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Student Counseling Services

Eligibility & Application

Thank you for your interest in the Doctoral Internship Program. Before applying, please take a moment to review the application criteria.

Application Procedures

Our site requires the AAPI Online. We ask you to include 3 letters of recommendation from persons who are familiar with your academic and professional performance. At least one of these letters should be from a practicum supervisor.

Your vita and graduate transcripts are also required. These items are sent as part of the AAPI Online.

Please Note: We abide by the APPIC training guidelines and our training program does not enter into additional training contracts with academic training programs. We conduct four written assessments of intern progress and provide written feedback to our interns' graduate programs regarding intern progress; however,our training program does not complete additional assessments for academic programs.

Applications for 2025-2026 are due by midnight November 11, 2024.

Training Site Address & Contact:

Thanh Nguyen, Psy.D.
Student Counseling Services
Campus Box 2420
Illinois State University
Normal, IL 61790-2420
Phone: (309) 438-3655
Fax: (309) 438-3004
tmnguy1@ilstu.edu

Eligibility

Applicants for our internship should be degree-seeking candidates in an accredited doctoral program in Counseling Psychology or Clinical Psychology, should have completed the appropriate coursework and supervised practicums, and be certified as ready for the internship by their home departments. We generally look for a minimum of 500 hours of supervised practice, including 300 hours of direct clinical services. However, given that many practicum training experiences have been disrupted by COVID-19, we will focus more on whether applicants have acquired the necessary competencies in order to progress to internship training.

We ask that applicants have their dissertation proposal completed by the ranking deadline. We seek candidates from accredited programs only. Each applicant should be registered with the National Matching Service(NMS). The matching code for Illinois State University is 127911.

Note: Eligibility for employment at Illinois State University requires a background check that verifies that candidates have no criminal record that would preclude employment. A background check is conducted following the APPIC Match, and the outcome has the potential to preclude appointment, consistent with APPIC Match Policy. For more information regarding the criminal background investigation policy, please see Illinois State University Employee Policy.

Selection

All application and selection procedures are consistent with those outlined by APPIC and the National Matching Service (NMS). The selection of interns is made by a committee comprised of the Training Director, members of the Training Committee and staff, and current interns. Applications are reviewed on the basis of background information and stated goals for internship. Finalists are interviewed by Zoom (or telephone if necessary) in January. On-site interviews are not offered as part of the selection process. We offer Zoom (or phone if needed) interviews due to the expense of travel, desire for equity among applicants, and inclement weather that often occurs at this time of year. We recognize that some applicants may be interested in visiting the site prior to ranking decisions. This may be possible if desired, but no preference will be given to those who visit our site in person.

Final selection decisions are made on the basis of a combination of factors including APA status, educational and experiential background of candidates, interviews, and the match between the intern’s goals and what our setting has to offer.