2014 APPIC internship Application Thread

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Avocadobunny said:
That's for sharing this, I have pretty much eliminated scientist-practitioner model sites from my list because I did not think I would be competitive. While I'm involved in two research teams and have been an RA for a year, clinical work has been the focus of my grad school training. I currently have two pubs that are in review and about 9 papers / presentations. Any thoughts about if eliminating all scientist-practitioner models is the best way to go? Thank you!
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No. I had 15 papers and presentations and one pub. That was more than the other 3 accepted at my scientist-practitioner VA internship. So, you would still very much be in the running.
 
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Cover Letters - such exquisite torture! I am in total language-lock, writersblock, inertia mode.

Halp. :boom:
 
Hahaha, I'm on like the seventh revision of my cover letters. I am just not good at this type of writing, I guess.
 
Thanks, but I have someone helping me with them right now. 🙂 I think they're finally starting to get on the right track.
 
cara susanna said:
Thanks, but I have someone helping me with them right now. 🙂 I think they're finally starting to get on the right track.
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I didn't say I wanted to read them. I meant do you have samples from friends or previous interns at your school to look at in order help you shape them. Looking at some other students essays may help.
 
Always at home said:
I didn't say I wanted to read them. I meant do you have samples from friends or previous interns at your school to look at in order help you shape them. Looking at some other students essays may help.
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Sorry, I totally misunderstood. Yeah, I've seen some samples and that was helpful.
 
thewesternsky said:
Avocado bunny -- Definitely don't eliminate scientist-practitioner sites. Remember, the mode number of publications for applicants is 0. There will be some people with more competitive research records than you, but you would likely have a shot at some of these sites, especially if you show your match in other ways.
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Most internship applications have zero publications? Wow... .
 
Avocadobunny said:
Hi everyone! I am so glad this thread is up again to help us through this hellish process. Unfortunately This will be my second year applying🙁 I know this question has been asked in previous threads but I can't seem to find the answer! I am curious what everyone thinks as to how to go about applying to a site that you applied to last year. For the sites I got interviews at and obviously did not match with I have no reservations about explicitly stating in my cover letter why I am still a good fit and what I have done in the last year to become a more competitive applicant. My question is what to do about sites that I did not receive an interview at? A few very important variables have changed that have made me a much better fit with these sites and I am hopeful to receive an interview this time around, however, I am unsure whether to mention if I applied last year or not. If I mention I applied last year but didn't receive an interview and did not match might these sites not want to extend an interview this time around? Or, if it do not mention I applied then I cannot highlight the specific things that make me a better match and if for some reason they remember I applied might they wonder why I didn't mention it? This is probably splitting hairs but I would really appreciate any input as I am more anxious this time around (if thats even possible) and cannot not match again! Thanks so much!
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Hi AvacadoBunny,

I agree with docma. I think you should reapplying to any site you are interested in, regardless of if you got an interview previously.

Just because you didn't get an interview doesn't mean, you weren't a great match. It reminds me of a clinical psychology faculty at BU who told me that they had received over 300 applications and that the committee may as well have thrown them down the stairs and picked the 1st 8 at that bottom to be the members of next incoming cohort. This antidote really underscored to me that there are so many good applicants that the random factors that everyone is talking about really do play a larger role then we would like to believe.

Additionally, I would think that sites would be impressed with your tenacity and it would certainly remove any doubts about your interest in the site. I think the best approach is to say you applied previous and highlight all the additional experiences and work you have done to make yourself more compatible to *their specific* site. If a TD doesn't like that, then I would question my interest in the program in the first place. Just my two cents.

Hope it helps! 🙂
 
snowy584 said:
Hi everyone,

Just curious...how many intervention hours do you have total?

Also, which kind of sites are more open to those that do not have assessment hours?

Thank you!
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Hi snowy584,

I agree with the person who said to ask others in your program (current and past graduates) with no assessment hours their approach to internship applications. I come from a program with very limited assessment opportunities, as such most do not have assessment hours when applying for internship. I know it is not an idea situation for our training, but I can reassure you by letting you know that we have had almost a 100% match rate for many years. The placements vary, but are often at competitive sites (e.g., Palo Alto, Brown, Boston, Baltimore, etc.). I wanted to share this alternative perspective, since so many seemed taken aback by your situation and are even suggesting that you delay applying.

Good luck! You can do it! :luck:
 
How many people are you having read your essays? I have had three so far (the clinic director at my school, the DCT, and a friend of mine to make sure the grammar is perfect). I have had several more people offer, but am afraid they will start contradicting each other.
 
I'm having three people read my essays and two people read my cover letters.
 
I have one comment and one question.
Comment: I attended a conference earlier this year where they interviewed Internship Training Directors from different types of sites. The training director from a counseling site emphasized how important essays were and that they really pore through those carefully. The TD from a neuropsych site said they gloss over the essays. So that might help people like me who are assessment based to not sweat too much over the essays, esp 2-4.

Question: I have recently decided that I am very interested in applying to military sites. The financial incentive is a huge draw not going to lie, but I love neuropsych and they seem to have great opportunities for that also. Can anyone who has done a military internship or has a lot of knowledge on it PM me please? I have already started applications with Army and Air Force, will add Navy too for good measure. Thanks so much and good luck everyone!
 
MissSPSS said:
Question: I have recently decided that I am very interested in applying to military sites. The financial incentive is a huge draw not going to lie, but I love neuropsych and they seem to have great opportunities for that also. Can anyone who has done a military internship or has a lot of knowledge on it PM me please? I have already started applications with Army and Air Force, will add Navy too for good measure. Thanks so much and good luck everyone!
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Hi MissSPSS, thanks for your comment, this is actually very helpful when figuring out where to spend your time with the application. Additionally, just last night I was talking to a friend in the Air Force about military internships and will be meeting with a recruiter to get more information but I too am looking for strong neuro training and a military internship is sounding more and more attractive to me. If anyone does have any insight into these internships I would also really appreciate hearing about your experience or thoughts on this type of internship. Thanks again to all you SDNers for always giving such useful and helpful advice.
 
psychrat said:
How many people are you having read your essays? I have had three so far (the clinic director at my school, the DCT, and a friend of mine to make sure the grammar is perfect). I have had several more people offer, but am afraid they will start contradicting each other.
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Hi psychrat, this year is my second time applying and so I went through this last year. After not matching in phase I I panicked and thought something was wrong with my application materials and had many other people look over what I had done. In general, everyone had a different idea about what I should do and it became really overwhelming and honestly my essays started to become fragmented as a result. I think the best way to go is know the point you want to get across and then pick individuals whom you respect and tell them what you are trying to accomplish in the essay. Hopefully then the feedback will be more cohesive between reviewers. I do have to say though IMO 3 readers is probably the most I would go with. Good luck!
 
Avocadobunny said:
Hi psychrat, this year is my second time applying and so I went through this last year. After not matching in phase I I panicked and thought something was wrong with my application materials and had many other people look over what I had done. In general, everyone had a different idea about what I should do and it became really overwhelming and honestly my essays started to become fragmented as a result. I think the best way to go is know the point you want to get across and then pick individuals whom you respect and tell them what you are trying to accomplish in the essay. Hopefully then the feedback will be more cohesive between reviewers. I do have to say though IMO 3 readers is probably the most I would go with. Good luck!
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Thanks. Three seems like a good number to me. Good luck this year.
 
Does anyone know where/if one can get reviews on internship sites from interns who attended those sites? This would provide critical subjective information that could be central in one's decisions. Thanks!!!
 
Alumni of your program? The cohort above you? This was pretty common in my program.
It takes some support and facilitation from the department/adminstration, but generally is taken on my students themselves after that.
 
Does anyone know how many hours La Rabida requires for therapy and assessment?
 
dmw12 said:
Does anyone know how many hours La Rabida requires for therapy and assessment?
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This is what it says on the APPIC website (though it is the old format, not the new one)

Minimum Number of AAPI Intervention Hours: 1000
Minimum Number of AAPI Assessment Hours: 500

http://www.appic.org/directory/program_cache/192.html

I looked at their brochure, and on the first and last page it stated:

Application Deadline:
*Application Process
Currently Suspended
 
To piggy-back off of Always at home, La Rabida is not taking applications this year. Bummer 🙁
 
When do people typically start filling out the AAPI? I'd like to have my hours as up to date as possible, but I also don't want to fill it out too late.
 
If I'm remembering correclty, the earliest deadlines I saw back when I applied were in mid-October, so I'd just set a personal cut-off of the end of September at the latest (while being sure to have everything else filled out completely by then). Besides, odds are one extra month's worth of hours won't make a difference one way or the other, so no need to stress over it.

Somewhat relatedly, when it came to cover letters, I wrote those on a rolling basis as individual deadlines approached. I initially tried writing them all in one day, but after the first 4 or 5 I was pretty much brain dead.
 
Also, I remember that my training director had to "certify" my application, so make sure you leave him/her enough time. I'm assuming you still have to do that?
 
Yup, it still needs to be certified.

Our DCT requested we send it in around a week or so ahead of time, but also said she was okay with us counting the "anticipated" hours we were expecting to receive prior to the submission deadline. Though as AA said, its a small enough number it seems very unlikely to have any sort of meaningful effect on the application.
 
