Did anyone happen to catch the call schedule for pediatrics in the MGH combined program intern year? Overnights vs night float? Thanks!
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2017-2018 Psychiatry Interview Reviews / Insight
- Thread starter raisinbrain
- Start date
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- Oct 19, 2017
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Anyone have any insight on Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) in Staten Island, NY?
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2017
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 11
UCSF
Pre-interview communications: We were given a single date. After I replied that the date wouldn't work for me, the PC was very prompt in providing alternatives.
Accommodation & Food: Pre-interview dinner at a trendy but not fancy restaurant, Social Kitchen and Brewery. A smattering of residents from all years attended. They seemed social and friendly but maybe not as effusive about the program as residents at other programs have been (not necessarily a bad thing, as the conversation felt a little more authentic). Pastries and coffee for breakfast. Lunch was sandwiches with tons of residents. For housing, we were offered the option of being hosted by a resident, which was a nice touch.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Long a$s day, but varied enough that it didn't drag. Started at Parnassus at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute (LPPI) with pastries and intro to the program with the PD Dr. Hung. 4 total interviews: 3 faculty (30 minutes other than the 15-minute PD interview), 1 resident (30 minutes), all in the morning. All were friendly and were curious about the specifics of my application, though one faculty member was a bit stoic and asked probing questions along the lines of “Why AREN’T you interested in [this specific area of psychiatry]?”
After breakfast-interviews-lunch, we got bussed to the VA (45-minute ride). Got a brief tour by a PGY2 on her VA outpatient rotation, then took pictures by the ocean (stunning!). We were then bussed to SF General, where PGY1s on the inpatient ward hung out with us for a bit and one PGY1 gave us a tour. They seemed relatively happy. The facilities were decent-looking overall. Then we bussed back to Parnassus. The bus rides were actually nice to talk candidly with other applicants and/or stare out the window to conserve social energy. There was an hour-long question session at the end of the day at Parnassus with Dr. Hung. There were awkward pauses as everyone wracked their brains for their third-string questions. That said, I did appreciate Dr. Hung making himself accessible and personalizing this info session, and he was very validating of even our bottom-of-the-barrel questions.
Program Overview: Overall impression: a socially conscious clinical and academic powerhouse! To give an example of the social emphasis, there is the opportunity to work on culturally focused teams in PGY1 with attendings experienced in working with these populations (i.e., African-Americans, Asians, LGBT populations, women). There is an option to fast track into the UCSF Public Psychiatry Fellowship (unique to only a few programs). Residents work with SF’s diverse and underserved populations in a variety of training sites (VA, county, private). Residents mentioned being involved in social justice efforts during their free time as well.
Another major theme was developing as a leader – i.e., leadership seminar in PGY4, QI opportunities, ability to serve on various UCSF committees, collaboration opportunities with other disciplines on scholarly projects in the Pathways to Discovery program. Their Areas of Distinction (opportunities to concentrate in fields that are not yet fellowships such as Cultural Psych, Psychoanalytic Psychiatry, Women’s Mental Health, LGBT Mental Health, etc.) were also framed as an opportunity to gain leadership skills in a subspecialty area. Starting PGY3, there is some built-in flexibility (0.5 day in PGY3, 3 days in PGY4) plus free time outside of the PGY3 curriculum to explore interests within psych through Areas of Distinction, Pathways to Discovery, or just plain old electives (40+ are offered). Some residents were involved in multiple Areas of Distinction and/or Pathways to Discovery (but just doing one seems more common).
Another notable theme of the curriculum was the outpatient emphasis: 6 months full-time outpatient at the VA in PGY2, some outpatient evaluation clinic experiences where you learn diagnostic formulation in PGY1.
PGY1: Medicine & Neurology (6 months) with 2 months inpt med (option for adolescent med), 1 mo outpt med, 1 mo EM, 1 mo inpt neuro, and 1 mo outpt neuro (option for peds neuro); Acute inpatient psych at SFGH (4 mo); Core Evaluation Experience (2 mos total - 1 mo outpatient evaluation clinics, 1 mo emergency psych)
PGY2: Inpt psych at LPPI (3 mo); CL psych at SFGH or LPPI (3 mo); VA outpt psych (6 mo) at specialty clinics: substance abuse, med management, PTSD, geriatrics, and psychotherapy (all residents train in substance abuse groups, family and couple therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, and CBT).
PGY3&4: Mainly Parnassus outpatient psych in specialty clinics, continuity clinics, CBT/DBT group therapy, small group/individual supervision; outpatient child (17% time in PGY3; integrated care experience (10% time PGY3 or PGY4) - psych embedded into primary care, OB, peds, oncology, neuro, etc.; senior resident on SFGH inpatient psych (PGY3); advanced electives (0.5 day/week PGY3, 3 days PGY4). Required scholarly project due this year.
Call schedule is not super cushy (especially PGY2), but seems reasonable overall.
PGY1: 2.75 short calls (5-8:30pm) per month, 1.5 12h (day or night) weekend calls/month, 3 weeks night float.
PGY2: 6 overnight call shifts all year, 10 weekend day call shifts, 6 24-hour call weekend shifts, 3 non-consecutive weeks of night float
PGY3: 2.5 overnight call shifts, 3 weekend day call shifts, 3 24-hour call weekend shifts
PGY4: 2 weeks night float
Location & Lifestyle:
San Francisco is exciting in terms of diversity, culture, and outdoor activities, and it’s a very green and aesthetically pleasing city. No real winters, but it’s never super warm and is not the sunniest city. Big city feel but a smaller city in population. There are other cool cities down the peninsula/across the bridges. SF is generally $$$, but I talked to a UCSF med student who paid $900 for a spacious (shared) apartment, so I maintain a glimmer of hope for my bank account. Some residents live close to campus, some are spread out across the city (very few live across the Bay) if I’m remembering correctly. Most residents I talked to had cars and had to pay for parking spots in the city but seemed to be okay with this.
Salary & Benefits:
$55.6k (PGY1) -> $62k (PGY4)
- Housing allowance: $1,000/month
- $200 for educational expenses (books)
- 20 days vacation
- Moonlighting opportunities with good pay starting PGY2 per last year’s post (sorry, don’t have the updated info at this time)
Program Strengths:
I like what they stand for and all the opportunities they offer for growing as a psychiatrist and human. Particularly strong in areas I’m interested in. Residents were friendly and down-to-earth. SF is an ideal location for me. UCSF will be somewhere in my top 3.
Pre-interview communications: We were given a single date. After I replied that the date wouldn't work for me, the PC was very prompt in providing alternatives.
Accommodation & Food: Pre-interview dinner at a trendy but not fancy restaurant, Social Kitchen and Brewery. A smattering of residents from all years attended. They seemed social and friendly but maybe not as effusive about the program as residents at other programs have been (not necessarily a bad thing, as the conversation felt a little more authentic). Pastries and coffee for breakfast. Lunch was sandwiches with tons of residents. For housing, we were offered the option of being hosted by a resident, which was a nice touch.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Long a$s day, but varied enough that it didn't drag. Started at Parnassus at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute (LPPI) with pastries and intro to the program with the PD Dr. Hung. 4 total interviews: 3 faculty (30 minutes other than the 15-minute PD interview), 1 resident (30 minutes), all in the morning. All were friendly and were curious about the specifics of my application, though one faculty member was a bit stoic and asked probing questions along the lines of “Why AREN’T you interested in [this specific area of psychiatry]?”
After breakfast-interviews-lunch, we got bussed to the VA (45-minute ride). Got a brief tour by a PGY2 on her VA outpatient rotation, then took pictures by the ocean (stunning!). We were then bussed to SF General, where PGY1s on the inpatient ward hung out with us for a bit and one PGY1 gave us a tour. They seemed relatively happy. The facilities were decent-looking overall. Then we bussed back to Parnassus. The bus rides were actually nice to talk candidly with other applicants and/or stare out the window to conserve social energy. There was an hour-long question session at the end of the day at Parnassus with Dr. Hung. There were awkward pauses as everyone wracked their brains for their third-string questions. That said, I did appreciate Dr. Hung making himself accessible and personalizing this info session, and he was very validating of even our bottom-of-the-barrel questions.
Program Overview: Overall impression: a socially conscious clinical and academic powerhouse! To give an example of the social emphasis, there is the opportunity to work on culturally focused teams in PGY1 with attendings experienced in working with these populations (i.e., African-Americans, Asians, LGBT populations, women). There is an option to fast track into the UCSF Public Psychiatry Fellowship (unique to only a few programs). Residents work with SF’s diverse and underserved populations in a variety of training sites (VA, county, private). Residents mentioned being involved in social justice efforts during their free time as well.
Another major theme was developing as a leader – i.e., leadership seminar in PGY4, QI opportunities, ability to serve on various UCSF committees, collaboration opportunities with other disciplines on scholarly projects in the Pathways to Discovery program. Their Areas of Distinction (opportunities to concentrate in fields that are not yet fellowships such as Cultural Psych, Psychoanalytic Psychiatry, Women’s Mental Health, LGBT Mental Health, etc.) were also framed as an opportunity to gain leadership skills in a subspecialty area. Starting PGY3, there is some built-in flexibility (0.5 day in PGY3, 3 days in PGY4) plus free time outside of the PGY3 curriculum to explore interests within psych through Areas of Distinction, Pathways to Discovery, or just plain old electives (40+ are offered). Some residents were involved in multiple Areas of Distinction and/or Pathways to Discovery (but just doing one seems more common).
Another notable theme of the curriculum was the outpatient emphasis: 6 months full-time outpatient at the VA in PGY2, some outpatient evaluation clinic experiences where you learn diagnostic formulation in PGY1.
PGY1: Medicine & Neurology (6 months) with 2 months inpt med (option for adolescent med), 1 mo outpt med, 1 mo EM, 1 mo inpt neuro, and 1 mo outpt neuro (option for peds neuro); Acute inpatient psych at SFGH (4 mo); Core Evaluation Experience (2 mos total - 1 mo outpatient evaluation clinics, 1 mo emergency psych)
PGY2: Inpt psych at LPPI (3 mo); CL psych at SFGH or LPPI (3 mo); VA outpt psych (6 mo) at specialty clinics: substance abuse, med management, PTSD, geriatrics, and psychotherapy (all residents train in substance abuse groups, family and couple therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, and CBT).
PGY3&4: Mainly Parnassus outpatient psych in specialty clinics, continuity clinics, CBT/DBT group therapy, small group/individual supervision; outpatient child (17% time in PGY3; integrated care experience (10% time PGY3 or PGY4) - psych embedded into primary care, OB, peds, oncology, neuro, etc.; senior resident on SFGH inpatient psych (PGY3); advanced electives (0.5 day/week PGY3, 3 days PGY4). Required scholarly project due this year.
Call schedule is not super cushy (especially PGY2), but seems reasonable overall.
PGY1: 2.75 short calls (5-8:30pm) per month, 1.5 12h (day or night) weekend calls/month, 3 weeks night float.
PGY2: 6 overnight call shifts all year, 10 weekend day call shifts, 6 24-hour call weekend shifts, 3 non-consecutive weeks of night float
PGY3: 2.5 overnight call shifts, 3 weekend day call shifts, 3 24-hour call weekend shifts
PGY4: 2 weeks night float
Location & Lifestyle:
San Francisco is exciting in terms of diversity, culture, and outdoor activities, and it’s a very green and aesthetically pleasing city. No real winters, but it’s never super warm and is not the sunniest city. Big city feel but a smaller city in population. There are other cool cities down the peninsula/across the bridges. SF is generally $$$, but I talked to a UCSF med student who paid $900 for a spacious (shared) apartment, so I maintain a glimmer of hope for my bank account. Some residents live close to campus, some are spread out across the city (very few live across the Bay) if I’m remembering correctly. Most residents I talked to had cars and had to pay for parking spots in the city but seemed to be okay with this.
Salary & Benefits:
$55.6k (PGY1) -> $62k (PGY4)
- Housing allowance: $1,000/month
- $200 for educational expenses (books)
- 20 days vacation
- Moonlighting opportunities with good pay starting PGY2 per last year’s post (sorry, don’t have the updated info at this time)
Program Strengths:
- Academic powerhouse but down-to-earth residents and faculty (residents called attendings by their first names, people were friendly, etc.)
- Social consciousness
- Leadership opportunities and curriculum
- Flexible-ish schedule (starting PGY3) with wide availability of clinical pathways and electives
- Diversity of patient population and training sites
- More official mentorship than other programs (residents meet with an official advisor a few times a year)
- Supportive PD
- SF is exciting, and I have personal reasons for wanting to be there
- Less flexible time built into PGY3 compared to other programs, but chill PGY3 call schedule may increase free time
- Commuting to different sites may be a pain
- Residents not as gushy about the program as others? But still seemed happy
- Not affiliated with undergrad university -> fewer opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarship outside of health professions
- SF is expensive (-> decreased quality of life) and is actually a smaller city in terms of population
I like what they stand for and all the opportunities they offer for growing as a psychiatrist and human. Particularly strong in areas I’m interested in. Residents were friendly and down-to-earth. SF is an ideal location for me. UCSF will be somewhere in my top 3.
Last edited:
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Wow, where have you been seeing more vacation than that? That's equal to the most I've seen, personally! I'm not sure what I'd even do with more than that.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2017
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- 4
- Reaction score
- 11
You're right. I'm dumb. Just realized that 20 days is the same as 4 weeks haha, will edit!
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
Gotcha - I've also been wondering why 21 days = 15 days in certain cases. You had me thinking maybe all the west coast programs have fancy vacation schedules to make up for cost of living. 
Guess not. My personal geography didn't extend that far west, so you never know!
Guess not. My personal geography didn't extend that far west, so you never know!
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- Dec 2, 2004
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- 6,366
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Some programs assume residents are on the job 7 days a week, others base it on a 5 day week--so the 21 becomes 3 weeks vacation in the former case. Depends on how closely the programs try to match the IM and Surg programs at their institutions.Gotcha - I've also been wondering why 21 days = 15 days in certain cases. You had me thinking maybe all the west coast programs have fancy vacation schedules to make up for cost of living.
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- Nov 30, 2009
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technically you need to be licensed to moonlight so it would after you get you license in PGY-2 that you could moonlight internally. last i heard it was $120/hr to moonlight evenings in the ER at Moffit-Long and $140/hr to moonlight during the day in PES at SFGH. there are also weekend moonlighting on the inpatient unit at Langley Porter, I'm not sure how much that pays. Once you're a PGY-3 you can look at external moonlighting opportunities, with opportunities to cash in excess of 200/hr at various hospitals in the bay area. given the CoL moonlighting is more the rule than the exception and personally i think it provides an excellent learning opportunity and diversifies your CV when looking for your first post-residency job.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2017
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 11
Columbia
Pre-interview communications: Was given the choice of 5 dates in November and December pretty close to the first date -> had to make hasty travel plans. Received a confirmation of the date the next day.
Accommodation & Food: Dinner (pre-dinner for morning interviewees, post-dinner for afternoon interviewees) was tasty family-style Thai food with a smallish group of residents, who created a casual and friendly atmosphere. Breakfast included pastries, fruit, and coffee. Lunch was a buffet spread of sandwiches and some side dishes with a good number of enthusiastic residents from all years (though only one PGY1). No accommodations, though we were provided with lodging info.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): 10 applicants interviewed in the morning and had optional extra visits in the afternoon, and 10 interviewed in the afternoon with extra visits in the morning. 9am-4:45pm. Extra visits were opportunities to ask questions of fellows/faculty members who specialized in areas of your interest (who would not influence your candidacy). There was a good amount of down time in the holding room, where the chiefs hung out and other residents came in and out of (I was impressed with how many residents came to chat with us).
There was a welcome session at the beginning with the PD (Dr. Arbuckle) and APDs (Dr. Cabaniss, Dr. Leonardo). Dr. Arbuckle is interested in translational neuroscience and QI, Dr. Cabaniss is trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy (but emphasized importance of various therapeutic modalities), and Dr. Leonardo is a neuroscience researcher. All of them seemed kind and accessible, and residents called them by their first names and were jokey with them. Four total interviews (three 30-minute interviews with faculty members, one 15-minute interview with PD or APD). I had one sort of old-school psychiatrist who asked tough probing questions, but the other interviews were laid-back and conversational. Hour-long tour of facilities (NYSPI and NYPH), which were relatively attractive facilities. There was a short wrap-up at the end with the program directors.
The chair was not involved in the interview day, which was a slight negative for me, as I appreciated the chair being present at other interview days and seemingly involved in the training program.
