Overview for Internships

Overview

The APPIC Internship Matching Program (the "Match") provides an orderly process to help applicants obtain positions in psychology internship programs of their choice, and to help internship programs obtain applicants of their choice. The Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) is responsible for establishing the policies of the Match and for monitoring the implementation of the Match. The APPIC Match is administered by National Matching Services Inc. (NMS) on behalf of APPIC.

Key Dates

①  Register

To participate in the APPIC Match, your site’s Training Director must register the internship site, and all program(s)/track(s) to be offered by your site, in the NMS Match System by August 31, 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter.

To register, you must create a new account in the NMS Match System, as accounts from previous years are not active. You must electronically sign the Internship Site Agreement, which establishes significant obligations for your training site. Before signing the Agreement, it is important that you inform your site’s administration of these obligations and that you receive approval to register your site for the APPIC Match. You must also identify and provide contact information for a senior official (e.g., CEO, Hospital Director, Chief Psychologist, etc.), other than the Training Director, who is responsible for ensuring the training site can enter into this contractual agreement with APPIC and will meet its financial obligation to fund internship slots.

Participating internships must offer through the APPIC Match all available positions that start training between June 1 and December 31, 2027. If your site offers more than one form of training (e.g., tracks with different rotations, special emphasis tracks, full and part-time positions, positions at different locations, etc.) you should definitely consider registering multiple programs/tracks in the APPIC Match. A list of participating internships and programs/tracks offered in the Match will be posted on the Match website by October 1, 2026.

If you have not done so already, you should subscribe to MATCH-NEWS, a free, automated email information service operated by APPIC. This is an important method of communicating information about the APPIC Match. To subscribe to MATCH-NEWS, send a blank email message to subscribe-match-news@lyris.appic.org and follow the instructions in the subsequent email to confirm your subscription.

②   Manage Your NMS Match System Account

Once registered, you can log into the NMS Match System to update training site or program information, including contact information, number of positions offered in the Match, program/track additions or changes, and adding or modifying restricted users on your account.

If a registered program will not offer any positions in 2027, it must be withdrawn from the Match by the Rank Order List deadline.

③   Application Process

Applicants must apply to internship programs using the AAPI application service. Training sites may only accept applications that are submitted through AAPI and may access those applications using the AAPI Admissions Portal.

When searching for programs of interest, applicants may consult two sources of information that are maintained separately - the APPIC Directory of APPIC-member internships and the Match List of Participating Internships. Training sites should ensure the name of the training site is consistent in both places.

Training sites participating in the APPIC Match have access to a List of Registered Applicants. The list shows the name and Match Code Number of each applicant registered to participate in the Match.

④   Interview Process

NMS Interview is a module of the NMS Match System that enables internships to streamline and automate interview scheduling. APPIC strongly encourages all sites to use NMS Interview. Internships add their interview dates, import a list of their candidates, and send invitations online. The interview candidates self-schedule themselves into available timeslots. Both training sites and candidates see their interview dates confirmed in real-time and get access to printable interview itineraries.

All applicant interviews must be completed before the deadline date for submitting Rank Order Lists.

⑤   Ranking Process

The APPIC Match is conducted in two phases. Each program and each applicant submits a Rank Order List of their preferred choices by the Rank Order List deadline for Phase I of the Match on February 5, 2027. The Phase I matching process will be carried out using those Rank Order Lists to place applicants into positions.

Programs with positions available after Phase I will offer those positions to eligible applicants in Phase II. Applicants who do not obtain a position in Phase I, as well as applicants who register after the Phase I Rank Order List deadline, will be eligible to participate in Phase II. All programs and applicants participating in Phase II must submit their Rank Order Lists by the Phase II Rank Order List deadline on March 17, 2027. The Phase II matching process will then be carried out using those Rank Order Lists.

When submitting Rank Order List(s) for either Phase of the Match, the optimal ranking strategy is to include all applicants participating in that Phase who have applied to your program and are acceptable to the program, ordered according to your true preferences. You should not consider how an applicant might rank the program when ordering the list. The Rankings User Guide has step-by-step instructions for entering and certifying your Rank Order List.

⑥   Match Results

NMS uses an established and proven matching algorithm to process the Rank Order Lists submitted by programs and applicants. Your program will be matched with the most preferred applicants on your Rank Order List that rank your program and do not match with programs they prefer to yours. Similarly, each applicant will be matched with their most preferred program that ranks them and does not fill its positions with applicants it prefers.

The results of the APPIC Match are made available online and by email on the Match Results Day for each Phase of the Match. The results of Phase I of the Match will be provided on February 19, 2027; the results for Phase II will be provided on March 24, 2027.

The Match results constitute a binding commitment between applicants and training sites. You must accept the applicants matched with your training site as outlined in the Internship Site Agreement and Match Rules.

After the results of Phase II of the Match are released, Training Directors of training sites that have available positions may notify APPIC that they want to list their positions in the Post-Match Vacancy Service to fill available positions.