Internship

[edieb]

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I just wanted to check this purported fact out: Whenever I hear fellow students applying for internship at my school, they say that as long as you are in a clinical Ph.D. program, apply to relatively non-competitive sites (i.e., V.A.s), and apply to >7 sites, there is no way you won't get an internship. They say the only persons who don't get internships are: 1) Persons from non-accredited programs and 2.) [very few] persons from Psy.D. programs.

I thought this was crazy, but I asked a Psy.D. intern who works at the hospital with me, and she partly corroborated this statement by saying V.A.s have a TACIT rule never to take Psy.D.s, only Ph.D.s..

Let me know what you have heard or if you know any Ph.D. candidates not getting an intenship
Thanks!!

 

[PsyDRxPnow]

I just wanted to check this purported fact out: Whenever I hear fellow students applying for internship at my school, they say that as long as you are in a clinical Ph.D. program, apply to relatively non-competitive sites (i.e., V.A.s), and apply to >7 sites, there is no way you won't get an internship. They say the only persons who don't get internships are: 1) Persons from non-accredited programs and 2.) [very few] persons from Psy.D. programs.

I thought this was crazy, but I asked a Psy.D. intern who works at the hospital with me, and she partly corroborated this statement by saying V.A.s have a TACIT rule never to take Psy.D.s, only Ph.D.s..

Let me know what you have heard or if you know any Ph.D. candidates not getting an intenship
Thanks!!

God I hope that is not true. I am a PsyD student and I am currently doing my practicum at my local VAMC and I hope to get into the VAMC for my internship. I have other locations in mind but the VAMC is one of my main interests. However, I will double check if there are any PsyD interns at the VA where I am.

 

[Sanman]

I know of plenty of PsyD's from my program that are doing internship/post-docs at VA hospitals. Out of curiousity, I know they say gradesonly play a minor a role, but is that completely true? Is it more of a weak grades hurt you and good grades don't really help sort of situation?

 

[LM02]

T
If you have a dozen publications, grant support, and numerous presentations at respected conferences, a VA, or other non academically oriented site, is not going to be keen on you.

Just wanted to clarify one thing. There are acadmically-oriented VAs that do offer internship training, and that do favorably look upon a strong research CV. The two that come to mind are the Palo Alto VA and the Boston Consortium (which is largely VA-based).

Other university-affiliated VAs offer internships that might not necessarily offer much research training, but nonetheless look favorably upon applicants with strong research CVs. In this category, some sites that come to mind are the Portland VA (affiliated with Oregon Health Sciences) and the Seattle VA (which I believe is associated with UW).

Finally, there are internships at VA centers that will be more clinically-oriented and not terribly interested in research-oriented folk.

 

[LM02]

That's true, but those are basically academic medical centers (e.g., Stanford).

Right, but when you apply to the Palo Alto VA, your application goes directly to the VA and not to Stanford. It's affiliated, but not the same as saying that you are working in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford (which, interestingly, does not offer a general adult internship).

Also, to address the original queston more directly, I would also say that there are never any guarantees in the match. Although the statistics are fairly favorable toward applicants overall, there are always surprises.