I applied last year and didn't match in either Phase 1 or 2. I got a decent research job at a local med school, reapplied this year and matched to my top choice at a very competitive site. I also know I was a top choice for other very competitive sites, so I feel like what I had going worked for me this year. I wish someone had told me the things I learned this year, rather than having to learn it them by applying twice. Hope someone out there is helped by this. Here;s some of my thoughts.
1. Apply to a lot of sites. I know, it's expensive. I was lucky to have a well paying job to help finance the applications and (especially) the travel to lots of sites. Look at the data. If you think the optimal number of applications is 10-15, fine, apply to that many sites. But if you want to match, you will apply to 15-20 sites. I applied to 20 sites and interviewed at 11. I intentionally looked for places that received <100 applications the year before and applied to them as safety sites if I did not get interviews at the big name awesome sites. Luckily (not for my wallet though) I got interviews at lots. Oh! And I had mixed results applying to the same sites both years - of the three sites I interviewed at last year, only one interviewed me again this year. However, I did get some interviews at sites that I did not interview at the year prior.
2. Fit, fit, fit. Tailor your materials to that site, and demonstrate the fit. It may seem obvious to you, but its probably not to people reading your application. I think you have to be really obvious and beat people over the head with this. If it's an academic medical center, talk about you desire to have a career in an academic medical center, how your experience makes you the perfect fit for an academic medical center, etc.. If you say want to work in a community mental health clinic, don't apply to forensic hospitals and wonder why you didn't get invited for an interview. As someone else mentioned, there is a degree of artful manipulation to be achieved here, and it takes practice. Read the brochures for sites, then mention the things the are in the brochure that you have experience with. For example, if offers say, experience in evidence based treatments, mention in your cover letter all of the EBTs you have experience with. This will help demonstrate fit.
3. Speak to your strengths in your essay - discuss how the site can help you grow in the interview. Tell sites what you bring to the table, how you, your unique little self, can make their internship better. But don't neglect to identify areas (populations, content area/disorder/treatments, settings) that you don't have or could use more experience with, especially on the interview, as this question will likely come up.
4. Make progress on your dissertation. My dissertation was nearly done this year and I had preliminary results and their implications that I could talk about on my interviews. Maybe this is more relevant for research/academically oriented sites, but this was a definite strength I had going for me this time versus last year when I had just proposed before sending out my applications.
5. Apply to site where people from you program have gone/interviewed/are on faculty- they know your training and known quantities are safer. I did get some interviews to places where nobody from my program has gone, but I attribute those to name recognition of my advisor and the fact that these were smaller, less competitive sites.
6. Be personal in your essay! I really went balls to the wall in my application with no fear this year. Last year I was scared and played it safe. I thought, what's the worst thing that can happen, not matching? I had many, many people tell me how much they enjoyed reading my essay. It was a bit provocative, and I feedback from my DCT and advisor was hesitant. But I went for it, and it made a huge difference in my opinion. Some people I interviewed with said things like, "I knew after reading your essay I had to bring you in for an interview." This is the reaction you want from Essay 1.
7. Have therapy/assessment cases in your back pocket to discuss. Also discuss your supervision/supervisors. Be prepared to answer hard questions like: what is something you struggled with?
8. Have a life outside of grad school...I also got positive feedback about things that are not psychology related that I eventually want to integrate into my clinical work that are novel and interesting.
9. Work your contacts. Go to the internship panels, seminars, etc at your favorite conference. ABCT is a good one for this.
10. Read into the meaning of certain phrases - Scientist-Practitioner = Ph.D. clinical students apply here please; Practitioner-Scholar = Psy.D. students welcome here, etc. There are more but I can't think of others off the top of my head right now.
11. Mock interviews. Video/audio record them. Ask for feedback.
12. Don't go it alone. This process requires community. Be it here, in your program, or elsewhere, reach out. I didn't do that enough the first time and suffered as a result.
