If, after reviewing this website, you are interested in applying to the Consortium please read this section carefully and follow the application procedures outlined below.
The Consortium's application and selection process has been designed to be in accord with the policies and procedures developed by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC), including participation in the Match. All applicants must register for the Match using the online registration system on the Match website at www.natmatch.com/psychint. If you apply for this internship, you are expected to submit all your application materials via the APPIC online application system. Go to the APPIC website at www.appic.org and click on the AAPI Application Portal Online link. Completed internship applications are due in November each year; this year the due date will be November 2, 2016. All application materials must be submitted and received by us on or before this date.
All application elements (#1-6) should be submitted using the AAPI Online system. Follow all instructions accompanying the AAPI Online to either enter your information directly, or upload your documents (#1-3). We encourage all CVs to be uploaded as Microsoft Word (version 2003 or earlier) or Adobe Acrobat files. Only the transcript (#4) should be mailed in hard copy form to the AAPI Online application address.
Please note that, due to the high volume of e-mails sent during the application season, you will not receive a confirmation e-mail from us that your application materials have been received. You can check on the AAPI Online system if your application is complete and if your DCT and letter writers have completed their parts (#5-6). We will notify you by email on or before December 15th of your interview status.
Application Requirements List
1. Cover letter: In a separate line above the body of your cover letter please list the Consortium agencies to which you are applying. The Consortium has five programs to which you may apply. These are listed below along with the accompanying match numbers. Do not rank order your choices. Your cover letter should indicate how these choices fit with your training interests and goals. The match numbers for the Consortium Agencies are as follows:
Adult Psychiatry- Generalist Track: 156612
Adult Psychiatry- Psychosis Emphasis: 156620
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: 156614
Psychological and Counseling Center: 156617
VA TVHS Generalist Track: 156618
VA TVHS Neuropsychology Track: 156619
2. All elements of the AAPI Online general application.
3. Curriculum Vita.
4. Transcripts of graduate work. The transcripts should cover all post baccalaureate course work. You should mail one official copy of all graduate transcripts to the AAPI Online application address at:
AAPI Online Transcription Department
PO Box 9117
Watertown, MA 02471
5. Verification of AAPI by your doctoral program through the DCT Portal of the AAPI Online System.
6. Submit at least three and no more than four letters of recommendation from faculty members or practicum supervisors who know your clinical as well as your research work well. At least one must be from an academic faculty member, and at least one from a clinical supervisor. Letter writers should upload an electronic copy to the Reference Portal of the AAPI Online system.
Selection Process and Interviews
Representatives from the Consortium sites will review the completed internship applications looking for applicants whose interests and training objectives are compatible with the training experiences each site has available. The selection process is coordinated by the Consortium Training Committee. Applicants are accepted into a particular primary placement at a site that is deemed congruent with the applicant’s training interests. It is, therefore, important that applicants delineate their training goals and objectives clearly on the application or in the cover letter and indicate in the cover letter which Consortium site(s) are of interest to them and how the experiences offered at that site fit into their training goals.
After screening the application materials, the Consortium faculty will contact, by phone, letter or e-mail, applicants to be invited for interviews. It is the faculty’s intention to inform all applicants of their interview status by December 12, 2016. If you are strongly interested in our program, and have not received an invitation for an interview, you may contact by phone or email the designated contact person for the site in which you are the most interested and request information about your status.
The Consortium has established the following interview dates for this year:
Vanderbilt Adult Psychiatry- Generalist Track: December 9, 12, 15 and January 6
Vanderbilt Adult Psychiatry- Psychosis Emphasis Track: December 9, 12, 15 and January 6
Vanderbilt Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: December 5, 13, 15 and January 11
Vanderbilt PCC: December 5, 12 and January 6, 9
VA (all tracks): December 5, 12, 16 and January 6, 9, 12
The faculty member who contacts you will work with you to schedule an interview on one of these dates. Depending upon your expressed interests you may be invited to interview at more than one Consortium agency, in which case we will work to arrange the interviews within the same two day period and schedule them so they do not conflict. You are welcome to interview at more than one agency, as long as you are genuinely interested in each of the agencies as a potential primary placement. Do not accept an invitation to interview and do not schedule an interview with a site that interests you only as a secondary placement. Be aware that choosing to interview at more than one site may require an overnight stay depending upon the scheduling discussed above. If you are interested in an interview at only one site, faculty may choose, at their discretion, to schedule the interview on a date different from those listed. If you cannot be here on any of the scheduled dates, you may be able to arrange an interview on an individual basis with a site in which you are interested; however, the faculty cannot guarantee to be available at other times.
Experience has shown that applicants to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry are much less likely to have an interest in another primary placement than are applicants to the other agencies. Therefore, applicants who are interested only in a primary placement at Child and Adolescent Psychiatry may negotiate an interview date and time with Dr. Kirsten Haman without regard to the schedule above.
A personal or phone interview is not a required part of the application process; however, an interview is beneficial in that it brings you to the attention of the Consortium faculty and provides you with more information about the Consortium’s program than can be gleaned from this website alone. A review of our selection process showed that since the computer match has been in effect, only two applicants who did not interview in person were on the ranked lists submitted by the Consortium to National Matching Services. Those applicants initially scheduled interviews but subsequently withdrew for pressing personal reasons.
Secondary Placement Selection takes place after the beginning of the internship year and plays no role in decisions about acceptance as a Consortium intern. During the first week of the internship, interns are provided an orientation to the Consortium and its component agencies, including all available secondary placement training experiences. Secondary placement assignments are made by the Consortium Training Committee after a careful consideration of the intern’s expressed preferences, the intern’s overall training needs and objectives as developed jointly by the intern and faculty, and the availability of supervisory resources and workload.
The Vanderbilt-Department of Veterans Affairs Internship in Professional Psychology is a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) and adheres to the Association’s policies (which may be found on the web at www.appic.org) regarding internship offers and acceptances. It is our intention to be in full compliance with both the letter and the spirit of the APPIC policy. The Consortium will abide by the APPIC policy that no person involved with the internship will solicit, accept or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.
Each primary placement within the Consortium is listed in the match as a program within the Consortium internship and has a separate match number. In ranking your choices for the match, you are encouraged to include more than one Consortium agency on the ordered list you submit to National Matching Services if that is a true reflection of your interests. If you have indicated an interest in more than one consortium agency, and more than one agency believes you would fit well with their program, you may be included on more than one of the rank order lists the Consortium sends to NMS.