AcronymAllergy said:
If I'm remembering correclty, the earliest deadlines I saw back when I applied were in mid-October, so I'd just set a personal cut-off of the end of September at the latest (while being sure to have everything else filled out completely by then). Besides, odds are one extra month's worth of hours won't make a difference one way or the other, so no need to stress over it.

Somewhat relatedly, when it came to cover letters, I wrote those on a rolling basis as individual deadlines approached. I initially tried writing them all in one day, but after the first 4 or 5 I was pretty much brain dead.
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ha! I did the same thing with cover letters. I tried to write them all in one day, then realized it was a near impossible task. I used the same strategy you did (as deadlines approached, I wrote cover letters for sites).
 
Always at home said:
ha! I did the same thing with cover letters. I tried to write them all in one day, then realized it was a near impossible task. I used the same strategy you did (as deadlines approached, I wrote cover letters for sites).
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Yeah, even though I only had to write two or three completely-original letters (i.e., the templates), it was still a draining task...in no small part because I overdid it a bit and spent 1-2 hours reviewing each site's material before starting that site's letter.
 
Any thoughts on where to count hours spent consulting with emergency room and medical floor patients on the APPI? It looks like the best place is under other interventions and then explaining where the hours came from but maybe under medical/health-related interventions? Not too sure so I thought I would ask! Thanks!
 
AcronymAllergy said:
Yeah, even though I only had to write two or three completely-original letters (i.e., the templates), it was still a draining task...in no small part because I overdid it a bit and spent 1-2 hours reviewing each site's material before starting that site's letter.
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Same here. I applied to mainly community mental health centers for children and families, so I really only had to write 1-2 templates. Though, as you stated, still a draining task.
 
For the presentation count, how are people interpreting "regional conference"? I'm debating whether or not to include things from say a university research day or a departmental brown bag. I wouldn't normally think to count these but I know some others have done so in the past.

Note that I've got ~30 presentations regardless so its not like having these included or not included in my total is going to make a bit of difference in my application. I'm more just debating between A) Risking looking like I'm padding my application and B) Risking looking like I can't count because the number of presentations listed on my CV doesn't match the number on my application. Also considering C) No one cares that much or is going to read things that closely.
 
Ollie123 said:
For the presentation count, how are people interpreting "regional conference"? I'm debating whether or not to include things from say a university research day or a departmental brown bag. I wouldn't normally think to count these but I know some others have done so in the past.

Note that I've got ~30 presentations regardless so its not like having these included or not included in my total is going to make a bit of difference in my application. I'm more just debating between A) Risking looking like I'm padding my application and B) Risking looking like I can't count because the number of presentations listed on my CV doesn't match the number on my application. Also considering C) No one cares that much or is going to read things that closely.
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I definitely noticed whether all or most of someone's presentations were at local/regional events, but if there was a healthy mix of regional and national/international, that was fine. I personally didn't included presentations I made at my program (e.g., brown bags), but I had a couple posters that were shown at the research day of one of our AMCs, and I put those on my CV.
 
I only listed regional/national/international presentations, though I did list invited lectures if they were for something more substantial or part of a series of talks. Being able to show some activity is what matters, so listing every last event might be overkill or look like padding (as Ollie mentioned).
 
Ollie123 said:
For the presentation count, how are people interpreting "regional conference"? I'm debating whether or not to include things from say a university research day or a departmental brown bag. I wouldn't normally think to count these but I know some others have done so in the past.

Note that I've got ~30 presentations regardless so its not like having these included or not included in my total is going to make a bit of difference in my application. I'm more just debating between A) Risking looking like I'm padding my application and B) Risking looking like I can't count because the number of presentations listed on my CV doesn't match the number on my application. Also considering C) No one cares that much or is going to read things that closely.
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I would see university brown bags and department research days as local presentations. Regional conferences are things like the Western Psychological Association Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, New England Psychological Association, etc., conferences. I think it goes:

-Local (university- and department-level stuff)
-State (e.g., North Dakota Psychological Association, Texas Counseling Psychology Association, etc)
-Regional
-National/International (basically, anything that draws a substantial number of attendees from outside a particular region--division conferences, annual conventions, etc)

I actually separate out national/international and regional/state conference posters and presentations on my CV. Local presentations usually aren't peer-reviewed, so they have their own section on there as well. I think it makes it easier to digest at a glance and avoids the impression of padding, because I'm stating what everything is. YMMV.
 
