Application and Selection Process:

~ Interested Applicants are directed to obtain the current year’s Residency Announcement Letter and review it carefully for requirements and procedures. ~ 

1)  Interested applicants should speak with their internship Program Director as early in the training year as possible in order to facilitate the eligibility interviews and physicals required of any officer working within the Special Operations community.  When the officer is not able to travel to Fort Bragg for the completion of this evaluation, a representative from the JFK Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS) will travel to the internship site (SERE physical can be completed at internship MTF). Upon completion of the Special Forces assessment process by all interested applicants, the COPR Operational Rotation selection committee will meet, consider the results of the physical and psychological assessments, and a military Order or Merit List (OML) will be generated and provided to the Clinical and Operational Psychology Residency’s Program Director.

2)  Simultaneously, all interested applicants should abide by the directions and suspense dates provided in the current Residency Announcement Letter (RAL).  Specifically, in accordance with the current RAL each interested candidate should forward the following documents to the COPR Program Director:

a.  Copy of current CV

b.  Copy of current ORB (for verification of Secret Clearance)

c.  Copies of completed supervisor evaluation forms from internship

d.  Copy of the completed Post Internship Assignment Preference document

e.  Letter of recommendation/endorsement from their Internship Training Director

f.   A letter of personal interest, which at a minimum defines the applicant’s motivation to participate in this program, the status of his/her dissertation, plan for licensure, and clinical goals for the future

g.  Most recent APFT score card

h.  (Optional) No more than one letter of recommendation from a faculty member at their internship site.

The applicant is entirely responsible for seeing that all these documents are forwarded to the COPR Program Director in a timely manner and no later than the suspense dates identified in the current RAL.

3)  Within two weeks of the application suspense date, the Clinical Rotation selection committee will meet to consider the applicants in a selection board format. The Operational selection committee’s OML will not be available to the Clinical selection committee; however the academic packets of those candidates, if any, who were identified as “non-select” by the Operational selection committee will not be considered by the Clinical selection committee.  Applicants will be independently ranked by each Clinical Selection committee member based on review of documents provided in 2a-2h.  All applicants will be provided a numeric rank based on selection order.  Any selection committee member rank order that includes a “0,” a double rating, or a number outside the rating span will be discarded. Rankings are collected by the Program Coordinator who compiles the final Clinical Order of Merit List (OML) based on the mean scores for each candidate. This OML is provided to the Program Director.

4)  Finally, all candidates who are not identified on as “non-select” on each of the two Order of Merit Lists will be offered interviews with the Program Director. These interviews can be conducted either in person (at the candidate’s expense) or telephonically. Of note, there will be no added weight for in-person interviews.  A third separate OML will be generated from the interview.

5)  The three separate OMLs are then equally weighted by the Program Director and faculty. The final ranking of each candidate will be based on the mean score received across the three lists. The top ranked candidates are marked as either a selectee or alternate.

6)  This selection is forwarded to the Psychology Consultant to the Surgeon General for approval and then formal announcement is made by the COPR Program Director.

Questions related to this process should be directed to the COPR Program Director at (WAMCCOPRProgramDirector@amedd.army.mil).