Program Overview: Overall impression: program with a large faculty and research reputation (opportunities from neuroscience to health services research to policy) that is also strong clinically. “Curious” was a word repeatedly used to describe residents. Have to seek your own mentorship, but once you do, apparently projects fall in your lap and you have to turn faculty away. I’ve heard an isolated criticism of the clinical skills of some of the new faculty, but I think that overall Columbia has an excellent clinical reputation, and I appreciate the breadth of experience that residents get even in PGY1 (many different units as opposed to just inpatient general psych). More than 75% of graduates end up in clinical positions/fellowships after graduating. The psychotherapy curriculum seems robust as well, with an APD who specializes in psychotherapy and 8 hours of supervision in PGY3.
The curriculum also seems relatively socially conscious, with dedicated community and integrated care experiences and the option to fast track into the public psychiatry fellowship. Decent patient diversity (mix of higher income Upper West Siders and lower income Dominican Republic population of Washington Heights).
There is flexible time starting PGY3 with options of 3 “Selective Tracks”: Psychotherapy (DBT or IPT), Research (from basic science to policy), Psychopharmacology (in a college mental health setting).
PGY1: medicine 4 mo (inpatient IM 3 mo, outpt med 2 weeks, night float 2 weeks), neuro 2 mo (1 mo inpatient, 1 mo consult), and psych 5 mo (general inpt 1 mo, inpt addiction psych, inpt geriatric psych, inpt eating disorders child/adolescent day treatment). No Psych call. Medicine hours seem rough (i.e. 6am–9pm) on average, and you carry up to 10 patients.
PGY2: inpt psych 4 mo (2 mo at NYSPI, 2 mo at NYPH with training in ECT), emergency psych 2 mo, CL 2 mo, child/adolescent 1 mo, inpt eating disorders unit 1 mo, night float 1 mo. Per the previous poster, there is ~1/month weekend shift plus short call of unknown frequency (anyone have this info?)
PGY3: residents’ clinic (supervision for pharm, psychodynamic/CBT/supportive therapies, substance use treatment) 60% time, public psychiatry 20% time x 6 mo, integrated care 20% x 6 mo, selective tracks 20% time. Night float 4-5 weeks. Per previous poster, 1 day/month weekend shift again
PGY4: residents’ clinic minimum of 20% time, electives up to 80% time. 3-4 weekend call shifts/year on the CL service
Weekly process groups and didactics.
Location & Lifestyle: Washington Heights is nice but has the reputation of being boring by NYC standards and not really part of the city (however taking the subway down to midtown/lower Manhattan takes 30 min or less). Some residents live there, some live on the Upper West Side (which has the reputation of being the suburbia of NYC), some live in Harlem, a few live in farther flung places (Hell’s Kitchen, even Brooklyn). Inwood just to the North has the reputation of being good for families. NYC is expensive and grimy (but the most exciting city in the world, IMO).
Salary & Benefits:
$64.3 (PGY1) ->$67.7k -> $80.6k -> $87.8k (PGY4)
- All residents are eligible for $3,000 annual housing allowance
- Columbia housing is about market value but has more sq footage and can have beautiful views of the river
- 4 weeks vacation PGY1-2, 20 days PGY3-4
Program Strengths:
Hard to beat in research, very strong clinically (including in areas I’m interested in), and would open doors. The intangibles during the interview day were also great, as I felt like I clicked well with residents, who I found to be friendly and authentic. Living in NYC appeals to me. Columbia will be somewhere near the top of my list.
Pre-interview communications: Was given the choice of 5 dates in November and December pretty close to the first date -> had to make hasty travel plans. Received a confirmation of the date the next day.
Accommodation & Food: Dinner (pre-dinner for morning interviewees, post-dinner for afternoon interviewees) was tasty family-style Thai food with a smallish group of residents, who created a casual and friendly atmosphere. Breakfast included pastries, fruit, and coffee. Lunch was a buffet spread of sandwiches and some side dishes with a good number of enthusiastic residents from all years (though only one PGY1). No accommodations, though we were provided with lodging info.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): 10 applicants interviewed in the morning and had optional extra visits in the afternoon, and 10 interviewed in the afternoon with extra visits in the morning. 9am-4:45pm. Extra visits were opportunities to ask questions of fellows/faculty members who specialized in areas of your interest (who would not influence your candidacy). There was a good amount of down time in the holding room, where the chiefs hung out and other residents came in and out of (I was impressed with how many residents came to chat with us).
There was a welcome session at the beginning with the PD (Dr. Arbuckle) and APDs (Dr. Cabaniss, Dr. Leonardo). Dr. Arbuckle is interested in translational neuroscience and QI, Dr. Cabaniss is trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy (but emphasized importance of various therapeutic modalities), and Dr. Leonardo is a neuroscience researcher. All of them seemed kind and accessible, and residents called them by their first names and were jokey with them. Four total interviews (three 30-minute interviews with faculty members, one 15-minute interview with PD or APD). I had one sort of old-school psychiatrist who asked tough probing questions, but the other interviews were laid-back and conversational. Hour-long tour of facilities (NYSPI and NYPH), which were relatively attractive facilities. There was a short wrap-up at the end with the program directors.
The chair was not involved in the interview day, which was a slight negative for me, as I appreciated the chair being present at other interview days and seemingly involved in the training program.
Program Overview: Overall impression: program with a large faculty and research reputation (opportunities from neuroscience to health services research to policy) that is also strong clinically. “Curious” was a word repeatedly used to describe residents. Have to seek your own mentorship, but once you do, apparently projects fall in your lap and you have to turn faculty away. I’ve heard an isolated criticism of the clinical skills of some of the new faculty, but I think that overall Columbia has an excellent clinical reputation, and I appreciate the breadth of experience that residents get even in PGY1 (many different units as opposed to just inpatient general psych). More than 75% of graduates end up in clinical positions/fellowships after graduating. The psychotherapy curriculum seems robust as well, with an APD who specializes in psychotherapy and 8 hours of supervision in PGY3.
The curriculum also seems relatively socially conscious, with dedicated community and integrated care experiences and the option to fast track into the public psychiatry fellowship. Decent patient diversity (mix of higher income Upper West Siders and lower income Dominican Republic population of Washington Heights).
There is flexible time starting PGY3 with options of 3 “Selective Tracks”: Psychotherapy (DBT or IPT), Research (from basic science to policy), Psychopharmacology (in a college mental health setting).
PGY1: medicine 4 mo (inpatient IM 3 mo, outpt med 2 weeks, night float 2 weeks), neuro 2 mo (1 mo inpatient, 1 mo consult), and psych 5 mo (general inpt 1 mo, inpt addiction psych, inpt geriatric psych, inpt eating disorders child/adolescent day treatment). No Psych call. Medicine hours seem rough (i.e. 6am–9pm) on average, and you carry up to 10 patients.
PGY2: inpt psych 4 mo (2 mo at NYSPI, 2 mo at NYPH with training in ECT), emergency psych 2 mo, CL 2 mo, child/adolescent 1 mo, inpt eating disorders unit 1 mo, night float 1 mo. Per the previous poster, there is ~1/month weekend shift plus short call of unknown frequency (anyone have this info?)
PGY3: residents’ clinic (supervision for pharm, psychodynamic/CBT/supportive therapies, substance use treatment) 60% time, public psychiatry 20% time x 6 mo, integrated care 20% x 6 mo, selective tracks 20% time. Night float 4-5 weeks. Per previous poster, 1 day/month weekend shift again
PGY4: residents’ clinic minimum of 20% time, electives up to 80% time. 3-4 weekend call shifts/year on the CL service
Weekly process groups and didactics.
Location & Lifestyle: Washington Heights is nice but has the reputation of being boring by NYC standards and not really part of the city (however taking the subway down to midtown/lower Manhattan takes 30 min or less). Some residents live there, some live on the Upper West Side (which has the reputation of being the suburbia of NYC), some live in Harlem, a few live in farther flung places (Hell’s Kitchen, even Brooklyn). Inwood just to the North has the reputation of being good for families. NYC is expensive and grimy (but the most exciting city in the world, IMO).
Salary & Benefits:
$64.3 (PGY1) ->$67.7k -> $80.6k -> $87.8k (PGY4)
- All residents are eligible for $3,000 annual housing allowance
- Columbia housing is about market value but has more sq footage and can have beautiful views of the river
- 4 weeks vacation PGY1-2, 20 days PGY3-4
Program Strengths:
- Academic powerhouse with large faculty -> many options for potential research mentors
- Moderately strong to very strong in clinical areas I’m interested in
- Down-to-earth residents and faculty (residents called attendings by their first names, people were super friendly, etc.)
- Breadth of experience in core curriculum
- High impact name will open doors
- Super bougie call schedule, and salary is highest I’ve seen
- The main sites are in the same area of the city
- Supportive PDs
- NYC is exciting
- Little flexibility in first two years (and not much in PGY3 either)
- Less handholdy than other places, and giant academic scene may be hard to navigate
- No VA experience
- Medicine is hard
- Is not in a super happening part of NYC (but easy train ride to Hell’s Kitchen, etc)
Hard to beat in research, very strong clinically (including in areas I’m interested in), and would open doors. The intangibles during the interview day were also great, as I felt like I clicked well with residents, who I found to be friendly and authentic. Living in NYC appeals to me. Columbia will be somewhere near the top of my list.
Just a patient, but I had to respond to this as a native NY'er -- the UWS is not Times Square, but it is far from being the suburbia of NYC. That would be Staten Island, Queens, the Bronx and parts of Brooklyn. Check it out, it's a fantastic place to live.
Did anyone get a clear sense of the harbor intern year call schedule? Do they still do the protected sleep time on overnights? This would just be on psych, right? What about on medicine/neuro?
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- Joined
- Apr 16, 2014
- Messages
- 174
- Reaction score
- 265
Mayo Clinic
(from anon)
1. Ease of Communication:
Through ERAS. Set up through program coordinator via email. Coordinator was very nice. General interview & accommodation information provided soon after accepting interview.
2. Accommodation & Food:
Hotel provided for 2d with hotel breakfast included. Parking for $12/night (though the hotel billed Mayo instead, suckas!). Shuttle from Minneapolis airport for a discount. Breakfast was provided at hotel (eggs, bagels, toast, hash browns, sausage patties, & coffee) & at the interview (pastries, juice, water, & coffee). Lunch was from the cafeteria (given $10 voucher); food was decent, but..c'mon mayne! Dinner night of at Bleu Duck with ~6 residents from different years. Got 1x side or appetizer + an entree. Very casual. 1x glass of wine provided by Mayo. Pen not provided.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
~5-7 applicants. A little confusing which building to enter to start the day (for my ******* maybe). Program overview at 730am. Go to morning report & spend some time rounding with the team. Then a tour of both facilities followed by lunch with residents. Lunch was from cafeteria with $10 voucher. Interviews are in the afternoon until ~5pm. 4x 30min interviews (PD, aPD, & 2x faculty). Residents were around conference room all day for questions; they were very friendly & were very cohesive. Interviewers were very casual. PD asked me some specifics about my CV/experience; she probably had the hardest questions, though none of mine were particularly hard; she will quote your CV back to you & ask you hard questions based on it. Had to ask a lot of questions at several of my interviews. People seemed to know my application pretty well & others knew it very well. It was near the end of the interview trail & I asked the applicants after dinner if they knew what they were ranking #1; I thought it was sorta funny that only 1 person actually was ranking Mayo #1.
4. Program Overview:
9 residents/yr (talking about expanding to 10). Pretty good overview online.
PGY1: 6mos medicine – 2mos family (alternating wks of inpatient & outpatient), 2mos neuro (1x1 IP/OP), 2mos internal med, & 1mo ED; can substitute peds & peds neuro. Very strong neurology service & strong IM service. IM is done on non-teaching team, so it is cushy (didn’t approach 80hrs/wk). Have to do call & overnight for off services (maybe only 1x 24hr call). Some residents really enjoyed their off-service rotations. 6mos psych – 1mo ED psych, 1-2mos CAP, 1-2mos medical psych, 1-2mos mood disorders, & 1-2mos acute psych. Everyone starts together with 3mos psych before going off-service. Inpatient psych cap of 5-7 pts.
PGY2: 1-2mos CAP, 1-2mos addiction, 3-4mos CL, 2-3mos med psych, mood disorders, ED psych, geri, & 2-3mos acute adult psych. 1mo elective. 5-7 pts while inpatient psych. No cap on pt load for CL. Can get suboxone training (can be certified online).
PGY3: 12mos outpatient – community, CL, & ED + electives in forensic, geriatric, &/or research. Longitudinal outpatient mood clinic.
PGY4: 6mos electives, 3mos as senior role (choose from 5 inpatient & CL services), 1mo PHP, & 1mo ECT. Electives include psychotherapy, forensic, sleep, neuroradiology, behavioral neuro, alternate practice model (in Jacksonville or Scottsdale), VA, ACT, & research. There are DBT & CBT PHP clinics.
Call: PGY1/2 – 5pm-12am (weekday) or 8am-12am (weekend) ~qwk while inpatient psych. No call while on ED psych, outpatient family med & neuro, & CL psych. No overnight call. Inpatient psych work 1wkend day with 1 (possibly 2) golden weekends; for wkend, PGY1 work 8am-2pm & PGY2 8am-12am. PGY2 serve as float residents to cover for vacations/absences for 1-2 rotations. PGY3 – overnight call with rest day 3-4d in a row of overnight ~q7-9wks. 2 residents are in-house from 8pm-12am. PGY4 – call Mon through Fri over phone to cover ED split among residents.
Psychotherapy: have psychotherapy advisor from PGY2+ who meets with you for 1hr/wk. Begins PGY2 with psychodynamic psychotherapy with minimum 2hr supervision per wk (can begin PGY1 if motivated). 1-3 outpatient pts: 1x psychotherapy modality of choice + 2x med management. This is done during your free time. Weekly psychotherapy clinic in PGY3 for didactics, case presentations, & videotaped psychotherapy sessions (all years can attend). Modalities include psychodynamic, motivational, CBT, ITP, DBT, & supportive; I think you can do others too. Have access to Minnesota Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.
Research: encouraged, but not required. Tons of opportunities. Accessible faculty. Easy to get published/on a project. Most start PGY3, but can start PGY2 (or PGY1 is motivated). Can take courses in advanced neuroscience or research methodology at Mayo grad school. Presentations at conferences are paid for by Mayo. Research track available. Required ECT PGY4. Strong in TMS. DBS psych evals for Parkinsons (lost attending who did it for OCD). Just beginning ketamine clinic. No VNS.
Fellowships: CAP, CL, addiction, CAP, & geriatric. Now accepting residents for mood fellowship (complex pts, research, & treatment-resistant dx). Also, behavioral neuro, sleep, palliative, & pain. 2/3rd to 75% of residents pursue a fellowship. 1/3rd enter practice. Most match at #1, but some match at #2 or #3 for fellowships. CAP is very strong & has limited spots for fast-track; typically take inhouse residents, but are considering taking others too. Residents get early CAP exposure. Community psych track in the works.
Electives are flexible & numerous. They include integrative behavioral health, palliative, brain rehab, toxicology, movement disorders, sleep, telepsych, trips to Kenya or Australia, someone worked with ABC news, sports, ACT, PM&R, & medical ICU.
Designated “super-second”: PGY2 that helps PGY1 adjust for 1st 3mos or so; residents raved about this. Protected didactics for ½ day/wk, though some off services take priority. Protected Grand Rounds. Mentor starting PGY1 then at least 2 assigned supervisors who review pts. Weekly board review in PGY3/4. Residents sometimes read non-psych books for didactics PGY3 (e.g., Frankenstein, When Breath Becomes Air). Biweekly journal club. Movie nights monthly. Medical students for teaching (who are very smart). Residents work hard. Transitioning to Epic in May (did you just assume my EMR?). Social scut is minimal. Not much social, cultural, or economic diversity; do have Vietnamese & Somalian populations + people traveling from all over the world. No process groups; bad patient outcomes handled individually based on resident. Step 3 should be completed by May.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
PD was very interesting; sassy & sarcastic, but definitely liked her a lot; it turned some other applicants off though. aPD was very friendly. Residents raved about both PD & aPD. More than 40 MDs & 20 PhDs. Other faculty I met were very friendly & approachable & highly regarded by the residents.
