Predoctoral Internship in Professional Psychology

Selection Process

Below is a description of our expected selection timeline. We know this can be a stressful process, and our intention is to provide you with some time frame for when we will be making our various decisions leading up to submitting our list of candidates to NMS. All application materials must be postmarked by November 15th

After an initial review, applicants we are considering will be contacted in early December to arrange a phone interview with members of the selection committee. Phone interviews will be conducted in late December and early January. Following another review, the Training Director will conduct brief follow-up interviews in mid-January with all applicants still under consideration. Following a final discussion of candidates by the selection committee, we will submit our rank list to NMS.

Applicants are encouraged to contact current and past interns to get an intern's perspective about the training experience. The easiest way to do this is to contact them via email. Our current Intern's names and email addresses are located at the "Professional Staff Details" page of this site.

In an effort to provide a fair and equitable selection process (particularly with regard to financial means), the Counseling Center does not conduct any on-site interviews of intern candidates. However, we welcome candidates to visit the campus and the Counseling Center if this is desired. In most cases we can arrange for a current intern to provide a tour of the Center and answer any questions.

Selection Criteria

The Counseling Center staff believes the selection of our predoctoral interns is an important process; therefore, we put a great deal of time and effort into it.

In order to ensure the very best fit between applicants' needs/interests and the training experiences we offer, we use the following criteria in our intern selection process:

1. Applications must be postmarked by November 15th.

   Suggestion:
   Ask your referees for recommendations early - September is not too soon! You may check with Ms. Curry, the training secretary, to be sure letters of recommendation have been received if you are not mailing all your materials in a single packet.

   Of course, be sure you have all of your materials in. You will receive an email when everything is in, but you may also call to check on the status of your materials.

2. Be sure that an official copy of your transcripts is in your application.

   Suggestion:
   As an adjunct to your transcripts, it is a good idea to include a list of your coursework to date and those that you will complete by the time you go on internship.

   In addition to the required core courses in psychology, courses in the following areas are viewed favorably: group theory/practicum, supervision theory/practicum, and multicultural/diversity theory/application.

   Suggestion:
   The type and content of practicum courses are not always clear from transcripts; make sure their listings on your vita are clear and descriptive.

3. Your vita should be attractive, in good form, and clearly written.

   Suggestion:
   Have well-articulated descriptions of previous experience as well as practica. Try to avoid too much repetition and excessive length (3-5 pages should suffice).

   The number and type of practicum courses that you've taken and the number of face-to-face client contact hours per week are important. In addition, the amount of weekly supervision and who provided this are also helpful to include in each practica description.

4. Try to incorporate the following aspects in your letter of interest: clarity; specificity; professionalism (e.g., appropriate degree of formality, appropriate self-disclosure, attention to detail, accuracy, and reflectivity in your responses).

   Suggestion:
   Find out more about our program-read our web materials, talk to graduates from your program who have interned with us, check with your faculty members to see if they know any of the Counseling Center senior staff.

5. Letters of recommendation: The quality of the letters of recommendation received from professionals who have worked with you and know you well, are vitally important in the selection process.

   Suggestion:
   Be sure that two of your references are from persons who are familiar with your clinical work and who know you well enough to be able to describe your skills and what you are like as a trainee with specificity (e.g., individual supervisors or practicum instructors).

   The following is a list of behaviors and/or descriptors your referees should address:

   • The role of the recommender in relationship to the applicant, including a statement about the length of time worked with the applicant and how well he/she knows the applicant.
   • Comparative statements that place the applicant on a continuum in relation to other students.
   • Statements regarding enthusiasm about the applicant as a person and as a professional.
   • Candid overall impressions of applicant's strengths and areas for growth.
   • Descriptors about what the applicant is like to work with and examples of the behaviors or characteristics described.
   • Description of the applicant's self-presentation, including spontaneity, sense of humor, enthusiasm/commitment to learning.
   • Information about the applicant's learning style, including situations or conditions in which the applicant seems to learn best.
     
     
6. The interview is also weighted heavily in the selection process. It will be conducted over the telephone by two selection committee members. We will attend to how well you answer questions, the quality of your questions, and the interviewers' impressions of the fit between your learning goals and style and the characteristics of our site.

   Suggestion:
   Schedule the interview for a time that you can be relaxed, rested, and have your materials handy. Think about the questions you want to ask us about the internship before the interview. Try to stay calm; we won't be trying to make the interview a stressful experience.

   We encourage you to talk to any or all of our current interns; while they are all at the same training site, everyone has his/her own experience and perspective, so the more you talk to, the more holistic an impression you are likely to get. Our interns are not members of the selection committee so they do not participate in ranking or interviewing candidates. However, for any candidate with whom they have interacted, we do seek their overall general impression about whether or not they would like to have the candidate as a colleague and if the candidate seems to be a good fit for our internship.

7. Applicants must be able to pass a background check which will be conducted after the Match in accordance with University of Missouri HR-504. This background check may include, but not be limited to, criminal history, verifications of employment and education, and driving records.  Consideration will be given to the relationship between the information obtained in the background check and the responsibilities of the position.  A relevant job-related conviction or guilty plea is grounds for termination.  The University does not employ any individual required to be registered under sections 589.400 to 589.425, RSMo (Missouri Sex Offender Registry) in a position as a “professor or instructor,” which includes psychology predoctoral interns.  Applicants who match to our program but do not successfully pass this background check will be dismissed from the internship (see APPIC Match Policy 4a). 

The MU Counseling Center Training Committee wishes you the very best wherever you pursue internship training.