APA Accredited Internship in Clinical and Counseling Psychology

2003-2004

 

Thomas E. Cook Counseling Center Pre-doctoral Internship Program

Virginia Tech

 

 1.  How did you learn about our internship program?

•  APPIC Webpage

•  APPIC website search counseling centers-Virginia

•  APPIC directory on line

• Other students in my program as well as from the APPIC online directory

• APPIC book/former applicant

• APPIC listing and search

• APA Div 47 Newsletter

•  APPIC website

•  Word of mouth/APPIC directory

• Through the APPIC directory and your website.

 

 2.  What do you see as the strengths of our training program?  

• Diversity

• A lot of therapy experience to be gained/diverse theoretical orientation of supervisors/friendly  staff

• Broad range of seminars, opportunities for a variety of experiences

• Warmth; supportiveness of staff / couples / group work /t esting opportunities

•  A variety of group therapy, good general skills, training for university counseling center

• Flexibility; nice people

• It appears from your material that the staff offers a range of theoretical orientations.

• Reliford T. Sanders, Jr., Ph.D. I also enjoyed the sense of humor in some staff at times.  There  are a lot of different opportunities for interns with the center as well.  It seemed that interns had  the autonomy to choose what they wanted to do and the staff was flexible.  The facility is also  wonderful except the interns offices which are very small.  But the video equipment and  building  itself were marvelous.

• Staff seems dedicated to training process and have a variety of theoretical viewpoints / It’s comprehensive nature / Professional feel of the environment / Opportunity of learn how to become  a better supervisor / Opportunities for supervision in group counseling/use of technology in the  center / warm staff members

• Variety of training experiences / Supervision

 

3.  What do you see as the weaknesses of our training program?

•  Location

•  Limited assessment opportunities / restricted age range of patients

•  Stipend…very low in comparison to other counseling centers

•  Blacksburg, required search

•  Not much of cultural variety

• Very low stipend, location very isolated

• I felt the entire interview process was very impersonal.  I was never greeted by the entire staff,  and when I had a quick interview, I never saw that staff member again. I don’t feel that I had  a good chance to get to know the staff on a more personal level because my entire interview was  spent talking about myself, and there was practically no time for questions.

•  Stipend/Specialty rotations don’t appear to be in depth

• Stipend is way too low

  

 

4.  Does our website provide adequate information regarding our program?  Please explain.

• Yes

• Yes

• Website is well constructed, informative and easy to navigate

• Yes, very informative.  Would be nice to have a printable version of the brochure

• Yes

• Yes, I like the description of each aspect of the program and the notes about the staff.

• Yes, very helpful.

• It is difficult to answer this question without on-site evaluation.

• It was very helpful for students and applicants alike.  It was easy to navigate and interesting.

• Your website was fantastic; incredible detail; I appreciated the concrete goals of performance

• for interns in their training process.

 

5.  Please comment on your level of satisfaction with the onsite or telephone interview experience. (please specify type of interview)

• I liked the interview process but it seemed too formal and it felt hard to connect interpersonally with some staff and interns

• On-site gave me enough information and it was not too long like some other sites-3 hours good time

• On site-very satisfied

• Telephone/extremely satisfied.  It was actually a wonderfully positive experience for me. Thank you!

• I enjoyed the on-site interview.  Everyone was friendly and courteous and the interns were helpful.  I also enjoyed the interview with the training director.  The personal one-on-one interview showed commitment to the internship and training.

• Telephone interview

• On-site interview was helpful in decision-making process.  It was great that the whole staff was involved.

• I was not pleased with the telephone interview as I could not understand what was being said or asked due to unclear pronunciation.

• As mentioned before I didn’t like my on-site interview.  I feel it was important that I came because I did NOT want to be an intern there.

• I chose an onsite interview.  I was very satisfied with the standardized format and opportunity

• to meet so many staff members.

 

 6.  Do you support informing applicants when they are no longer under consideration in the interview process?  (please explain)

•  Yes, they should know so they don’t expect to be ranked

• Yes, it is respectful.  I appreciated getting the letter that I was still in consideration as well.

• Getting a letter after the interview informing you of your status is nice.

• Yes, it allows an applicant to consider alternative possibilities sooner.

• Yes, it helps them with ranking.  I’m not sure what the cons would be.  I would want to know.

• Yes, it makes it easier to decide about the next step to take.

• Yes, helpful in ranking process and expectations for match day.

• Yes

• I think it’s a good idea.  It may help the applicant to think more clearly about the rest of his/her  options.  There is already so much ambiguity in the matching process and it’s a way for an  applicant to have specific, useful info.

 

7.  Based on your review of our materials and interactions with our staff how well do you believe our program meets the needs of applicants from individually and culturally diverse groups?

 

8.  Other comments are welcome about any aspect of the Cook Counseling Center intern recruitment process:

• It may be a good idea to have one less internship position so you can increase your stipend, it would attract more applicants and make your site more competitive.

• Thank you for such a positive interviewing experience and good luck with your incoming intern class!

• Tour of campus and/or town would have been nice-beautiful campus.

• I think that a welcome and closing by the entire staff would be more inviting.

• I was very impressed the way you, the training director, managed the process.  Everything was nicely organized.  Thank you very much!  (By the way, only 2 out of the 8 sites with which I interviewed even sent out a survey like this-Kudos to you!)  …and Sandy was great, too, in her management of details! Thanks.