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Rochester is a smaller town. Very cold in the winters, but tunnels & skyways to avoid cold (these are sort of complicated to use at first). Not much to do here, but it’s safe, family-friendly, & cheap. They say there are a bunch of good restaurants & some breweries. Apparently, the population is expected to double in next 5-10yrs as Mayo is becoming a “Destination Medical Center” with $4 billion in investments expected to be brought in over next 4-5yrs. Only ~1.5hr to the Twin Cities. Biannual resident retreat. Residents work hard. Residents look to be a cohesive group that gets together when they can. 2 clinical sites within 10min of each other with shuttles running nearly 24/7 (can have security take you if shuttle is closed). If too tired after work, can get a cab to go home on Mayo’s dollar. Most residents seem to live close to the hospitals.
7. Salary & Benefits:
PGY1 $54.6k to 61.6k PGY4. 15 working vacation days/yr; these can be taken at 1d intervals; must use 10d/yr but 5d roll over. 5d paid parental leave. Free parking & shuttles. Moonlighting begins in PGY3; no internal moonlighting, but can make good money at other places. Health insurance is pretty good; if you’re sick, you got to Mayo. Meal stipend based on call schedule; very reasonable & can be used while not on call (~$1k PGY2, ~$750 PGY2, etc.) 2x gyms at low cost ($30/mo or $10/mo if you go 30 out of 90d) at both campuses; 1 is small (open 24/7) & one is much bigger; both are nice; hydro massage bed at both; pools, sauna, locker rooms, squat racks, etc. Very good stipends & time off for travel for presentations & conference attendance.
8. Program Strengths:
- Clinical experience
- Research opportunities
- Psychotherapy training
- Clinical training
- Supportive PD, aPD, & faculty
- Zebra pathology & clinically complex patients
- CL experience
- Inhouse fellowships
- Other treatment modalities (ECT, TMS, DBS, ketamine)
9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Patient acuity
- Inpatient PGY2
- No VA exposure
- Racial, social, & economic diversity
- Call & night schedule
- Formality (physicians as “consultants” & suit every day)
- Rochester
10. Overall Impression:
Got the Mayo brand. Strong program with excellent psychotherapy, clinical training, & research opportunities. Great elective opportunities to develop a niche. Excellent zebra pathology & complex patient cases. Limited diversity & patient acuity. Maybe fewer bread & butter cases. Tough call schedule & residents work hard. Formal culture, but very friendly residents & “consultants.” I’d personally be happy in Rochester but I’m constrained by location to some extent. Gut feeling wasn’t there (not that it was negative or anything), but really I’d be pretty damn happy to be a resident here.
(from anon)
1. Ease of Communication:
Through ERAS. Set up through program coordinator via email. Coordinator was very nice. General interview & accommodation information provided soon after accepting interview.
2. Accommodation & Food:
Hotel provided for 2d with hotel breakfast included. Parking for $12/night (though the hotel billed Mayo instead, suckas!). Shuttle from Minneapolis airport for a discount. Breakfast was provided at hotel (eggs, bagels, toast, hash browns, sausage patties, & coffee) & at the interview (pastries, juice, water, & coffee). Lunch was from the cafeteria (given $10 voucher); food was decent, but..c'mon mayne! Dinner night of at Bleu Duck with ~6 residents from different years. Got 1x side or appetizer + an entree. Very casual. 1x glass of wine provided by Mayo. Pen not provided.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
~5-7 applicants. A little confusing which building to enter to start the day (for my ******* maybe). Program overview at 730am. Go to morning report & spend some time rounding with the team. Then a tour of both facilities followed by lunch with residents. Lunch was from cafeteria with $10 voucher. Interviews are in the afternoon until ~5pm. 4x 30min interviews (PD, aPD, & 2x faculty). Residents were around conference room all day for questions; they were very friendly & were very cohesive. Interviewers were very casual. PD asked me some specifics about my CV/experience; she probably had the hardest questions, though none of mine were particularly hard; she will quote your CV back to you & ask you hard questions based on it. Had to ask a lot of questions at several of my interviews. People seemed to know my application pretty well & others knew it very well. It was near the end of the interview trail & I asked the applicants after dinner if they knew what they were ranking #1; I thought it was sorta funny that only 1 person actually was ranking Mayo #1.
4. Program Overview:
9 residents/yr (talking about expanding to 10). Pretty good overview online.
PGY1: 6mos medicine – 2mos family (alternating wks of inpatient & outpatient), 2mos neuro (1x1 IP/OP), 2mos internal med, & 1mo ED; can substitute peds & peds neuro. Very strong neurology service & strong IM service. IM is done on non-teaching team, so it is cushy (didn’t approach 80hrs/wk). Have to do call & overnight for off services (maybe only 1x 24hr call). Some residents really enjoyed their off-service rotations. 6mos psych – 1mo ED psych, 1-2mos CAP, 1-2mos medical psych, 1-2mos mood disorders, & 1-2mos acute psych. Everyone starts together with 3mos psych before going off-service. Inpatient psych cap of 5-7 pts.
PGY2: 1-2mos CAP, 1-2mos addiction, 3-4mos CL, 2-3mos med psych, mood disorders, ED psych, geri, & 2-3mos acute adult psych. 1mo elective. 5-7 pts while inpatient psych. No cap on pt load for CL. Can get suboxone training (can be certified online).
PGY3: 12mos outpatient – community, CL, & ED + electives in forensic, geriatric, &/or research. Longitudinal outpatient mood clinic.
PGY4: 6mos electives, 3mos as senior role (choose from 5 inpatient & CL services), 1mo PHP, & 1mo ECT. Electives include psychotherapy, forensic, sleep, neuroradiology, behavioral neuro, alternate practice model (in Jacksonville or Scottsdale), VA, ACT, & research. There are DBT & CBT PHP clinics.
Call: PGY1/2 – 5pm-12am (weekday) or 8am-12am (weekend) ~qwk while inpatient psych. No call while on ED psych, outpatient family med & neuro, & CL psych. No overnight call. Inpatient psych work 1wkend day with 1 (possibly 2) golden weekends; for wkend, PGY1 work 8am-2pm & PGY2 8am-12am. PGY2 serve as float residents to cover for vacations/absences for 1-2 rotations. PGY3 – overnight call with rest day 3-4d in a row of overnight ~q7-9wks. 2 residents are in-house from 8pm-12am. PGY4 – call Mon through Fri over phone to cover ED split among residents.
Psychotherapy: have psychotherapy advisor from PGY2+ who meets with you for 1hr/wk. Begins PGY2 with psychodynamic psychotherapy with minimum 2hr supervision per wk (can begin PGY1 if motivated). 1-3 outpatient pts: 1x psychotherapy modality of choice + 2x med management. This is done during your free time. Weekly psychotherapy clinic in PGY3 for didactics, case presentations, & videotaped psychotherapy sessions (all years can attend). Modalities include psychodynamic, motivational, CBT, ITP, DBT, & supportive; I think you can do others too. Have access to Minnesota Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.
Research: encouraged, but not required. Tons of opportunities. Accessible faculty. Easy to get published/on a project. Most start PGY3, but can start PGY2 (or PGY1 is motivated). Can take courses in advanced neuroscience or research methodology at Mayo grad school. Presentations at conferences are paid for by Mayo. Research track available. Required ECT PGY4. Strong in TMS. DBS psych evals for Parkinsons (lost attending who did it for OCD). Just beginning ketamine clinic. No VNS.
Fellowships: CAP, CL, addiction, CAP, & geriatric. Now accepting residents for mood fellowship (complex pts, research, & treatment-resistant dx). Also, behavioral neuro, sleep, palliative, & pain. 2/3rd to 75% of residents pursue a fellowship. 1/3rd enter practice. Most match at #1, but some match at #2 or #3 for fellowships. CAP is very strong & has limited spots for fast-track; typically take inhouse residents, but are considering taking others too. Residents get early CAP exposure. Community psych track in the works.
Electives are flexible & numerous. They include integrative behavioral health, palliative, brain rehab, toxicology, movement disorders, sleep, telepsych, trips to Kenya or Australia, someone worked with ABC news, sports, ACT, PM&R, & medical ICU.
Designated “super-second”: PGY2 that helps PGY1 adjust for 1st 3mos or so; residents raved about this. Protected didactics for ½ day/wk, though some off services take priority. Protected Grand Rounds. Mentor starting PGY1 then at least 2 assigned supervisors who review pts. Weekly board review in PGY3/4. Residents sometimes read non-psych books for didactics PGY3 (e.g., Frankenstein, When Breath Becomes Air). Biweekly journal club. Movie nights monthly. Medical students for teaching (who are very smart). Residents work hard. Transitioning to Epic in May (did you just assume my EMR?). Social scut is minimal. Not much social, cultural, or economic diversity; do have Vietnamese & Somalian populations + people traveling from all over the world. No process groups; bad patient outcomes handled individually based on resident. Step 3 should be completed by May.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
PD was very interesting; sassy & sarcastic, but definitely liked her a lot; it turned some other applicants off though. aPD was very friendly. Residents raved about both PD & aPD. More than 40 MDs & 20 PhDs. Other faculty I met were very friendly & approachable & highly regarded by the residents.
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Rochester is a smaller town. Very cold in the winters, but tunnels & skyways to avoid cold (these are sort of complicated to use at first). Not much to do here, but it’s safe, family-friendly, & cheap. They say there are a bunch of good restaurants & some breweries. Apparently, the population is expected to double in next 5-10yrs as Mayo is becoming a “Destination Medical Center” with $4 billion in investments expected to be brought in over next 4-5yrs. Only ~1.5hr to the Twin Cities. Biannual resident retreat. Residents work hard. Residents look to be a cohesive group that gets together when they can. 2 clinical sites within 10min of each other with shuttles running nearly 24/7 (can have security take you if shuttle is closed). If too tired after work, can get a cab to go home on Mayo’s dollar. Most residents seem to live close to the hospitals.
7. Salary & Benefits:
PGY1 $54.6k to 61.6k PGY4. 15 working vacation days/yr; these can be taken at 1d intervals; must use 10d/yr but 5d roll over. 5d paid parental leave. Free parking & shuttles. Moonlighting begins in PGY3; no internal moonlighting, but can make good money at other places. Health insurance is pretty good; if you’re sick, you got to Mayo. Meal stipend based on call schedule; very reasonable & can be used while not on call (~$1k PGY2, ~$750 PGY2, etc.) 2x gyms at low cost ($30/mo or $10/mo if you go 30 out of 90d) at both campuses; 1 is small (open 24/7) & one is much bigger; both are nice; hydro massage bed at both; pools, sauna, locker rooms, squat racks, etc. Very good stipends & time off for travel for presentations & conference attendance.
8. Program Strengths:
- Clinical experience
- Research opportunities
- Psychotherapy training
- Clinical training
- Supportive PD, aPD, & faculty
- Zebra pathology & clinically complex patients
- CL experience
- Inhouse fellowships
- Other treatment modalities (ECT, TMS, DBS, ketamine)
9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Patient acuity
- Inpatient PGY2
- No VA exposure
- Racial, social, & economic diversity
- Call & night schedule
- Formality (physicians as “consultants” & suit every day)
- Rochester
10. Overall Impression:
Got the Mayo brand. Strong program with excellent psychotherapy, clinical training, & research opportunities. Great elective opportunities to develop a niche. Excellent zebra pathology & complex patient cases. Limited diversity & patient acuity. Maybe fewer bread & butter cases. Tough call schedule & residents work hard. Formal culture, but very friendly residents & “consultants.” I’d personally be happy in Rochester but I’m constrained by location to some extent. Gut feeling wasn’t there (not that it was negative or anything), but really I’d be pretty damn happy to be a resident here.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2017
- Messages
- 728
- Reaction score
- 2,124
UMass
1. Ease of Communication: All communication by email, program coordinator very responsive and easy to get in touch with. All required information sent promptly.
2. Accommodation & Food: No accommodation provide, the program recommends using the Beechwood Hotel which is right across the street at a discounted rate of $118/night + tax. The hotel is extremely nice. Dinner the night before was at a local restaurant, all food paid for but no booze possibly due to rules about state funds. No breakfast the morning of (although delicious cinnamon bread baked by the coordinator was available), instant coffee and tea available in the morning. Hot lunch provided from a local restaurant.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Tour and intro presentations to start, then 4 half hour interviews split between the morning and the afternoon. Everyone met with the PD. The coordinator made sure everyone got to their interviews. Most people had break time, which was spent in one of the offices where residents passed through for administrative reasons and made conversation.
4. Program Overview: Program takes 4 general adult residents, 2 child track, and 1 neuropsych resident (6 year program) each year. Interns spend one month on something psychiatric, then do all their medicine/neuro requirements, then come back to psychiatry. Medicine consists of one month inpatient, one month ED, and two medicine electives. Child track has a slightly more defined schedule. Peds electives are available to general adult residents but allocated after pediatric residents and child track schedules are set. Traditional schedule otherwise of PGY2 being primarily inpatient, PGY3 all outpatient, and PGY4 predominantly elective. One week night float (with a senior resident) as an intern, and then some reasonable amount PGY2, 3, and 4. There is also evening call but honestly I stopped paying attention to call particulars once it became clear that the residents have tons of free time. Seems like many electives are available. Residents emphasized that the program is not “resident-dependent” and given the structure of their years and the didactics, this is easy to believe. A majority of residents go into academic practice or do fellowships after graduation.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Dr. Benjamin is a big draw of this program and he’s both extremely accomplished and clearly devoted to education. There is a question of his time commitments given that he will be both interim chair and PD for at least another year and a half, but he seems to be very invested in using his position to strengthen the program and not at all interested in being the permanent chair. Overall residents seem very happy with their faculty and level of supervision.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Worcester is a medium sized city with a great cost of living. It’s not for people who need a big city, but it’s affordable and in easy reach of both other cities (particularly Boston, via commuter rail) and lots of outdoorsy activities. Multiple residents mentioned purchasing houses easily. There is a type of in-house moonlighting that starts PGY2 in their psych emergency services, and then further moonlighting opportunities after PGY3 when you have a full license.
7. Salary & Benefits: I can’t find the exact salary anywhere in the documents for the interview day but according to the residents it goes far given the cost of living. Residents are state employees which brings with it a host of additional benefits. 3 weeks vacation time, which can be taken at almost any point except inpatient medicine rotations--apparently you can put in requests and they will work very hard to accommodate them. You are not required to take it in specific increments.
8. Program Strengths: Dedicated full day (Thursdays) for didactics in all years. This time is truly protected. Residents seem very happy and cohesive (there was at least a 1:1 ratio of residents to applicants at both the dinner and interview day lunch). Strong social services in Massachusetts. A variety of clinical sites including a brand new state hospital (with caveat about VA; see below).
9. Potential Weaknesses: Small program. Gets cold and snowy if that bothers you. Research is available but not as high powered as other programs. The UMass hospital itself is old and looks it on the inside, although several other sites including the state hospital are newer. ECT program is not very robust. Limited VA exposure (there is an outpatient VA clinic on campus, but otherwise no main VA site where residents rotate). Dedicated full day of didactics (I’m putting this in strengths and weaknesses both because I expect people to have very divergent ideas of whether or not this is a good thing)
10. Overall Impression: Strong program, probably falls into the ‘hidden gem’ category for a lot of people given overshadowing by all the programs to the east. Happy residents with a more than reasonable call schedule. Potentially raises the question of how many didactics are too many didactics.
1. Ease of Communication: All communication by email, program coordinator very responsive and easy to get in touch with. All required information sent promptly.
2. Accommodation & Food: No accommodation provide, the program recommends using the Beechwood Hotel which is right across the street at a discounted rate of $118/night + tax. The hotel is extremely nice. Dinner the night before was at a local restaurant, all food paid for but no booze possibly due to rules about state funds. No breakfast the morning of (although delicious cinnamon bread baked by the coordinator was available), instant coffee and tea available in the morning. Hot lunch provided from a local restaurant.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Tour and intro presentations to start, then 4 half hour interviews split between the morning and the afternoon. Everyone met with the PD. The coordinator made sure everyone got to their interviews. Most people had break time, which was spent in one of the offices where residents passed through for administrative reasons and made conversation.
