Frequently Asked Questions

Program faculty and interns at a monthly departmental meeting.

How many applications do you receive?

We typically receive more than 330 applications (approximately 210 for our four adult specialization positions and 120 for our two child/adolescent specialization positions). We believe that this is indicative of the supply/demand imbalance in the field, as well as the appeal of our psychology internship training program.

How many applications do you interview?

We select approximately 25 applicants to be interviewed in each of the specializations. Selections are made based on a review of the application materials. We recognize that there are many, many excellent applicants that are not invited for an interview.

We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, or veteran status.

Where are you located?

Montefiore Medical Center (Montefiore) is located in the North Bronx, adjacent to Van Cortlandt Park, the fourth largest park in New York City. Contrary to the Bronx's reputation in movies, our neighborhood is beautiful, historic, and quite safe. We are easily accessible by car (parking is available at a cost), subway (just a 30 minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan) and express bus.

What job benefits are offered?

In addition to the stipend of $36,000, interns receive full medical and dental benefits with a range of choices, as well as 20 vacation days, three conference days and 12 sick days. Interns also receive daily meal tickets that are redeemable at the various Montefiore food service locations, subsidized housing, and a $500 educational allowance that can be used toward textbooks, membership dues, software, PDAs, iPads, e-readers, etc. 

Do you accept half-time interns for a two-year program?

Yes, but only under extraordinary circumstances and this is not typical. In addition, since there are few such applicants, we need to make special arrangements. Therefore, candidates wishing to pursue this option may not be considered within the computerized match.

Are the current interns satisfied with the program?

When you are invited for an interview, you will have an opportunity to speak with our current interns about their experiences here, and to follow up with them at a later time. We ask our interns to formally evaluate the program at the end of the year across all areas (supervision, rotations, didactics, etc.).

Our interns uniformly rate our training program as excellent and very satisfied. They frequently comment on being particularly impressed by the high quality of supervision, the intensity of the clinical training and the flexibility of the training program to meet their specific professional development needs.

At our last APA site visit, the reviewers described our program as "dazzling" and we were accredited for the maximum allowable seven years.

Are child/adolescent track interns allowed to treat adult patients, and are adult track interns allowed to treat children and adolescents?

Yes. Interns essentially create their own roster of patients from among the entire list of ambulatory clinics.

Are child/adolescent track interns allowed to do an inpatient or psychiatric emergency room rotation?

Yes. However, since the inpatient rotation requires a nearly full-time commitment, the intern's outpatient case load would need to be significantly reduced during that time. Thus, these rotations would occur at the beginning or end of the year to avoid unnecessary interruptions in the treatment of outpatients.

Are interns able to treat outpatients during their inpatient or psychiatric emergency room rotations?

Yes. Interns will have time to treat one to three outpatients during those rotations.

Can interns continue to treat patients who they have been seeing during their graduate training? 

It is possible, however, these patients would need to be registered in our outpatient clinics based on their insurance and geographic eligibility, and be seen on-site. Our clinics accept only certain insurances, and have a sliding scale policy for self-pay patients.

Do interns have an opportunity to participate in research?

Yes. The psychology faculty at Montefiore has an active research program in anxiety and depression, personality disorders, behavioral health services utilization, psychological assessment using self-report tests, cognitive behavior therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, adolescent suicide, and neuropsychology and cognitive remediation.

Interns have historically participated in all aspects of research from study design and literature review, to subject recruitment and data collection, to data analysis and dissemination of findings. Interns frequently present data at scientific conferences, and have served as first authors and co-authors on numerous scholarly papers and book chapters.

Do interns have access to computers?

Yes. Every office has a computer with high-speed internet access and all interns are assigned a hospital email address. The Department of Psychiatry uses an electronic medical record and interns are expected to record all progress notes and treatment plans electronically.

Do interns succeed in finding employment after the internship year?

Yes. Although the job market is highly competitive, graduates of the Montefiore internship have an excellent track record of finding initial employment. Many graduates are recruited into clinical and research staff positions at Montefiore or its affiliated institutions.

Our interns are marketable, in part, because they have developed special clinical skills (i.e., neuropsychological assessment, cognitive behavior therapy, dialectical behavior therapy) and worked with unique populations (suicidal adolescents, AIDS patients, anxiety and depressed patients, and substance abusers).

Here is a sample of positions that our recent graduates have taken:

• Research scientist positions at New York State Psychiatric Institute and at New York University Child Study Center (with Marylene Cloitre, PhD, a former Montefiore intern)
• Research psychologist positions at the University of Pennsylvania (with Edna Foa, PhD)
• Postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania (with Aaron Beck, MD), Weill-Cornell Medical Center (with Baruch Fishman, PhD), suicide research at the University of Rochester (with Yeates Conwell, MD), and the Bronx VA (with Rachel Yehuda, PhD)
• Tenure-track faculty positions at university-based departments of psychology
• Positions at Montefiore (such as supervisor in our Home Health Employment and Training program, clinician in our adult and child outpatient clinics, transplant unit, sleep-wake disorders center, etc.)
• Positions in various group practices (CBT/DBT Associates, Center for Cognitive and Dialectical Behavior Therapy, etc.)