2013 APPIC Internship Application Thread

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Hey everyone-for those of you who are applying to sites that request a sample integrated report but do not say it has to be a signed copy, are you leaving your supervisors name at the end without the signatures? I have an electronic version of the one I plan to submit (without signatures) but want to make sure sites know it was an "official" report and that I did not just make it up....thoughts?
I left my supervisor's signature line (my report was electronic as well) on the report. My rationale for including the signature line was that the report was a specialized behavioral medicine report and I wanted to convey that I was receiving supervision for the case. However, some of my peers did not leave their supervisor's name on reports. Our DCT told us it was a matter of preference- there is no hard-and-fast rule.
 
On the Program Checklist page of the APPI, one of the items states that "once you E-Submit your application, NO changes can be made to any section other than your Contact Information." Does this mean that I must have all sections of the APPI completed (i.e., all of my cover letters and supplemental documents uploaded) before I can submit my application to even one program, because I won't be able to change or add anything later? Or does it mean that no changes can be made to an application I've just submitted, but I can still change/add to sections of the APPI for applications that are due later? Thanks!
 
On the Program Checklist page of the APPI, one of the items states that "once you E-Submit your application, NO changes can be made to any section other than your Contact Information." Does this mean that I must have all sections of the APPI completed (i.e., all of my cover letters and supplemental documents uploaded) before I can submit my application to even one program, because I won't be able to change or add anything later? Or does it mean that no changes can be made to an application I've just submitted, but I can still change/add to sections of the APPI for applications that are due later? Thanks!

The instructions say, "Once you submit you will not be able to change the body of the AAPI application, but you will be able to add CVs, Essay sets, Cover letters and supplemental materials for new designations."
 
I left my supervisor's signature line (my report was electronic as well) on the report. My rationale for including the signature line was that the report was a specialized behavioral medicine report and I wanted to convey that I was receiving supervision for the case. However, some of my peers did not leave their supervisor's name on reports. Our DCT told us it was a matter of preference- there is no hard-and-fast rule.

I went through the report and changed all the names and identifying information. I even changed my supervisor's name to "J. Supervisor, Ph.D." or something similar. The sites aren't using the report for clinical purposes; they're using it to gauge writing style, degree of integration of information, etc. I can't see any reason why not having a signature would be an issue.
 
I found this on the APPIC program destination page: "Once you submit you will not be able to change the body of the AAPI application, but you will be able to add CVs, Essay sets, Cover letters and supplemental materials for new designations."
 
On the Program Checklist page of the APPI, one of the items states that "once you E-Submit your application, NO changes can be made to any section other than your Contact Information." Does this mean that I must have all sections of the APPI completed (i.e., all of my cover letters and supplemental documents uploaded) before I can submit my application to even one program, because I won't be able to change or add anything later? Or does it mean that no changes can be made to an application I've just submitted, but I can still change/add to sections of the APPI for applications that are due later? Thanks!

As others have said, you can make changes to other parts of your application (CV, essays, etc.). Just to be clear, once you've submitted your application to one program, you cannot make ANY changes to the AAPI itself for other applications that are due later. I caught a small error on mine after my first batch of submissions, and contacted the user support team, but I was out of luck (I still matched). I suggest having someone proofread yours before you submit it for the first time - having a second pair of eyes is really helpful for catching minor errors.
 
Ok, guys. I am really struggling regarding the number of sites. I am currently thinking about applying to 20 sites. Hear me out on my reasoning and let me know what you think.

Here's my rationale:
2 of my sites don't give interviews at all
3 of my sites interview less than 15% of applicants
3 of my sites are with the BOP. For a variety of complex reasons, I don't expect to get an interview with them or at least more than one. I feel about 80% confident of this outcome based on conversations with the system-wide training director. (Also, these factors are specific to BOP and do not relate to anything about my application - like I said complicated).

Based on these factors, I feel like I am really applying to closer to 15 sites in actuality and I am nervous about limiting myself out of the gate.

This is my fist time applying. I am a nontraditional student with children and not sure how that and other factors might play in.

My DCT has "strongly encouraged" us to apply to no more than 15, but one of my friends is applying for 18.

People who have been through this process in my program have told me that trying to do more than 10 interviews is awful and they wished they would have applied to less, but my program has had a 100% match rate for 4 years, so I don't really fully consider the threat of not matching. I have. Not something I want to happen to me.

Let me know what you think on number. Is 20 too many? How about 18? Any recommendations are welcome. I just need your opinions ASAP as I am going to start submitting today and tomorrow - FINALLY! Most of my apps are due 11/15 though, but some choices need to be made now....😱
 
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Ok, guys. I am really struggling regarding the number of sites. I am currently thinking about applying to 20 sites. Hear me out on my reasoning and let me know what you think.

