PhD/PsyD APPIC Internship Interview Invitation Thread (2019)

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Any more details on the invites that went out from this site? Do you know when they were sent, personal or mass, etc? Thanks!


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I just heard from someone in my cohort that they received an invitation. Not sure of the details unfortunately. Sorry 🙁
 
Not sure if there are a lot of school psych folks in here. But someone just let me know they received an invite to the Dallas ISD. (It was a bit of an awkward blow since I have just been rejected from that site....)
 
Not sure if there are a lot of school psych folks in here. But someone just let me know they received an invite to the Dallas ISD. (It was a bit of an awkward blow since I have just been rejected from that site....)
Sorry about the rejection. Maybe you would have hated it?? Thats what i have to tell myself. That i wouldn't have liked the site anyway, and their rejection saved me the plane cost...

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Official Site Name: Central Regional Hospital
Date Invitation Received: 12/3
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Child-Youth
Offered Interview Dates: 1/14, 1/17, 1/22, 1/25

Nice to wake up to this one after an 11pm rejection from UNC...like, really?!😵

I got that same rejection while putting up holiday decorations...total downer lol. Did you say you’re waiting on Duke?
 
Sorry about the rejection. Maybe you would have hated it?? Thats what i have to tell myself. That i wouldn't have liked the site anyway, and their rejection saved me the plane cost...

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As I’ve been solidifying my travel plans, and seeing how expensive it is, I am actually kinda relieved that I don’t have more interviews at this point. How’s that for a reframe?!


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Wow I actually have received such a l
As I’ve been solidifying my travel plans, and seeing how expensive it is, I am actually kinda relieved that I don’t have more interviews at this point. How’s that for a reframe?!


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That’s definitely a good consideration! I just feel very scared that this is the first in a cascade of 14 more rejections....that I’ll end up with only 2 and ultimately won’t match after investing all of this time and effort....yes there are some cognitive distortions going on here.
 
Wow I actually have received such a l


That’s definitely a good consideration! I just feel very scared that this is the first in a cascade of 14 more rejections....that I’ll end up with only 2 and ultimately won’t match after investing all of this time and effort....yes there are some cognitive distortions going on here.

In the same boat, trying to repeat to myself that everything will work out the way it is supposed to and taking deep breaths. We'll make it through this!
 
Rejection from U Pittsburgh Counseling Center. Mass email. Oh well!
 
In the same boat, trying to repeat to myself that everything will work out the way it is supposed to and taking deep breaths. We'll make it through this!

There’s always phase 2. I hear it’s an smoother process AND there are still lots of solid APA accredited sites. We will ALL match somewhere! Keep the faith.


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Wow I actually have received such a l


That’s definitely a good consideration! I just feel very scared that this is the first in a cascade of 14 more rejections....that I’ll end up with only 2 and ultimately won’t match after investing all of this time and effort....yes there are some cognitive distortions going on here.

Yeah, that totally makes sense considering that you haven't heard back from most of your sites yet. On the bright side though, it's great that you already have 2 interviews because no matter what happens from here on out you at least have those locked down. And I think the not knowing is the hardest part and we all tend to assume the worst is ahead of us. I am in a somewhat more fortunate position at the moment because I have heard back from over half my sites at this point and kinda know more where I stand in the whole scheme of things. Hoping you get lots of good news this week!
 
There’s always phase 2. I hear it’s an smoother process AND there are still lots of solid APA accredited sites. We will ALL match somewhere! Keep the faith.

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Is there a list somewhere of sites that participated in phase 2 last year or previous years?
 
Official Site Name: Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center
Date Invitation Received: 12/3
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): N/A
Offered Interview Dates: 12/14, 12/17, 12/18, 1/3,1/4 (all have morning or afternoon times)
(In honor of last year) If & How you're staying sane: This was my last notification so I'm hoping the sanity returns on it's own?

EDIT: If it helps for posting on page 1, this is the VA in Philadelphia. Thank you so much for all you've done managing this list, it has been such an enormous help!
 
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In the same boat, trying to repeat to myself that everything will work out the way it is supposed to and taking deep breaths. We'll make it through this!

I don't know if this will make you feel better or worse haha, but I didn't match last year and I actually only got one interview in phase 1. But this year I have already done 5x's better with interviews 🙂 and still have more to hear from. Plus 2 of the interviews I've gotten are at my top 2 sites. For context, the one interview I got last year was my last ranked site. Talk about a completely different experience! Even if "the worst" happens, it might actually be for the best in the longer term. And it will all work out, not necessarily in a magical way, just in a way that people (especially grad students) are highly adaptable and resilient and we figure out how to make things happen ;-)
 
Ten rejections one interview and four sites that have sent out interviews yet haven’t rejected me just yet. I can’t decide whether I should still be hopeful or write it off on my head but it would be appreciated if they could just put me out of my misery. Then I still have nine more sites to hear from! And it’s been radio silence for almost a week! I have no nails left!


