Essay 1: Autobiographical Statement
The autobiographical essay can be very challenging. Write authentically and avoid overthinking it! The purpose of this essay is for training faculty to understand more about your professional trajectory than what can be conveyed by the AAPI. Below are a handful of prompts you can consider mixing and matching.
- What inspired you to pursue a career in psychology, and what motivates you to keep going?
- What do you hope to accomplish during your career?
- Consider framing the essay around core values that guide your professional identity and/or a relevant life experience or a key experience in your professional development.
- What characteristics do you consider your most substantial strengths?
- Carefully distinguish sharing personal versus private information.
- There is no need for a “hook” or quirky anecdote-this doesn’t always land as intended. A straightforward essay about your professional identity will always be successful.
Essay 2: Theoretical Orientation
This essay is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your critical thinking abilities, and evidence the ways in which you’ll be able to work autonomously in the clinic & with teams.
- Regardless of your theoretical orientation, stick with describing how you use evidence-based approaches and those most closely aligned with the training you’re seeking during internship.
- Strongly consider your audience and the approaches used at the sites to which you’re submitting applications.
- Integrative and combined perspectives are welcome (e.g., CBT with a developmental perspective).
- Explain why your current theoretical orientation resonates with you.
- Share how have you observed its effectiveness using 1-2 case example(s).
- How did you use supervision in these cases, what did you learn, and what was the outcome?
Essay 3: Multiculturalism & Diversity
This essay is a key opportunity to communicate your reflective capabilities, professional maturity, and openness to both new professional experiences and constructive feedback. It is also an opportunity to reiterate your interest in human connection and commitment to life-long learning. A case example, or two, is a straightforward way to demonstrate how your personal and professional values come to life in assessment, intervention, and supervision spaces.
- Consider sharing a values statement.
- Present different facets of diversity in your case example, including how your and your client’s intersecting identities and relevant systems shaped your work together.
- Acknowledge aspects of privilege that may influence your work with clients.
- Use terminology properly. Although citations are not required or typically used in APPIC essays, do consider citing in instances where you are using terminology or concepts coined/developed in the DEI space.
- It’s also acceptable to present a case in which you experienced challenges or made mistakes. What did you learn? How will you do things differently in the future?
Essay 4: Research
If research is a primary training and career objective, this is the place to shine! However, even if you don’t envision research as a career focus in the long-term, this essay will convey skills in an area that is crucial to our field. It will help readers learn more about your short and long-term professional goals, and can provide foundational text for you to use in upcoming postdoc or job applications.
- Explain the role you hope research will play in your long-term career.
- Convey 1-2 lines of research, why you are pursuing these primary topic areas, and the outcomes do you hope to achieve in the long-term.
- Under that umbrella, it’s helpful to explain why you chose your dissertation topic, a few core elements of the study methodology, your progress thus far, findings (if available), and a future direction for this work.
- Explain how you hope to expand or refine your research skills in the future.
- Generally, do not name drop (this essay is about you!) and do not duplicate details reported on CV and/or AAPI (number of publications and presentations, for example).
- Citations are not required and not usually recommended.