4. Program Overview: Program takes 4 general adult residents, 2 child track, and 1 neuropsych resident (6 year program) each year. Interns spend one month on something psychiatric, then do all their medicine/neuro requirements, then come back to psychiatry. Medicine consists of one month inpatient, one month ED, and two medicine electives. Child track has a slightly more defined schedule. Peds electives are available to general adult residents but allocated after pediatric residents and child track schedules are set. Traditional schedule otherwise of PGY2 being primarily inpatient, PGY3 all outpatient, and PGY4 predominantly elective. One week night float (with a senior resident) as an intern, and then some reasonable amount PGY2, 3, and 4. There is also evening call but honestly I stopped paying attention to call particulars once it became clear that the residents have tons of free time. Seems like many electives are available. Residents emphasized that the program is not “resident-dependent” and given the structure of their years and the didactics, this is easy to believe. A majority of residents go into academic practice or do fellowships after graduation.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Dr. Benjamin is a big draw of this program and he’s both extremely accomplished and clearly devoted to education. There is a question of his time commitments given that he will be both interim chair and PD for at least another year and a half, but he seems to be very invested in using his position to strengthen the program and not at all interested in being the permanent chair. Overall residents seem very happy with their faculty and level of supervision.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Worcester is a medium sized city with a great cost of living. It’s not for people who need a big city, but it’s affordable and in easy reach of both other cities (particularly Boston, via commuter rail) and lots of outdoorsy activities. Multiple residents mentioned purchasing houses easily. There is a type of in-house moonlighting that starts PGY2 in their psych emergency services, and then further moonlighting opportunities after PGY3 when you have a full license.
7. Salary & Benefits: I can’t find the exact salary anywhere in the documents for the interview day but according to the residents it goes far given the cost of living. Residents are state employees which brings with it a host of additional benefits. 3 weeks vacation time, which can be taken at almost any point except inpatient medicine rotations--apparently you can put in requests and they will work very hard to accommodate them. You are not required to take it in specific increments.
8. Program Strengths: Dedicated full day (Thursdays) for didactics in all years. This time is truly protected. Residents seem very happy and cohesive (there was at least a 1:1 ratio of residents to applicants at both the dinner and interview day lunch). Strong social services in Massachusetts. A variety of clinical sites including a brand new state hospital (with caveat about VA; see below).
9. Potential Weaknesses: Small program. Gets cold and snowy if that bothers you. Research is available but not as high powered as other programs. The UMass hospital itself is old and looks it on the inside, although several other sites including the state hospital are newer. ECT program is not very robust. Limited VA exposure (there is an outpatient VA clinic on campus, but otherwise no main VA site where residents rotate). Dedicated full day of didactics (I’m putting this in strengths and weaknesses both because I expect people to have very divergent ideas of whether or not this is a good thing)
10. Overall Impression: Strong program, probably falls into the ‘hidden gem’ category for a lot of people given overshadowing by all the programs to the east. Happy residents with a more than reasonable call schedule. Potentially raises the question of how many didactics are too many didactics.
- Joined
- May 23, 2017
- Messages
- 103
- Reaction score
- 73
This is my first review, I am sure there are many missing compounds, sorry for that. Feel free to Pm me if you have any questions.
SUNY Downstate
1. Ease of Communication:
The coordinator is responsive and nice, through email communications. Coordinator emailed everybody's email addresses we met during the day including residents in the lunch, which I thought a nice gesture.
2. Accommodation & Food:
Accommodation and pre-interview dinner are not provided. Breakfast with coffee, bagels, cookies etc. Lunch with residents.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
The group was divided into two; there were 13-14 applicants. In the morning session, while one group was interviewed, the other group stayed with residents to ask questions and have a tour through two hospitals. Standard questions. I found the interview day quite organized, although, I would be happier if we had the list whom I would be interviewing. We had the list on the morning of the interview day when we arrived.
4. Program Overview:
-Although there are many hospitals to rotate; University Hospital of Brooklyn, Kings County Hospital Center, Kingsboro Psychiatric Center, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, Brooklyn Veterans Administration Medical Center and Coney Island Hospital, the vast majority of the time is spent at Kings County Hospital which is a very busy community hospital. There are many inpatient units and outpatient Units. There are many research opportunities bıth basic and clinical, but the protected time for a research is a full month in the second year. If you are interested in research, you have to do it in your own time (at least, it is what I understand).
-They have two fellowship programs; Geri and Child but two are upcoming; CL and addiction. There are Geri research opportunities as well.
-I loved the Early Psychosis Unit and Partial Hospitalization Unit and found them pretty interesting. The patient population is mostly from lower income.(Kings)
-Psychotherapy training starts in the second year. They get education and supervision on CBT, Supportive Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Therapy.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Brooklyn; If it is your thing to live in NYC.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Some living allowances. Some residents have their paycheck from the University, the others from the community hospital which is unionized and has a slightly better salary. University Hospital has an MD/MPH and MD/ Ph.D. opportunities.
8. Program Strengths:
-Strong clinical exposure
-Different hospital system settings; VA, University, Community, Private, Municipal
-Psychotherapy
-NYC; has a great environment to make contacts and meet people; can get psychotherapy courses in NYC.
-Supportive PD
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Very Busy program
-Attendings busy in Kings County.
10. Overall Impression:
Very Busy program. Residents seem to get along well. Diverse and intense clinical exposure
SUNY Downstate
1. Ease of Communication:
The coordinator is responsive and nice, through email communications. Coordinator emailed everybody's email addresses we met during the day including residents in the lunch, which I thought a nice gesture.
2. Accommodation & Food:
Accommodation and pre-interview dinner are not provided. Breakfast with coffee, bagels, cookies etc. Lunch with residents.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
The group was divided into two; there were 13-14 applicants. In the morning session, while one group was interviewed, the other group stayed with residents to ask questions and have a tour through two hospitals. Standard questions. I found the interview day quite organized, although, I would be happier if we had the list whom I would be interviewing. We had the list on the morning of the interview day when we arrived.
4. Program Overview:
-Although there are many hospitals to rotate; University Hospital of Brooklyn, Kings County Hospital Center, Kingsboro Psychiatric Center, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, Brooklyn Veterans Administration Medical Center and Coney Island Hospital, the vast majority of the time is spent at Kings County Hospital which is a very busy community hospital. There are many inpatient units and outpatient Units. There are many research opportunities bıth basic and clinical, but the protected time for a research is a full month in the second year. If you are interested in research, you have to do it in your own time (at least, it is what I understand).
-They have two fellowship programs; Geri and Child but two are upcoming; CL and addiction. There are Geri research opportunities as well.
-I loved the Early Psychosis Unit and Partial Hospitalization Unit and found them pretty interesting. The patient population is mostly from lower income.(Kings)
-Psychotherapy training starts in the second year. They get education and supervision on CBT, Supportive Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Therapy.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Brooklyn; If it is your thing to live in NYC.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Some living allowances. Some residents have their paycheck from the University, the others from the community hospital which is unionized and has a slightly better salary. University Hospital has an MD/MPH and MD/ Ph.D. opportunities.
8. Program Strengths:
-Strong clinical exposure
-Different hospital system settings; VA, University, Community, Private, Municipal
-Psychotherapy
-NYC; has a great environment to make contacts and meet people; can get psychotherapy courses in NYC.
-Supportive PD
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Very Busy program
-Attendings busy in Kings County.
10. Overall Impression:
Very Busy program. Residents seem to get along well. Diverse and intense clinical exposure
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2018
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 1
Current U of C psychiatry resident here. I've received a number of messages about the above question and wanted to post about it here to help people who may be ranking our program make an informed decision.
Dr. Cooper will be leaving the U of C for other work this year. He will not be a program director at his new job and our understanding is that he will not be primarily involved in resident education, instead focusing on other areas. For those who interviewed with us, you will be receiving (or have received) a letter explaining this that so you wont be making a rank list assuming he will be here next year. His decision to leave was based on various factors including institutional/financial considerations, but was not reflective of a problem in the residency itself. Dr. Spitz, who was our program director for 10 years before Dr. Cooper took over last year, will be returning as the program director. I've known her for many years and I can say that she is truly passionate about being PD and works tirelessly for the residents, and we're lucky to have someone with her experience. The consensus among our resident group is that while we are of course sad to see Dr. Cooper leave, the core of our residency (educational experience, culture, and overall vibe) isn't changing, and that it is the residents that make a residency what it is, not any particular faculty member. So from that perspective we're optimistic, and the experience has actually brought the residents closer together.
If anyone considering U of C has any questions about this feel free to message me.
Best of luck to those finishing interviews and making your rank lists!
Dr. Cooper will be leaving the U of C for other work this year. He will not be a program director at his new job and our understanding is that he will not be primarily involved in resident education, instead focusing on other areas. For those who interviewed with us, you will be receiving (or have received) a letter explaining this that so you wont be making a rank list assuming he will be here next year. His decision to leave was based on various factors including institutional/financial considerations, but was not reflective of a problem in the residency itself. Dr. Spitz, who was our program director for 10 years before Dr. Cooper took over last year, will be returning as the program director. I've known her for many years and I can say that she is truly passionate about being PD and works tirelessly for the residents, and we're lucky to have someone with her experience. The consensus among our resident group is that while we are of course sad to see Dr. Cooper leave, the core of our residency (educational experience, culture, and overall vibe) isn't changing, and that it is the residents that make a residency what it is, not any particular faculty member. So from that perspective we're optimistic, and the experience has actually brought the residents closer together.
If anyone considering U of C has any questions about this feel free to message me.
Best of luck to those finishing interviews and making your rank lists!
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Another UofC resident here, and I just wanted to echo the sentiments of the above post. Dr. Cooper had a meeting with us and explained his reasoning. He's looking to take on a lesser workload, so he can spend more time with his young kids, and his new position at this other institution would allow that, and being PD just wouldn't. Regardless, we're all very confident in Dr. Spitz, who has the experience as previous PD and dedication to keep the program strong. UofC is known for training great faculty, and while we will certainly miss Dr. Cooper, we are confident in being able to find his replacement.
Best of luck everyone!
Best of luck everyone!
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Anonymous review:
Harvard South Shore
1. Ease of Communication:
Easy. You schedule your interview using the instructions they send you. Coordinator is extremely nice and on interview day went out of her way to make sure everybody ate.
2. Accommodation & Food:
List of hotels with 'negotiated rates' sent to you ahead of time. I scheduled a stay with a hotel for a similar rate without mentioning the program at all. Light snacks with coffee and water available when you arrive, lunch was sandwiches and some random pasta salad type side dishes. There is an interview dinner which may be either pre- or post-interview, depending on when you schedule your interview. I.e., some students go straight from their interview day to the restaurant, whereas other applicants go to dinner but don't actually interview until the next day. I actually liked this because we got to meet more applicants on the trail and the turn out was good size. Residents switched seats at both the lunch and dinner to make sure you got to chat with everybody.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Day starts at 9:45am. PD gives a very detailed hour-long powerpoint presentation and then you have 1-2 interviews in the AM, lunch, then 2-3 interviews in the PM followed by a tour of the facilities. Interviews are 1-on-1, everybody (i think) meets with the PD and aPD. No unusual questions, pretty standard and relatively laid back. They seemed genuinely interested in exploring how badly applicants really wanted to come to Harvard SS, as many people want to come here for the 'Harvard' name attached to the program, but don't have a meaningful reason for wanting to join the program. They also like to ask “why train at a VA?”
4. Program Overview:
This program is largely VA-based, with other rotations spread throughout the Boston area. Medicine, inpatient psych, addiction, and neurology are done at Boston VA. C&A, Geriatric, an Inpatient block, and Clinical Evaluation Center rotations are done at McLean. Consults/womens mental health @ Beth Israel Deaconess. Forensics is in Boston at Solomon Carter. There is a large consortium of sites where you rotate, and for more info on curriculum I would refer you to the HSS website (which is one of the nicest program websites I've seen, as far as level of detail is concerned) here: Harvardsouthshorepsychiatry | Psychiatry Residency Training Program
8 residents per PGY class, call seems reasonable and is self-described as 'intermediate' in the spectrum between super-cush and super-hard. Residents have the option of combining two 12-hour calls into one 24-hour call, which residents said they liked doing because it allowed them to have every other weekend off (as opposed to working 12-hour weekend calls on consecutive weekends). You take weekend call on average once every other week, and the weekday short call (4:30 to 10) averages to once a week. Residents said that the night call person comes on around 8, so if you aren't actually admitting a patient you can usually peace around 8-8:45 or so (so short call becomes more abridged depending on your luck). The PGY1 on the medicine service does not take psych call during that month, so the 7 remaining interns split the psych call duties for that month. Call involves covering the urgent care facility at the VA (which in itself is a dedicated psychiatric facility, but patients may walk in with issues ranging from psychiatric to medical). Lots of residents describe that they enjoyed treating both psychiatric and medical issues, so they don't lose that 'medicine touch' so to speak. Medicine months are described as very educational, with ample 1-on-1 time with the attendings since a few of these sites do not have other residents. You are very autonomous in this respect and residents say they feel very sharp with their medicine knowledge.
Tons of 4th year electives with "nothing out of the realm of possibilities." This program really uses their Harvard affiliation to their benefit, hooking residents up with whatever they might desire as long as the case can be made that it’s beneficial to your training. One resident decided he wanted to do Interventional Pain last minute, and as such needed some training with Anesthesiology, and they made it happen. PD is very willing to help tailor your training to meet your interests.
Lastly, there are 4 tracks here that residents can choose: Research, Leadership, Academic Teaching, and Psychotherapy. The tracks are applied to once you are a resident, and they force you to create projects with mentors who are similarly-minded. Seems nice if you want to start to carve out your niche early on. Many residents publish and present as a result of these tracks.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Everybody here is extensively involved in research. They give you a huge book with all of their attendings/faculty and their research interests... and this book was too heavy for the standard interview folder (needless to say, lots of ongoing research). The halls of the VA are littered with research posters and ongoing projects. The PD is very involved with Psychiatry leadership and has designed a specialized track for future institutional leaders.
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Boston is a great city and there are a ton of suburbs around Boston that residents also choose given the consortium of sites you have to visit. Cost of living is definitely high but you get what you pay for.
7. Salary & Benefits:
For the current PGY1s, starting salary was just over 68k. Benefits (VA) are excellent.
8. Program Strengths:
-PD wants residents to lead changes in the program... if you want something, you can make it happen if you're passionate enough
-Harvard = endless opportunities for electives, research, and networking
-Tons of rotations @ McLean, consults @ BID
-Fellowship matches are very impressive. One resident told us that he "got a fellowship interview everywhere I applied"
-Boston (might be a weakness if you don't like high cost of living)
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Boston is expensive
-Lots of driving between sites (average commute 30-45 min depending on where you live)
-If you don't like working in a VA, this program is not for you
-3rd yr outpatient is exclusively VA
10. Overall Impression:
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this program. If you go back and read some old reviews, there is a lot of misguided information on this forum because HSS is the newest of the Harvard programs, and frankly there are some ego-problems when it comes to upholding the legacy of the Harvard name. Because of this, I didn't expect to like the program, but I'm sure glad I gave it a chance...The program director is unyieldingly passionate about resident-driven change, and emphasizes that there is no limit what you can or can't do given the extensive network Harvard South Shore has created. This is the program where I felt the most empowered to do whatever my heart desired, and that is exciting. Elective opportunities are superfluous and residents interested in research & academics easily participate in such at top institutions in the country. Overall, based on the consensus of these forums and such, I would say this program is sharply trending upward and in another few years (if not already) will be a very desired top-ranked program. This program checks all the boxes: reasonable work-life balance, excellent benefits, Boston location, Harvard affiliation, chill residents, and excellent fellowship matches.
Harvard South Shore
1. Ease of Communication:
Easy. You schedule your interview using the instructions they send you. Coordinator is extremely nice and on interview day went out of her way to make sure everybody ate.
2. Accommodation & Food:
List of hotels with 'negotiated rates' sent to you ahead of time. I scheduled a stay with a hotel for a similar rate without mentioning the program at all. Light snacks with coffee and water available when you arrive, lunch was sandwiches and some random pasta salad type side dishes. There is an interview dinner which may be either pre- or post-interview, depending on when you schedule your interview. I.e., some students go straight from their interview day to the restaurant, whereas other applicants go to dinner but don't actually interview until the next day. I actually liked this because we got to meet more applicants on the trail and the turn out was good size. Residents switched seats at both the lunch and dinner to make sure you got to chat with everybody.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Day starts at 9:45am. PD gives a very detailed hour-long powerpoint presentation and then you have 1-2 interviews in the AM, lunch, then 2-3 interviews in the PM followed by a tour of the facilities. Interviews are 1-on-1, everybody (i think) meets with the PD and aPD. No unusual questions, pretty standard and relatively laid back. They seemed genuinely interested in exploring how badly applicants really wanted to come to Harvard SS, as many people want to come here for the 'Harvard' name attached to the program, but don't have a meaningful reason for wanting to join the program. They also like to ask “why train at a VA?”
