones that didn't interview me).

If I don't match in Phase I, I'm hoping it's because a lot of sites all chose the same 100-500 applicants or so to interview and rank so they'll have a lot of spots left for Phase II.

Good luck to everyone!

Good Luck!!!