By: Margaret Savoie
This past year the University of Mississippi’s clinical psychology doctoral program once again showed why it is among the most sought-after doctoral programs on our campus. The program was reaccredited, receiving approval for the next 10 years, the maximum allowed. In addition, the program extended its outstanding performance for matching doctoral candidates to prestigious internships. The Department of Psychology has had a 100% match rate for multiple years now and students are matched to very competitive internship sites.
The program’s accreditation is received from the American Psychological Association (APA). This accreditation is important because it allows students, prospective and current, to know that the program has met the basic standards of the psychology profession.
Dr. Todd Smitherman, professor of psychology and director of clinical training
Dr. Todd Smitherman, professor of psychology and director of clinical training, explained that accreditation is very important because it is essential for getting licensed as a psychologist and essentially is a means of quality control in terms of the curriculum and practicum training that students get.
The accreditation process first involves submitting a self-study. This is a document that details every course, every student, every requirement and how each of these requirements match with the competencies that APA wants students in the program to develop. After the self-study is submitted there is a period where APA can request additional information. Once this information is approved, it is time for a visit from APA. Due to COVID-19, these visits were completely virtual.
Since the last time the program was under review for reaccreditation (which was also successful), the APA changed their standards for accreditation. This has required significant work to align the program with those changes over the past few years. The success with reaccreditation, receiving the maximum number of years allowed (which is not guaranteed and not all programs receive the full 10 years of reaccreditation), demonstrates that the program faculty effectively adopted the new standards. The reaccreditation process, especially when completed under the new standards for the first time, require a significant investment of time from the program faculty and Dr. Smitherman capably led this effort.
Alexandra Gilbert
“It’s exciting,” said Smitherman, “it means all of the students in our program will be attending an accredited program and it makes their licensing efforts much, much easier as well as helps us recruit graduate students because these students want to go to an accredited program.”
To complete a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, students must complete a yearlong pre-doctoral internship. Students move away, usually (though not always) out of state, and work full time at a facility. This is intended to be an immersive clinical experience.
“This is part of their doctoral training; the students have to successfully complete a yearlong pre-doctoral internship before they can have their Ph.D. confirmed,” explained Smitherman. The process of obtaining an internship mirrors that generally used to “match” to a residency for medical school graduates. It is time consuming and competitive, especially for the sites of interest to students in the UM clinical psychology program.
There has been an imbalance between internships and matching in the world of clinical psychology with the number of applicants who want a position exceeding the number of positions. In addition, not all internship sites are accredited (which is important for licensure, just as is true with the accreditation of the doctoral program). This imbalance has improved over the years, but remains a significant concern for many doctoral students in psychology across the U.S. What the clinical psychology program here at the University of Mississippi has done is to offer a seminar every fall for their graduate students who are applying for internships that year. These seminars are taught by faculty within the program. The intention of these seminars is to review all the students’ application materials, give feedback and even conduct practice interviews.
Alexandra Gilbert, a Ph.D. candidate from Florida, said that she felt prepared for her yearlong internship. She is one of six students who matched to accredited internships this year. Gilbert started at the University of Florida and earned a B.A. in psychology in 2015. While applying to graduate schools, she pursued a post-bac research position at an anxiety disorder clinic for one year. She then applied to the University of Mississippi and was accepted in 2017.
Gilbert was interested in the University of Mississippi because of her advisor’s research interests and the opportunity to serve underserved, rural communities. She continued, “I also really appreciated the collegial nature of the department and got along well with others in the lab; everyone was very welcoming.”
“I had a great interview experience,” said Gilbert when asked about the offered seminar on preparedness for the internship application process.
Looking back, some of Gilbert’s favorite memories and experiences within the program have been attending conferences with other students and the department’s Research Day as well as assisting with the program’s own LGBTQIA+ support group. These same favorite experiences, encouraged by program faculty, also helped make Gilbert competitive during the internship application process.
This year the Department of Psychology is proud of all six students who were matched in the first round of the process.