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Official Site Name: Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia
Date Invitation Received: 12/3
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, snapchat): mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums):
Offered Interview Dates: 12/14,12/17, 12/18, 1/3, 1/4
(In honor of last year) If & How you're staying sane
: French bread, stinky cheese, and wine.
 
Ten rejections one interview and four sites that have sent out interviews yet haven’t rejected me just yet. I can’t decide whether I should still be hopeful or write it off on my head but it would be appreciated if they could just put me out of my misery. Then I still have nine more sites to hear from! And it’s been radio silence for almost a week! I have no nails left!


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I’m waiting on 9 sites. Plus going to submit another 3 applications.


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I don't know if this will make you feel better or worse haha, but I didn't match last year and I actually only got one interview in phase 1. But this year I have already done 5x's better with interviews 🙂 and still have more to hear from. Plus 2 of the interviews I've gotten are at my top 2 sites. For context, the one interview I got last year was my last ranked site. Talk about a completely different experience! Even if "the worst" happens, it might actually be for the best in the longer term. And it will all work out, not necessarily in a magical way, just in a way that people (especially grad students) are highly adaptable and resilient and we figure out how to make things happen ;-)

If you had to pick one or two major aspects of your application that differed the most from last year to this year, what would it be? Maybe you already stated this somewhere, sorry if I missed it.

As I've read through essentially every post of this thread, I know a lot of people (including future applicants) could benefit from your experience.
 
"Agonizing" would be the perfect word to describe that scenario. And if, further, there is not another wave of invites between now and then, the waiting would have been completely unnecessary (unless they expected people to cancel interviews within a couple weeks).

DCT here. We know that it's agonizing waiting to hear from sites, but please remember if we wait longer to send rejections after invites, there is a reason behind it. For example, if a site has multiple tracks, and the invites go out in waves depending on track, we don't want to send multiple emails/rejections to the same applicant because this causes confusion for the applicant. Plus, as a training director, I wouldn't want to send multiple rejections to a single applicant - I know how tough this time is. Some sites may also have waitlists and don't want to send a rejection unless they are certain that the applicant will not be invited. From those that I know on training committees, there is no site that I'm aware of that just waits to send rejections for no reason. We also want this part of the process to be over as soon as possible. If the notification date that the site had listed on APPIC has passed and you haven't heard, then definitely feel free to contact the site, but please don't contact the site before then. We're already busy enough and this will likely reflect poorly on you. Good luck to all of you!
 
I don't know if this will make you feel better or worse haha, but I didn't match last year and I actually only got one interview in phase 1. But this year I have already done 5x's better with interviews 🙂 and still have more to hear from. Plus 2 of the interviews I've gotten are at my top 2 sites. For context, the one interview I got last year was my last ranked site. Talk about a completely different experience! Even if "the worst" happens, it might actually be for the best in the longer term. And it will all work out, not necessarily in a magical way, just in a way that people (especially grad students) are highly adaptable and resilient and we figure out how to make things happen ;-)

That's awesome! It's scary but helpful to know there is hope if the "worst case scenario" happens. Currently, I've got 2 interviews, 13 rejections, and 9 pending. Hoping for good news *fingers crossed*
 
DCT here. We know that it's agonizing waiting to hear from sites, but please remember if we wait longer to send rejections after invites, there is a reason behind it. For example, if a site has multiple tracks, and the invites go out in waves depending on track, we don't want to send multiple emails/rejections to the same applicant because this causes confusion for the applicant. Plus, as a training director, I wouldn't want to send multiple rejections to a single applicant - I know how tough this time is. Some sites may also have waitlists and don't want to send a rejection unless they are certain that the applicant will not be invited. From those that I know on training committees, there is no site that I'm aware of that just waits to send rejections for no reason. We also want this part of the process to be over as soon as possible. If the notification date that the site had listed on APPIC has passed and you haven't heard, then definitely feel free to contact the site, but please don't contact the site before then. We're already busy enough and this will likely reflect poorly on you. Good luck to all of you!

Thank you for the insight/reminder. I’m waiting to hear from a site that others got invited to, hoping that I am on the waitlist!


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Adam Driver says stop stressing and spiraling. His look is so full of judgement.....
20181203_111824~2.jpeg


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If you had to pick one or two major aspects of your application that differed the most from last year to this year, what would it be? Maybe you already stated this somewhere, sorry if I missed it.