Here's my rationale:
2 of my sites don't give interviews at all
3 of my sites interview less than 15% of applicants
3 of my sites are with the BOP. For a variety of complex reasons, I don't expect to get an interview with them or at least more than one. I feel about 80% confident of this outcome based on conversations with the system-wide training director. (Also, these factors are specific to BOP and do not relate to anything about my application - like I said complicated).

Based on these factors, I feel like I am really applying to closer to 15 sites in actuality and I am nervous about limiting myself out of the gate.

This is my fist time applying. I am a nontraditional student with children and not sure how that and other factors might play in.

My DCT has "strongly encouraged" us to apply to no more than 15, but one of my friends is applying for 18.

People who have been through this process in my program have told me that trying to do more than 10 interviews is awful and they wished they would have applied to less, but my program has had a 100% match rate for 4 years, so I don't really fully consider the threat of not matching. I have. Not something I want to happen to me.

Let me know what you think on number. Is 20 too many? How about 18? Any recommendations are welcome. I just need your opinions ASAP as I am going to start submitting today and tomorrow - FINALLY! Most of my apps are due 11/15 though, but some choices need to be made now....😱

Statistically numbers would suggest 15 is a"magic" number regarding number of sites to apply to in order to match. However, no one on this forum is considered safe from not-matching. Just due to the increasing imblance between applicants and training slots, great candidates get passed over year after year. Additionally, one applicant's list of 15 could be much more competitive than another applicant. If you already have the cover letters written than I would say submit them if you can afford the extra fees. Regardless, it is hard to get 10 interviews in general, but in order to get interviews you need to apply to sites. In otherwords, I would rather have too many interviews and need to decline them, than too few.
 
I personally wouldn't say 20 is too many, although it's probably on the upper end of what I'd recommend. I think I applied to 17, with one site withdrawing just before the interview notification deadline. I was offered 7 or 8 interviews, and I didn't feel overwhelmed, although I could certainly see having reached that point if I'd had more than another 2 or so on top of that to attend. It's a lot of traveling that's done in a relative short amount of time, and it definitely drains both your stamina and finances.

But if you feel you have a good match to the 20, and as neuronic said if the cover letters are already written, might as well.
 
As others have said, you can make changes to other parts of your application (CV, essays, etc.). Just to be clear, once you've submitted your application to one program, you cannot make ANY changes to the AAPI itself for other applications that are due later. I caught a small error on mine after my first batch of submissions, and contacted the user support team, but I was out of luck (I still matched). I suggest having someone proofread yours before you submit it for the first time - having a second pair of eyes is really helpful for catching minor errors.

I'm sorry, I am still unclear on this.
When I designate all of the sites I would like to apply to, unless I select essays, cover letters, etc. for every single one of them, I get an error message.
I'm worried that if I only designate the sites I'm ready to apply to now I won't be able to add more later - (i.e. the sites I don't have cover letters for yet that are due in a couple of weeks).
 
You can designate and apply to some sites now, and add the rest later. I applied to a few sites last week, and although I'm not able to change the body of my application (practicum hours, assessments instruments administered, etc.), I can still add cover letters, essays, and supplemental documents for sites I'll be applying to later.
 
Thank you PsychGal.

When you are writing a cover letter and you want to refer to someone about the person who the cover letter is addressed to, how would you word it? Would you say, "I share Dr. Doe's interest in..." Or would you say, "Dr. Doe, I share your interest in..."
Thoughts?
 
Thank you PsychGal.

When you are writing a cover letter and you want to refer to someone about the person who the cover letter is addressed to, how would you word it? Would you say, "I share Dr. Doe's interest in..." Or would you say, "Dr. Doe, I share your interest in..."
Thoughts?

I've gone the "I share Dr. Doe's interest..." route on the assumption that other people will also be reading the cover letter, even though it's addressed only to the director. Don't know if that's the absolute right thing, but there we are. 🙂
 
Since I started the post this year - I can volunteer to post which sites/programs send out interview status daily (as was done in previous years) as long as people message me (done by moving mouse over username and selecting to send me a private message). I can then add it to my initial message (page 1, post 1) so people don't have to search the list to get this information...

Thank you for doing this! I'm not sure if it will be a good distraction or just annoying to do after a while, so that's awesome that you're willing to put in the time.

I submitted everything last week, and spent an hour or so unsubscribing myself from every non-essential email to avoid freaking out every time my phone buzzes. I wish there was a function in APPIC to see when people read your application...and then decide what to do (or not do) with it. 🙄
 
Ok, so when I push NEXT and go to the page to submit my APPI, my APPI is final and I can't change my internship designations, but I can ADD new sites later right? I am not ready to apply to my 11/15 sites. Or should I just get everything ready and do it now....
 
Ok, so when I push NEXT and go to the page to submit my APPI, my APPI is final and I can't change my internship designations, but I can ADD new sites later right? I am not ready to apply to my 11/15 sites. Or should I just get everything ready and do it now....

