Program Disparities in Unmatched Internship Applicants

Predoctoral internship represents an important capstone in the training of clinical and counseling psychologists. However, in the past decade there has been growing concern over the number of applicants to internship who have not been matched to an internship site. We investigated the scope of the internship match problem by assessing program-level contributions to the number of unmatched internship applicants. Results from analysis of the 2000–2006 internship match report indicated that 15 programs (less than 4% of the total number of programs under analysis) contributed over 30% of the unmatched applicants for that same time period. Suggestions are made for implementing new policies aimed at limiting future internship site supply–demand disparities and ensuring quality internship placements.