PhD/PsyD Clinical Neuropsychology Internship Site Rank Help Thread

[sacredrage]

I am having some trouble ranking my internship interview sites and thought I would consult the board for some opinions. Specifically, I'm trying to ascertain the general perception of these site's reputation and prestige. While prestige/reputation is certainly not my only consideration, and things like overall research fit, lifestyle, etc. are also important considerations, prestige/reputation is nevertheless the focus of this particular thread since research fit, lifestyle, etc are all personal and subjective and hard to quantify for others. There is also the unfortunate reality that prestige/reputation factors into placement opportunities for post doc and beyond so it's helpful to get a sense for how my peers perceive these sites.

So, without further ado, how would you rank the following clinical neuropsychology internship sites based on reputation/prestige?

Boston VA
Brown
Dartmouth
Emory
Florida
Harvard
Long Beach VA
Minneapolis VA
Oklahoma
UCLA
UCSF
University of Washington

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I thought others might also want to seek out some opinions from the board and so I thought we could take my question and make a thread out of it.

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[PsyDr]

Harvard, Brown, UW, UCLA, Emory, Boston VA, Dartmouth, Minneapolis VA

Red Sox suck

 

[euroneuro]

Congratulations. This is a really impressive list. While these are all generally well regarded sites, within the confines of this particular group of programs I would personally rank them in the following order within the following tiers:


1. Harvard
2. UCSF
__

3. Brown
4. UCLA
5. Boston VA
__

6. Emory
7. Dartmouth
8. University of Washington
__

9. Florida
10. Minneapolis VA
__

11. Oklahoma
12. Long Beach VA

 

[WisNeuro]

Surprised to see Minneapolis down that low. Chance to work with one of the founders of AACN there. My rankings would vary greatly whether or not I was planning on a majority clinical career, or still wanted a good deal of research component.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

The top 4 could likely be in any order, depending on research interests and goals. There may also be some consideration if you were looking for fellowships at them. I don’t know who is still in/out of the neuro match, but IIRC UCLA has been out bc of concern for research match for the better part of a decade...great post-doc if the research interests line up.

The Boston VA is different from when I interviewed as I believe they were part of the Boston Consortium, and I can’t recall the faculty there compared to the handful of other site options. Solid reputation still.

I’d put U FL 6th. I didn’t apply to Emory, Dartmouth (for internship), nor UW...so YMMV. UW for neuro-rehab is top notch, though I don’t recall if faculty overlap w their internship training program.

Minneapolis VA has a solid reputation, but I skipped bc I had to cut a few sites.

I personally thought Oklahoma was a great mix of rotations and a solid option for more clinically focused ppl, but research was still readily present.

No idea about Long Beach VA.

 

[Kadhir]

1. Congratulations!
2. Which Harvard? MGH and Mass Mental health are both "Harvard"... and there are a couple more, albeit without neuro tracks.
3. Rankings are hard, even within a specialty. But I would have to disagree with the tiers provided by another poster above. Harvard (either one) is almost 100% clinical, whereas UCSF is heavily research focused, building in a year of postdoc (iirc). Both prestigious? Um, sure, but entirely apples and oranges, so that probably won't help you. Personally, UCSF doesn't come to mind when I think of the heavy hitting neuro internship sites (post doc-yes). Emory is a dynamite site, traditional neuro with the rehab and nearly everyone is boarded. UW is almost entirely rehab (and excellent)- but if you're traditional neuro, you might be disappointed. UCLA is no doubt prestigious, but drowning in reports is the norm, not the exception. Brown is a powerhouse, and interns actually do research, but you can't be guaranteed your first choice rotations before matching if that is an issue for you. Dartmouth has always had excellent training and good research (particularly imaging), but staff has turned over in recent years (Saykin, McAllister) and there is another important change to their staffing also coming up, which they should have told you about, so you'll need to determine what that means for you. Same for Long Beach- Duke Han left a while ago for USC and I'm not sure if they have found a boarded replacement. The internship program has tons of health psych opportunities but neuro is still developing. Boston VA has excellent supervision and varied training opportunities (particularly for a VA), and neuropsych is obviously very well respected given the history. But the research can be hard to initiate, and the VA bureaucracy/politics seem especially salient. Florida offers excellent training, but requires some peds work (so does MGH) and the hours can get long.

Also think about what's going to get you to the postdoc you want and where you would like that postdoc to be.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Agree that it's tough to rank the programs in general, and in particular without knowing career goals. They all have solid reputations. If it were me, I would rank based on non-reputation related factors, such as the overall feel you got from the program and its supervisors, the opportunities available there (and how they align with what you want on internship), future considerations (e.g., they have a postdoc you're interested in, you'd like to stay in that area short- or long-term, etc.), what the interns had to say about their experiences, where past trainees have gone, and even seemingly small things like how well-supported do interns seem to be (e.g., in terms of office space).

Also important to note, as has been mentioned above, that prestige can vary somewhat depending on geographic region.

At the end of the day, it's still "just" a year. You'd be fine career-wise having gone to any of those sites.