Yup. I submitted a few two days ago, then yesterday I added some more cover letters and designations for new sites. You can't change the AAPI, but you can add new materials and designate new sites. I still have 3-4 sites left to submit, but they're not due for a little while and I'm burnt out on cover letters for now. 🙂.
 
Submitted and Completed 9 apps. I've been re-reading each site's requirements to make sure I don't forget something in the cover letter or a supplementary material.

2nd year trying, so definitely anxious
 
Yup. I submitted a few two days ago, then yesterday I added some more cover letters and designations for new sites. You can't change the AAPI, but you can add new materials and designate new sites. I still have 3-4 sites left to submit, but they're not due for a little while and I'm burnt out on cover letters for now. 🙂.

Awesome thanks! I submitted the first half!
 
Ok, how much does the DCT see?

When I just submitted my first half of apps, my DCT forwarded an email that told him that I submitted my APPI and listed my designations. I guess that means that as I send in applications he will be notified. I guess in that case, he will figure out that I am applying for gobs of sites...or is he just notified when you submit your APPI with the first round. Oh well.
 
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Ok, how much does the DCT see?

When I just submitted my first half of apps, my DCT forwarded an email that told him that I submitted my APPI and listed my designations. I guess that means that as I send in applications he will be notified. I guess in that case, he will figure out that I am applying for gobs of sites...or is he just notified when you submit your APPI with the first round. Oh well.

My DCT told me this week that he is notified each time I submit an application - so, yes, it looks like everyone's DCTs will know exactly where and how many sites you apply to
 
Yes. I've already tried the feature by putting a similar message as the one you replied to in the 1st post...
 
I'm finally entering my cover letters in to the AAPI and when I paste them (I tried doing it from word and textpad) it looks like all of the spaces between paragraphs have become double spaces. There is a little instruction that says something about holding down shift and enter. That worked, but it seems like a complete time suck (not to mention high likelihood for error territory) to go through each of my letters and change the spacing. Anyone else have this problem? Has anyone figured out a reasonable work around?
 
are you using the paste from word widget? use that and paste into that (as opposed to the little box)
 
Yes -- I've tried both. And I've tried pasting it from Word and textpad. Any other thoughts?
 
Yes -- I've tried both. And I've tried pasting it from Word and textpad. Any other thoughts?

I had the same issue -- I followed their instructions (paste from word button, then copy that into notepad and then paste that back into the application). Then, in the actual text box on the application, I just deleted the extra spaces. The PDF preview looked fine. I couldn't find any other way to get rid of them.
 
I had the same issue -- I followed their instructions (paste from word button, then copy that into notepad and then paste that back into the application). Then, in the actual text box on the application, I just deleted the extra spaces. The PDF preview looked fine. I couldn't find any other way to get rid of them.

Same here. I've been adjusting the spacing in the actual APPI text box by deleting extra lines and using the shift + enter option. It's a tedious process, but it seems to be working.
 
So I just checked my clinical work sample, and it does have some identifying information in it still- clinic where assessment was done, my name, my supervisor, date of interview, report, referring agency.

1) if these are kept in, will it be a big mark against me- and will it be considered breaking HIPAA
2) I dont know that I have easy access to a program to black out the identifying information at this point. Suggestions?
 
So I just checked my clinical work sample, and it does have some identifying information in it still- clinic where assessment was done, my name, my supervisor, date of interview, report, referring agency.

1) if these are kept in, will it be a big mark against me- and will it be considered breaking HIPAA
2) I dont know that I have easy access to a program to black out the identifying information at this point. Suggestions?

Do you have a PDF editing program, like iAnnotate for iPad? I have heard some people use that to write on their PDF scanned reports and black out identifiers. I opted to XXXX out the information in Word, just in case I missed anything, but I think that is a matter of preference. I also left my supervising psychologist's name on, because that is not linked to the client.
 
currently I dont have anything. If there's something free out there that you can get on windows or linux, I can get/use that... but I dont have/want an ipad or a mac.
 
currently I dont have anything. If there's something free out there that you can get on windows or linux, I can get/use that... but I dont have/want an ipad or a mac.

If you have a friend or colleague that you trust that has iAnnotate, maybe you can have them black it out and e-mail it back to you? I am not a computer person so I don't know of other PDF writing programs, sorry! Good luck!
 
Has anyone been impacted by the hurricane? It seems that NYC in particular faced some serious flooding and power outages. I hope that everyone is safe!
 
So I just checked my clinical work sample, and it does have some identifying information in it still- clinic where assessment was done, my name, my supervisor, date of interview, report, referring agency.

