Securing a top Neuropsychology internship

[Psychisfun43]

So I was following people in my program and all of them matched for Neuropsychology Internships. I am currently a second-year student in my program. I was wondering what is required to be competitive for internships that follow the Houston conference guidelines? I would like to go back to my original state for Post-Doc as there are many programs which follow the HC guidelines. Some of them say that you can apply for ABPP after you graduate. I am not interested in an academic career, but hopefully PP with maybe an affiliation with a University.

I am currently doing research at one of the top research programs for neuropsychology and will hopefully have a practicum experience there. I am on track to get one first author publication and will have diverse clinical experience from AMC's, VA's, and inpatient psych hospitals. Overall I should get 3-4 publications and I already have posters accepted for APA. I am waiting to hear back from AACN. I heard from others that having 3-4 publications, diverse clinical experience, leadership, a couple of posters a year, supervision experience, and teaching will make me a well-rounded applicant who is highly competitive. Plus, three of my Committee members for my dissertation are board certified. I wanted to get other opinions from people who have been in the field for a while.

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[deleted656923]

Why don’t you ask your classmates who just got matched?

 

[CatLover&PsychEnthusiast]

It sounds like you’re well on your way!

I matched at a top NP internship. I felt my research is what helped set me apart at many of my interviews. I’m certainly not in the top 1% in terms of productively, but I think there’s lots of variability among applicants on this. I had ~7 pubs, a few first author in good journals, and a solid and well-defined program of research and career goals. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted out of internship and honestly spent most of last summer working on my essays and cover letters. I had lots of assessment hours and well over the min in therapy hours. I took year longer than I originally planned, but this allowed me to gain these aspects on my CV and match at a top site. I knew the site’s brochures down pat and had thoughtful questions ready at each interview site. Therapy skills are important, so don’t neglect that part of your training and of your ‘story’ in your essays and interviews. What they say is true though, finding a site with the right fit is key! Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more.

 

[Newropsych]

So I was following people in my program and all of them matched for Neuropsychology Internships. I am currently a second-year student in my program. I was wondering what is required to be competitive for internships that follow the Houston conference guidelines? I would like to go back to my original state for Post-Doc as there are many programs which follow the HC guidelines. Some of them say that you can apply for ABPP after you graduate. I am not interested in an academic career, but hopefully PP with maybe an affiliation with a University.

I am currently doing research at one of the top research programs for neuropsychology and will hopefully have a practicum experience there. I am on track to get one first author publication and will have diverse clinical experience from AMC's, VA's, and inpatient psych hospitals. Overall I should get 3-4 publications and I already have posters accepted for APA. I am waiting to hear back from AACN. I heard from others that having 3-4 publications, diverse clinical experience, leadership, a couple of posters a year, supervision experience, and teaching will make me a well-rounded applicant who is highly competitive. Plus, three of my Committee members for my dissertation are board certified. I wanted to get other opinions from people who have been in the field for a while.

I was in a similar situation where I wanted to go back to my home state/city for internship and post-doc. However, the issue I ran into for internship interviews was that some sites (particularly the ones in my home state) wouldn’t highly consider their own interns for post-doc and encouraged them to accrue post-doc experiences elsewhere where they could gain more diversity in training. If going back to your home state is important for you, I recommend considering whether the site has an attached post-doc and how that would factor into your goals.

As for training experiences, I made sure my clinical and research experiences/productivity were cohesive and aligned with my long-term goals. I applied to all neuropsych/neurorehab tracks in AMCs/VA’s and matched to my top site (an AMC) for internship. I’d say don’t discount intervention hours because they do matter (plus my understanding is that if you have any terminal master’s hours supervised by doctoral-level psychologists, the hours still count but aren’t weighted as heavily). Having a solid research and clinical background helps, but internship is primarily a clinical training year so you’re more so learning how to practice as an evidence-based clinician. Also—think about what priorities you have for internship and identify the gaps in your training. For example, I had minimal experiences with inpatient populations, certain neurological syndromes, supervision of other students, etc. that I highlighted as areas of development for me + aligned with the site’s offered training experiences. You want to show you’re qualified, but also acknowledgs that you have areas of growth and make a case for how the site can help you balance them out (tricky I know).

When they say fit is everything, they mean it! I recommend spending time reading through the brochures and websites. Talk to any colleagues to see if they know anyone who has trained at that site (I had several contacts from junior faculty and post-docs at my current site and was able to talk to current/past interns and get a feel for several sites before applying/interviewing).

Feel free to PM me if you have more questions—good luck!