As I've read through essentially every post of this thread, I know a lot of people (including future applicants) could benefit from your experience.

That's a great question. I did post an in-depth analysis in the thread called "Anyone Else Afraid of Not Matching" for anyone who is interested in the full story. But just for the quick version:

1. I didn't have enough intervention hours (my first external practicum was heavy in neuro assessment) so I'm quite sure that my application was thrown out by many sites up front. Although sites post a "minimum" number of required intervention hours, I think many of them use much higher cutoffs when actually reviewing applications just due to the competitiveness of all the applicants. For better or worse, in the last few years, it has become much more common to take an extra year before applying for internship so the number of training hours needed to be a viable candidate has gone up. To remedy this I spent the last year at a practicum that had a lot of intervention opportunities so it brought me up to a competitive level with training hours.

2. My materials last year (e.g. essays + cover letters) were 100% oriented towards neuropsychology. I have since been advised that this was a terrible strategy and that internship is really supposed to be centered around generalist training with some opportunities for specialty training. My materials this year, especially my essays, are way more general and holistic and while my cover letters do clearly state my career goals regarding being a neuropsychologist, I also highlight my desire for training in other aspects of the field.
 
That's a great question. I did post an in-depth analysis in the thread called "Anyone Else Afraid of Not Matching" for anyone who is interested in the full story. But just for the quick version:

1. I didn't have enough intervention hours (my first external practicum was heavy in neuro assessment) so I'm quite sure that my application was thrown out by many sites up front. Although sites post a "minimum" number of required intervention hours, I think many of them use much higher cutoffs when actually reviewing applications just due to the competitiveness of all the applicants. For better or worse, in the last few years, it has become much more common to take an extra year before applying for internship so the number of training hours needed to be a viable candidate has gone up. To remedy this I spent the last year at a practicum that had a lot of intervention opportunities so it brought me up to a competitive level with training hours.

2. My materials last year (e.g. essays + cover letters) were 100% oriented towards neuropsychology. I have since been advised that this was a terrible strategy and that internship is really supposed to be centered around generalist training with some opportunities for specialty training. My materials this year, especially my essays, are way more general and holistic and while my cover letters do clearly state my career goals regarding being a neuropsychologist, I also highlight my desire for training in other aspects of the field.

This is great. Appreciated.

Fit is just so incredibly important in this thing. And I think people sometimes confuse fit with specificity. I've personally found myself getting interviews at those sites with rotations in my special area of interest. However, there is likely no better way to get your app thrown out than to emphasize some very specific training or population that the site does not have or, perhaps, even emphasize. They can say with evidence (that you provided for them), "we can't meet their training needs."

So...fit with care.
 
Official Site Name: Oklahoma Health Consortium
Date Invitation Received: 11/30
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, snapchat): Personal email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): N/A
Offered Interview Dates: 12/19; 1/4, 1/9, 1/11, 1/16 and 1/18

Didn't see this on the list already just incase someone like myself needed to know...
 
That's a great question. I did post an in-depth analysis in the thread called "Anyone Else Afraid of Not Matching" for anyone who is interested in the full story. But just for the quick version:

1. I didn't have enough intervention hours (my first external practicum was heavy in neuro assessment) so I'm quite sure that my application was thrown out by many sites up front. Although sites post a "minimum" number of required intervention hours, I think many of them use much higher cutoffs when actually reviewing applications just due to the competitiveness of all the applicants. For better or worse, in the last few years, it has become much more common to take an extra year before applying for internship so the number of training hours needed to be a viable candidate has gone up. To remedy this I spent the last year at a practicum that had a lot of intervention opportunities so it brought me up to a competitive level with training hours.

2. My materials last year (e.g. essays + cover letters) were 100% oriented towards neuropsychology. I have since been advised that this was a terrible strategy and that internship is really supposed to be centered around generalist training with some opportunities for specialty training. My materials this year, especially my essays, are way more general and holistic and while my cover letters do clearly state my career goals regarding being a neuropsychologist, I also highlight my desire for training in other aspects of the field.

Really wish this was emphasized more while writing application materials. I also have a lower number of intervention hours due to heavy assessment practicums and wrote my materials focused on forensics *facepalm* Currently in an intervention heavy practicum trying to make up for it.
 
Finally received a mass rejection email from Duke I knew this was a reach but it’s still a bummer!


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Is anyone else taking advantage of the transportation provided by Mississippi State Hospital? They offered it to and from the hotel, but I still don’t want to be the only one who takes it.


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