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Internship Information

Diversity Scholarships

ACLP has funding for a limited number of scholarships to help support students of diverse backgrounds and experiences during their internships. The purpose of ACLP's Diversity Scholarships is to support students from diverse backgrounds who may otherwise struggle to complete an internship as well as students who are uniquely qualified to work with diverse populations. 

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Internship Application Dates

ACLP recommends common internship application deadlines in order make the process as equitable as possible for prospective interns. There are several important dates each internship cycle.

Please Note: If you plan to be certified in 2018, the deadline to apply for the last available internship cycle (summer 2018) is January 5, 2018. If you are not accepted into an internship and are unable to fulfill all the requirements for certification in 2018, you will have to meet the new requirements taking effect in 2019.

Winter/Spring Internship 2020

Application Deadline: September 5, 2019
Initial Offer Date: October 8, 2019
Acceptance Date: October 9, 2019
2nd Offer Date: October 10, 2019

Summer Internship 2020

Application Deadline: January 5, 2020
Initial Offer Date: February 11, 2020
Acceptance Date: February 12, 2020
2nd Offer Date: February 13, 2020

Fall Internship 2020

Application Deadline: March 15, 2020
Initial Offer Date: May 5, 2020
Acceptance Date: May 6, 2020
2nd Offer Date: May 7, 2020


Winter/Spring Internship 2021

Application Deadline: September 5, 2020
Initial Offer Date: October 12, 2020
Acceptance Date: October 13, 2020
2nd Offer Date: October 14, 2020

Summer Internship 2021

Application Deadline: January 5, 2021
Initial Offer Date: February 9, 2021
Acceptance Date: February 10, 2021
2nd Offer Date: February 11, 2021

Fall Internship 2021

Application Deadline: March 15, 2021
Initial Offer Date: May 4, 2021
Acceptance Date: May 5, 2021
2nd Offer Date: May 6, 2021

 

Internship Application Deadline - Definitions

Application Due Date
ACLP recommends that all application materials must be postmarked by the application due date.

Please note: Some programs may want to receive applications by the due date. It is the internship candidate's responsibility to verify the postmark vs materials deadline with individual programs.

Initial Offer Date

The Initial Offer Date is the day on which all top-choice internship applicants will be notified that they have been selected. Following the interview process, all clinical internship coordinators will make offers to their chosen candidates on this same Initial Offer Date. 

On the Initial Offer Date, coordinators will make offers between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, so that applicants in other time zones will have the same time-frame during which to receive offers.

If an applicant accepts an offer immediately on the offer date, it is acceptable for the coordinator to accept this immediate answer; however, ACLP advises that coordinators set a time to confirm this acceptance the next day (the Acceptance Date).

ACLP recommends that applicants not being offered a position should be given notice by the program within one week after the Initial Offer Date (e.g. by phone, letter, or email).

Acceptance Date
The very next day following the Initial Offer Date is the Acceptance Date. On this day, all internship applicants who have received an initial offer will either accept or decline the offer(s). Applicants are strongly encouraged to immediately decline any additional offers and are discouraged from altering their acceptance in light of new offers.

2nd Offer Date
The very next day following the Acceptance Date is the 2nd Offer Date. At this time, internship coordinators can make additional offers as needed to fill their programs. 

Applicants may continue to receive offers after they have accepted an internship. Applicants are strongly encouraged to immediately decline any additional offers and are discouraged from altering their acceptance in light of new offers.

End of the Offer/Acceptance Process
Offering Beyond 2nd Offer Date
ACLP suggests that the selection process be completed within one week of the Initial Offer Date, but recognizes that this process may last beyond the week for some programs that need to fill multiple positions.

What do you do if you don’t find all the intern candidates you were looking for after the ACLP recommended internship offer and acceptance dates? Answer: Make another offer!

All internship sites, including Accredited Child Life Internship sites are welcome to make offers after the 2nd offer date as long as they have initially followed the application, offer, and acceptance deadlines set by the ACLP.  This gives programs an opportunity to fill spots that would otherwise go vacant for a semester and provides more students with much sought after placements.  Following the second off day it is strongly recommended that sites first reconsider the applications they had originally received.  If there are no other qualified candidates in that application pool, sites may then consider any candidate that had applied to any site for that deadline/application cycle.  It may be beneficial to reach out to academic programs to see if students did not receive any internship offers.  If a site can still not find a qualified candidate from the application cycle pool, the site may consider any candidate, regardless of his/her previous internship application history.

The goal of this process is to offer every opportunity for sites to obtain an intern, and every opportunity for qualified interns to obtain an internship.  While we strongly recommend that all sites follow this process, it is important to note that Accredited Internship Sites must follow the designated offer process.


Questions:

If you have questions about this process as an Accredited Internship Site, please contact InternshipAccreditation@childlife.org.

All other questions can be directed to eeagon@childlife.org.

Resources:

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