APA Accredited Internship in Clinical and Counseling Psychology

Thomas E. Cook Counseling Center

Pre-doctoral Internship Program

Virginia Tech

I appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete the following evaluation of your experience with our program during the recent internship interview.  Please  return the form in the enclosed stamped addressed  envelope at your earliest  convenience.  As you know, we post this information  on our web site and your comments are a valuable resource for future intern applicants.  Thank you for your assistance and all the best in your career endeavors.

Cathye Griffin Betzel, Psy.D.

1.  How did you learn about our internship program?

• Through the APPIC internship directory

• APPIC website

• APA

• APPIC search engine when I specified sport psychology-minor rotation.

• APPIC

• APPIC website and program website.

• Via APPIC website

• APPIC Directory, website

• From the APPIC website

• Online APPIC Directory

• I learned about your internship by searching through the programs listed in the APPIC directory.

• APPIC directory

• From looking through the online and hard copy APPIC directory

• APPIC/Internet search

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

• Yes, very thoroughly. That you publish survey results online provides useful info.

• Yes. Good depth of information regarding specifics of training, staff bios.

• Yes, the information was comprehensive.

• Yes, the website was very comprehensive. It provided information about the internship year from start to finish.

• It would be helpful if all info was on one printable link (page) instead of several links. I had to go back and forth too much.

• Yes it does highlight the comprehensive training experiences you offer (therapy, individual, assessment and the specialized educational seminars. It also highlights the diversity in terms of the staff theoretical orientations and areas of interests.

• Yes. The website was very informative and gave valuable, specific details.

• Yes, I found all relevant info.

• Yes, though the handbook could be split into several linked pages instead of one long doc.

• I think that your website does provide adequate information regarding the types of activities included in the program as well as your philosophy as it pertains to training and the internship.

• Yes, it does a very good job. This evaluation is also helpful.

• Definitely! I thought the materials were quite detailed, helping me to get a better idea of what was offered.

• Yes, it made me want to come!

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

• Well run program as evidenced by the longevity of staff and the efficient and thoughtful internship interview process. Strong focus on maintaining quality of life for interns and staff.

• Multidisciplinary; Good collegial presentation; multicultural issues; balance of challenge and support.

• Outreach opportunity, relationship with women’s center training in feminist therapy.

• Happy current interns/comprehensive training environment/personable faculty

• Office environment, VA Tech reputation, supervision of prac. students, community training, external rotations, seminars.

• The outreach to women’s groups and international students.

• The diverse interests and opportunities available

• Number of outpatient cases available/flexibility in extra rotations

• The training model (it is consistent with the model of my particular program), the variety of activities that interns would be exposed to, the staff (variety of orientations and interests), supervision.

• Staff, location, campus

• People! I felt everyone was warm, responsive and concerned about applicants. The assessment component was also attractive.

• Opportunity for learning-great seminars/Diverse staff-generous supervision/Focus on university setting-all roles

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

• Low stipend; no health insurance.

• Location. Program itself seemed fantastic. Stipend seems comparatively low.

• Offices for the interns were small/stipend amount

• Small intern offices, interns see too many clients, low stipend

• More focus on career/professional identity/ long term intern growth in terms of helping the intern to address those issues during internship

• As it relates to my interests, I don’t think I identified any areas of weakness with your program.

• Lack of benefits, salary

• Very little-my decision was made based largely on location, as that changed in importance during the process for me.

• Insufficient data-no glaring weaknesses were noted.

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

• My onsite interview was a very positive experience; provided valuable contact with almost all the staff.

• Onsite interview experience; excellent opportunity to meet staff and respond to creative, challenging questions.

• Onsite; interview was relaxed, enjoyable, and allowed me to ask questions.

• Onsite-The format of the interview was very enjoyable although it could have potentially been extremely nerve-wrecking with having 4 interviewers.  The lunch with the current interns proved to be invaluable.

• On-site interview. The interview challenged me, which I enjoyed.  The staff seemed eager to learn about the candidates to ensure quality selection for the following year.

• Very satisfied. The several interviews with most of your staff members and interns gave a good sense of the site.

• Onsite, I was very satisfied with the format and substance of the interview.

• I interviewed onsite and found it to be a very informative, non-anxiety provoking experience.

• My onsite interview was the best I experienced. Your format is excellent.

• I interviewed over the phone and I thought it went okay. I thought that the questions were fair but at times I could not get a feel for the interviewers, they were not rude but for me, the interview lacked a “personable touch”.

• Onsite-very satisfied especially with the lunch which I believe was new this year

• I did a phone interview-very satisfied overall, always wanting more time for questions, but felt what time I had was well-spent.

• On-site current interns were excellent. Questions were thoughtful. Staff seemed warm and welcoming.

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

• Yes! This facilitates more positive interaction/relationship between your program and trainees/future psychologists.

• Yes, so that applicants know how to assign appropriate energy/time to ranking consideration.

• Yes, it helps with ranking.

• Yes, it helps the perspective intern to formulate how many programs are still interested in them for ranking purposes.

• Yes. However, the letter needed to come earlier. I was notified after my rankings were due.

• Yes I do.

• Absolutely.  I believe it allows applicants to make more informed decisions in the ranking process.

• Yes, it is helpful information.

• No, there is no need as ranking results are not affected by including sites that don’t rank you.

• Yes, because this allows the intern the opportunity to eliminate ranking sites who are not ranking them. It allows them (us) the opportunity to rank based on preference and realistic possibility.

• Yes I do, definitely

• Yes. I think it lets them know what is realistically possible, and makes the decisions (especially ranking) easier.

• Yes, I believe it helped a friend of mine prepare (physically and mentally) for clearinghouse!

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?  

• Not sure about this.

• Program presents a culturally diverse staff.  Only question would be how well the town of Blacksburg supports cultural diversity.

• Very much so.

• The staff appeared to be sensitive to multicultural issues and boasted a diverse staff which was a pleasant surprise considering the rural community outside of VA Tech.

• The small town may be a limitation, but out of your control. Otherwise, I think its fine.

• Again the diversity in theoretical orientations as well as the different cultural backgrounds and your being situated in a big university facilitates this.

• Your program appears very open and welcoming of diversity.

• It seems very satisfactory

• As well or better than the other sites I visited.

• I don’t think I had enough interaction with the CCC staff to make an informed decision or state an opinion about this. I can say that as a person of color, I never felt discriminated against during the process.

• Very well-very cognizant of these differences

• I felt that my desire to work and learn in an environment that supports individual and cultural diversity would have been fulfilled here.

• At least adequately. I am assuming this because of my belief that warmth generalizes across cultures/groups.

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

• Website was helpful, but somewhat “busy” and distracting in appearance.  I loved the supplemental questions—drew me to apply.

• The interns really appeared to enjoy the site.  I think it is a great testament to the program that so many former interns stay for post-docs and staff positions.

• I ranked your site very high and will recommend it to future applicants. Feedback from my colleagues was the same. Good luck and maybe I will see you in August.

• Good luck with your next year intern class.

• I would have liked to visit; however the limited number of interview dates made this impossible for me to do so. Also, I did not receive the letter stating that I was still under consideration until the day after the ranking deadline.

• Again, I have to say that the warmth and responsiveness of staff was the biggest factor in ranking decisions aside from location. I enjoyed talking with you!

• I would have ranked it 1st if it were not so far from my family. My parents are 76 and 79, and may require assistance from time to time. This realization came into focus right around match-time. The interview was excellent.