1) if these are kept in, will it be a big mark against me- and will it be considered breaking HIPAA
2) I dont know that I have easy access to a program to black out the identifying information at this point. Suggestions?
I'm also curious about this. I changed the client's name, birthdate, dates, names of family members, names of schools, etc. However, I kept in the name of the agency where the evaluation was conducted. My gut says this is okay, as there is no way for the client to be identified given that all of his/her personal information was removed or altered.

Are others leaving the agency name in? Or is this still considered taboo? I can't seem to find a clear guideline anywhere.
 
I'm also curious about this. I changed the client's name, birthdate, dates, names of family members, names of schools, etc. However, I kept in the name of the agency where the evaluation was conducted. My gut says this is okay, as there is no way for the client to be identified given that all of his/her personal information was removed or altered.

Are others leaving the agency name in? Or is this still considered taboo? I can't seem to find a clear guideline anywhere.

I just followed the HIPAA guidelines here:

http://hipaa.wisc.edu/ResearchGuide/deidentification.html

I don't see why you would need to take out your own name (wouldn't that be obvious?) or your supervisor's name. I left the agency/clinic name in as well. Some internship sites specifically asked that the name of the agency/clinic be left in the report.
 
Just to make sure I'm perfectly clear..sorry if I'm beating a dead horse. I am applying to 15 sites. I am using 1 LOR at 1 specific site, which is not due for a few weeks. The one letter that is not yet uploaded will be used for that site. Can I submit now, as long as that LOR is uploaded prior to the deadline date?
 
Question:

When sites say letter of interest, do they mean cover letter? See below for the context:

.In your letter of interest which is part of the Standard online application, please indicate your top two rotation choices out of the 18 that we offer. .

Thanks!

I'm pretty sure that is what they are referring to.
 
15 applications turned in; I'm happy. Next up: what's the consensus: do I deactive my facebook profile until interviews are over, or is that a tad extreme? Also one site instructs you to set up an visit after turning in the application. Seems a tad gung-ho to do that today. Do I wait until at least after the application deadline to do that? I know there are no definite answers- just looking for advice.
 
15 applications turned in; I'm happy. Next up: what's the consensus: do I deactive my facebook profile until interviews are over, or is that a tad extreme? Also one site instructs you to set up an visit after turning in the application. Seems a tad gung-ho to do that today. Do I wait until at least after the application deadline to do that? I know there are no definite answers- just looking for advice.

I know folks who have kept their profiles activated (with some "hiding" more info from the public or making them "invisible" altogether), deactivated their profiles entirely, OR they changed their last name to a made-up name (on the profile) so it would be more difficult to locate them during a search (and they were able to keep their profiles without any additional changes).

G'luck to everyone! :luck:
 
15 applications turned in; I'm happy. Next up: what's the consensus: do I deactive my facebook profile until interviews are over, or is that a tad extreme? Also one site instructs you to set up an visit after turning in the application. Seems a tad gung-ho to do that today. Do I wait until at least after the application deadline to do that? I know there are no definite answers- just looking for advice.

I have just submitted all of mine too and it feels great! What I did was just make it so that only friends could search for me on FB. I tend not to make anything public that I can control anyway, so I'm not worried about that.
 
15 applications turned in; I'm happy. Next up: what's the consensus: do I deactive my facebook profile until interviews are over, or is that a tad extreme? Also one site instructs you to set up an visit after turning in the application. Seems a tad gung-ho to do that today. Do I wait until at least after the application deadline to do that? I know there are no definite answers- just looking for advice.

I didn't deactivate mine, although I've always had my profile listed as private/unsearchable (at least to the extent that facebook allows). Beyond that, I just always follow the practice of trying never to have anything on my account that I wouldn't want a potential employer to see.
 
Okay, I just heard back from the training director and Wayne State University is canceling their internship program 🙁. This is not yet reflected on the APPIC or program's website, so I just wanted to let you guys know in case anyone was thinking of applying. It looks like some of their affiliate sites are still continuing.


WHATTTT???😡:wow::uhno::boom:
 
I'm going to be applying this year... pretty much have my list narrowed down, I might do the stupid thing and eliminate one or two programs because I just don't want to wind up in Texas. .
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I share your sentiments about Wayne State!

The posted the announcement on one of the recent Match News e-mails, but I don't think it is on any of the websites yet unfortunately
 
15 applications turned in; I'm happy. Next up: what's the consensus: do I deactive my facebook profile until interviews are over, or is that a tad extreme? Also one site instructs you to set up an visit after turning in the application. Seems a tad gung-ho to do that today. Do I wait until at least after the application deadline to do that? I know there are no definite answers- just looking for advice.
Congrats on submitting! With regards to setting up the interview, I had a bmed site that requested you do this - WVU Health Sciences Center - and sent it in a week after submitting my application. Their site descriptions of the visits sound as if only a few people are allowed for each visit. I would err on the side caution and email them sooner rather than later if you would like to visit the site.
 
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