Internship Application Research Articles

Educating A Committed Citizenry

mmWKTmf we want our students to acquire the democratic virtues of honesty, tolerance, empathy, generosity, teamwork, and social responsibility, we have to ■ demonstrate those qualities not only in our individual professional conduct but also in our institutional poli^^^icies, writes Alexander Astin in What Higher Education Can Do in the Cause of Citizenship (Chronicle of Higher Education, October 6, 1995). future of American Democracy, Astin continues, is, to a certain extent, in our hands, and if we want to improve it we have to change.. .our ways of doing things. Parker Palmer, writing in Change's September/October 1987 issue, asserts that to build community and a sense of civic virtue, we must shift the educational paradigm, rethinking the ways we teach and the ways we engage students: I want to go beyond altering the social forms of education... beyond altering the topical content... and try to reach into the underlying nature of our knowledge itself. The challenge of educating a committed citizenry is to change the societal and university paradigm from a strategy of competitiveness to one of collaboration, from a perspective of scarcity to one of sufficiency and inclusion, and from a stance that looks for expedient solutions to one that engages and commits to a series of values and a way of life. This paradigm shift lies beyond simple curricular adjustment: it resides in epistemological questions about who we are and how we shall live our lives with others. That challenge, so well observed by de Tocqueville and eloquently elaborated in Bellah's Habits of the Heart, resides essentially in the tension between the individual and the larger global community. Our educational experiences need to help us to think about this tension and to navigate through its seemingly paradoxical choices. When we think about skills necessary to engage as active, responsible citizens, we must think in both individual and institutional terms. Students need skills in leadership and multicultural awareness, and for participatory community projects; faculty need certain skills to promote these competencies throughout the curriculum; their institutions in turn must support faculty development, cross-departmental collaboration, special programming, and external support. Difficult as it may be, the university or college itself in effect needs to become a partner with the internal and external communities it wishes to nurture. On campuses, these choices are often framed as if they were mutually exclusive. Students are asked whether they have come to college to get a credential and make money or to serve others. Faculty discuss endlessly the relationship between content (by which they mean delivery of material) and process (by which they mean all the other stuff that engages students in a variety of learning activities), as if the two cannot be combined. Discussions of race, gender, and social currency are often framed in mutually exclusive positions. All the while, these discussions connect to larger debates in society and to real challenges that face our students, our faculty, and the workforce more generally. Corporations and the public at large demand that graduates be prepared for an increasingly competitive world, demands usually couched in terms of specific preparation. At some multinational and high-tech corporations, for example, job or internship applicants' resumes are scanned into a computer to form a large database; when an opening occurs, the prospective employer puts in a few key words and generates a list of persons to be interviewed. Students find themselves competing not only with students from local colleges and universities but with students in India, Japan, or England. We can talk philosophically, then, about educating students for civic responsibility, but we are reminded daily of the pressures on students to find good employment and repay loans, then to succeed in an increasingly unpredictable workplace. Sometimes it seems as //we have to choose between education for a committed, complex life and one of practicality for survival. While we struggle with these choices, we are also strugFaith Gabelnick is president of Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

Internship application: Increased cost accompanies increased competitiveness.

Internship application: Increased cost accompanies increased competitiveness.

Internship application: Increased cost accompanies increased competitiveness.

Internship application: Increased cost accompanies increased competitiveness.

Post-notification day perceptions of unplaced internship applicants and their academic training directors: Recommendations for improving future selection processes.

Post-notification day perceptions of unplaced internship applicants and their academic training directors: Recommendations for improving future selection processes.

Getting a foot in the door: The written internship application.

For graduate students in counseling and clinical psychology, the predoctoral internship represents one of last opportunities to obtain extensive supervision and training. Articles concerning the predoctoral internship application process have focused a great deal on how prospective interns can evaluate and select internship sites (Grace, 1985; Kurz, Fuchs, Dabek, Kurtz, & Helfrich, 1982). Generally, a brief overview of each step in the application process is given, from gathering information about specific internship programs to what to do if the applicant receives no offers on the notification day (Belar & Orgel, 1980; Brill, Wolkin, & McKeel, 1985). Although this approach helps applicants anticipate what to expect at various stages of the process, the focus is more on style than substance. Regardless of the type of internship setting, applicants are generally required to provide basic information about their education, clinical experience, teaching, affiliation with professional organizations, and research experience (Casey Jacob, 1987). However, it is also important to focus attention on how an application can be strengthened by going beyond the basics. This article provides an in-depth discussion of how increasing the substantive information in the written application can influence how an applicant is perceived by the internship site. The absence of a thorough and informative written application may make time spent gathering information about the internship site or preparing for the interview

Standardization of APPIC predoctoral psychology internship application forms.