4. Program Overview:
This program is largely VA-based, with other rotations spread throughout the Boston area. Medicine, inpatient psych, addiction, and neurology are done at Boston VA. C&A, Geriatric, an Inpatient block, and Clinical Evaluation Center rotations are done at McLean. Consults/womens mental health @ Beth Israel Deaconess. Forensics is in Boston at Solomon Carter. There is a large consortium of sites where you rotate, and for more info on curriculum I would refer you to the HSS website (which is one of the nicest program websites I've seen, as far as level of detail is concerned) here: Harvardsouthshorepsychiatry | Psychiatry Residency Training Program
8 residents per PGY class, call seems reasonable and is self-described as 'intermediate' in the spectrum between super-cush and super-hard. Residents have the option of combining two 12-hour calls into one 24-hour call, which residents said they liked doing because it allowed them to have every other weekend off (as opposed to working 12-hour weekend calls on consecutive weekends). You take weekend call on average once every other week, and the weekday short call (4:30 to 10) averages to once a week. Residents said that the night call person comes on around 8, so if you aren't actually admitting a patient you can usually peace around 8-8:45 or so (so short call becomes more abridged depending on your luck). The PGY1 on the medicine service does not take psych call during that month, so the 7 remaining interns split the psych call duties for that month. Call involves covering the urgent care facility at the VA (which in itself is a dedicated psychiatric facility, but patients may walk in with issues ranging from psychiatric to medical). Lots of residents describe that they enjoyed treating both psychiatric and medical issues, so they don't lose that 'medicine touch' so to speak. Medicine months are described as very educational, with ample 1-on-1 time with the attendings since a few of these sites do not have other residents. You are very autonomous in this respect and residents say they feel very sharp with their medicine knowledge.
Tons of 4th year electives with "nothing out of the realm of possibilities." This program really uses their Harvard affiliation to their benefit, hooking residents up with whatever they might desire as long as the case can be made that it’s beneficial to your training. One resident decided he wanted to do Interventional Pain last minute, and as such needed some training with Anesthesiology, and they made it happen. PD is very willing to help tailor your training to meet your interests.
Lastly, there are 4 tracks here that residents can choose: Research, Leadership, Academic Teaching, and Psychotherapy. The tracks are applied to once you are a resident, and they force you to create projects with mentors who are similarly-minded. Seems nice if you want to start to carve out your niche early on. Many residents publish and present as a result of these tracks.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Everybody here is extensively involved in research. They give you a huge book with all of their attendings/faculty and their research interests... and this book was too heavy for the standard interview folder (needless to say, lots of ongoing research). The halls of the VA are littered with research posters and ongoing projects. The PD is very involved with Psychiatry leadership and has designed a specialized track for future institutional leaders.
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Boston is a great city and there are a ton of suburbs around Boston that residents also choose given the consortium of sites you have to visit. Cost of living is definitely high but you get what you pay for.
7. Salary & Benefits:
For the current PGY1s, starting salary was just over 68k. Benefits (VA) are excellent.
8. Program Strengths:
-PD wants residents to lead changes in the program... if you want something, you can make it happen if you're passionate enough
-Harvard = endless opportunities for electives, research, and networking
-Tons of rotations @ McLean, consults @ BID
-Fellowship matches are very impressive. One resident told us that he "got a fellowship interview everywhere I applied"
-Boston (might be a weakness if you don't like high cost of living)
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Boston is expensive
-Lots of driving between sites (average commute 30-45 min depending on where you live)
-If you don't like working in a VA, this program is not for you
-3rd yr outpatient is exclusively VA
10. Overall Impression:
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this program. If you go back and read some old reviews, there is a lot of misguided information on this forum because HSS is the newest of the Harvard programs, and frankly there are some ego-problems when it comes to upholding the legacy of the Harvard name. Because of this, I didn't expect to like the program, but I'm sure glad I gave it a chance...The program director is unyieldingly passionate about resident-driven change, and emphasizes that there is no limit what you can or can't do given the extensive network Harvard South Shore has created. This is the program where I felt the most empowered to do whatever my heart desired, and that is exciting. Elective opportunities are superfluous and residents interested in research & academics easily participate in such at top institutions in the country. Overall, based on the consensus of these forums and such, I would say this program is sharply trending upward and in another few years (if not already) will be a very desired top-ranked program. This program checks all the boxes: reasonable work-life balance, excellent benefits, Boston location, Harvard affiliation, chill residents, and excellent fellowship matches.
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When I was there, most BWH and BI residents said they lived in Fenway, Brookline, or Jamaica Plain. Rent is expensive because it's Boston, but varies pretty significantly based on neighborhood. If you punch the above neighborhoods into zillow or something like that it should give you a good place to start
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If you want to live close to BI/BWH, have a two bedroom, have the place not make you feel miserable to come home to, plan on spending 2400-3000.
The big thing to be aware of is most places will require first/last/security deposit and often broker fee, so have 5-10 grand ready to lay at the outset.
The Boston housing market is nuts. It is the thing I hate most about living here and the thing that will drive me out of here as soon as soon as fellowships are done. Though, I wish I had bought a place when I lived here ten years ago, then I could pay off my student loans!
The big thing to be aware of is most places will require first/last/security deposit and often broker fee, so have 5-10 grand ready to lay at the outset.
The Boston housing market is nuts. It is the thing I hate most about living here and the thing that will drive me out of here as soon as soon as fellowships are done. Though, I wish I had bought a place when I lived here ten years ago, then I could pay off my student loans!
I have an interview coming up but I haven't received an interview day schedule nor an email about the location of the pre-interview dinner. How many days before your interview did you receive either of these?
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I want to say I got the details for the dinner about a week out. I never did get a schedule so I had to look up the people I was interviewing with on the fly. It was fine tho. In the email from interview broker is the details on where and what time to show up. Be sure to read as it varies depending on what day your interview is. Good luck!
Thank you to all who have contributed such detailed reviews! I found this year's and past years' write-ups to be incredibly helpful when deciding which programs to apply to, and to help process my thoughts after interviews. I unfortunately have not been taking detailed notes on programs but would like to chip in my quick take on a few places that have not been reviewed yet, with a focus on overall impression/vibes/things that stood out to me.
University of Colorado
+ broad exposure to many different practice settings and subspecialties; all fellowships available except geriatrics, plus neuropsych fellowship
+ can do several months of electives in PGY2, lots of elective time in PGY4 as well. Seriously had everything I could possibly think of (including refugee psych, HIV psych, LGBTQ, the list goes on..), lots of sites for those interested in addiction
+ psychotherapy scholars track available if that's your thing, research track, child interest track, career program where you take a year off to work in the public sector
+ outpatient experience as early as PGY1
+ Denver seemed great, tons to do, beautiful, great food, close to hiking and other outdoorsy stuff
+/- residents were candid about feeling that they worked very hard compared to other psych programs, particularly on medicine months (at least one person told me they were borderline abusive on medicine). However, they also stated that they felt this was beneficial to their training and it prepared them to handle any medical issues that came up for the remainder of residency. Call schedule on psych honestly doesn't seem that bad but I know that doesn't tell the whole story
+/- while residents seemed cool and funny, I didn't really gel with them for some reason; not the friendliest I've met and they didn't seem particularly happy. PD seemed funny and warm when meeting with the group but a little stand-off-ish during our interview (maybe I was having an off day).
+/- required scholarly project, although this could be something like a QI project or Grand Rounds
- exposure to ECT is minimal
- sites are kind of spread out over Denver and Aurora and traffic sucks
- relatively higher cost of living
Case Western/University Health
+ every fellowship available plus some non-accredited ones (women's mental health, community health, college mental health)
+ 6 weeks of electives PGY2, PGY4 is ALL electives and anything you could think of seems to be available. In particular, lots of options in college mental health, community psych, and integrated psych
+ didn't get to see the VA but per residents it's pretty swanky (for a VA?). The university hospital which we toured is gorgeous
+ opportunity to spend 6 months of PGY4 in New Zealand!
+ pretty humane call schedule- 3- 2 weeks blocks of night float PGY1, q8 PGY2, then I believe you are just doing buddy call for 1 month of PGY3 and nothing PGY4
+ option to see long-term psychotherapy patients as early as PGY1
+/- Cleveland is probably not for everyone. It's cheap, on the lake, lots to do; but you get lake effect snow and it sounds like some of the cooler neighborhoods abut some pretty crappy neighborhoods
- Did not get the sense from faculty (all of whom were Case grads) or many of the residents that they were particularly passionate about psychiatry or the program. It seemed like a lot of people were there because they are from Cleveland.
- clinical sites are kind of spread out- lots of driving
University of Louisville
+ fellowships in child and addiction
+ academic and community service track
+ some cool specialty clinics available PGY3 including psycho-oncology, different substance abuse clinics
+ I really liked all the residents I met. Easy to talk to, down-to-earth, no complaints about the program
+ PD has a special interest in telepsych and there are lots of training opportunities available
+ Louisville seems like a great place to live- decent size, affordable, good food scene. Further north and west that I realized and <5 hour drive to some cities I love, like Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis
+/- I wish I had written more down about this, but there is an opportunity to moonlight somewhere rural out west where you are flown in and put up in a hotel for the weekend, and nicely compensated. However, I vaguely recall that local moonlighting opportunities were scarce
+/- one of the psych units in brand new and beautiful, another that we saw is one of the most depressing facilities I saw on the interview trail
+/- honestly not much stood out to me about the program or curriculum in terms of unique elements, good or bad.
- not much time for electives PGY4- many required inpatient months
- Weekend and short call in the psych ED as a PGY1 even while off service. Call requirements in psych ED continue into PGY3, and you still have 2-3 call shifts per month PGY2 despite 2-3 months of night float
University of Colorado
+ broad exposure to many different practice settings and subspecialties; all fellowships available except geriatrics, plus neuropsych fellowship
+ can do several months of electives in PGY2, lots of elective time in PGY4 as well. Seriously had everything I could possibly think of (including refugee psych, HIV psych, LGBTQ, the list goes on..), lots of sites for those interested in addiction
+ psychotherapy scholars track available if that's your thing, research track, child interest track, career program where you take a year off to work in the public sector
+ outpatient experience as early as PGY1
+ Denver seemed great, tons to do, beautiful, great food, close to hiking and other outdoorsy stuff
+/- residents were candid about feeling that they worked very hard compared to other psych programs, particularly on medicine months (at least one person told me they were borderline abusive on medicine). However, they also stated that they felt this was beneficial to their training and it prepared them to handle any medical issues that came up for the remainder of residency. Call schedule on psych honestly doesn't seem that bad but I know that doesn't tell the whole story
+/- while residents seemed cool and funny, I didn't really gel with them for some reason; not the friendliest I've met and they didn't seem particularly happy. PD seemed funny and warm when meeting with the group but a little stand-off-ish during our interview (maybe I was having an off day).
+/- required scholarly project, although this could be something like a QI project or Grand Rounds
- exposure to ECT is minimal
- sites are kind of spread out over Denver and Aurora and traffic sucks
- relatively higher cost of living
Case Western/University Health
+ every fellowship available plus some non-accredited ones (women's mental health, community health, college mental health)
+ 6 weeks of electives PGY2, PGY4 is ALL electives and anything you could think of seems to be available. In particular, lots of options in college mental health, community psych, and integrated psych
+ didn't get to see the VA but per residents it's pretty swanky (for a VA?). The university hospital which we toured is gorgeous
+ opportunity to spend 6 months of PGY4 in New Zealand!
+ pretty humane call schedule- 3- 2 weeks blocks of night float PGY1, q8 PGY2, then I believe you are just doing buddy call for 1 month of PGY3 and nothing PGY4
+ option to see long-term psychotherapy patients as early as PGY1
+/- Cleveland is probably not for everyone. It's cheap, on the lake, lots to do; but you get lake effect snow and it sounds like some of the cooler neighborhoods abut some pretty crappy neighborhoods
- Did not get the sense from faculty (all of whom were Case grads) or many of the residents that they were particularly passionate about psychiatry or the program. It seemed like a lot of people were there because they are from Cleveland.
- clinical sites are kind of spread out- lots of driving
University of Louisville
+ fellowships in child and addiction
+ academic and community service track
+ some cool specialty clinics available PGY3 including psycho-oncology, different substance abuse clinics
+ I really liked all the residents I met. Easy to talk to, down-to-earth, no complaints about the program
+ PD has a special interest in telepsych and there are lots of training opportunities available
+ Louisville seems like a great place to live- decent size, affordable, good food scene. Further north and west that I realized and <5 hour drive to some cities I love, like Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis
+/- I wish I had written more down about this, but there is an opportunity to moonlight somewhere rural out west where you are flown in and put up in a hotel for the weekend, and nicely compensated. However, I vaguely recall that local moonlighting opportunities were scarce
+/- one of the psych units in brand new and beautiful, another that we saw is one of the most depressing facilities I saw on the interview trail
+/- honestly not much stood out to me about the program or curriculum in terms of unique elements, good or bad.
- not much time for electives PGY4- many required inpatient months
- Weekend and short call in the psych ED as a PGY1 even while off service. Call requirements in psych ED continue into PGY3, and you still have 2-3 call shifts per month PGY2 despite 2-3 months of night float
Last edited:
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Thanks for contributing and paying it forward for next year.
Those of you who are lurking or sitting on interview reviews--consider that your summarized recollections may help you crystallize your thinking and impressions for your own rankings (rankles
) as well. Don't be shy. (Or utilize @raisinbrain 's voluntary anonymity service if you do want to be shy...)
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Fargo, ND is the rural place you are thinking of. One other thing about Louisville is that somehow you can do one of your months of medicine in an outpatient pediatrics clinic, which is apparently as chill as you would expect.
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Temple
anonymous review
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS, then more details via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed with friends. No dinner the night before. Light breakfast and pizza lunch provided. Nothing too fancy, but serviceable.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Day was 8:30am-3:00pm. Even though the email said not to be early, I arrived at 8:31, was the last one, and got asked rather pointedly if I had gotten lost by the PC (the asnwer was yes, because the directions didn't say what to do once one arrived at the address, which was the address for the whole hospital campus. Answer: go in the main hospital entrance and get directed through a series of winding passages by the desk staff). 8:45-resident intro to the program. 9:05-intro from the PD and APD. 9:30-intro from the chair. 10-3x 20 min interviews (faculty and chief resident), tour of Episcopal campus, lunch, tour of Temple main hospital, individual exit interviews.
No out of the ordinary questions.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-Episcopal hospital: 110 beds: 74 acute, 44 extended acute, 21 subacute medical, 14 bed ER
-Temple main hospital: 746 bed hospital, CL done here
-School of Medicine (I wrote this down as 1 of 3 locations and have no idea why)
Research: limited at present, but has research advisor who works with residents, several studies underway
Education/Service balance: not resident-run
Didactics: continuous case conference, taped session review, steinhouse interview course
Therapy vs. biologic: balanced?
Outreach: high/middle school outreach on suicide prevention and education about depression
Clinical:
-PGY1: 3mo medicine: inpatient IM, family, consult/outpatient, all are M/tu/Th/F, no weekends; Wed is protected didactics and supportive therapy; 1 mo ER; 4mo psych; 2.5mo CRC (crisis center); Night float: 3 x 2 week blocks, nonconsecutive, ~q4wk, 6wk/yur total; weekends free 9mo of year; 2 supervisors who you meet with 1h/week
-PGY2: 1mo geri; 1mo addiction (with ECT on Fridays); 4-5mo inpatient; 3mo CL; 1mo child (40min drive to Horsham); electives based on track; 2mo neuro; 2-3 calls/mo in CRC; 2 supervisors
-PGY3: 12mo outpatient; 19 sessions/week; focus = psychodynamic, also supervisors for other types; includes child and adolescent; 3 supervisors: 2 Temple, 1 outside, specific to mode, have protected time to drive to outside supervisor; 1-2 calls/mo in CRC, M, Tu, W only, no holidays or weekends
-PGY4: continue >= 4 outpatients; electives: Renfrew-eating d/o, CBH-Medicaid population, forensics; 3mo admin electives "pre-tending"/jr. attending; no call;inside moonlighting allowed in good academic standing; 2 supervisors
Electives: see above, more I don't have written down
Fellowships: none; has tracks: urban bioethics, research, psychodynamic (offers some type of certification), forensics, child, CL; tracks chosen late PGY1/early PGY2; 50% do a track
Call:
-PGY-1: 6 weeks night float
-PGY-2: 2-3/mo
-PGY-3: 1-2/mo
-PGY-4: none
Moonlighting: internal allowed in PGY3-4
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Residents report good relationships with attendings, in general faculty and residents seem happy, chief is staying on as attending, which seems like a good sign
6. Location & Lifestyle: Philly is great. Hospital is right next to El stop that is the center of East Coast opiod trade, so probably better to not live immediately nearby, but very accessible and have security to walk people to El. Female residents say they feel safe walking the short distance to the El alone at night. Some residents don't own cars (rented/borrowed car for child month).
