Applying for the Predoctoral Internship: Training Program Strategies to Help Students Prepare Michael B. Madson, Jamie D. Aten, and Mark M. Leach University of Southern Mississippi The predoctoral internship signifies the culmination of applied training in professional psychology. With the increasing supply and demand gap, securing an internship has become competitive and has resulted in many students employing a wide variety of steps in an attempt to ensure a successful internship application. However, little is known about how academic training programs assist students in applying for an internship. The purpose of this study was to describe what activities training programs engage in to prepare their students for the internship application process, and to better understand students’ perception of their preparedness to apply as well as to understand their experience applying. The results suggested that training programs prepared students well for general aspects of the process but did not adequately prepare them for the more specific tasks related to the application process. Results also suggested that while the students didn’t find the application process confusing or difficult they found it stressful and anxiety provoking. Suggestions for programs to inform and assist their students in preparing for applying are presented as well as recommendations for future research. Keywords: predoctoral internship, professional graduate psychology training, internship match Obtaining a predoctoral internship placement is becoming an increasingly competitive pro- cess for students. In 2006, there were 595 As- sociation of Psychology Postdoctoral and In- ternship Centers (APPIC) member predoctoral internship programs throughout the United States and Canada. Of these sites, 452 were American Psychological Association (APA)- accredited programs and 143 non-APA-accred- ited programs. These internship programs re- sulted in a total of 2,686 predoctoral internship slots (funded and nonfunded) available (APPIC, 2006a). However, there were 3,210 students who entered the 2006 match, and 731 students did not receive a placement through the APPIC match process, resulting in an addition of 62 more unmatched applicants than the 2005 Match (APPIC, 2006a). Additionally, recent data on Match rates reported by APPIC shows that the percentage of students who match with an internship has decreased each year since 2002, from 78.4% to 71.3% in 2006 (APPIC, 2006b). This decrease is often referred to as a supply and demand problem between the num- ber of students seeking internship and the num- ber of available internship options and is one major source of anxiety for students applying for internship. Yet, there continue to be few studies that examine student experience regard- ing the intensity of the internship application process, or how students are being informed/ prepared to apply for the predoctoral internship, questions we intend to address in this study. Dehlert, Sumerall, Lopez, and Merkley (2002) argued that the issue of supply and de- MICHAEL B. MADSON is an Assistant Professor in the Counseling Psychology program at the University of South- ern Mississippi. He received his PhD from Marquette Uni- versity. His research interests include motivational inter- viewing, psychology training and supervision, psychologi- cal consultation and alcohol and drug abuse treatment. JAMIE D. ATEN is an Assistant Professor in the Counsel- ing Psychology program at the University of Southern Mis- sissippi. He received his PhD from Indiana State University. His research interests include spirituality and trauma, rural mental health disparities, and clinical supervision. MARK M. LEACH is an Associate Professor and Director of Training for the Counseling Psychology Program at the University of Southern Mississippi. He received his PhD from the University of Oklahoma. His research interests includes diversity, internationalizing counseling psychol- ogy, religion and spirituality, forgiveness, racial attitudes, and suicide. CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS ARTICLE should be ad- dressed to Michael B. Madson, University of Southern Missis- sippi, Department of Psychology, 118 College Drive #5025, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001. E-mail: michael.madson@usm.edu Training and Education in Professional Psychology Copyright 2007 by the American Psychological Association 2007, Vol. 1, No. 2, 116 –124 1931-3918/07/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/1931-3918.1.2.116 116