Standardization of APPIC predoctoral psychology internship application forms.

Personal and practical consideration in selecting a psychology internship.

Although the internship literature contains many contributions regarding ways to approach the internship application, interview, and selection processes to satisfy professional goals, few contributions address personal and practical considerations of applicants. This article addresses personal and practical issues, such as benefits, financial costs of relocating and living, family responsibilities, partner relocation, and training and personal responsibilities outside of internship. For all issues discussed, concrete recommendations are provided for helping applicants evaluate internships according to their concerns. A paired-comparison ranking technique for comparing sites along multiple criteria is proposed. The need for updated professional developmental models that incorporate personal and practical variables is also discussed. Most existing guides for selecting an internship emphasize pursuing the best-fitting internship in terms of professional goals and objectives (e.g., medical-university settings, rotations offered, supervisory styles, didactics, and available career paths after internship), and they offer suggestions for evaluating sites along these dimensions (BelarO Jacob, 1987;Megargee, 1992). Such guides focus less on the subjective, emotional, and practical aspects of the application and decisionmaking processes, such as benefits, relocation and living expenses, desired location, partner relocation, training and personal responsibilities outside of the internship, and interpersonal environment of the setting. To date, the way these variables ultimately can contribute to one's experience of the internship, one's emotional adjustment to it, and one's overall quality of life has not been examined. We believe a focus on personal and practical aspects of the internship is warranted because the length of time between beginning the internship and receiving psychology licensure appears to be increasing as a result of the additional practical experience required by state laws (Kaslow, McCarthy, Rogers, & Summerville, 1992; Stewart, 1994). One-year and sometimes 2-year postdoctoral and postinternship supervised work requirements have been written into many state licensure laws

Getting a foot in the door: The written internship application.

Getting a foot in the door: The written internship application.

Standardization of APPIC predoctoral psychology internship application forms.

Standardization of APPIC predoctoral psychology internship application forms.

A decision-making technique for choosing a psychology internship.

A new method, the paired-comparison ranking technique, is proposed for assisting with internship selection decisions. This technique is discussed in terms of its ability to minimize the effects of decision frames (cf. D. Kahneman & A. Tversky, 1984) as internship sites are selected. The technique is also compared with M. C. Jacob's (1987) internship decision grid. The paired-comparison ranking technique requires a greater number of choices to be made about internship sites and may require internship applicants to think more deeply about their alternatives. Specific instructions and a detailed example are provided to illustrate how to complete and interpret the paired-comparison ranking technique.

Differences in Student Reported and Program Calculated Grade Point Averages in Internship Admissions

The dietetic internship application form recommended by the Council on Education requires the applicant to report six grade point averages (GPA). Some internship programs rely on the students to accurately and honestly calculate these GPAs. Other programs verify and recalculate grade point averages from all official transcripts. Recalculation requires accuracy, concentrated labor and speed to meet selection deadlines. One internship developed a computer software program to calculate four grade point averages: professional courses, biological sciences, “other”, and total. The “other” GPA is a compilation of the other three GPAs students calculate, plus any additional courses on transcripts not included by the student. The purpose of this study was to determine if significant differences exist between student reported and program calculated GPAs. The GPAs of 83 applicants were compared using a paired t-test. No statistically significant differences were found between student and program calculated professional courses and natural sciences GPAs (p < 0.40 and 0.14, respectively). The mean student reported science GPA was 2.78 ± 0.66 compared to 2.73 ± 0.61 calculated by the program. Total GPAs were 3.19 ± 0.39 and 3.15 ± 0.39 for student and program, respectively. The total GPA difference, however, was highly significant (p< 0.02). Recalculated total GPAs were sufficiently lowered to disqualify six out of 83 (7%) from program consideration. The most common error was failure to include all courses, especially failed courses. Inaccurate conversion of quarter hours to semester hours, incorrect hours or grades, elimination of a minus or a plus on the grade, and multiple schools attended added to differences. These data suggest programs should not rely on student reported GPAs to determine cutoff GPAs or to establish selection points. These findings plus the increased accuracy and ease of recalculation with the software program support the continued practice of recalculating student reported GPAs.