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 58/60/62/65
Parking: free in Episcopal lot, I think, unclear on the situation at Temple main hospital; no shuttle between
Vacation: 15d, do not have to take in blocks; 8 holidays; 3 personal days; 10 sick days (rolls over from year to year); 5 conference days in PGY3-4
Other benefits: receive iPhone, $650/yr book stipend, conference funding available, personal therapy reimbursement, T-group: group therapy/process group, confidential for PGY1s, Atlantic city retreat 2x/yr
8. Program Strengths:
-CRC
-underserved pt. population
-very friendly residents, hang out together often
-salary
-moonlighting PGY3-4
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-unclear the range of patient population exposure (is it all underserved)
-mentioned they screen out addiction from resident clinic, how does addiction treatment training work?
-potentially dangerous location
-Episcopal hospital is old, not in same location as main hospital OR main Temple campus, which is a separate 3rd location
10. Overall Impression:
Very friendly program, seems like solid training.
anonymous review
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS, then more details via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed with friends. No dinner the night before. Light breakfast and pizza lunch provided. Nothing too fancy, but serviceable.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Day was 8:30am-3:00pm. Even though the email said not to be early, I arrived at 8:31, was the last one, and got asked rather pointedly if I had gotten lost by the PC (the asnwer was yes, because the directions didn't say what to do once one arrived at the address, which was the address for the whole hospital campus. Answer: go in the main hospital entrance and get directed through a series of winding passages by the desk staff). 8:45-resident intro to the program. 9:05-intro from the PD and APD. 9:30-intro from the chair. 10-3x 20 min interviews (faculty and chief resident), tour of Episcopal campus, lunch, tour of Temple main hospital, individual exit interviews.
No out of the ordinary questions.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-Episcopal hospital: 110 beds: 74 acute, 44 extended acute, 21 subacute medical, 14 bed ER
-Temple main hospital: 746 bed hospital, CL done here
-School of Medicine (I wrote this down as 1 of 3 locations and have no idea why)
Research: limited at present, but has research advisor who works with residents, several studies underway
Education/Service balance: not resident-run
Didactics: continuous case conference, taped session review, steinhouse interview course
Therapy vs. biologic: balanced?
Outreach: high/middle school outreach on suicide prevention and education about depression
Clinical:
-PGY1: 3mo medicine: inpatient IM, family, consult/outpatient, all are M/tu/Th/F, no weekends; Wed is protected didactics and supportive therapy; 1 mo ER; 4mo psych; 2.5mo CRC (crisis center); Night float: 3 x 2 week blocks, nonconsecutive, ~q4wk, 6wk/yur total; weekends free 9mo of year; 2 supervisors who you meet with 1h/week
-PGY2: 1mo geri; 1mo addiction (with ECT on Fridays); 4-5mo inpatient; 3mo CL; 1mo child (40min drive to Horsham); electives based on track; 2mo neuro; 2-3 calls/mo in CRC; 2 supervisors
-PGY3: 12mo outpatient; 19 sessions/week; focus = psychodynamic, also supervisors for other types; includes child and adolescent; 3 supervisors: 2 Temple, 1 outside, specific to mode, have protected time to drive to outside supervisor; 1-2 calls/mo in CRC, M, Tu, W only, no holidays or weekends
-PGY4: continue >= 4 outpatients; electives: Renfrew-eating d/o, CBH-Medicaid population, forensics; 3mo admin electives "pre-tending"/jr. attending; no call;inside moonlighting allowed in good academic standing; 2 supervisors
Electives: see above, more I don't have written down
Fellowships: none; has tracks: urban bioethics, research, psychodynamic (offers some type of certification), forensics, child, CL; tracks chosen late PGY1/early PGY2; 50% do a track
Call:
-PGY-1: 6 weeks night float
-PGY-2: 2-3/mo
-PGY-3: 1-2/mo
-PGY-4: none
Moonlighting: internal allowed in PGY3-4
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Residents report good relationships with attendings, in general faculty and residents seem happy, chief is staying on as attending, which seems like a good sign
6. Location & Lifestyle: Philly is great. Hospital is right next to El stop that is the center of East Coast opiod trade, so probably better to not live immediately nearby, but very accessible and have security to walk people to El. Female residents say they feel safe walking the short distance to the El alone at night. Some residents don't own cars (rented/borrowed car for child month).
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 58/60/62/65
Parking: free in Episcopal lot, I think, unclear on the situation at Temple main hospital; no shuttle between
Vacation: 15d, do not have to take in blocks; 8 holidays; 3 personal days; 10 sick days (rolls over from year to year); 5 conference days in PGY3-4
Other benefits: receive iPhone, $650/yr book stipend, conference funding available, personal therapy reimbursement, T-group: group therapy/process group, confidential for PGY1s, Atlantic city retreat 2x/yr
8. Program Strengths:
-CRC
-underserved pt. population
-very friendly residents, hang out together often
-salary
-moonlighting PGY3-4
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-unclear the range of patient population exposure (is it all underserved)
-mentioned they screen out addiction from resident clinic, how does addiction treatment training work?
-potentially dangerous location
-Episcopal hospital is old, not in same location as main hospital OR main Temple campus, which is a separate 3rd location
10. Overall Impression:
Very friendly program, seems like solid training.
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
University of South Carolina Greenville
anonymous review
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS, scheduled via ERAS scheduler, then via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Program provided hotel at Holiday Inn Express, Downtown Greenville. When I arrived, the hotel staff gave me my interview packet with the usual info/schedule and a bag of USC Greenville swag (water bottle, stress ball, snacks, etc.). Dinner the night before the interview was at Soby's, which was quite tasty. Hotel had a hot breakfast in the morning before the interview (they also had snacks at the interview location just in case). They did lunch by giving us $15 vouchers and taking us to the hospital food court and cafeteria where we could get whatever we wanted, which I think worked out nicely.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
9am-2:15pm. 9a: intro from chair, PD, APD, chief resident. 9:25a-11:55a: 5 x 25min interviews + break. 11:55a-1p: lunch. 1p: tour.
The most interview-like interviews that I have had (they asked me questions and I answered for most of the time, then they asked if I had questions and answered them; not as conversational as most places). Examples: Strengths of a good psychiatrist, your strengths, example of a time when you were on a team where someone didn't pull their weight, example of a time someone in authority asked you to do something you didn't want to do, any difficulties you had to overcome to get to where you are, where do you see yourself in 10y, are you the first in your family to go into medicine, why Greenville/the program.
4. Program Overview: new-ish program, just graduated first class, new PD, undergoing a lot of changes subsequent to death in ED
Strengths:
-diversity of sites: VA, public, private, VIP, telepsych, collaborative care
Sites:
-VA
-State Hospital
-USC inpt
-Piedmont Mental Health
Research: via an umbrella program with Furman, USC, Clemson
Education/Service balance: no resident-dependent service lines
Didactics: resident retreats in July and Feb
Therapy vs. biologic:
Outreach: volunteering/service is part of the program
Clinical:
-PGY1: early child exposure
-PGY2: 2mo adult inpt, ER, CL, addiction, child, geri; 1mo partial; 0.5d/wk therapy; Pavillon: VIP addiction treatment, participate with patients; ECT training
-PGY3: outpatient, TMS certification, VA outpatient
-PGY4: 2mo jr attending; 0.5d/mo x 6mo of: telepsych, forensics, collaborative; electives
Electives: sexual trauma, addiction, HIV, more
Fellowships: none
Call:
-PGY-1: 6mo short call
-PGY-2: 6mo short call; 6mo backup call
-PGY-3: 6mo backup call
-PGY-4: none
Moonlighting: req. full SC license, PGY2
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 53/54/56/58
Parking: free covered parking
Vacation: 15d/y
Insurances: health insurance: $96/mo premium, $750 deductible, $20 copay, wellness and outpt covered at 100%; dental insurance: $12/mo premium, $25 deductible; vision plans: two tiers $7/mo and $13/mo; life insurance covered at 2x salary; disability provided but amount not specified
Retirement: 403(b) for employee contributions, 401(a) for employer contributions (3-6% per year) vested after 3y
Gym: discounted rate of $100/y for residents
Food: $300/mo
Malpractice: covered
Book conference stipend: PGY-1: $500 and iPhone, PGY-2: $1,000, PGY-3: $1,200, PGY-4: $1,500
Other benefits: moving allowance up to $1000, downpayment and closing assistance on first home up to $5k
8. Program Strengths:
-prioritize work-life balance
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-possible shadow from whatever happened with the psych patient dying in their ED, seems to be causing a lot of faculty turn-over
anonymous review
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS, scheduled via ERAS scheduler, then via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Program provided hotel at Holiday Inn Express, Downtown Greenville. When I arrived, the hotel staff gave me my interview packet with the usual info/schedule and a bag of USC Greenville swag (water bottle, stress ball, snacks, etc.). Dinner the night before the interview was at Soby's, which was quite tasty. Hotel had a hot breakfast in the morning before the interview (they also had snacks at the interview location just in case). They did lunch by giving us $15 vouchers and taking us to the hospital food court and cafeteria where we could get whatever we wanted, which I think worked out nicely.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
9am-2:15pm. 9a: intro from chair, PD, APD, chief resident. 9:25a-11:55a: 5 x 25min interviews + break. 11:55a-1p: lunch. 1p: tour.
The most interview-like interviews that I have had (they asked me questions and I answered for most of the time, then they asked if I had questions and answered them; not as conversational as most places). Examples: Strengths of a good psychiatrist, your strengths, example of a time when you were on a team where someone didn't pull their weight, example of a time someone in authority asked you to do something you didn't want to do, any difficulties you had to overcome to get to where you are, where do you see yourself in 10y, are you the first in your family to go into medicine, why Greenville/the program.
4. Program Overview: new-ish program, just graduated first class, new PD, undergoing a lot of changes subsequent to death in ED
Strengths:
-diversity of sites: VA, public, private, VIP, telepsych, collaborative care
Sites:
-VA
-State Hospital
-USC inpt
-Piedmont Mental Health
Research: via an umbrella program with Furman, USC, Clemson
Education/Service balance: no resident-dependent service lines
Didactics: resident retreats in July and Feb
Therapy vs. biologic:
Outreach: volunteering/service is part of the program
Clinical:
-PGY1: early child exposure
-PGY2: 2mo adult inpt, ER, CL, addiction, child, geri; 1mo partial; 0.5d/wk therapy; Pavillon: VIP addiction treatment, participate with patients; ECT training
-PGY3: outpatient, TMS certification, VA outpatient
-PGY4: 2mo jr attending; 0.5d/mo x 6mo of: telepsych, forensics, collaborative; electives
Electives: sexual trauma, addiction, HIV, more
Fellowships: none
Call:
-PGY-1: 6mo short call
-PGY-2: 6mo short call; 6mo backup call
-PGY-3: 6mo backup call
-PGY-4: none
Moonlighting: req. full SC license, PGY2
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 53/54/56/58
Parking: free covered parking
Vacation: 15d/y
Insurances: health insurance: $96/mo premium, $750 deductible, $20 copay, wellness and outpt covered at 100%; dental insurance: $12/mo premium, $25 deductible; vision plans: two tiers $7/mo and $13/mo; life insurance covered at 2x salary; disability provided but amount not specified
Retirement: 403(b) for employee contributions, 401(a) for employer contributions (3-6% per year) vested after 3y
Gym: discounted rate of $100/y for residents
Food: $300/mo
Malpractice: covered
Book conference stipend: PGY-1: $500 and iPhone, PGY-2: $1,000, PGY-3: $1,200, PGY-4: $1,500
Other benefits: moving allowance up to $1000, downpayment and closing assistance on first home up to $5k
8. Program Strengths:
-prioritize work-life balance
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-possible shadow from whatever happened with the psych patient dying in their ED, seems to be causing a lot of faculty turn-over
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
Johns Hopkins
anonymous review
1. Ease of Communication: Initially invited via ERAS, scheduled via phone, otherwise via ERAS. Applicant dinner info sent via email. They send a 71 page program prospectus, which is a bit intimidating, but many pages are taken up with a very long list of where graduates have gone.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at Hampton Inn Inner Harbor, nice with hot breakfast. Dinner the night *after* the interview (I wasn't paying enough attention and this really messed up some of my travel plans. They did a combined dinner for two back to back groups of candidate, so some people had dinner the night after their interview and some the night before) before was at Boathouse Canton Waterfront Grille. I think there was a semi-fixed menu where we selected each course from a limited subset of the usual menu? Pretty sure they served breakfast and dinner the day of, but don't remember it.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8am-5pm. 8am: breakfast and intro with PD. 9:30am: intro to department from chair, 10am-noon: 4 x 30min interviews, noon: lunch with residents, 1pm: teaching rounds, 2pm-3:30: 2 x 30min interviews + break, 3:30: coffee with residents (this was a little weird, since it was such a big group, we basically had enough time for everyone to order and get their coffee and then we had to go to the next thing), 4pm: into to Bayview from Vice Chair for education in charge of residents at Bayview, 4:30pm: exit interviews individually.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths: Most things
Sites:
-Bayview: 20bed inpt psych unit
-Phipps: inpt adult psych at Hopkins, 85 beds
-Bloomberg Children's: at JH, for child psych inpt
Research: lots of it, new physician scientist program for people very interested in research, question is whether there would be any time for it (see below), people seemed to think it would be pretty much impossible before PGY3
Education/Service balance: heavy workload, esp. PGY1
Didactics: didactics with IM and neuro while on those services, teaching rounds and chairman's service rounds sound interesting
Clinical:
-PGY1: 4mo IM wards 6d/wk, 1mo cardiac ICU, 0.5mo MICU, 1.5mo inpt neuro 6d/wk, 0.5mo outpt neuro, 3mo Bayview adult inpt psych, 4wk Bayview consults, 3-4wk outpatient psych clinic
-PGY2: all inpt; 3mo: motivated behaviors, intensive, short stay community; 3mo: eating d/o, adult affective, adolescent affective; 3mo: gen psych, schizophrenia; 2mo: geri, chronic pain; 1mo: child; 0.5d/wk continuity clinic
-PGY3: 2mo CL, 2mo emergency psych, 8mo outpt, 0.5d/wk continuity clinic
-PGY4: 4mo outpt, 1mo child/adolescent partial hospital, 6mo electives
Electives: outpt clinics: community, family/couples, anxiety, affective, sexual behaviors, schizophrenia, forensics, psychodynamic psychotherapy, HIV, child, mobile treatment, community intensive outpt, Huntington's, neuropsych/geri
Fellowships: geri, neuropsych, CL, research, child
Call:
-PGY-1: night float on IM, admitting until 8pm every other night on IM,
-PGY-2: q13 call
-PGY-3: cover CL pager 24/7 on CL, but don't have to come in?; psych ER weekend 12h shift q1mo
-PGY-4: psych ER weekend 12h shift q2mo
Moonlighting: not allowed
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: all faculty have clinical service
6. Location & Lifestyle: Baltimore. Low cost of living. Pretty much just two sites: Hopkins and Bayview.
7. Salary & Benefits: I don't seem to have gotten the benefits/sample contract paperwork.
8. Program Strengths: Most things
9. Potential Weaknesses: Education vs. service balance. Residents seemed tired and unhappy.
anonymous review
1. Ease of Communication: Initially invited via ERAS, scheduled via phone, otherwise via ERAS. Applicant dinner info sent via email. They send a 71 page program prospectus, which is a bit intimidating, but many pages are taken up with a very long list of where graduates have gone.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at Hampton Inn Inner Harbor, nice with hot breakfast. Dinner the night *after* the interview (I wasn't paying enough attention and this really messed up some of my travel plans. They did a combined dinner for two back to back groups of candidate, so some people had dinner the night after their interview and some the night before) before was at Boathouse Canton Waterfront Grille. I think there was a semi-fixed menu where we selected each course from a limited subset of the usual menu? Pretty sure they served breakfast and dinner the day of, but don't remember it.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8am-5pm. 8am: breakfast and intro with PD. 9:30am: intro to department from chair, 10am-noon: 4 x 30min interviews, noon: lunch with residents, 1pm: teaching rounds, 2pm-3:30: 2 x 30min interviews + break, 3:30: coffee with residents (this was a little weird, since it was such a big group, we basically had enough time for everyone to order and get their coffee and then we had to go to the next thing), 4pm: into to Bayview from Vice Chair for education in charge of residents at Bayview, 4:30pm: exit interviews individually.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths: Most things
Sites:
-Bayview: 20bed inpt psych unit
-Phipps: inpt adult psych at Hopkins, 85 beds
-Bloomberg Children's: at JH, for child psych inpt
Research: lots of it, new physician scientist program for people very interested in research, question is whether there would be any time for it (see below), people seemed to think it would be pretty much impossible before PGY3
Education/Service balance: heavy workload, esp. PGY1
Didactics: didactics with IM and neuro while on those services, teaching rounds and chairman's service rounds sound interesting
Clinical:
-PGY1: 4mo IM wards 6d/wk, 1mo cardiac ICU, 0.5mo MICU, 1.5mo inpt neuro 6d/wk, 0.5mo outpt neuro, 3mo Bayview adult inpt psych, 4wk Bayview consults, 3-4wk outpatient psych clinic
-PGY2: all inpt; 3mo: motivated behaviors, intensive, short stay community; 3mo: eating d/o, adult affective, adolescent affective; 3mo: gen psych, schizophrenia; 2mo: geri, chronic pain; 1mo: child; 0.5d/wk continuity clinic
-PGY3: 2mo CL, 2mo emergency psych, 8mo outpt, 0.5d/wk continuity clinic
-PGY4: 4mo outpt, 1mo child/adolescent partial hospital, 6mo electives
Electives: outpt clinics: community, family/couples, anxiety, affective, sexual behaviors, schizophrenia, forensics, psychodynamic psychotherapy, HIV, child, mobile treatment, community intensive outpt, Huntington's, neuropsych/geri
Fellowships: geri, neuropsych, CL, research, child
Call:
-PGY-1: night float on IM, admitting until 8pm every other night on IM,
-PGY-2: q13 call
-PGY-3: cover CL pager 24/7 on CL, but don't have to come in?; psych ER weekend 12h shift q1mo
-PGY-4: psych ER weekend 12h shift q2mo
Moonlighting: not allowed
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: all faculty have clinical service
6. Location & Lifestyle: Baltimore. Low cost of living. Pretty much just two sites: Hopkins and Bayview.
7. Salary & Benefits: I don't seem to have gotten the benefits/sample contract paperwork.
8. Program Strengths: Most things
9. Potential Weaknesses: Education vs. service balance. Residents seemed tired and unhappy.
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
Jefferson
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS, then with some followup via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed with friends. I wasn't able to go to the night before event. They served us breakfast (continental) and lunch (really good, and the chair brought his own homemade baked goods, which were tasty).
