In order to qualify for appointment as a psychology
intern, the applicant must have these qualifications:
· U.S. citizen, per federal regulations
· Ph.D. or Psy.D. candidate
· Enrolled in a Clinical or Counseling Psychology program with current full
APA accreditation. Federal hiring guidelines prohibit the consideration of anyone
from an unaccredited program.
Please note:
· By October 15, ask for letters of reference and order transcripts to ensure
prompt arrival.
· The application deadline is November 8. Your APPIC application must
be received by this date for your application to be considered. We will inform
you by postcard if any supporting documents are missing, so be sure to include
a postcard in your application materials.
· Send all documents by mail. Do not fax any documents.
· Please, DO NOT CALL to check on the status of your application. We will not
know for at least a week after the deadline if your file is here and complete--it
takes us a while to get all the information collated and filed. Instead, please
include a self-addressed, stamped postcard in your application materials, and
we will notify you of its completion status promptly by mail.
· Do not worry if the tracking of your package indicates that it is not here
when it should be. As long as you have mailed your materials in such a way as
they should have been here by the due date, we will accept them. But we do not
accept postmarks of Nov 8 or after for applicant materials.
· By October 15, ask for letters of reference and order transcripts to ensure
prompt arrival.
· Please have all materials sent to: Psychology Service (116B) Attn: Selection
Committee, VA Chicago Health Care System, PO Box 8195, Chicago, Illinois, 60680.
· Some overnight delivery services, including FedEx, require a street address,
which is: 820 S. Damen, Chicago, IL, 60612.
· Please do not address the envelopes in care of Dr. Van Denburg. If you do,
this will cause delay in determining whether your file is complete.
The VA Chicago Health Care System Psychology Internship abides by APPIC policy on nondiscrimination: "training agencies have practices which are nondiscriminatory in regard to race/ethnic background, gender, age, sexual orientation, lifestyle, and disabilities." We also adhere to Federal Executive Order 13160, "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Race, Sex, Color, National Origin, Disability, Religion, Age, Sexual Orientation, and Status as a Parent in Federally Conducted Education and Training Programs."
Please send the following items by mail:
____cover letter
To maximize your opportunity to meet the staff that you are most interested
in working with, we have established three types of intern selection teams,
matching our three tracks: General, Neuropsychology or Health Psychology. Please
indicate which type of interview team you would prefer to meet with in CAPITAL
LETTERS in a brief cover letter. Per APPIC policies, we do not solicit ranking
information from you regarding our various internship tracks. You may apply
to whichever tracks you wish and rank them however you wish. During the interview,
you will be given the opportunity to indicate whether you would like to be considered
for any track(s) other than the one you are interviewing with.
____APPIC Application for Psychology Internship
Download the application from www.appic.org.
Be sure you use the most recent version, which should be available some time
in the preceeding July. APPIC has instructions on the web site so you can download
the document to your computer to fill it in. Please complete the application
in full, even though your vita may furnish some of the information. You may
omit the Children and Adolescent Test Administration Form for our site.
____4 copies of Vita
Include 4 copies of a complete, up-to-date vita with the application.
____Psychological Assessment report work sample. This work sample must
include administration of common psychological tests. Your file will be rejected
if no psychological assessment report is included.
____Psychological Assessment plan--required
if you do not meet all of the following criteria: administration of at least
10 WAIS-III, administration of at least 10 MMPI-2, write-ups of at least 6 integrated
psychological assessment reports
____Self addressed, stamped postcard
If you include the postcard, we will notify you of your application's completion
status promptly.
____General track preference form (no preference form is needed for Neuropsychology
or Health Psychology)
Please enclose all requested
items with your application (including your undergraduate and graduate transcripts
with school seal, stamp or signature on the fold of the envelope). Please order
these items by October 15 in order to ensure that they arrive promptly.
____Graduate Transcripts
Official copies of graduate transcripts from all institutions attended for at
least 2 semesters.
____Undergraduate Transcripts
Official copies of undergraduate transcripts from all institutions attended.
Your application will not be considered without undergraduate transcripts.
____Letters of reference
Three letters of reference are required. At least two of these letters must
be from clinical supervisors. The other letter may be from a clinical supervisor
or a faculty member of your graduate program. Signatures must be written across
the envelope's seal.
Applicants often ask what the characteristics of a good
match are with our site. In addition to the typical factors all sites will look
at (graduate grades , honors, letters of recommendation and so on) there are
some characteristics of a good match to the Chicago VA. Of course, not all qualified
applicants will have all the characteristics listed, but to be offered an interview,
an applicant must have most of them:
· Three or more practica or other clinical experiences--we require that one
of the practica be in psychological testing and/or that the applicant have significant
testing experience in 2 or more practica.
· Over 1500 practicum hours, preferably over 2000 by the internship start date.
· Dissertation is proposed, with a do-able plan
to complete data collection by late August
· Most of clinical experience is with adults
· The applicant has a demonstrated interest (obvious through the applicant's
clinical and/or research experience) in at least one major clinical training
area available at Chicago VA
· Clinical and/or research experience in working with disadvantaged populations
· Clinical and/or research experience with African-American or Latino populations
· Clinical experience and coursework appropriate to track applied for
· Undergraduate grades compatible with competitive graduate school acceptance
· Adequate experience in administration of MMPI2 and WAIS-III
· Adequate experience in writing psychological testing reports, preferably at
least 10 integrated adult reports.
Selection procedures
Each application is reviewed by one supervisory psychologist and another individual,
either another psychologist or an intern. All applications are reviewed by individuals
associated with the track that the applicant is applying for. Additionally,
efforts are made for general track applications to be reviewed by staff with
similar interests to the applicant. All of the application material is considered
important by the reviewers, who have the sole responsibility of selecting who
is interviewed. See the section on Characteristics of a Good Match for more
details on our perspective of who is a good fit for our site. Applicants who
are offered interviews will be called by December 15. Applicants who are not
invited for an interview will be notified by letter. Please, do not call to
check on your interview status; we will call you immediately if and when we
determine that we will be interviewing you.