APPIC Interview Invitation Thread (2021)

Started by psykhe
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mamux said:
I view externship as an opportunity to spend an additional year in a “practicum” outside of my program and a way to gain additional skills to be a more competitive trainee for the internship. Not getting interviews may be a sign that there are some gaps that need to be filled with additional skills. This is how I am explaining myself why I have only rejections and 0 invitations. But maybe I am wrong 🤔
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IIRC you can apply to internship and externship/practica at the same time, but you need a good-ass reason, approval from your DCT, and you need to tell externships that you're applying to internships concurrently. YMMV though, as these instructions were specific to NY/NJ.
 
counselingpsychstudent said:
Official Site Name: Washington DC VA Medical Center
Date Invitation Received: 12/2/20
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): General
Interview dates offered: 1/5, 1/7, 1/8, 1/11

Official Site Name: Leavenworth VA
Date Invitation Received: 11/24/20
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): General
Interview dates offered: 1/7, 1/8, 1/14, 1/15

Official Site Name: Topeka VA
Date Invitation Received: 11/20/20
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): General
Interview dates offered: 1/6, 1/8, 1/19, 1/21

Rejected from Philly VA on 12/3 via email
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Do you know if the DC email was a personal or mass email? Waiting to hear from them 🤞🏼
 
PsychSt1234 said:
Hello - I am sitting twiddling my thumbs waiting for responses from all but three of my sites. Anyone else in this situation? I've gotten two rejections and one invitation...but haven't heard back from any other sites!
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Yup, I'm in a similar position. One rejection, two offers, haven't heard anything from the rest. I am hopeful because other sites I applied to but haven't heard from have not been discussed on here, so perhaps they're still reviewing. Fingers crossed that interview offers are on their way to your inbox soon!
 
sampsyd123 said:
What does my body size have to do with my interview?
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counselingpsychstudent said:
The comment about sleeveless shirts/arms is fatphobic. If a site does not want to work with someone because of the size of their body, then that is likely a toxic site and somewhere you do not want to be.
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These were both points I raised when sites started announcing a shift to video and I was given suggestions on what to do/not do. I certainly agree it shouldn't matter, but the response I was given boiled down to 'is it worth providing any additional reason (regardless of how stupid or unfair) to be overlooked or written off when there is already enough riding on the interview?' I personally think we're already unfairly judged on a multitude of things, so for me going sleeveless is not something else I'm willing to add to that pile. Ultimately we should all do what we feel is best for us, but if anyone is concerned about how they might appear on camera it certainly doesn't hurt to do a few practices or take still shots to test different outfits and lighting. I'll admit I did a lot of testing with my face products to make sure I don't look oily or shiny.
 
mypointlesspov said:
IIRC you can apply to internship and externship/practica at the same time, but you need a good-ass reason, approval from your DCT, and you need to tell externships that you're applying to internships concurrently. YMMV though, as these instructions were specific to NY/NJ.
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I appreciate your response but I am confused now. Are you saying that the student doesn’t have a right to withdraw from the internship application process if, let’s say, it doesn’t go the way the student predicted? What is considered a “good reason” and why does the student need a permission to go a different direction (i.e., enhance/add skills and prepare better for the next year)?
 
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Anyone heard from the VA Maine or Robley Rex VA in Louisville Kentucky yet? Deadline for date notifications is tomorrow and I am waiting in anxious fear and anticipation.
 
mamux said:
I appreciate your response but I am confused now. Are you saying that the student doesn’t have a right to withdraw from the internship application process if, let’s say, it doesn’t go the way the student predicted? What is considered a “good reason” and why does the student need a permission to go a different direction (i.e., enhance/add skills and prepare better for the next year)?
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I think you might be in a different kind of program than many of us are? My externships were always arranged by the program and were our paid GA positions (i.e., what we did to get our stipends and tuition remission instead of being a TA or being on a faculty grant). Students would submit a list of externships they were interested in from the catalog of options with which the program had a financial agreement in the spring and would start in the summer. It was post-internship apps and if someone had the misfortune of not matching they would still be able to be funded in the dept. This is a clinical psych PhD program at a large university. I know things run a little different in NYC, for example.
 
