Frequently Asked Questions

How many applications do you receive?
We typically receive over 330 applications (approximately 200 for the four adult specialization positions, and 130 for the two child/adolescent specialization positions). This is indicative of the supply/demand imbalance in the field, and the appeal of our psychology internship program. Approximately 20 applicants are selected to be interviewed in each of the specializations based on a review of the application materials. We recognize that there are many, many excellent applicants that are not invited for an interview.  

Where are you located?
Montefiore Medical Center is located in the north Bronx adjacent to Van Cortlandt Park. Contrary to the Bronx's reputation in movies, our neighborhood is beautiful, historic, and quite safe. We are easily accessible by car, subway, and express bus. Parking is available at cost.

What job benefits are offered?
In addition to the stipend of $28,000, interns receive full medical benefits with a range of choices, and $3,000 tuition reimbursement. Interns are entitled to twenty vacation days, three conference days, and twelve sick days. Interns also receive meal tickets which are redeemable at the various Montefiore food service locations.

Do you accept half-time interns for a two-year program?
Yes, but this is not typical. Since there are few such applicants, we need to make special arrangements. Therefore, these candidates 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 interns about their experiences here, and to follow up with them by telephone at a later time. Interns have the opportunity to formally evaluate the program at the end of the year. They uniformly rate our training program as excellent and very satisfied. They are 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 needs. At the last APA site visit, the reviewers described our program as "dazzling."

Are child/adolescent interns allowed to treat adult patients, and vice versa, are adult 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 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 1-3 outpatients during those rotations.

Can interns continue to treat patients who they have been seeing during their graduate training? 
Sometimes. 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 Medical Center 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 internet access and all interns are assigned an 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 MMC internship have an excellent track record of initial employment. Many graduates are recruited into clinical and research staff positions at MMC 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, substance abusers).

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

• research scientist positions at NYS Psychiatric Institute and at NYU Child Study Center (with Marylene Cloitre, PhD, a former MMC intern)
• research psychologist positions at the University of Pennsylvania (with Edna Foa, PhD)
• postdoctoral fellowships in cognitive behavioral therapy at Weill-Cornell Medical Center (with Baruch Fishman, PhD) and suicide research at the University of Rochester (with Yeates Conwell, MD)
• positions in group practices
• tenure-track faculty positions at university-based departments of psychology