APPIC Interview Invitation Thread (2021)

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I can't speak to how many sites do and do not do this, but I know of several sites across levels of 'competitiveness' that almost always send invites in November and wait until near 12/15 to send rejections. Many of these have not sent waves but, instead, sent invites on one particular day.
Thanks for the help! A lot of the places I heard from in the beginning had sent out their rejections and interviews at the same time but there's been a couple of sites recently that have sent out interviews but I haven't received an email either way and wasn't sure if they just wait to send out rejections later or what was going on (which I think is weird and cruel because I'd rather know lol)
 
I just got a call today from a psychologist with the BOP. Essentially just introducing herself as the main point of contact for scheduling the CVA. She asked if I already received the OF-5 form (which I did and returned) so, I think they're all operating on somewhat separate schedules. We didn't actually schedule the CVA yet because she doesn't have all the info they need (on their end) but was mostly calling just to introduce herself :] I'm sure you'll all get similar calls soon!
I received a voicemail and returned her call, also leaving a voicemail. What kind of things/questions were discussed?
 
The TD at Allenwood told me we don't need to contact HR and that the form just says that because it's a generic form for all positions. She said we should just wait for someone to call us to schedule the CVA. Did you hear something different from HR?
The email I received from the TD and the OF-5 form had slightly different instructions on the next steps, with the form saying to call HR and the TD email saying to wait for someone to contact me, which is confusing and I'm not sure what they actually want us to do. I ended up calling HR and doing it that way but I'm not sure you necessarily need to do that. The HR person just made sure I had submitted the OF-5 form and asked about my location so that we could figure out the location closest to me. He said he was going to reach out to them to coordinate the CVA/drug test/interview and would be in touch with me soon. I'm not sure what the "right" procedure is tho - I would guess that the TD is a reliable source so you're probably fine if you dont call HR and wait for someone to contact you!
 
Anyone either hear from or still waiting to hear from the Hampton VA or Buffalo Psychiatric Center? It's well past the interview notification date for both of these sites and I'm getting nervous that I missed an email or something!
 
Official Site Name: Cambridge Health Alliance
Date Invitation Received: 12/09/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass eqmail, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): population health/adult
Interview Dates Offered: 1/6 or 1/8
Congratulations! 🙂

Has anyone heard from the population health / child and adolescent track yet?
 
I received a voicemail and returned her call, also leaving a voicemail. What kind of things/questions were discussed?
not much else outside of what I wrote. she essentially just called to introduce herself, make sure my questions were answered, and said she'd be in touch with further steps.
 
Anyone either hear from or still waiting to hear from the Hampton VA or Buffalo Psychiatric Center? It's well past the interview notification date for both of these sites and I'm getting nervous that I missed an email or something!
If it is past the notification date stated both on the APPIC directory and the materials from the sites you should feel empowered to reach out to them!
 
Anyone either hear from or still waiting to hear from the Hampton VA or Buffalo Psychiatric Center? It's well past the interview notification date for both of these sites and I'm getting nervous that I missed an email or something!
I haven't heard anything from Hampton VA yet either, but I have the Hampton VA notification date as 12/15/2020.
 
Official Site Name: Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Med School
Date Invitation Received: 12/09/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass eqmail, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): adult/child outpatient
Interview Dates Offered: 1/4 or 1/13 (for initial group orientation)
 
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I've seen others post about receiving interview offers, but I'm wondering if anyone has received a rejection notification from either UCSD/SD VAMC or Duke SOM?
 
Rejection - advocate Illinois masonic medical center. mass email 12/9

and:

Official Site Name: Valley State Prison - Northern California Dept of Corrections
Date Invitation Received: 12/09/20
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): appears to be a personal email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): N/A
Interview Dates Offered: 1/8 at 10am is all that I was offered, oddly specific
How/if staying sane: you could say I am sinking slowly into despair
 
A little bit of a different question, but I would like to withdraw from interviewing at one of my sites - I've talked to someone who worked at a site and am very certain that it's not a good match for me. My only concern is if doing so would negatively affect how this site views others from my program in the future. Anyone know if withdrawing from an interview would make a site less likely to interview others from the same program in future years?
 
Rejection - advocate Illinois masonic medical center. mass email 12/9

and:

Official Site Name: Valley State Prison - Northern California Dept of Corrections
Date Invitation Received: 12/09/20
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): appears to be a personal email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): N/A
Interview Dates Offered: 1/8 at 10am is all that I was offered, oddly specific
How/if staying sane: you could say I am sinking slowly into despair
I got rejected too 🥺
 
Official Site Name: Denver Health
Date Invitation Received: 12/09/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): child/adolescent psychology and child & family integrated substance use disorders
Interview Dates Offered: 12/17, 1/4, 1/7, and 1/13
 
Official Site Name: Denver Health
Date Invitation Received: 12/09/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): child/adolescent psychology and child & family integrated substance use disorders
Interview Dates Offered: 12/17, 1/4, 1/7, and 1/13
Same for neuropsych
 
I've seen others post about receiving interview offers, but I'm wondering if anyone has received a rejection notification from either UCSD/SD VAMC or Duke SOM?
I have not gotten a rejection from Duke yet. They have a 12/15 deadline I believe
 
A little bit of a different question, but I would like to withdraw from interviewing at one of my sites - I've talked to someone who worked at a site and am very certain that it's not a good match for me. My only concern is if doing so would negatively affect how this site views others from my program in the future. Anyone know if withdrawing from an interview would make a site less likely to interview others from the same program in future years?
I would interview anyway unless the intel you got was really egregious. Sometimes change happens that we’re not privy to as outsiders (unless this is a very recent or ongoing concern). And sometimes people have experiences that are more personalized than they may realize. Without knowing exactly what happened it’s hard to give advice. It would have to be something severe in order for me to withdraw from interviewing; I can see myself still going through the process to gather information for myself. Interviewing doesn’t mean you have to rank it.
 
