When it comes to placing doctoral students in clinical psychology internships, no university in Indiana does it better than Indiana State.
Of 54 students in ISU's doctoral program in clinical psychology (Psy.D.) who participated in the national internship match program between 2000 and 2006, 94.3 percent were placed, according to the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC), which conducts the match program.
Indiana State's clinical psychology student placement rate was 4 percentage points higher than that of Purdue University, which had 31 students participate in the program during the six-year period, and 11 points higher than Indiana University, which had 18 participating students.
This accomplishment places ISU in the top 20 programs nationally in clinical internship placements. Indiana State's placement rate far exceeded the overall national rate of 74.9 percent.
Psychology faculty use external indicators of quality, such as internship placement rate, to monitor the program's success, said Michael Murphy, ISU professor of psychology and director of clinical training.
"The data on internship placement add to other national indicators of our program's position at the top of Psy.D. training programs," Murphy said.
Other indicators of quality include data on clinical students' performance on the national licensing exam, which was in the top two Psy.D. programs nationally, Murphy noted.
ISU's doctor of psychology program has been accredited by the American Psychological Association for more than 25 years. The program follows a practitioner-scientist model of training and places more emphasis on research than some Psy. D. programs. The program philosophy is to prepare all students as broad-based general clinicians, while encouraging specialization through electives, research areas, internship selection, and post-doctoral training.
APPIC stresses that student success in finding internships is only one potential measure of how a doctoral psychology program meets its educational goals and that differences between each program's models of training, educational objectives and methods of securing internships can affect the rates of placement.
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Contact: Michael Murphy, professor of psychology and director, clinical psychology program, Indiana State University, (812) 237-2465 or mmurphy4@isugw.indstate.edu
Writer: Dave Taylor, media relations director, Indiana State University, (812) 237-3743 or dave.taylor@indstate.edu