Research mentor match for internship

[blakjak12]

I am planning to apply for internships this coming fall, and I am starting to browse programs. I am committed to having a research-oriented career, and am interested in sites that prioritize research as a result (i.e., the Academy sites, but also am open to other good matches).

The research that I do is focused on clinical assessment (e.g., how can we make better self-report and interview measures of depression, anxiety, etc.), and the best matches I've found for sites so far are Brown and Western Psych (if you have any other suggestions, let me know). I have had a very hard time finding faculty focusing on this area of research at sites otherwise, even at the Academy programs. There are plenty of researchers who study different clinical disorders sure, but not many with an assessment focus.

So, my question is, how much do I need to prioritize having a one-to-one faculty/research program match with sites when applying? For example, I really like Wisconsin's internship program, but don't have a close faculty research fit there. Should I still apply? I know internship year is a clinical year first and foremost, so I am wondering how close of a research advisor match I need to have for sites that prioritize research.

Right now I have eight first-authored publications, and should have a total of five co-authors. My first authors are in solid journals, but none of them are great (e.g., no Psych Bulletin or anything like that). I think it will be clear to programs that I am invested in a research-oriented career, but again, is that enough if you don't have that one-to-one faculty match (as it seems like I won't in most places)? As for my clinical CV, I should be applying with around 800 F2F hours (600I and 200A or so). I only have a handful of integrated reports, but I am hoping to get that number to at least 10 before I apply.

Thank you very much for any insights you can provide!

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[Kadhir]

So, my question is, how much do I need to prioritize having a one-to-one faculty/research program match with sites when applying? For example, I really like Wisconsin's internship program, but don't have a close faculty research fit there. Should I still apply? I know internship year is a clinical year first and foremost, so I am wondering how close of a research advisor match I need to have for sites that prioritize research.

You're correct. It's a clinical year, and even at the most "researchy" sites, your research productivity will be limited, although there are certainly individual differences. I think the question here is if there are research post-doc opportunities once you finish internship (perhaps in the larger community at that site, outside the internship program). You will want to ask about this on your interviews and try to get a sense from current/past students. In any case, I would strongly discourage you from nixing sites based on suboptimal research match with internship faculty. Of course, apply to the ones that fit your long term goals the best, but if there are some that do not but still offer the clinical training you want, these will just rank lower in your list. Also note that many, many scientist-practitioner and even clinical scientist sites do not have a significant research component in their internship. Sure, they may require an intern project of some sort, but the requirements are often pretty minimal.

 

[Justanothergrad]

I ended up ranking academy below another placement based on fit/life choice style/opportunity to train clinically in my research area. I had a similar number of pubs/FA/etc as you do. Ended up the site I went to created an entire minor rotation for me for research, something that they've never done before. My advice: Go where you want based on how it feels. The clinical focus of the year would benefit you substantially in the long-term more than an additional publication or two.

 

[Member1928]

The internship application/interview process was more challenging for me than postdoc. I had multiple interviews for postdoc at great sites Brown, UMich, MUSC etc., and fewer interviews for internship. My problem was similar to yours- there wasn't a good mentor match for my research at the internship level. There were one-two internship faculty doing research in my area across the country. Then again, I also went through the process during the height of the imbalance.

All of that said, just make sure you land at a quality internship site that has postdoc opportunities and has a history of landing its students in good postdocs or academic positions. I did one year of postdoc and then transitioned into a TT faculty job at a nice R2. Published 2 papers with folks from my internship, and one with folks from my postdoc. This was low productivity, relative to my peers. I continued collaborations from grad school and started some new collaborations once on the TT. Internship and postdoc were great and I have no regrets. I got great training and my network of colleagues expanded because my internship (n = 18) and postdoc cohorts (n = 40+) were large.

 

[blakjak12]

You're correct. It's a clinical year, and even at the most "researchy" sites, your research productivity will be limited, although there are certainly individual differences. I think the question here is if there are research post-doc opportunities once you finish internship (perhaps in the larger community at that site, outside the internship program). You will want to ask about this on your interviews and try to get a sense from current/past students. In any case, I would strongly discourage you from nixing sites based on suboptimal research match with internship faculty. Of course, apply to the ones that fit your long term goals the best, but if there are some that do not but still offer the clinical training you want, these will just rank lower in your list. Also note that many, many scientist-practitioner and even clinical scientist sites do not have a significant research component in their internship. Sure, they may require an intern project of some sort, but the requirements are often pretty minimal.

