I wanted to respond to the discussion of professional schools and Psy.D. programs.

APAGS does not distinguish between Ph.D. and Psy.D. programs. Our constituency and leadership are composed of individuals from all training models.

We believe that students should have informed choice when it comes to choosing a graduate program. That is why we support APA's requirement for graduate schools to post their internship match rates on their program websites. We also applaud APPIC and ASPPB's efforts to publish data on internship match rates and EPPP scores. Together, these data will help students have informed consent before selecting a graduate program.

APAGS strongly supports a data driven approach to understanding and solving the internship crisis. Given the information that is available, it is clear that some programs do have lower internship match rates. APAGS encourages the APA Commission on Accreditation to develop requirements to ensure accountability from these programs.

That being said, if you look at the literature the internship crisis (see below), this has been going on for several decades. The growth of professional schools is just one small piece of a very large puzzle. It should also be noted that the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology has been instrumental in creating several new internship sites around the country.

This is a complex problem and it's going to going to take years of work from all of those involved to fix it. APAGS believes that by working together and using a data-driven approach, we will be best positioned to develop solutions to the internship crisis.

For those of you who are interested, the following articles do a great job of describing the internship crisis, how the problem started, and potential long term solutions:

Hutchings et al.'s 2007 "A Critical Analysis of Systemic Problems With Psychology Pre-Doctoral Internship Training: Contributing Factors and Collaborative Solutions"

Keilin et al.'s 2007 "A Growing Bottleneck: The Internship Supply–Demand Imbalance in 2007 and Its Impact on Psychology Training"

Madson et al.'s 2007 "The Internship Supply and Demand Issue: Graduate Student’s Perspective"

Miville et al.'s 2007 "Counseling Psychology Perspectives on the Predoctoral Internship Supply-Demand Imbalance: Strategies for Problem Definition and Resolution"

Parent & Williamson's 2010 "Program Disparities in Unmatched Internship Applicants"

Rodolfa et al.'s 2007 "The Internship Match: Understanding the Problem–Seeking Solutions"

Rozensky et al.'s 2007 "Using Workforce Analysis to Answer Questions Related to the Internship Imbalance and Career Pipeline in Professional Psychology"

Stedman et al.'s 2009 "The Internship Supply–Demand Crisis: Time for a Solution Is Now"

I am very excited to see Division 51 on the list of collaborators. I spoke briefly with Heather Date back in early-September, but have not heard a follow up. So good to hear we are on the list! We are forming a student affiliate group for Div 51, The Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity (SPSMM) and APAGS would be such a support system for us. We truly look forward to working together.

Warmly,
Brandon Youngblood
Division 51: SPSMM
BrandonY@bu.edu

While I understand your point about what you are essentially referring to as all Professional Schools of Psychology, I would have to respectfully disagree with some of your statements. Many of these programs do not provide subpar clinical experience, and in fact the experience obtained through these programs is often equivalent to, if not better than, the experiences afforded to those that train at traditional university based programs. The entry requirements are not as rigorous for these schools as traditional university programs, which essentially leads to many individuals entering the field that may not have been qualified at the undergraduate level. Many of these individuals are able to go on to successful careers within the field and to practice alongside those from the most prestigious universities. You also have to understand that there are individuals that attend these programs who are non-traditional students or who were not knowledgeable of the rigors of the graduate training process.
There are subpar students that come from every program. There are extraordinary students that come from every program (including PsyD's and Professional Schools). Instead of blaming professional schools for the problem, something needs to be changed systemically. APA, state boards, and academic institutions need to address the issue of internship requirements. In addition to the abundance of students coming from professional schools that are flooding the market (mind you many of them are highly competent), there are also many individuals that are entering the internship market with no desire to become licensed in the future or who are pursuing academic jobs that do not require licensure. I don't have a clear cut answer for this problem; if I did, I would be screaming from the mountaintops. I just want to caution people on engaging in academic "elitism." Of all fields, we should be the ones that are savvy to stigma, labeling, and stereotyping.