APPIC internship matching -- thoughts?

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psych101

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I was recently talking with a student preparing to apply for pre-doc internship (APA-accredited programs only). Having completed mine already, I had thankfully repressed a lot of the agony that goes along with the process. For those who have gone through the process or watched others go through it, what do you think of the APPIC match system? Although I matched where I wanted to go and no one in my grad program had gone there prior to me (i.e., no "history" with the internship site), I am beginning to wonder if that's atypical. What are your experiences -- do you find it common that many sites tend to favor applicants from certain programs or "hold" slots for particular candidates? I know that, over the years, my internship site had an unusually high number of spots filled with applicants from the university with which the site itself was affiliated. I can also think of internship sites where at least one person from my grad program matches every single year -- and sometimes 2 match there! Where does this leave everyone else? Those without an "automatic in" somewhere? Would it be better to go back to the days before the match - where every tactic was fair game but at least everything was out in the open (relatively speaking)? Seems like the match eliminates some difficulties from the past but lots of the same strategies are still used to secure spots (even if that was never the intent behind the creation of the match system). Just wondered what others find...

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Any advice for those of us that are applying next fall? Thanks so much :)
 
As someone who just went through this I can assure you that applying for internships sucks. It could suck more, but it definitely sucks a lot.

Personally I don’t like the match because it unfairly interferes with competition for students and makes it difficult to coordinate your internship year with a working significant other.

As for advice, start working on the application early. It is a monster. Also, get your LORs together as soon as possible. You may need a good testing report so try to wrestle one of those away from one of your practicum sites. Oh, and don’t screw up the envelopes. One of the guys on my internship submitted the wrong cover letter and LORs to one of his sites. The interviewers were not amused (though he still got an interview somehow). Double check everything. Almost all of the sites have some idiosyncratic way they want you to send in your application.

When you are waiting for interviews try to keep your spirits up (somehow the rejections seem to make it to you before the invitations). Remember, once it is all over you can be content in the knowledge that you will NEVER, EVER HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN!!!!! :D
 
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Though I am obviously nowhere near inernship, as I am just about to start grad school, I can attest to the fact that I have noticed a trend in certain internship sites taking graduates of my program every year. My personal belief is that it has to do with who your advisors know and the experience they have had with past grads. Though their are certainly a few who seem to go to top internship sites all on their own. That is one of the main reasons I wanted a smaller program. More resources/contacts professors can help you with and less competition between students in the program for the same spots. Also, don't discount the fact that program directors may favor students from their old grad program. That is life though.

p.s. - psychgeek, isn't their a similar process for post-doc fellowships as well?
 
Sanman said:
p.s. - psychgeek, isn't their a similar process for post-doc fellowships as well?

There is but from what I hear it isn’t as bad. A lot of post-doc positions don’t participate in the match so you can still find somewhere to go even if you don’t match. You don’t even really have to have a formal post-doc per se; you just have to have a licensed psychologist supervise you for a certain number of hours over a one year period (note: I don’t know if this is true of neuropsych). The whole process just seems less competitive and desperate than the intern application process.

And if you really hate applying for things (like I do), you can always try to get an internship with an associated post-doc.
 
psych101 said:
What are your experiences -- do you find it common that many sites tend to favor applicants from certain programs or "hold" slots for particular candidates? I know that, over the years, my internship site had an unusually high number of spots filled with applicants from the university with which the site itself was affiliated. I can also think of internship sites where at least one person from my grad program matches every single year -- and sometimes 2 match there! Where does this leave everyone else? Those without an "automatic in" somewhere? Would it be better to go back to the days before the match - where every tactic was fair game but at least everything was out in the open (relatively speaking)?

In my experience there definitely are unofficial relationships between programs and internships. I don’t know if these are explicit (i.e. I don’t know that an internship site makes a conscious decision to try to hold a slot for students from a particular program) or if this is just a product of preferring the training model, preparation, or type of student who goes to a particular program. There also may be a sort of mutual benefit thing going on. Internships want to know they will have good students rank them highly and programs want to know that their students will match. An unofficial arrangement makes both of these goals easier to realize. I don’t think the match is really to blame for this sort of phenomenon; the same thing happens for practicums and these are not managed through a match. It does suck for students who may attend a program that does not have as many of these sorts of relationships, but it seems to me that most programs do have sites that generally like to take their students.
 
psychgeek said:
There is but from what I hear it isn’t as bad. A lot of post-doc positions don’t participate in the match so you can still find somewhere to go even if you don’t match. You don’t even really have to have a formal post-doc per se; you just have to have a licensed psychologist supervise you for a certain number of hours over a one year period (note: I don’t know if this is true of neuropsych). The whole process just seems less competitive and desperate than the intern application process.

And if you really hate applying for things (like I do), you can always try to get an internship with an associated post-doc.
i was under the impression that i could do my post doc anywhere i like as long i could get supervision from a licensed psychologist....i didnt even KNOW there was a matching thingie for that too!

we dont do the APPIC at Widener (thank HEAVENS!!!) and our school definitely does have relationships with sites based on knowing our professors and the quality of students coming from the program in the past....i guess my school's been pretty consistent when it comes to churning out quality doctors (for the most part :D)

i developed a really good relationship with my practicum supervisor from this year and shes told me that she'll supervise me for licensure anytime! she also wants me to toss my plans to move to the west coast and come work at the private practice when im licensed....we'll see! she makes REALLY nice money!

so, anyway...with a supervisor all lined up, i feel like my post doc internship options have opened up quite a bit as well!
 
I completely agree with psychgeek's discussion of pre-existing relationships between internship sites and certain programs. However, I don't think that this is any more or less problematic because of the match. After all, you have to first be invited to interview at a program. I think that's when these relationships can be beneficial- when it's time to make that first cut.

But having been on both sides of the internship matching process (as an applicant and as an interviewer), i can honestly say that once that first cut is made, the ranking has more to do with how a particular applicant performed in the interview and the apparent match between their background/goals with the training model of the program.

Personally, I found the matching process to be pretty painless. You don't have to play games with programs like you did in the old system. In that system, applicants were put in a position where they basically had to tell every program that it was their first choice. Otherwise, the odds of getting an immediate offer were nil. But obviously, not every program can be your first choice... so when a third choice came in, and someone was waiting for their first choice, it created a really bad bottleneck. It's kind of like what happens with grad school admissions right around April 15th - but 10 times worse! And you also run the risk of alienating yourself professionally (e.g., when you tell a program it's your top choice, and then choose to go elsewhere). Not a good scene.

If you look on the APPIC website, you can see the stats for each year. Generally, around 80% of people registered match to one of their top 3 choices. Anecdotally, I've always been told that those who have difficulty matching are those from non-accredited programs or those who had to apply to programs in a geographically-limited area.
 
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