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8am-3:30pm: 8a: breakfast with chief residents. 8:30a: PD welcome. 9-10:30a: 3 x 30min interviews. 10:30a: campus tour. noon: lunch. 1p: meeting with fellowship directors (group). 2: meeting with dept chair (group). 2:30p Meeting with vice chair for education (Dr. Cohen, pain medicine). 3p wrap up with PD.
Although it's not on my schedule, somewhere in there Dr. Salman Akhtar, a psychoanalyst, came to talk to the group of applicants and had us ask him questions. This has been my first and only interaction with an analyst, and it was...interesting? I'm not sure how I feel about it.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-TJUH: 16bed gen inpt psych unit, 18 bed geri unit, ED
-Albert Einstein Medical Center (AEMC) Crisis Response Center
-Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment: 28 bed adolescent unit, 3 gen adult units (68 beds), 16 bed affective unit, 10 bed eating d/o unit
-Community Mental Health/Mental ******ation (COMHAR): community mental health in NE Philly
-Bryn Mawr Hospital
-Wilmington VA
Clinical:
-PGY1: 1mo ED, 2mo neuro, 3mo gen adult inpt, 2mo geri, 1mo CRC (Emergency Psychiatry at Albert Einstein Medical Center), 3mo IM
-PGY2: 4mo CL, 2mo child and adolescent at Belmont, 2mo substance abuse, 2mo gen adult inpt, 1mo Methodist, 2mo gen inpt psych at Bryn Mawr
-PGY3: 12mo outpt: 70% adult at TJUH, 20% community mental health at Community Mental Health/Mental ******ation or Wilmington VA, 10% psychopharm clinic at TJUH
-PGY4: 60% outpt at TJUH, 40% elective
Call:
-PGY-1: 3-4 x 2 week blocks of night float, 24h call 2-3x/mo
-PGY-2: 2-3x/mo 24h call weekends mostly
-PGY-3: 2-3x/mo 24h call weekdays mostly
-PGY-4: no call
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 56/57/59/63
Vacation: 10d (2 weeks) in PGY1, 20d (4 weeks) in PGY2-4, 7 holidays, 1 personal
Insurances: 2 tiers of medical, dental, one vision plan (unclear what the premium costs are for these), life insurance equal to annual salary provided, short term disability at 100%, long term disability at 50%
Retirement: ???defined contribution plan taken out of pay at 6% unless waived, no matching
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS, then with some followup via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed with friends. I wasn't able to go to the night before event. They served us breakfast (continental) and lunch (really good, and the chair brought his own homemade baked goods, which were tasty).
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8am-3:30pm: 8a: breakfast with chief residents. 8:30a: PD welcome. 9-10:30a: 3 x 30min interviews. 10:30a: campus tour. noon: lunch. 1p: meeting with fellowship directors (group). 2: meeting with dept chair (group). 2:30p Meeting with vice chair for education (Dr. Cohen, pain medicine). 3p wrap up with PD.
Although it's not on my schedule, somewhere in there Dr. Salman Akhtar, a psychoanalyst, came to talk to the group of applicants and had us ask him questions. This has been my first and only interaction with an analyst, and it was...interesting? I'm not sure how I feel about it.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-TJUH: 16bed gen inpt psych unit, 18 bed geri unit, ED
-Albert Einstein Medical Center (AEMC) Crisis Response Center
-Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment: 28 bed adolescent unit, 3 gen adult units (68 beds), 16 bed affective unit, 10 bed eating d/o unit
-Community Mental Health/Mental ******ation (COMHAR): community mental health in NE Philly
-Bryn Mawr Hospital
-Wilmington VA
Clinical:
-PGY1: 1mo ED, 2mo neuro, 3mo gen adult inpt, 2mo geri, 1mo CRC (Emergency Psychiatry at Albert Einstein Medical Center), 3mo IM
-PGY2: 4mo CL, 2mo child and adolescent at Belmont, 2mo substance abuse, 2mo gen adult inpt, 1mo Methodist, 2mo gen inpt psych at Bryn Mawr
-PGY3: 12mo outpt: 70% adult at TJUH, 20% community mental health at Community Mental Health/Mental ******ation or Wilmington VA, 10% psychopharm clinic at TJUH
-PGY4: 60% outpt at TJUH, 40% elective
Call:
-PGY-1: 3-4 x 2 week blocks of night float, 24h call 2-3x/mo
-PGY-2: 2-3x/mo 24h call weekends mostly
-PGY-3: 2-3x/mo 24h call weekdays mostly
-PGY-4: no call
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 56/57/59/63
Vacation: 10d (2 weeks) in PGY1, 20d (4 weeks) in PGY2-4, 7 holidays, 1 personal
Insurances: 2 tiers of medical, dental, one vision plan (unclear what the premium costs are for these), life insurance equal to annual salary provided, short term disability at 100%, long term disability at 50%
Retirement: ???defined contribution plan taken out of pay at 6% unless waived, no matching
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
Duke
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS, then more details via email (only after I called the PC when I realized I didn't have any details shortly before the interview day).
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at University Inn across the street from where we interviewed--it was kinda run down looking, but adequate (except breakfast at the hotel, which was really sad). Breakfast and lunch were provided at the interview.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8am-2pm. 8am breakfast. 8:15am: department overview with chair. 9am: overview of program with PD. 9:30am-noon: 4 x 30min interviews. noon: lunch with residents. 1:15pm: walking tour with residents.
3 residents, interestingly the only 3 men residents I saw, whom I met during the day were very weird.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths:
-Family studies program
-Research
Sites:
-Duke
-VA
-Central Regional Hospital
Research: lots, extensive presentation on that
Didactics: no academic 0.5d/wk during: PGY1-Duke IM and Duke EM, PGY2-CRH night float and Duke ED night float
Clinical:
-PGY1: 1mo neuro: VA consults; 1mo IM Duke inpt med-psych (6d/wk); 1mo acute care outpt clinic at VA; 2 mo Duke IM (2wks night float); 2mo Duke inpt psych (6d/wk); 2mo VA inpt psych (6d/wk); 2mo outpt VA psych emergency center (8-5 or 2-midnight shifts, 1-2 Sat shifts/mo); 1mo Duke ED night float (5d/wk)
-PGY2: 3mo adult inpt psych admissions unit; 1mo geri psych; 1mo child psych; 1mo psych night float; 1mo outpt psych; 2mo Duke ER night float (3 on, 4 off, or vice versa); 3mo CL (2 at Duke, 1 at VA)
-PGY3: 1.5d/wk Duke psych outpt clinic; 1d/wk VA mental health clinic; 0.5d/wk each of: VA women's clinic, family studies, community psych, neuro
-PGY4: 0.5d/wk addiction; 0.5/wk Duke outpt psych clinic; 3.5d/wk elective
Electives:
-Not sure where to put this, but Duke has GME concentrations across specialties: resident as teacher, QI, law/ethics/policy, leadership
Fellowships: geri, child, palliative
Call:
-PGY-1: 6d/wk on Duke IM inpt, Duke inpt psych, VA inpt psych (5mo); 2wks night float on Duke IM; 1-2 Sat shifts/mo on outpt psych ER x 2mo; 1mo night float ER
-PGY-2: 3-4 12h call shifts on child psych; 1mo psych night float; some weekend shifts on outpt psych ER; 2mo night float in Duke ED; 2mo 6d/wk Duke CL
-PGY-3: ED short calls 7pm-midnight some weekends
-PGY-4: ED short calls 7pm-midnight some weekends
Moonlighting: I think it's not allowed?
6. Location & Lifestyle: Durham, smallish city/big town, cute
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 55/57/59/61
Parking: free
Vacation: 3 weeks per year (in 1wk blocks) + 5d at xmas or new year's
Insurances: health insurance ($80-154/mo, depending on how fancy a plan); dental ($12-44/mo); $10/mo vision insurance; disability 60% of salary up to $2k/mo provided; $100k term life insurance + $10k for spouse provided
Retirement: 403(b) Duke contribution to retirement plan 8.9% of the first $64,000 of salary after 1 yr??
Tuition remission: some benefits for children
Gym: free access to the Medical Alumni Association Fitness Center
Food: free dinner on call
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS, then more details via email (only after I called the PC when I realized I didn't have any details shortly before the interview day).
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at University Inn across the street from where we interviewed--it was kinda run down looking, but adequate (except breakfast at the hotel, which was really sad). Breakfast and lunch were provided at the interview.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8am-2pm. 8am breakfast. 8:15am: department overview with chair. 9am: overview of program with PD. 9:30am-noon: 4 x 30min interviews. noon: lunch with residents. 1:15pm: walking tour with residents.
3 residents, interestingly the only 3 men residents I saw, whom I met during the day were very weird.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths:
-Family studies program
-Research
Sites:
-Duke
-VA
-Central Regional Hospital
Research: lots, extensive presentation on that
Didactics: no academic 0.5d/wk during: PGY1-Duke IM and Duke EM, PGY2-CRH night float and Duke ED night float
Clinical:
-PGY1: 1mo neuro: VA consults; 1mo IM Duke inpt med-psych (6d/wk); 1mo acute care outpt clinic at VA; 2 mo Duke IM (2wks night float); 2mo Duke inpt psych (6d/wk); 2mo VA inpt psych (6d/wk); 2mo outpt VA psych emergency center (8-5 or 2-midnight shifts, 1-2 Sat shifts/mo); 1mo Duke ED night float (5d/wk)
-PGY2: 3mo adult inpt psych admissions unit; 1mo geri psych; 1mo child psych; 1mo psych night float; 1mo outpt psych; 2mo Duke ER night float (3 on, 4 off, or vice versa); 3mo CL (2 at Duke, 1 at VA)
-PGY3: 1.5d/wk Duke psych outpt clinic; 1d/wk VA mental health clinic; 0.5d/wk each of: VA women's clinic, family studies, community psych, neuro
-PGY4: 0.5d/wk addiction; 0.5/wk Duke outpt psych clinic; 3.5d/wk elective
Electives:
-Not sure where to put this, but Duke has GME concentrations across specialties: resident as teacher, QI, law/ethics/policy, leadership
Fellowships: geri, child, palliative
Call:
-PGY-1: 6d/wk on Duke IM inpt, Duke inpt psych, VA inpt psych (5mo); 2wks night float on Duke IM; 1-2 Sat shifts/mo on outpt psych ER x 2mo; 1mo night float ER
-PGY-2: 3-4 12h call shifts on child psych; 1mo psych night float; some weekend shifts on outpt psych ER; 2mo night float in Duke ED; 2mo 6d/wk Duke CL
-PGY-3: ED short calls 7pm-midnight some weekends
-PGY-4: ED short calls 7pm-midnight some weekends
Moonlighting: I think it's not allowed?
6. Location & Lifestyle: Durham, smallish city/big town, cute
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 55/57/59/61
Parking: free
Vacation: 3 weeks per year (in 1wk blocks) + 5d at xmas or new year's
Insurances: health insurance ($80-154/mo, depending on how fancy a plan); dental ($12-44/mo); $10/mo vision insurance; disability 60% of salary up to $2k/mo provided; $100k term life insurance + $10k for spouse provided
Retirement: 403(b) Duke contribution to retirement plan 8.9% of the first $64,000 of salary after 1 yr??
Tuition remission: some benefits for children
Gym: free access to the Medical Alumni Association Fitness Center
Food: free dinner on call
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
MAHEC (Mountain Area Health Education Center)
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Mostly via email. Interview time confirmed via ERAS. No issues.
2. Accommodation & Food: I stayed at the Hampton Inn which was the recommended place--extremely close to MAHEC, just down the hill. Dinner the night before was at Travinia Italian Restaurant, which was fine except there was a fixed menu and they didn't seem to have been informed of the number of people or that there were vegetarians, so that was slightly awkward, but not a big deal. I had hotel breakfast. I think the lunch was pretty good, but honestly I got super sick the night before (food poisoning, jet lag, who knows?), so I didn't really eat much.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Ran ~noon-6:30 or 7 (I remember that it ran long). We had a little overview at noon with lunch then half the group did a "Family Circles" session as a group for about 1.5h while the other group did 5 15min MMIs (3 of which were MMIs and 2 were normal interviews). Then the groups swapped. This has definitely been my oddest interview to date for both these halves. For the 3 MMIs, 2 were mostly about interpersonal interaction (1 medical-ish, 1 non-medical) and 1 was more OSCE-ish, but they still told us to focus on the interpersonal. For the 2 interviews, it was mostly conversational, some standard questions, some of me asking about their program. For the "Family Circles" part, you and the other applicants in your group are around a table with a moderator. They give you markers and construction paper and you draw based on a really, really broad prompt (things that are important to you, how you came to medicine, how you came to psych, your family/other important people in your life if you want, etc.). Then you go around the circle and everyone explains their drawing.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-Mission Health (Asheville): inpatient psych-higher acuity, regional safety net, IM, neuro
-Haywood Regional (waynesville-30-40min drive): lower acuity inpt psych
-Pardee Hospital (Hendersonville-30min drive):lower acuity inpt psych
-MAHEC Family Health Center (Biltmore): outpatient peds (this is apparently mostly behavioral and abuse evals), family med
-Pisgah Institute: outpatient, 1d/wk adult outpatient is here
-RHA: ACT team, crisis stabilization unit, clozaril and injectables, medicaid population
-Meridian (Sylva): sim to RHA
-Keith Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center (Black Mountain): 30d detox and treatment center
-VA (Asheville)
-Broughton State Hospital (Morganton)
-Cherokee Tribal Health System (Cherokee): elective
-New outpatient clinic to open at MAHEC, currently under construction
Flexibility: program is new, so they seem open to setting up an electives that residents want, the area has basically no other training programs, so it seems like everything is wide open for residents
Research: required starting in PGY1 with submission for publication or poster, req'd QI projects
Education/Service balance: obviously can run without residents, since it has until now; one resident had issues with a rotation not letting him do anything, but it seemed to get straightened out very quickly
Didactics: not discussed really since everyone is a PGY1 and they don't seem to do it during off-service rotations
Therapy vs. biologic: seems fairly balanced to the extent I could assess?
