Internships

Internship List

Steps for Obtaining an Internship in Psychology

Psychology internships (PSYC 499) are available in a number of settings, such as schools, nursing homes, day treatment centers, homes for emotionally disturbed adolescents, and infant stimulation programs. In our experience, internships have proven most valuable for our students when we have been able to supervise them closely and exert quality control over the tasks that they perform. For this reason, we require that any internship taken for psychology credit first be approved at a department meeting.

A number of internships have already received departmental approval. Descriptions of these and the specific prerequisite requirements are available on the Psychology Department Web page. If you wish to pursue any of these approved internships, see Dr. Liss, the department internship coordinator.  If the internship coordinator agrees to accept you as an internship student, you will then have to complete the proper internship forms, which you must obtain from Career Services, Lee Hall, room 309.

It may happen, however, that you are interested in doing an internship that has not yet received departmental approval. In that case, you should contact the departmental internship coordinator, who will discuss your proposal with you. In order to do such an internship, you will need to work with the department internship coordinator and have the internship approved at a department meeting. Since all of this takes time, it is important that you plan ahead in thinking about internships.

Procedures for accepting a student as an intern have been established. Students applying for an internship must have completed at least 58 hours of college credit, be in good academic standing, have completed 12 hours in psychology beyond PSYC 100, and have met all the requirements for a particular internship. In addition, they may be required to meet with the internship coordinator and/or agency supervisor and to furnish a statement of why they are interested in that internship. If more than one student applies for a particular internship, that internship may be filled on a competitive basis.

Students sign up for internships by registering for PSYC 499. Before registering for this course, students will need to complete forms that may be obtained from Career Services, Lee Hall, room 309. In addition, students will need to obtain written permission from the department internship coordinator and from the chairperson of the department.

Once a student is accepted as an intern, he or she will develop a contract with the internship coordinator regarding the number of credit hours (1 to 6, depending upon the number of clock hours) to be assigned, the duties and requirements of the agency, and the criteria by which the internship coordinator will assign a grade to the internship. Note that although an internship can be taken for a maximum of six credit hours, only three of these may be applied toward the psychology major.

Because the procedures for registering for an internship are different from those for other classes and depend on the number of hours taken, students should carefully read the section on Internships, Academic in the Dictionary of Academic Regulations and follow the steps outlined exactly.

In general, it is good to discuss internship plans with an advisor at least one semester ahead of time. One final word of caution: Don’t assume that an internship has been approved by the department just because you see it on a list in Lee Hall. Always check with your advisor or the departmental internship coordinator to make sure that the internship has actually been approved by the department.