This process is so hard! I keep thinking back to the comments about the interviews and how sites have some sense of rankings before interviews, and I don’t know if that’s helping or making me MORE anxious. All said, this process really challenges one’s tolerance of uncertainty.

This is the kind of thing that is entirely site dependent. We have no idea about ranking until we complete our interviews.

Regarding what makes you competitive- please believe us when we say we are looking for a Match. We see so many amazing applicants and interviewees. Some are just not a good fit for the site. Once you interview you will likely find this to be true as well. As much as a site seems wonderful on paper, you may come away from your interview with a much less favorable impression. The opposite may also be true. This truly is a difficult process. Hang in there, get the comfort and support you need, and then go kick butt in your interviews
 
Rejection - advocate Illinois masonic medical center. mass email 12/9

and:

Official Site Name: Valley State Prison - Northern California Dept of Corrections
Date Invitation Received: 12/09/20
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): appears to be a personal email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): N/A
Interview Dates Offered: 1/8 at 10am is all that I was offered, oddly specific
How/if staying sane: you could say I am sinking slowly into despair
When did you get rejection from Masonic?
 
A little bit of a different question, but I would like to withdraw from interviewing at one of my sites - I've talked to someone who worked at a site and am very certain that it's not a good match for me. My only concern is if doing so would negatively affect how this site views others from my program in the future. Anyone know if withdrawing from an interview would make a site less likely to interview others from the same program in future years?
I was advised against withdrawing from any interviews unless there was some outstanding circumstance. Otherwise, we should take it as an opportunity to use it as practice for the sites you really want
 
Just a reminder: If a program decides you are not a good fit for their internship program, it doesn’t generalize to being not a good psychologist, not a good future postdoc applicant, or not a not a good intern for more “competitive” sites.

Sometimes we read great applications and say “we have nothing to teach this student; They already have great training in our areas of emphasis. This wouldn’t be a growth site for them.”

Ditto.
 
I would interview anyway unless the intel you got was really egregious. Sometimes change happens that we’re not privy to as outsiders (unless this is a very recent or ongoing concern). And sometimes people have experiences that are more personalized than they may realize. Without knowing exactly what happened it’s hard to give advice. It would have to be something severe in order for me to withdraw from interviewing; I can see myself still going through the process to gather information for myself. Interviewing doesn’t mean you have to rank it.
Thank you so much for your advice! If I was really certain about wanting to withdraw, do you think that would damage other students' chances of getting interviews there in the future? I was thinking of sending a polite email stating that I need to withdraw from the interview for personal reasons, but do just want to be conscientious about how that may impact their view of my program.
 
Thank you so much for your advice! If I was really certain about wanting to withdraw, do you think that would damage other students' chances of getting interviews there in the future? I was thinking of sending a polite email stating that I need to withdraw from the interview for personal reasons, but do just want to be conscientious about how that may impact their view of my program.
My DCT, who used to be an internship TD, told us that it does and will only let us withdraw from interviews for extenuating circumstances (I.e. a truly unresolvable time conflict with another interview where you are giving preference to the other site). Not sure if this is the case across the board but that's her 2 cents!
 
A little bit of a different question, but I would like to withdraw from interviewing at one of my sites - I've talked to someone who worked at a site and am very certain that it's not a good match for me. My only concern is if doing so would negatively affect how this site views others from my program in the future. Anyone know if withdrawing from an interview would make a site less likely to interview others from the same program in future years?

I wouldn't hold this against future applicants from the same program. I prefer people not waste our time. However if you do withdraw do so early as we spend so many hours creating interview schedules. Perhaps if we haven't sent out rejections, we may invite another applicant. Whatever you do, don't withdraw without good reason the day before. We had an applicant do this for internship and then apply to us for postdoc. Postdoc application went right in the trash.
 
Thank you so much for your advice! If I was really certain about wanting to withdraw, do you think that would damage other students' chances of getting interviews there in the future? I was thinking of sending a polite email stating that I need to withdraw from the interview for personal reasons, but do just want to be conscientious about how that may impact their view of my program.

It feels a little rude to me. Imagine a site rescinding an invitation because they determined that an applicant wasn’t a good fit based on something they heard and without ever interviewing the applicant.
 
It feels a little rude to me. Imagine a site rescinding an invitation because they determined that an applicant wasn’t a good fit based on something they heard and without ever interviewing the applicant.
I understand what you're saying - to clarify, there is nothing bad about the site, it's for truly personal reasons. I'll PM you.
 
Has anyone else received a letter in the mail from DSH-Coalinga asking for your social security number? I haven't received this from any other DSH site....
 
Thank you so much for your advice! If I was really certain about wanting to withdraw, do you think that would damage other students' chances of getting interviews there in the future? I was thinking of sending a polite email stating that I need to withdraw from the interview for personal reasons, but do just want to be conscientious about how that may impact their view of my program.
In all honesty it very well could. It happens more than people think at the college & graduate level. I went to a “prestigious” university for college & I remember chatting with admissions committee members about how they don’t take students from certain (private, expensive, “fancy”) high schools anymore because they accept many students who ended up turning them down. It’s very silly, but the people making admissions decisions are humans too. None of us can say for certain how likely it is that it’ll have a negative impact.
 
Official Site Name: Denver Health
Date Invitation Received: 12/09/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): child/adolescent psychology and child & family integrated substance use disorders
Interview Dates Offered: 12/17, 1/4, 1/7, and 1/13
I got an invite here too! Same tracks - best of luck to you!
 
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