The Internship Application Process

Although counseling psychology students are required to complete a one-year professional practice internship as part of their doctoral course work this research revealed that obtaining such an internship may not be an easy process. For example, 18 of 50 counseling psychology training directors reported that one or more of their students who were involved in the 1992-1993 internship application process failed to obtain a placement. Findings also indicated that the responding 189 intern candidates and 50 training directors had different perceptions about the process and the type of help provided by training directors. Descriptive information on intern candidates 'applications are discussed, and suggestions for modification of the internship selection process are made.

Selection criteria for dietetic internship admission: What do internship directors consider most important?

A mail survey of the 97 dietetic internship directors listed in the 1989 Directory of Dietetic Programs determined the relative importance of criteria stated on the Dietetic Internship Application Form developed by The American Dietetic Association. A response rate of 91% was achieved. Results indicate that grade point average, success in professional and physiological/biological science courses, and former employment were the most important criteria to a majority of respondents. Extensive write-in comments indicated that a grade of C or less in upper-level professional, basic sciences, and management/business courses reduced the competitive edge; in some cases, a C excluded the student from an appointment. The importance of the application packet, application letter, and their neatness and accuracy was also stressed. Directors desired letters of reference that provided insight about the student not readily available in the application information, e.g., flexibility and dependability. In summary, directors are looking for an overall academically strong student with good references and some work experience (either paid or volunteer) that seems to fit with a career choice in dietetics.

Further comments on the internship application process.

Further comments on the internship application process.

Managing the Internship Application Experience

Applying for internship always takes a great deal of time and is often emotionally draining as well. It seems reasonable to prepare for and organize this "transition experience " as much as possible. Students can usefully begin preparations in the first year of graduate school. A time line of activities for preparing internship applications is suggested and a decision grid for ranking sites is described.

Comments on the clinical internship application process.

Comments on the clinical internship application process.

Comments on the clinical internship application process.

Comments on the clinical internship application process.

Termination of a Successful Internship Program

The internship was discontinued in June 1983. With the availability of alternative resources, the general economic situation, and the decreases in vacancies, turnover rate, and internship applicants, it was decided it would be more cost-effective to terminate the internship program. The 20 staff nurse positions assigned to the internship program could be utilized to meet the need for increased numbers of positions on various units. In addition, more patient care hours would be available without the demand on the units to provide "extra" orientations. With the decreased turnover, there is a lessening of pressure to recruit more nurses. Recruitment of new graduates could be continued through scholarship programs that are funded from an outside source and other less costly alternatives. In order to avoid negating the professional development of both the new graduate and the experienced nurse, certain administrative changes could be instituted. Individualized counseling could be offered to the new nurse who is seeking first employment or who is unsure of the area of nursing she wishes to work. All new nurses could be assigned preceptors for the period of time needed to complete their designated individualized orientation plan. Emphasis could now be placed on retention of nurses and the development of an organizational ladder for advancement of qualified staff nurses. Hospital educational resources could be used to extend the preceptor program and to assist the staff in developing activities to improve care such as patient education and research related to direct care.+2

Academic Affiliation and Physician Mortality

To the Editor.— A long-standing interest in the role of stress in the cause of coronary heart disease and a recent interest in the stress of internship application led me to make some calculations that may be of interest to fellow applicants at all levels. The obituary notices of theHarvard Medical Alumni Bulletin(November 1974 to October 1977) provided a means of dividing all 215 male physicians into two groups: those who had been full-time generalist or specialist practitioners and those who had had academic affiliations. Longevity of the two groups was compared. The 125 in practice lived an average of 48.9 years beyond graduation, compared with 43.2 years for the 90 academicians, a difference of 5.7 years (P Though it is true that

A rating scale for the selection of internship applicants.

This study evaluated the utility of a rating scale for selecting clinical psychology interns. Forty-five applicants were rated by five staff psychologists. Variables rated included previous clinical experience, academic record, scholarly productivity, letters of recommendation, and intangibles. Majority agreement was found for 80% of the applicants for academic record and for scholarly productivity, for 73.3% of the applicants for clinical experience and for letters of recommendation, for 40% of the applicants for intangibles. Overall majority agreement was found for 64.8% of the candidates. All of the variables correlated positively and significantly with the total score. Scholarly productivity was weighted highest as a predictor of the applicant's total score followed by clinical experience, intangibles, letters of recommendation, and academic record. Advantages of the use of the rating scale by training centers in the selection of interns were discussed.