Counseling Psych Students Continue Streak of Success

The Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences proudly announces the results of the 2015 national internship match. For the third straight year, the Counseling Psychology Ph.D. program achieved a 100% match rate, with all 6 applicants being placed. The students and their placements are:

Student	Internship Site	City, State
Terri Duck	University of Notre Dame	South Bend, IN
Rebecca Granda	Veterans Affairs, NJ Health Care System	Lyons, NJ
Laura Harris	North LA Psychology Internship Consortium	Shreveport, LA
Devin Merritt	U.S. Air Force/Lackland AFB	San Antonio, TX
Jay Middleton	Kansas State University	Manhattan, KS
Rose Niles	University of Kansas	Lawrence KS

Please join us in congratulating these students, the 2011 cohort, for achieving such impressive and sought-after placements! A successful internship match is the culmination of years of preparation by students, faculty, and clinical supervisors. It also is an important factor in maintaining the program’s accreditation by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Congratulations also are in order for the core faculty of the doctoral program. Led by the Director of Training, Dr. Walt Buboltz, core faculty members are Dr. Güler Boyraz, Dr. lore dickey, Dr. Tony Young, and Dr. Donna Thomas.

“The Match,” as it is commonly known, is highly competitive due to an imbalance of available sites and students, with as many as 25% of applicants in the U.S. and Canada remaining unmatched in recent years. A 12-month, 2000-hour predoctoral internship is a graduation requirement typically completed in students’ 5^th year of study. Doctoral students who do not match with an internship site must reapply the following year, facing the same daunting imbalance. 

Counseling Psychology doctoral students enter their program with internship in mind, and must make decisions each year about field placements to tailor training to their specific interests and expertise. Formal preparation for internship application begins in the spring quarter of the 3^rd year when students begin a 3-quarter sequence of courses used to assist in site selection, application preparation, and interview proficiency. The application includes detailed reporting of clinical hours and experiences, 4 essays, 3-4 letters of recommendation, a curriculum vitae, and transcripts from all higher education institutions attended. To be eligible to apply, students must have completed a minimum of 1,000 hours of clinical work, passed comprehensive exams, and completed their dissertation proposals.

Applicants complete a series of in-person and telephone/Skype interviews; some students have engaged in as many as 16 interviews in one month. Interviews are expensive in terms of money and time, with entire cohorts traversing the country for 4-6 weeks during winter quarter. Since 2012, a collaborative project between the Counseling Psychology doctoral program and AROS, the consulting branch of the Industrial/Organizational Psychology doctoral program, has assisted applicants in their preparation for interviews. Thank you, Dr. Mitzi Desselles and your team for playing an important role in helping students achieve success!

The Internship Matching Program is sponsored each year by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC).