Internship Training Directors' Perceptions of School Psychology Internship Applicants

Since the mid-1990s, an imbalance between the number of available American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited internships and applicants has existed. In 2014, 14% of predoctoral psychology students who applied for internships accredited by the APA or members of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) did not obtain an internship. In 2014, school psychology students were less successful in obtaining APA or APPIC internships than either clinical or counseling psychology students. This may be, in part, because only 51% of APA-accredited internships that report that children and/or adolescents are a major population served during the internship permitted school psychology students to apply. The present research investigated why internship training directors allow school psychology students to apply, or prohibit them from applying, for their internship training program by surveying and interviewing training directors of APA-accredited internship programs. The results suggest that program type alone is often used to determine applicant desirability. Additionally, several perceived strengths and weaknesses of school psychology students were identified based on training director responses. These findings are used to make recommendations for students, training program directors, and internship training programs.