Before I explain my experience of Phase II, let me say to anyone reading, while I understand being discouraged, don't give up all hope! I personally know someone that had one interview and matched. It truly only takes one.
Okay, so I got my email around 7:20 am CST. The email contained a link to see Phase II positions and said it would be available at 11 am EST. I did not look at this until the afternoon, so I can't speak to when it actually opened. The sites were listed alphabetically by state. I believe there were around 100 sites (APA-accredited and non-accredited), but can't find the original list of sites, so this may be inaccurate.
The sites I applied to for Phase II were:
UCLA- Semel Institute, Health and Behavior, 1 position
Little Rock VA, Health, 1 position
Institute for Multicultural Counseling and Education Services (in Los Angeles), General, 2 positions
Atlanta VA, General, 1 position
Jesse Brown VA, Crown Point, 1 position
NY Presbyterian/Weill-Cornell, General, 1 position
Alpert Medical of Brown University, MIDAS, 1 position
American Lake/Puget Sound VA, General, 4 positions.
This was a fairly poor to mediocre list in terms of fit. Although I am health-focused, the opportunities and culture at the sites didn't sync up well for the most part. Plus, MIDAS was research-focused, which is not my interest at all. A person in my cohort also didn't match but was child-focused and was able to apply to 22 (!) APA-accredited kid sites that were a fairly good match. There is no cost associated with Phase II applications.
Applying was very similar with using the base application and personalizing a cover letter with no supplemental materials required for the initial application. We had less than 6 days to submit this. Training directors could not access anyone's application during this 6 day window, so there wasn't an advantage for submitting first. The applications were then made available on that 6th day at 11 am EST (i.e. Match Day was on a Friday and Phase II applications were made available to training directors the following Thursday). I checked the policies (
http://www.appic.org/Match/FAQs/Training-Directors/Phase-II) and training directors do have the ability to filter applications by criteria. This was particularly obvious because invitations for interview/request for supplementals went out
that very same day by about 1 pm EST. Sites do not have to give you any information regarding your status so there is not an expectation of a rejection. I did not receive any interviews but did receive one rejection from the Atlanta VA stating they received 178 applications for 1 position and one waitlist/rejection from the Arkansas VA stating that they extended interviews to their top candidates but would still be ranking me. My cohort mate received 11 phone interviews (eventually matching with her number 1). Phone interviews are "strongly recommended" but I remember there was a SDN post where a person was invited to interview with IMCES and the person said that IMCES required an in-person interview the very next week and would not consider a candidate that wouldn't be able to make it.
Then you do another rank list approximately two weeks after applications were made available with another official Match Day a week after that (mid/late March). After this, you can sign up for something called Post-Match Vacancy where you are on a Greg listserv announcing new positions available with site-chosen deadlines with a first-come advantage. This had quite a few APA spots but about 90% kid-focused. It was actually kind of bizarre though because a couple APA spots (kid-focused) extended their deadlines and then withdrew from Post-Match
because they didn't receive any applications. Greg even sent a somewhat scolding email about not giving up, etc. New spots were later added with HRSA grants. Post-Match officially ended October 31, 2014.
And now we're all here.
Hope I didn't do information overload! My anxiety is soothed by information so I wanted to be thorough, but I know this isn't the case for everyone.
