APPIC Interview Invitation Thread (2021)

Started by psykhe
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comette said:
Happy interview season fam! Sending everyone positive energy.

Anyone hear from Friends Hospital in Philly? They have yesterday listed as their notification date but since they extended their deadline I assume they’ll take a bit longer. Wanted to see if anyone has info. Thanks in advance!
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I’m waiting on them as well.
 
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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Similar to what others have said, the majority of our practica at my university-based clinical PhD program are unpaid. There are a couple of paid ones, but they are rare. Our funding comes from being a teaching assistant, teaching fellow/instructor of record (after Master's), or research assistant if your advisor has grants.
 
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veb1922 said:
Similar to what others have said, the majority of our practica at my university-based clinical PhD program are unpaid. There are a couple of paid ones, but they are rare. Our funding comes from being a teaching assistant, teaching fellow/instructor of record (after Master's), or research assistant if your advisor has grants.
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Just to be clear- you all mean external practica, right? Like when you get hours at a hospital off campus or whatever and (usually) are supervised by a psychologist there? Students in my program and in the one I'm faculty in work in our training clinic for free under faculty supervision, but in sometimes 2nd year, definitely 3rd year + their funding usually comes from the contracts the program has with external agencies unless they want to teach a class or are on a faculty grant. Nobody has to teach or TA AND do 20 hours/week of clinical practicum (in addition to the training clinic).

I know a lot of times counseling students don't have funding and certainly PsyDs don't. Maybe with clinical programs that do have funding but not from practica it has to do with the age of the program (more established = more contracts) or something about the local area?
 
AlmostaPhD said:
Just to be clear- you all mean external practica, right? Like when you get hours at a hospital off campus or whatever and (usually) are supervised by a psychologist there? Students in my program and in the one I'm faculty in work in our training clinic for free under faculty supervision, but in sometimes 2nd year, definitely 3rd year + their funding usually comes from the contracts the program has with external agencies unless they want to teach a class or are on a faculty grant. Nobody has to teach or TA AND do 20 hours/week of clinical practicum (in addition to the training clinic).

I know a lot of times counseling students don't have funding and certainly PsyDs don't. Maybe with clinical programs that do have funding but not from practica it has to do with the age of the program (more established = more contracts) or something about the local area?
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For my PhD program in New England- Our typical load in our 4th and 5th years once we are finished with most classes is 15-20 hours of funded positions through TA, IOR, or research assistantship, 16-24 hours a week at an unpaid practicum/externship at a area hospital/clinic, + dissertation and other research activities.

My impression from a conversation with my DCT is that under-resourced areas with few graduate programs (e.g. rural areas) are able to pay practicum student, but in cities where there are several training programs it is less typical to find paid practicum opportunities
 
AlmostaPhD said:
Just to be clear- you all mean external practica, right? Like when you get hours at a hospital off campus or whatever and (usually) are supervised by a psychologist there? Students in my program and in the one I'm faculty in work in our training clinic for free under faculty supervision, but in sometimes 2nd year, definitely 3rd year + their funding usually comes from the contracts the program has with external agencies unless they want to teach a class or are on a faculty grant. Nobody has to teach or TA AND do 20 hours/week of clinical practicum (in addition to the training clinic).

I know a lot of times counseling students don't have funding and certainly PsyDs don't. Maybe with clinical programs that do have funding but not from practica it has to do with the age of the program (more established = more contracts) or something about the local area?
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Yeah, I did an unpaid 16-hr/week practica at the VA, taught two sections of an undergrad class, took one class, and did research in my lab.
 
AlmostaPhD said:
Just to be clear- you all mean external practica, right? Like when you get hours at a hospital off campus or whatever and (usually) are supervised by a psychologist there? Students in my program and in the one I'm faculty in work in our training clinic for free under faculty supervision, but in sometimes 2nd year, definitely 3rd year + their funding usually comes from the contracts the program has with external agencies unless they want to teach a class or are on a faculty grant. Nobody has to teach or TA AND do 20 hours/week of clinical practicum (in addition to the training clinic).

I know a lot of times counseling students don't have funding and certainly PsyDs don't. Maybe with clinical programs that do have funding but not from practica it has to do with the age of the program (more established = more contracts) or something about the local area?
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Yep, for me it’s external and internal practica that are unpaid.

Our students are basically guaranteed a teaching position for funding but beyond that you/your faculty advisor has to get a grant and that doesn’t happen super often in my program. My counseling PhD program is even in a rural area where mental health providers are in high need. Our students work at the internal clinic their 2nd year, 3rd and 4th are external. Most semesters, the majority of our students take 3-4 grad classes, work on research, teach 2 undergrad sections of a course, & do an external prac 16-20 hours a week.

It’s super awesome to hear of programs where people are paid on practica!
 
