Internship

[edieb]

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Hey, Guys,

I have a question that I was wanting advice on: My advisor likes my work a lot, a whole lot. So much so that he wants me to stay at my current externship site for internship and is literally working the board to let me have a position there. The other day he told me to only apply to a couple of sites because I am coming "here" (i.e., my current externship site). However, I do not want to do an internship at this site. If I tell him this directly, he will go crazy and become angry and write me a bad letter. I am thinking that I could interview at this site and not rank it and he will never know. When I told him that I wanted to apply at other sites, he told me that I will only be able to get into sites where he has connections. After thinking about that, I hava a hard time believing this.... Is this true?

 

[edieb]

If he were not my dissertation advisor (he even picked my topic for me??!!!), I wouldn't! Thanks

 

[LM02]

The problem is this...

If they rank you highly, and you match elsewhere, they're going to know that you didn't rank them first. And then you're going to have to deal with the aftermath from your advisor. And like Jon Snow alluded to, if your advisor really wants to keep you there, it's hard to know what kind of letter (s)he would submit on your behalf to the other sites (if you were also applying to his/her site).

The tricky part is that this is your dissertation advisor. It would look really suspect to submit internship apps without a letter from this person. If you really don't want to do internship there, you'll have to think hard about how to handle it with your advisor. I would recommend seeking guidance from another faculty member, who you trust to keep things confidential.

 

[phd2006]

While LOR are very important, I think your supervisor is exaggerating the importance of his letter alone.

Sounds like some very questionable behavior is going on. If the internship site participates in the match, then sites and persons associated with the site are not allowed discuss rankings or 'holding' positions for certain candidates. The rules on are on the APPIC website - you might need to just remind your supervisor of this. If the site does not participate in the match, then of course the APPIC rules don't matter -- but that may also be an out for you. That is, explain you have worked long and hard and want at least an APPIC if not APA accredited internship (I'm not suggesting this to open an APA versus non-APA debate, but just as a point of what are you looking for in an internship). You already stated you do not want to do your internship there, and that is your choice, not the choice of your supervisor.

Additionally, although there are differing thoughts on this, some believe it is not beneficial to get all of your training from one site as it may indicate your training was limited as you have not had exposure to other sites and experiences. Again, this is an often debated point, but also something to consider in your training career.

As your supervisor is also your research supervisor, many places will want a LOR from him, but many will only ask for LOR from people who you choose. If you current supervisor is not willing to write LOR for you, then you will need to find others who are. I would also make your school DCT aware of the situation -- as some of the behavior as you have described is questionable in a supervisor.

 

[Sanman]

Do you think that you will be able to defend your dissertation prior to him finding out where you matched? Otherwise, that will certainly cause friction. The above points of diversity in training are also good. While I don't generally advocate lying, this might be a good time to do so (such as saying that you need to be closer to family to help a parent or grandparent who is ill, etc.). Thus you have a concrete reason for leaving that your advisor may not hold against you. Reporting to DOCT might be a good idea, but always be aware of departmental/program politics that might make this an issue. Good luck, it is a tough situation.