That's very helpful; thanks for your input! Sounds like it is still definitely worth applying to some of these sites then, especially if there are good post-doc/faculty options post-internship. And like you said, I am finding that even many of the clinical scientist sites do not include a significant research component for the internship year.

 

[blakjak12]

I ended up ranking academy below another placement based on fit/life choice style/opportunity to train clinically in my research area. I had a similar number of pubs/FA/etc as you do. Ended up the site I went to created an entire minor rotation for me for research, something that they've never done before. My advice: Go where you want based on how it feels. The clinical focus of the year would benefit you substantially in the long-term more than an additional publication or two.

Also good to know! Thanks for your reply.

 

[blakjak12]

The internship application/interview process was more challenging for me than postdoc. I had multiple interviews for postdoc at great sites Brown, UMich, MUSC etc., and fewer interviews for internship. My problem was similar to yours- there wasn't a good mentor match for my research at the internship level. There were one-two internship faculty doing research in my area across the country. Then again, I also went through the process during the height of the imbalance.

All of that said, just make sure you land at a quality internship site that has postdoc opportunities and has a history of landing its students in good postdocs or academic positions. I did one year of postdoc and then transitioned into a TT faculty job at a nice R2. Published 2 papers with folks from my internship, and one with folks from my postdoc. This was low productivity, relative to my peers. I continued collaborations from grad school and started some new collaborations once on the TT. Internship and postdoc were great and I have no regrets. I got great training and my network of colleagues expanded because my internship (n = 18) and postdoc cohorts (n = 40+) were large.

Seems like landing a site that has good postdoc and post-internship opportunities is very important based on these replies, and that makes good sense (especially if you want to go the academic route as I wish to do). Thanks for your response and for the info! Sounds like things still worked out well for you even with having trouble finding good mentor matches for your research at internship sites initially.

Thanks again to everyone for the replies. Additional opinions and input also are welcome!

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

The challenge w research your intern yr is you have to hit the ground running (typically with an existing project and/or sub-set of data) bc there just isn't a lot of time, so it is also partly timing. On fellowship it is much more feasible to go soup to nuts and be on multiple projects/grants.

 

[EmotRegulation]

Research focused internships aren't the only path to an academic career. When I applied for internship, I applied to a bunch of the research heavy ones (Western Psych, Brown, MUSC, etc.) and other more clinical sites that had a training focus. Ultimately I ranked the clinically focused sites above any of the research focused sites (despite pressure from my mentor to rank differently). My thought was: this is going to be my only/last year of clinical work. Might as well get kick-ass clinical training, make sure I really don't want a clinical career, and give myself good experiences and stories to be able to tell when teaching and supervising.

I had a great internship year, with an easy workload and great clinical training (and I got a little extra research time, too, which I used for job applications). I applied for faculty jobs starting in October of my internship year, with the hope that I'd get at least a phone interview. My plan was to apply for post-docs if/when the faculty thing didn't work out the first year. I actually landed an R1 gig straight from internship. Yes, research internships can open doors for post-docs and often have famous people who can create additional opportunities, but it's not the only way. I have never regretted my choice; I still keep in contact with faculty from internship about clinical stuff, and I even wrote a clinical paper with my internship training director on something that is far afield from my primary research program but was fun to write anyway.

 

[blakjak12]

Thank you for checking this out and for the replies!

 

[blakjak12]

Research focused internships aren't the only path to an academic career. When I applied for internship, I applied to a bunch of the research heavy ones (Western Psych, Brown, MUSC, etc.) and other more clinical sites that had a training focus. Ultimately I ranked the clinically focused sites above any of the research focused sites (despite pressure from my mentor to rank differently). My thought was: this is going to be my only/last year of clinical work. Might as well get kick-ass clinical training, make sure I really don't want a clinical career, and give myself good experiences and stories to be able to tell when teaching and supervising.

I had a great internship year, with an easy workload and great clinical training (and I got a little extra research time, too, which I used for job applications). I applied for faculty jobs starting in October of my internship year, with the hope that I'd get at least a phone interview. My plan was to apply for post-docs if/when the faculty thing didn't work out the first year. I actually landed an R1 gig straight from internship. Yes, research internships can open doors for post-docs and often have famous people who can create additional opportunities, but it's not the only way. I have never regretted my choice; I still keep in contact with faculty from internship about clinical stuff, and I even wrote a clinical paper with my internship training director on something that is far afield from my primary research program but was fun to write anyway.

Thanks for sharing about your story. Encouraging to hear, and also takes the pressure off in a lot of ways knowing that you don't absolutely have to get a research-oriented/Academy internship to land a good research position!