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soexpsyded said:
At my PsyD program, all students are paid for all practica. About $5,500 per practicum (16-20 hrs/week) is normal. $1,500 is the smallest amount we can get (usually unfunded externships), and some sites pay as high as $9,000 for the year (usually forensic sites). I thought all doctoral psych students were paid for practicums!
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I am glad we are discussing this. In our program, we pay school to get a practicum 🙈
 
WisNeuro said:
FWIW, the norm is unpaid practica. I know of a few places where students get paid, but it seems to be the exception, rather than the norm.
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This is wild to me. I believe you, and the posts on this thread show me that apparently my experience is not as universal as I thought. My sample is n = 2 programs, and I guess i could ask colleagues about their grad programs but I just assumed that people's GA funding in the advanced years of their clinical PhD programs were paid externships everywhere. For research-focused programs, how would you find time to meet research expectations while doing a GA and a volunteer 20 hours/week practicum??!
 
AlmostaPhD said:
This is wild to me. I believe you, and the posts on this thread show me that apparently my experience is not as universal as I thought. My sample is n = 2 programs, and I guess i could ask colleagues about their grad programs but I just assumed that people's GA funding in the advanced years of their clinical PhD programs were paid externships everywhere. For research-focused programs, how would you find time to meet research expectations while doing a GA and a volunteer 20 hours/week practicum??!
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Great question. I'm at a clinical psych PhD program and I can't speak for others but I work ridiculous hours. We have to teach and/or TA 2 sections for funding unless we have external funding (like grants or fellowships) or our research mentors pay us. Then we take classes, do research , and have practica (ours are really flexible though, number of hours vary, and we're sometimes doing more than one at once). I end up working 6-7 days a week most weeks, and it's not uncommon to spend well over 8 hours a day and pull a lot of late nights (but less on weekends because I have kids).

Let me add that I've been super grateful for my training but the expectations are high and the workload is super problematic...
 
AlmostaPhD said:
This is wild to me. I believe you, and the posts on this thread show me that apparently my experience is not as universal as I thought. My sample is n = 2 programs, and I guess i could ask colleagues about their grad programs but I just assumed that people's GA funding in the advanced years of their clinical PhD programs were paid externships everywhere. For research-focused programs, how would you find time to meet research expectations while doing a GA and a volunteer 20 hours/week practicum??!
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I asked myself the same question for all the five years of my Ph.D. that I was required to do this, hahahha 🤣
 
neuropsycho12 said:
Great question. I'm at a clinical psych PhD program and I can't speak for others but I work ridiculous hours. We have to teach and/or TA 2 sections for funding unless we have external funding (like grants or fellowships) or our research mentors pay us. Then we take classes, do research , and have practica (ours are really flexible though, number of hours vary, and we're sometimes doing more than one at once). I end up working 6-7 days a week most weeks, and it's not uncommon to spend well over 8 hours a day and pull a lot of late nights (but less on weekends because I have kids).

Let me add that I've been super grateful for my training but the expectations are high and the workload is super problematic...
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I can relate to this too hard. At one point, I was RA-ing 20 hours a week, doing a 20 hour a week practicum, and taking 3 classes all at the same time... Not to mention quals and other research responsibilities. Needless to say, I was sleeping little and crying lots. Imagine my shock when a psyd intern at my practicum site told me that not only did she have full funding/financial aid at her school, but also zero research/TA or RA responsibilities.

I don't want to sound ungrateful, because I truly am, but sometimes it can be overwhelming. And my school is especially research-oriented so my clinical skills feel severely underdeveloped and it's frustrating at times. Pros and cons to every program, I suppose!
 
neuropsycho12 said:
Great question. I'm at a clinical psych PhD program and I can't speak for others but I work ridiculous hours. We have to teach and/or TA 2 sections for funding unless we have external funding (like grants or fellowships) or our research mentors pay us. Then we take classes, do research , and have practica (ours are really flexible though, number of hours vary, and we're sometimes doing more than one at once). I end up working 6-7 days a week most weeks, and it's not uncommon to spend well over 8 hours a day and pull a lot of late nights (but less on weekends because I have kids).

Let me add that I've been super grateful for my training but the expectations are high and the workload is super problematic...
Click to expand...
I mean I expect people to work > 40 hours/week in grad school (this doesn't stop when you graduate if you go the academic route, at least based on my trajectory) but in my experience TAing or teaching a lab section was not that time consuming (I think I also only ever had one section, and my students now definitely only have one section) so I thought that was mostly research effort that was leading folks to burn the midnight oil. But if you have a real 20-hour GA that's a doozy.

I guess I should be grateful for my training experience and that my current students aren't bogged down with double duty on GA positions and practica. As a supervisor this makes me want to tell them that they have a relatively favorable setup and that I should be getting even more research productivity out of them than I am...

In all seriousness, though, thanks for everyone's comments on this. It's good to get this kind of info and to know where my current program stands in terms of potential strengths and weaknesses.
 
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AlmostaPhD said:
I mean I expect people to work > 40 hours/week in grad school (this doesn't stop when you graduate if you go the academic route, at least based on my trajectory) but in my experience TAing or teaching a lab section was not that time consuming (I think I also only ever had one section, and my students now definitely only have one section) so I thought that was mostly research effort that was leading folks to burn the midnight oil. But if you have a real 20-hour GA that's a doozy.

