Match Rates?

I'm a little confused too. What's the difference between APPIC Member Internships, APA Accredited Internships, and CPA Accredited Internships? I'm looking at GWU PsyD's internship statistics and their APPIC statistics is higher than the APA; and CPA is posted as N/A

Music333 said:

I'm a little confused too. What's the difference between APPIC Member Internships, APA Accredited Internships, and CPA Accredited Internships? I'm looking at GWU PsyD's internship statistics and their APPIC statistics is higher than the APA; and CPA is posted as N/A

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I thought all APPIC internships were APA, but I'm nowhere near that step yet so I could be very wrong.

CPA is Canadian, so american internship sites won't be CPA accredited (in other words, no GWU PsyD students got internship sites in Canada that were CPA accredited which is what the N/A means)

scienceisbeauty said:

Yeah. That's the stuff I don't get .....APPIC stuff and the whole match rate thing in general.
I know that one is supposed to go to a school that has a high match rate but ...exactly what it is I have no clue

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I'm not the best person to give this explanation so hopefully you'll get other ones... but anyway:
To finish your degree you generally need to do an internship. The match rate is how often the students get accredited internships. The idea is that generally accredited (and therefore funded) internships are better than non-accredited ones although there are people here (and in the real world) who will fight this idea to the end. The point is, it makes your life easier if your school has a high match rate.

1. APA / CPA is the Gold Standard

2. APPIC is the next classification, which has some standards, but they didn't go through the process for APA / CPA.

3. Everything else.

Some places will show Paid / Unpaid....but in reality, don't even consider unpaid. If you can't get a paid one....you are in trouble.

Match can include Match Day + Clearing House matching. Ideally you'd want 100% match during Match Day, but that usually doesn't happen, and some people may need to go through Clearing House to get a site.

-t

What t4c said.

APPIC sites include some non-APA sites. I "think" most schools require APA in order to graduate (at least the ones I looked at did), but many of those will allow you to petition and argue for a specific APPIC site if you're really stuck. Not even APPIC = no degree for you at anywhere I looked.

Any APA or *I think* APPIC site should pay you, though it isn't much better than a grad stipend in most cases.

I think schools calculate "matching" differently - some include clearinghouse folks as matched, others only count the actual match - there are lots of different resouces to look it up so just check a bunch out and you should get a general sense.

I didn't really understand the whole match process/rates either when I was looking.

I may be putting together something in the next 6-9 months about some of this stuff, so keep an eye out.....😀

-t

Ah, this make sense! Thank you!
So internship matches are pretty much similar to residency matches in medicine...

Music333 said:

Ah, this make sense! Thank you!
So internship matches are pretty much similar to residency matches in medicine...

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Yes. In fact, the outside company that is contracted to run the psychology match is the same company that runs the residency match.

And just a word of caution in interpreting match statistics - you have to remember that most programs have small cohorts, so the numbers are published off of small N samples. For example, if only 4 students apply for internship in a given year, and 1 doesn't match, you've got a 75% match rate. Not stellar, but it may be less reflective of a program's overall quality and more reflective of that one student's particular circumstance (e.g., poor interviewer, applied to a limited number of sites, etc.).

Thus, I would certainly look at these numbers, but I also wouldn't rely too much on them, depending upon the size of the program and other factors. Asking about internship match success while you're on grad school interviews is another way to get some qualitative (vs. merely quantitative!) data on what is going on with the program's current students.

I totally agree with T4C...the goal should be an APA internship (along with an APA doctoral program)...these statuses will keep your options "open" in an increasingly competitive market...

Just to benchmark the discussion a little...
There have histroically been enough APPIC sites (those that proport APA standards but have not gone through the process) for about 80-85% of the students applying. And about 80% of APPIC sites are APA-accredited. Thus, one can assume that about 64-68% of students applying in a given year will end up at an APA-accredited site and 20% will go hungry even after clearing house.

When considering a program, any school that places 65% at APA and 85% or more at APPIC sites would be considered about average on this variable. A school that requires APA-accredited internships should be MUCH higher (90%+), because if not, they are denying graduation to one of their students. This usually holds true at those schools that require it.

Also, consider whether your school is in a destination city (NYC, LA, Chicago, etc.) I would expect these schools to do average or above, because most students move to go to school there and then do a national internship search. Since willingness to relocate is consistently a high variable in determining match rates, this should hold true in those cities.

I would also ask about total match rates and expect it to be near 100%. If students can't match at all, this would signals some questions for me. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of grad school and having to wait another year, with no classes needed and thus little ability to obtain continued aid if needed or being stuck doing more teaching or research when your not progressing.

I consider this a more important variable than EPPP scores in some ways, since this does have an ecologically valid basis.

My 2 cents...