Hi everyone-
I had a quick question about the APPI and reference letters. Actually one of my letter writers asked me this. Say you are applying to 18 sites (all the same type) and your letter writer just wants to write one generic letter (my other writers are writing more specific letters). Can the letter writer just sumbit one letter to the APPI Reference Portal that I can later designante which site(s) that letter will go to? Or do they have to submit that same generic letter 18 times (for the 18 sites)? Not even sure if that makes any sense, but if you know what I am talking about and know the answer, help!
 
anotherpsych said:
Hi everyone-
I had a quick question about the APPI and reference letters. Actually one of my letter writers asked me this. Say you are applying to 18 sites (all the same type) and your letter writer just wants to write one generic letter (my other writers are writing more specific letters). Can the letter writer just sumbit one letter to the APPI Reference Portal that I can later designante which site(s) that letter will go to? Or do they have to submit that same generic letter 18 times (for the 18 sites)? Not even sure if that makes any sense, but if you know what I am talking about and know the answer, help!
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They only need to submit one letter. When you go to submit your materials to each site you can then select what letters of rec you want to send to each site and select the one submitted letter for each site you want to send it to. Hope this helps!
 
How do transcripts work? So it sounds like you request it from your school, have it sent to AAPI, and then they put it online for you, is that correct? Do they notify you when they've received it?
 
cara susanna said:
How do transcripts work? So it sounds like you request it from your school, have it sent to AAPI, and then they put it online for you, is that correct? Do they notify you when they've received it?
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Yep, that's how it worked for me. I didn't receive a notification when it was received, but my APPI now says "Rec'd: 1" under transcripts. After I initiated the transcript request from my university, it took ~2 weeks to be reflected online (although I'm sure this window will become larger as application deadlines approach).

I know there is also a special "transcript request" form you can download from the APPI to include with your transcript, but I didn't use this and my transcript still got there just fine 🙂
 
Two weeks? Wow, good thing I just put in a request for mine! Thanks for the info 🙂
 
Avocadobunny said:
They only need to submit one letter. When you go to submit your materials to each site you can then select what letters of rec you want to send to each site and select the one submitted letter for each site you want to send it to. Hope this helps!
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This. If I remember correctly, I had each writer submit only one letter each, and it didn't seem to hinder me at all.
 
question about essays... some people have suggested that the 500 word limit should be interpretted strictly, and that anything over is frowned upon. other people have said that as long as your essay isn't wildly over 500 words (e.g. still fits on one page / is under 600 words) that it's fine. i understand that appic/the sites are not literally going to count the words in my essays, and i also understand that going over is inconsiderate of site's time since they have so many essays to read... but where are other people drawing the line? most of my essays are between 500 and 505 words, but one is closer to 540. thoughts?
 
researchgirl said:
question about essays... some people have suggested that the 500 word limit should be interpretted strictly, and that anything over is frowned upon. other people have said that as long as your essay isn't wildly over 500 words (e.g. still fits on one page / is under 600 words) that it's fine. i understand that appic/the sites are not literally going to count the words in my essays, and i also understand that going over is inconsiderate of site's time since they have so many essays to read... but where are other people drawing the line? most of my essays are between 500 and 505 words, but one is closer to 540. thoughts?
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In my experience, most 600-word-ish essays (they're easy to spot, because they take up ~20% more physical space on the screen or page than most of the other essays) have non-tight writing and could be condensed into 500 words. I doubt anyone would notice 540, but I bet you can still tighten the writing if you tried (and, if you're counting in Word, I think Word counts words like "a" or "an," which is not always standard in "word count," which has several definitions, which will bring up word count but not physical space if you write with a lot of articles).
 
I'm pretty sure the APPIC system didn't let me enter one word over 500. Maybe things are different now or I'm not remembering correctly.
 
MCParent said:
In my experience, most 600-word-ish essays (they're easy to spot, because they take up ~20% more physical space on the screen or page than most of the other essays) have non-tight writing and could be condensed into 500 words. I doubt anyone would notice 540, but I bet you can still tighten the writing if you tried (and, if you're counting in Word, I think Word counts words like "a" or "an," which is not always standard in "word count," which has several definitions, which will bring up word count but not physical space if you write with a lot of articles).
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Pretty much this. I don't know that you're going to significantly upset many folks with 540 words instead of 500, but I'd be willing to bet that you could get it down to 510-520 and make it sound clearer, more direct, and more succinct to boot. I'm the all-mighty ruler of wordiness when it comes to writing, though, so I know how tough the editing can be.
 
Being succinct is an important skill to develop, so I'd recommend sticking to the 500 word limit. When I reviewed apps I didn't count each word, but it isn't hard to eyeball if someone wrote over the amount. Much like LORs and other instructions....do what is asked for, no more or less.
 
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