I guess I should be grateful for my training experience and that my current students aren't bogged down with double duty on GA positions and practica. As a supervisor this makes me want to tell them that they have a relatively favorable setup and that I should be getting even more research productivity out of them than I am...

In all seriousness, though, thanks for everyone's comments on this. It's good to get this kind of info and to know where my current program stands in terms of potential strengths and weaknesses.
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In our program it varies so widely. My first semester teaching, I had a 200 person undergrad abnormal psych lecture and that only counted for one section so I had to be my own TA as my "second section". I did have another TA but it was still definitely at least 20 hours a week. I was also taking class of my own, doing research, 2 practica... In contrast, this semester I'm TAing for someone else where I only have to grade a few assignments for 50 students throughout the entire semester and I'm getting paid to be a clinician on an RCT... the workload is vastly different but the pay is the same.
 
I know I have seen posts about invites for Kennedy Krieger Institute from multiple tracks, but I haven't seen anything on the Psychiatric Mental Health Program Track. Is there anyone out there that has received an invite for this? Thank you! 🙂
 
AlmostaPhD said:
I mean I expect people to work > 40 hours/week in grad school (this doesn't stop when you graduate if you go the academic route, at least based on my trajectory) but in my experience TAing or teaching a lab section was not that time consuming (I think I also only ever had one section, and my students now definitely only have one section) so I thought that was mostly research effort that was leading folks to burn the midnight oil. But if you have a real 20-hour GA that's a doozy.

I guess I should be grateful for my training experience and that my current students aren't bogged down with double duty on GA positions and practica. As a supervisor this makes me want to tell them that they have a relatively favorable setup and that I should be getting even more research productivity out of them than I am...

In all seriousness, though, thanks for everyone's comments on this. It's good to get this kind of info and to know where my current program stands in terms of potential strengths and weaknesses.
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Hi! I say this very sincerely... I have a strong reaction to the statement "I should be getting more research" from students and the inclination to tell them that they have it better than others. I am in a clinical phd program like this, and it has backfired and set the program back in a lot of ways. This is the type of mindset that myself and many rising academics I know are actively fighting against. It's toxic and is often counterproductive.

I have a background in business management and at the end of the day, research labs, clinics, departments and academia as a whole is a business (which is not a bad thing). There is good theory and research on how to manage "workers" in a way that preserves their dignity and autonomy, and encourages intrinsic motivation for productivity without using shame. As someone trained under the clinical science model, I choose to follow the research. I think we, the field, can do better.
 
anxiousapplicant9 said:
I know I have seen posts about invites for Kennedy Krieger Institute from multiple tracks, but I haven't seen anything on the Psychiatric Mental Health Program Track. Is there anyone out there that has received an invite for this? Thank you! 🙂
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The earlier KKI posts seem to be related to the Behavioral Psychology/ Neuropsychology Program and not the newer, PMHP/Family Traumatic Stress Program. This is a separate program, not tracks.
 
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AlmostaPhD said:
This is wild to me. I believe you, and the posts on this thread show me that apparently my experience is not as universal as I thought. My sample is n = 2 programs, and I guess i could ask colleagues about their grad programs but I just assumed that people's GA funding in the advanced years of their clinical PhD programs were paid externships everywhere. For research-focused programs, how would you find time to meet research expectations while doing a GA and a volunteer 20 hours/week practicum??!
Click to expand...

Others have also chimed in, but you make it work. Additionally, the in-depth pracs for my program tended to be later in the program years when class load was minimal. It's a lot of work, but I managed that as well as being employed on a large research grant doing testing. Getting a stipend, full tuition remission, plus good health insurance was a pretty good deal when you actually look at the numbers.
 
On behalf of someone in my cohort!

Official Site Name: Yale Child Studies Center
Date Invitation Received: 12/04/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Phone call at 8:40am
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Early Childhood Specialty Track
Interview Dates Offered: 1/8, 1/11, 1/12, 1/13
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane: Professor Bren's psych insta (check it out, so good).
 
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user4321 said:
Official Site Name: VA Maine
Date Invitation Received: 12/04/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Neuropsychology track
Interview Dates Offered: allow you to rank dates- 01/05, 01/06, 01/14
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane:
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Awww bummer. I definitely didn’t get that email
 
I have a question for this thread, is it better to schedule the first interview or the last interview date? How about a middle interview date? Thanks!

Also:

Official Site Name: Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems
Date Invitation Received: 12/04/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): none
Interview Dates Offered: 1/11, 1/12, 1/13, 1/14, 1/15, 1/19, 1/20, 1/21, 1/22
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane: Watching stupid Youtube videos
 
inpursuitphdpsych said:
FBOP folx, has anyone heard back after completing the USAjobs.gov application?
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Starting to wonder about hearing back on the federal follow-ups - have you received anything from your site yet? Mine was FMC Devens and I have not heard anything. Would they notify us if they decided not to move forward with the interview?
 
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