APA 2014 conference, how was your experience?

[Rivi]

Hello everyone,

I am curious to hear how everyone's experience was at the APA conference in D.C. this year, especially with the internship imbalance discussions. I always hope that some useful discussion will come out of these conferences. So let's hear it, for those of you who went, how was your experience? What stood out to you?

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[AcronymAllergy]

I'd be very curious to hear how that particular panel turned out as well.

 

[MCParent]

I'd be very curious to hear how that particular panel turned out as well.

The turnout was disappointing to me, I think about 30 ppl came (it was at 4 on Saturday and during social hours :-( ). But I think it went great. It's significant for the president of apa to give two of her programming hours to internship issues, at least. Frankly inviting me to be on the panel showed a lot of opennes to more challenging ideas; a different set of organizers really could have made it into an echo chamber about making more internships if they'd wanted to, but they didn't. We went over some proposals to work on the imbalance and it all seemed to go well to me. I'd hope they could put the slides up or something. There was recognition that programs need to be responsible in their admissions levels, and I think some good ideas to work on that (as well as other ideas to make more, relevant, internships).

 

[Pragma]

I thought it was decent. Very corporate, but the Division stuff was great. I missed the internship symposium. Noticed a lot of FSPS folks. Lots of internal APA politicking. I prefer specialty specific conferences, but I had a good time. Highlight for me was Carl Hart throwing down on idiotic questioners.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

The turnout was disappointing to me, I think about 30 ppl came (it was at 4 on Saturday and during social hours :-( ). But I think it went great. It's significant for the president of apa to give two of her programming hours to internship issues, at least. Frankly inviting me to be on the panel showed a lot of opennes to more challenging ideas; a different set of organizers really could have made it into an echo chamber about making more internships if they'd wanted to, but they didn't. We went over some proposals to work on the imbalance and it all seemed to go well to me. I'd hope they could put the slides up or something. There was recognition that programs need to be responsible in their admissions levels, and I think some good ideas to work on that (as well as other ideas to make more, relevant, internships).

Even with the disappointing turnout, this (the bolded portion) is great to hear.

 

[463951]

The turnout was disappointing to me, I think about 30 ppl came (it was at 4 on Saturday and during social hours :-( ). But I think it went great. It's significant for the president of apa to give two of her programming hours to internship issues, at least. Frankly inviting me to be on the panel showed a lot of opennes to more challenging ideas; a different set of organizers really could have made it into an echo chamber about making more internships if they'd wanted to, but they didn't. We went over some proposals to work on the imbalance and it all seemed to go well to me. I'd hope they could put the slides up or something. There was recognition that programs need to be responsible in their admissions levels, and I think some good ideas to work on that (as well as other ideas to make more, relevant, internships).

Wish I could have gone to the convention this year, and if I had, I would definitely have gone to this, but my internship just started, and I couldn't get away. Have schools actually started to curb admission levels, or was this something that was just talked about that is supposed to happen in the future? Did Argosy sponsor the convention again? Thank you @MCParent for everything you do.

 

[MCParent]

Wish I could have gone to the convention this year, and if I had, I would definitely have gone to this, but my internship just started, and I couldn't get away. Have schools actually started to curb admission levels, or was this something that was just talked about that is supposed to happen in the future?

I read over a large amount of c20 data recently. Yes, it does appear that a number of larger programs really have reduced enrollment. That was just from eyeballing the data so I didn't do an analysis on the trends or anything. Unfortunately a few have actually increased, deciding to act in their own self interest in a prisoners dilemma, absorbing some of what would have been the overall changes and reducing some of the overall impact of the changes in the responsible programs.

 

[MCParent]

Even with the disappointing turnout, this (the bolded portion) is great to hear.

A few years ago I had been in meetings where people on apa boards did not know there WAS an internship problem. Now there are presidential hours with apags about it. That is actual real movement in the right direction.

 

[MCParent]

I thought it was decent. Very corporate, but the Division stuff was great. I missed the internship symposium. Noticed a lot of FSPS folks. Lots of internal APA politicking. I prefer specialty specific conferences, but I had a good time. Highlight for me was Carl Hart throwing down on idiotic questioners.

Did you see the stuffed animal robot seals?!!!

 

[Rivi]

The turnout was disappointing to me, I think about 30 ppl came (it was at 4 on Saturday and during social hours :-( ). But I think it went great. It's significant for the president of apa to give two of her programming hours to internship issues, at least. Frankly inviting me to be on the panel showed a lot of opennes to more challenging ideas; a different set of organizers really could have made it into an echo chamber about making more internships if they'd wanted to, but they didn't. We went over some proposals to work on the imbalance and it all seemed to go well to me. I'd hope they could put the slides up or something. There was recognition that programs need to be responsible in their admissions levels, and I think some good ideas to work on that (as well as other ideas to make more, relevant, internships).

Thanks for participating in that, BTW. We needed opinions like yours on the panel, for sure.