kayfay89 said:
Anyone heard from the VA Maine or Robley Rex VA in Louisville Kentucky yet? Deadline for date notifications is tomorrow and I am waiting in anxious fear and anticipation.
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Did you get an email from Robley Rex that said “We are currently reviewing applications and will be in contact early in December to schedule virtual interviews. In the interim, we want you to “save the date” for our Virtual Open House, which is Friday, December 18th from 9:00 EST to 4:30 EST.”? That’s all I got but I assumed that went to everyone and didn’t mean I was getting an interview necessarily
 
Neurogeek91 said:
Earlier in the thread someone listed questions we should be prepared for during interviews, but I can't find it! Can anyone share questions their DCTs or supervisors have suggested we prepare for? Thank you!!!
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I made a document where I broke questions out into categories because anxiety 😛 It includes questions from my TD, VA materials I found online, T2T Blog, questions reported on here, and Dr. Chen's Grad Corner Blog. Here ya go! Feel free to share.
 

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anxioustudent said:
Did you get an email from Robley Rex that said “We are currently reviewing applications and will be in contact early in December to schedule virtual interviews. In the interim, we want you to “save the date” for our Virtual Open House, which is Friday, December 18th from 9:00 EST to 4:30 EST.”? That’s all I got but I assumed that went to everyone and didn’t mean I was getting an interview necessarily
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Yes, I got that. I assumed the same thing, haven’t set that date in stone yet until I hear from them.
 
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AlmostaPhD said:
I think you might be in a different kind of program than many of us are? My externships were always arranged by the program and were our paid GA positions (i.e., what we did to get our stipends and tuition remission instead of being a TA or being on a faculty grant). Students would submit a list of externships they were interested in from the catalog of options with which the program had a financial agreement in the spring and would start in the summer. It was post-internship apps and if someone had the misfortune of not matching they would still be able to be funded in the dept. This is a clinical psych PhD program at a large university. I know things run a little different in NYC, for example.
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Wow'd that you get paid for those, that's awesome 🙂
 
hsiren said:
Wow'd that you get paid for those, that's awesome 🙂
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I mean there were some volunteer ones you could do like 1 day/week on top of other things, but it's pretty typical in university-based clinical PhD programs for students to do paid practica (20 hours/week, stipend not amazing but something). I'm faculty now and our students don't work for free 🙂.
 
AlmostaPhD said:
I mean there were some volunteer ones you could do like 1 day/week on top of other things, but it's pretty typical in university-based clinical PhD programs for students to do paid practica (20 hours/week, stipend not amazing but something). I'm faculty now and our students don't work for free 🙂.
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That's amazing! We do *all* of our practica for free and on top of that take classes, do research, and most of us teach 2 sections of an undergraduate course as an assistantship for which we are comically (cries) underpaid. I'm in a counseling psych PhD program and my friend in my uni's clinical psych PhD program is in the same boat. Kudos to your program for valuing the work of your students and not exploiting them. <3 (Sorry for derailing interview thread, this was awesome to hear)
 
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anxioustudent said:
Thanks for responding! Was it addressed to you by name or did it say something generic like “dear applicant”? Thanks again! And congrats on the invite!
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Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of mass emails have our names substituted in. That alone doesn’t make it a personal email, because there are programs you can use that will substitute in names for you (for example, researchers can import email addresses in a survey service like Qualtrics and code it to make the email look individualized). Personal emails from sites tend to contain more specific information beyond just your name and interview date (if one was chosen for you). I, too, was curious about what a personal email might look like and noticed the difference ones my offers started coming in + seeing what others on this thread described.
 
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DesperateS2012 said:
It seems like only one person posted about Bellevue/NYU child track, which offered only one interview date - 12/9... which makes me hopeful that it's a rolling interview offer system. I wonder if anyone else received interview offers or rejection yet? #amitoonaivetobehopeful
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I am also waiting to hear from them and am trying to be hopeful!!! 🤞🏼😊
 
ccpsych16 said:
Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of mass emails have our names substituted in. That alone doesn’t make it a personal email, because there are programs you can use that will substitute in names for you (for example, researchers can import email addresses in a survey service like Qualtrics and code it to make the email look individualized). Personal emails from sites tend to contain more specific information beyond just your name and interview date (if one was chosen for you). I, too, was curious about what a personal email might look like and noticed the difference ones my offers started coming in + seeing what others on this thread described.
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Ooooo interesting point! OK my "personal" emails might not be...
 
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