Letter from the Director
Dear Applicants,
I am thankful you are expressing interest in our Clinical Psychology Internship Program. This is our newest program webpage created at the request of the 2021-2022 cohort providing greater transparency on the issue of personal finances during your internship year.
A recent news article summarizes the internship salary issue; “APA internships don’t last forever because they’re designed to give doctoral candidates the experience they need to work in the field. Still, interns need to support themselves, so how much do trainee educational psychologists get paid? Are psychology doctoral internships paid? Most APA doctoral interns receive salaries or stipends, so they are paid, but not very much. Most doctoral interns in clinical psychology make less than $35,000 per year, and many of those are paid less than $30,000.”1,2 Our psychology residents are currently making $41,544. The current leadership continues working on budget proposals to various hospital administrations requesting salary increases beyond the minimum wage base salary, however, given the budgetary planning process these requests take time to go into effect.
Until then, given that Seattle is an expensive city in which to live, the previous cohort has conducted a brief survey and found that most interns use supplemental income during their internship year to live in Seattle. Therefore the 2022-2023 cohort and internship faculty have provided tips designed to offer suggestions that may help applicants factor in how their finances inform their internship decision. They also have suggested webpages for financial assistance programs to reduce costs associated with moving and living in Seattle. We hope this is helpful to all applicants as they factor financial consideration when considering our internship program.
Ty W. Lostutter, PhD
Director, UW School of Medicine’s Psychology Internship Program
Data from 2022-2023 Financial Support Survey
Citations
- Smyth, Danielle. Updated June 21, 2022. Houston Chronicle, The Average Salary of an APA Doctoral Internship https://work.chron.com/average-salary-apa-doctoral-internship-28594.html
- Hood, C. O., Schick, M., Cusack, S. E., Fahey, M. C., Giff, S. T., Guty, E. T., … Witcraft, S. M. (2022, November 18). Short-changing the future: The systemic gap between psychology internship stipends and living wages. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/rm3bk
Tips from Current Cohort
The Husky Card and the subsidized transportation have eliminated my transportation costs, which has been extremely helpful.
I would recommend starting to look for MFTE housing units at least 3 months ahead of time because it’s a lot of work and you have to call each place separately. Make sure you read the MFTE housing booklet on Seattle’s website because if you don’t, apartments may try to take advantage of the deductions they are supposed to offer. For example, if utilities are not included they are supposed to subtract a certain amount of money from your monthly rent. Also if renter’s insurance is required, this must be subtracted as well.
Recommend looking in Capitol Hill or Fremont and surrounding areas first, avoiding the Chinatown-ID and Belltown areas.
Definitely apply for internet connectivity and Seattle utility assistance programs as early as you can because they can take a couple months to kick in.
Grocery Outlet is a great place to save money on groceries.
I would consider living near HMC (if that is your clinical site) if possible to avoid the cost (financial, time) of commuting. This will come in handy during the winter.
Find buildings that are in the beginning stages of construction and contact them to figure out who will manage the property and then get on their list for affordable housing. Be careful as most place now do not allow “full time student” of income source.
Resources
Subsidized Housing
The Whole U Affordable Housing
Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE)
Seattle Utility Discount Program
Utility Discount Program – Utilities | seattle.gov
Swedish Hospital’s Financial Assistance
UW Health’s Financial Assistance
Summary of Financial Assistance Policy PDF
Financial Assistance Application Form
Last Modified: December 31, 2023