cpsylist: Internship: Fw: MATCH NEWS: Number of Applications. Also, no time like the present.

Mon Sep 10 16:56:23 PDT 2018

Hi, everyone. If you're applying for internship this fall, please make sure you're in contact with your chair and letter writers. If you don't yet have a good draft of your AAPI and at least an outline of your cover letter and essays, I encourage you to get on it as soon as possible. You'll be more ready, and you'll feel better.

Please talk with your GE supervisor and other relevant people to look at your schedule. This is helpful in fall term so you don't suddenly have unexpected work to do at one of your big application deadlines, and will be even more important in winter term when you schedule interviews, some of which will require travel. Don't forget to use those resources you refer your undergrads to, like writing assistance. Do ask your docsem faculty how the group may be able to help those of you who are applying.

Please see Dr Keilin's message below. You are well-qualified, but if you are geographically restricted or applying to specialized positions or positions (like medical centers or VAs) that may favor Clinical or PsyD students, you'll want to aim for more rather than fewer applications.

Shoshana

From: APPIC Match News <match-news at lyris.appic.org> on behalf of Greg Keilin <gkeilin at mail.utexas.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2018 8:27 AM
To: APPIC Match News
Subject: MATCH NEWS: Number of Applications

APPIC MATCH NEWS
---

Many applicants struggle with the question of how many internship applications to submit in order to maximize their chances of being matched.  Some might assume that sending out a greater number of applications means a greater likelihood of being matched.

But does a "more is better" approach really work?  Since 1999, APPIC surveys of internship applicants have examined the relationship between the number of applications submitted and the chances of being successfully matched.  Below are the results from the last five APPIC Matches, reflecting only placement activity during Phase I:

       Number of
     Applications       ---------------  MATCH RATES  --------------
       Submitted        2018      2017      2016      2015      2014

         1 -  5          75%       67%       68%       59%       52%
         6 - 10          87%       79%       76%       70%       69%
        11 - 15          89%       91%       89%       86%       84%
        16 - 20          94%       92%       92%       89%       86%
        21 or more       89%       88%       93%       90%       87%

To interpret the above table:  75% of applicants who submitted between one and five applications were matched in 2018, 87% of applicants who submitted between six and ten applications were matched in 2018, and so on.  These data should be interpreted cautiously, as other variables may account for these differences.

APPIC has been calculating and publicizing these numbers since 1999.  In every year prior to 2018, the data consistently suggested that submitting between 11 and 15 applications seemed to be ideal for most applicants -- since submitting more than 15 didn't appear to meaningfully increase the chances of being matched, while submitting fewer than 11 appeared to reduce the chances of being matched.  However, the 2018 data above appears to show something different -- and suggests that submitting between 6 and 10 applications may be sufficient.

We suspect that this finding is a result of the changing imbalance between internship positions and applicants seeking those positions, as 2018 marked the first time that there were fewer registered applicants than internship positions offered in the Match.

Given our hesitancy to change a nearly 20-year old recommendation based on a single year's results, we decided to take a slightly different look at the data -- namely, the relationship between the number of applications submitted and the chances of being successfully matched to an accredited internship:

       Number of
     Applications       --- MATCH RATE TO ACCREDITED INTERNSHIP ---
       Submitted                         2018

         1 -  5                           59%
         6 - 10                           73%
        11 - 15                           83%
        16 - 20                           88%
        21 or more                        84%

This table shows a somewhat different picture for 2018 compared to the data shown above -- that in order to be matched to an accredited internship, submitting fewer than 11 applications may reduce one's chances of being matched, while submitting more than 15 provides little benefit.

Taken together, APPIC continues to recommend that applicants apply to between 11 and 15 sites.  It should be noted that applicants who submit more than 15 applications via the AAPI Online service will incur a higher per-application cost beginning with the 16th application.  For more information on the fees for the AAPI Online, please see appic.org<http://appic.org/> and click on "AAPI Information" under the "Internships" tab.

Other points to consider:

1.  Applying exclusively to highly-competitive sites can reduce the likelihood of being matched, regardless of the number of sites to which you apply.  Information about the number of applications received in previous years by APPIC-member programs appears in the APPIC Directory Online.

2.  Applicants who have significant geographic limitations on their internship search often have more difficulty getting matched, since this limitation can reduce the number of sites available to them and/or means that applicants are less likely to be a good "fit" at some of the sites to which they apply.

More results from these applicant surveys may be found at appic.org<http://www.appic.org/> (click on "Internships," then "Match Statistics").

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APPIC: Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers
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