Clinical:
-PGY1: inpatient psych: 3mo Mission, 3mo Haywood, 1mo Pardee; 2mo inpatient IM Mission; 1mo inpatient neuro Mission; 1mo outpatient peds MAHEC; 1mo outpatient family med MAHEC
-PGY2: 1d/wk adult outpatient psych, 0.5d/wk primary care, 0.5d/wk psych consultant in primary care, 0.5d peds, 0.5d didactics; other 2d/wk = rotations: community psych, outpt ob/gyn, university student health, ED, adolescent residential program or wilderness treatment program, residential eating do, ACT team; early buprenorphine training and patient load
-PGY3: supervise PGY1 on inpatient, collaborative care in rural teaching hubs with family med, inpatient CL, substance abuse, adult/child/primary care continuity clinics
-PGY4: optional further inpatient work, electives, VA, state hospital, Cherokee tribal health system
Electives: see above
Fellowships: new residency program, no fellowships currently
Call:???? I think they don't really have much now, I don't remember exactly what they said.
Moonlighting: allowed
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Residents report good relationships.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Cool smaller town. Residents seem happy. Lots of driving to the many locations.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 50/52/53/55
Vacation: 10d vacation PGY1-2, 15d PGY3-4; 9d sick leave all years; some "random other days" when family med residents are doing other things
Insurances: health and dental with part of premium paid by resident (unspecified) for resident and family, no co-pay at MAHEC; vision paid by resident; flexible spending account; disability at 50%; voluntary life insurance (other document says $50k + voluntary additional, which residents also mentioned)
Other stuff: $250/6mo for "wellness"; pays boards fees
Gym: "on site fitness center available"
Food: all free, all the time
Malpractice: covered, not for outside moonlighting
Educational: discretionary by program for travel, books, journals
8. Program Strengths:
-Can make it your own thing
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Small town if you aren't into that
-Long drives
10. Overall Impression:
Seems nice although you have to deal with the bumps of starting a new program, which might be a bit much. Asheville is lovely.
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Mostly via email. Interview time confirmed via ERAS. No issues.
2. Accommodation & Food: I stayed at the Hampton Inn which was the recommended place--extremely close to MAHEC, just down the hill. Dinner the night before was at Travinia Italian Restaurant, which was fine except there was a fixed menu and they didn't seem to have been informed of the number of people or that there were vegetarians, so that was slightly awkward, but not a big deal. I had hotel breakfast. I think the lunch was pretty good, but honestly I got super sick the night before (food poisoning, jet lag, who knows?), so I didn't really eat much.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Ran ~noon-6:30 or 7 (I remember that it ran long). We had a little overview at noon with lunch then half the group did a "Family Circles" session as a group for about 1.5h while the other group did 5 15min MMIs (3 of which were MMIs and 2 were normal interviews). Then the groups swapped. This has definitely been my oddest interview to date for both these halves. For the 3 MMIs, 2 were mostly about interpersonal interaction (1 medical-ish, 1 non-medical) and 1 was more OSCE-ish, but they still told us to focus on the interpersonal. For the 2 interviews, it was mostly conversational, some standard questions, some of me asking about their program. For the "Family Circles" part, you and the other applicants in your group are around a table with a moderator. They give you markers and construction paper and you draw based on a really, really broad prompt (things that are important to you, how you came to medicine, how you came to psych, your family/other important people in your life if you want, etc.). Then you go around the circle and everyone explains their drawing.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-Mission Health (Asheville): inpatient psych-higher acuity, regional safety net, IM, neuro
-Haywood Regional (waynesville-30-40min drive): lower acuity inpt psych
-Pardee Hospital (Hendersonville-30min drive):lower acuity inpt psych
-MAHEC Family Health Center (Biltmore): outpatient peds (this is apparently mostly behavioral and abuse evals), family med
-Pisgah Institute: outpatient, 1d/wk adult outpatient is here
-RHA: ACT team, crisis stabilization unit, clozaril and injectables, medicaid population
-Meridian (Sylva): sim to RHA
-Keith Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center (Black Mountain): 30d detox and treatment center
-VA (Asheville)
-Broughton State Hospital (Morganton)
-Cherokee Tribal Health System (Cherokee): elective
-New outpatient clinic to open at MAHEC, currently under construction
Flexibility: program is new, so they seem open to setting up an electives that residents want, the area has basically no other training programs, so it seems like everything is wide open for residents
Research: required starting in PGY1 with submission for publication or poster, req'd QI projects
Education/Service balance: obviously can run without residents, since it has until now; one resident had issues with a rotation not letting him do anything, but it seemed to get straightened out very quickly
Didactics: not discussed really since everyone is a PGY1 and they don't seem to do it during off-service rotations
Therapy vs. biologic: seems fairly balanced to the extent I could assess?
Clinical:
-PGY1: inpatient psych: 3mo Mission, 3mo Haywood, 1mo Pardee; 2mo inpatient IM Mission; 1mo inpatient neuro Mission; 1mo outpatient peds MAHEC; 1mo outpatient family med MAHEC
-PGY2: 1d/wk adult outpatient psych, 0.5d/wk primary care, 0.5d/wk psych consultant in primary care, 0.5d peds, 0.5d didactics; other 2d/wk = rotations: community psych, outpt ob/gyn, university student health, ED, adolescent residential program or wilderness treatment program, residential eating do, ACT team; early buprenorphine training and patient load
-PGY3: supervise PGY1 on inpatient, collaborative care in rural teaching hubs with family med, inpatient CL, substance abuse, adult/child/primary care continuity clinics
-PGY4: optional further inpatient work, electives, VA, state hospital, Cherokee tribal health system
Electives: see above
Fellowships: new residency program, no fellowships currently
Call:???? I think they don't really have much now, I don't remember exactly what they said.
Moonlighting: allowed
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Residents report good relationships.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Cool smaller town. Residents seem happy. Lots of driving to the many locations.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 50/52/53/55
Vacation: 10d vacation PGY1-2, 15d PGY3-4; 9d sick leave all years; some "random other days" when family med residents are doing other things
Insurances: health and dental with part of premium paid by resident (unspecified) for resident and family, no co-pay at MAHEC; vision paid by resident; flexible spending account; disability at 50%; voluntary life insurance (other document says $50k + voluntary additional, which residents also mentioned)
Other stuff: $250/6mo for "wellness"; pays boards fees
Gym: "on site fitness center available"
Food: all free, all the time
Malpractice: covered, not for outside moonlighting
Educational: discretionary by program for travel, books, journals
8. Program Strengths:
-Can make it your own thing
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Small town if you aren't into that
-Long drives
10. Overall Impression:
Seems nice although you have to deal with the bumps of starting a new program, which might be a bit much. Asheville is lovely.
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
UMD
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS and ERAs self schedule, then more details via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at Hampton Inn Inner Harbor, which was very nice and had a pretty decent breakfast (hot food and eggs and whatnot in addition to standard hotel continental breakfast stuff). Dinner the night before was at the Lebanese Taverna. Appetizers, salad, entrees were all family style. I have no memory of the breakfast or lunch on the day of, but they existed.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
7:45am-4:30pm. Continental breakfast. 8am: program overview with PD. 9am: 3 x 30min interviews. 11am: Bus to Sheppard Pratt, Tour there, overview of SP. 12: lunch. 2-4:30: split into two groups with half doing individual exit interviews and half going on a tour of UMD Med Center.
No out of the ordinary questions.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-UMD Med Center (UMMC):
-Sheppard Pratt (SEPH):0.5d/week neuropsych clinic during Neuro months
-Mercy Medical Center: 3mo bread and butter IM, fancy new hospital, good free food, 10 min from UMMC
-VA: neuro can be here for 1 of 2mo, clinic
-Springfield Hospital Center: MD state hospital
-Maryland Psychiatric Research Center: studies psychotic disorders, has assertive community treatment team
-Clifton Perkins:
-Baltimore City Courthouse
-701 Clinic
-Fayette Clinic
-Carruthers Clinic
Research: group meta-analysis or review project required in PGY3; physician scientist training program has some differences in clinical schedule: PGY1- 1.5mo on Maryland Psychiatric Research Center research unit, PGY2: 3 protected months, PGY3: 20% protected, PGY4: 75% protected, select 2 mentors, design and conduct research project, take courses in grantwriting, professional development, research ethics, expectation to publish by end of residentyc
Education/Service balance: seems service oriented wrt SEPH
Didactics: Thursdays 0.5d/wk, full day PGY3; PGY1 have didactics only during 6mo of psych; 1y long research seminar in PGY3; spring educational day about cultural considerations in psychiatry, topic selected by residents; teach MS2 psych interview and mental status exam in addition to usual things with MS3/4
Clinical:
-Orientation: bootcamp for pgy1
-PGY1: 3mo IM at Mercy Medical Center: 2wk wards 6am-4pm, alternating with 2 weeks admitting- 9hr shifts (they said 9, but also listed as 7a-7p, noon-10p, 3p-midnight in paperwork so ???), admit max 5 pts, ; Neuro: 2mo on stroke, gen, can be 2mo at UMMC or 1 at Va (consult and outpt) and 1 at UMMC, work alternate weekends (alternate black and golden), 0.5d/wk at neuropsych clinic at SEPH; 1mo adult or peds EM: 12h shifts, no call; 1.5mo psych at state hospital; 1mo at SEPH psychotic or dual dx; 1mo treatment resistant unit at MPRC; 1mo addiction at SEPH or split UMMC/VA; 1.5mo in psych ER at UMMC, 12h shifts, no additional call
-PGY2: 3mo CL psych UMMC (may be on integrated care team); 3 mo inpt SEPH (1mo psychotic do, 2 mo selectives); 1mo psych ER UMMC (mostly overnight); 3mo inpt UMMC (days = 12h Sun-Thurs, night float); 1mo Geri; 2-4wk night float (8p-8a) at UMMC; optional psychotherapy case with supervision (4h/wk); ECT training while at UMMC
-PGY3: outpatient therapy and med mgmt at SEPH, VA, University or Downtown community clinics; 6-12mo participation in therapeutic group
-PGY4: 3mo forensic (courthouse, Clifton Perkins, Springfield); 3mo selectives (CL at Mercy, eating d/o at SEPH); 12 (presumably really 6?) mo electives; 6h/week long term psychotherapy and supervision
Electives: SEPH: Retreat (VIP cash pay inpt), trauma disorders, dual dx inpt, crisis walk in clinic, Lieber research elective, mental health policy, neuropsych outpt, ECT; UMMC: jr attending on adult or geri, telepsych to Eastern Shore, geri outpt, ECT, women's, ACT team, Maryland psychiatric research center; VA: PTSD, substance abuse, integrated with primary care, geri/cognitive d/o; state hospital; others: deaf psych, correctional, recovery, crisis response, homeless, FDA, student mental health, chiefs, electives in UK or Vienna, planning to expand Ob, perinatal, telepsych, counseling options
Fellowships: child, CL, addiction, eating do, research, forensics, prefer own residents
Call:
-PGY-1: No overnight call in PGY1; alternate black and gold weekends throughout the 6mo of off-service rotations; short call 5p-[10p-midnight] q6 for 4.5mo, max 2 admits at SEPH; 3 extra calls during psych months at UMMC (brings this to something like short call q5 (5.28) by my calculation)
-PGY-2: 2 Sat calls at SEPH; 24h call q4 x 3mo (except on 1 week night float); 1 wk nights at SEPH; short call (but can actually be 3h, 24h, or 12h??? depending on day of week) q6 x 4 mo; 2-4wks night float at UMMC
-PGY-3: q13 call
-PGY-4: q15 call
Moonlighting: internal PGY3-4
Graduates: 22% employed at UMMC/SEPH, 33% fellowship at UMMC, 24 other fellowship, 21% other job (in last 4y), have had everything from full time research to private practice
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 54/57/60/62
Vacation: 20d during intern year, 15d sick leave/y, 120h of vacation per year (whatever that means)
Insurances: health: has 3 tiers available, no other details; dental: shared costs, no other details; vision: co-pay only within network; disability at 60%; $50k life insurance with option to purchase more
Retirement: voluntary contribution to 403b, no matching
Food: unspecified cafeteria discount, food on call?
Book conference stipend: $1500/y to present at conferences
Other benefits: FAS, 2x salary for workplace acquired HIV (hopefully never relevant), pre-tax transit pass, pre-tax parking
8. Program Strengths:
-early forensic exposure 1.5mo in PGY1
-unique clinical areas: HIV, trauma, transplant
-suboxone training
-research strengths in psychotic disorders (have research center), policy (division of psychiatric services research), addiction, chair responsible for brain sciences research consortium
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Are PGY1 psych months 5d or 6d/wk??
-Feel like the confusion of ever changing locations and call schedules might steal brain power from learning psychiatry
-Benefits listed are for residents on UMMC payroll (I assume they would be?)
-Very large program 17/y, 2nd largest residency at UMD after IM
-Baltimore: safety, security, they do have shuttles to common neighborhoods to help with this though
10. Overall Impression: They might work too much?
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS and ERAs self schedule, then more details via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at Hampton Inn Inner Harbor, which was very nice and had a pretty decent breakfast (hot food and eggs and whatnot in addition to standard hotel continental breakfast stuff). Dinner the night before was at the Lebanese Taverna. Appetizers, salad, entrees were all family style. I have no memory of the breakfast or lunch on the day of, but they existed.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
7:45am-4:30pm. Continental breakfast. 8am: program overview with PD. 9am: 3 x 30min interviews. 11am: Bus to Sheppard Pratt, Tour there, overview of SP. 12: lunch. 2-4:30: split into two groups with half doing individual exit interviews and half going on a tour of UMD Med Center.
No out of the ordinary questions.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-UMD Med Center (UMMC):
-Sheppard Pratt (SEPH):0.5d/week neuropsych clinic during Neuro months
-Mercy Medical Center: 3mo bread and butter IM, fancy new hospital, good free food, 10 min from UMMC
-VA: neuro can be here for 1 of 2mo, clinic
-Springfield Hospital Center: MD state hospital
-Maryland Psychiatric Research Center: studies psychotic disorders, has assertive community treatment team
-Clifton Perkins:
-Baltimore City Courthouse
-701 Clinic
-Fayette Clinic
-Carruthers Clinic
Research: group meta-analysis or review project required in PGY3; physician scientist training program has some differences in clinical schedule: PGY1- 1.5mo on Maryland Psychiatric Research Center research unit, PGY2: 3 protected months, PGY3: 20% protected, PGY4: 75% protected, select 2 mentors, design and conduct research project, take courses in grantwriting, professional development, research ethics, expectation to publish by end of residentyc
Education/Service balance: seems service oriented wrt SEPH
Didactics: Thursdays 0.5d/wk, full day PGY3; PGY1 have didactics only during 6mo of psych; 1y long research seminar in PGY3; spring educational day about cultural considerations in psychiatry, topic selected by residents; teach MS2 psych interview and mental status exam in addition to usual things with MS3/4
Clinical:
-Orientation: bootcamp for pgy1
-PGY1: 3mo IM at Mercy Medical Center: 2wk wards 6am-4pm, alternating with 2 weeks admitting- 9hr shifts (they said 9, but also listed as 7a-7p, noon-10p, 3p-midnight in paperwork so ???), admit max 5 pts, ; Neuro: 2mo on stroke, gen, can be 2mo at UMMC or 1 at Va (consult and outpt) and 1 at UMMC, work alternate weekends (alternate black and golden), 0.5d/wk at neuropsych clinic at SEPH; 1mo adult or peds EM: 12h shifts, no call; 1.5mo psych at state hospital; 1mo at SEPH psychotic or dual dx; 1mo treatment resistant unit at MPRC; 1mo addiction at SEPH or split UMMC/VA; 1.5mo in psych ER at UMMC, 12h shifts, no additional call
-PGY2: 3mo CL psych UMMC (may be on integrated care team); 3 mo inpt SEPH (1mo psychotic do, 2 mo selectives); 1mo psych ER UMMC (mostly overnight); 3mo inpt UMMC (days = 12h Sun-Thurs, night float); 1mo Geri; 2-4wk night float (8p-8a) at UMMC; optional psychotherapy case with supervision (4h/wk); ECT training while at UMMC
-PGY3: outpatient therapy and med mgmt at SEPH, VA, University or Downtown community clinics; 6-12mo participation in therapeutic group
-PGY4: 3mo forensic (courthouse, Clifton Perkins, Springfield); 3mo selectives (CL at Mercy, eating d/o at SEPH); 12 (presumably really 6?) mo electives; 6h/week long term psychotherapy and supervision
Electives: SEPH: Retreat (VIP cash pay inpt), trauma disorders, dual dx inpt, crisis walk in clinic, Lieber research elective, mental health policy, neuropsych outpt, ECT; UMMC: jr attending on adult or geri, telepsych to Eastern Shore, geri outpt, ECT, women's, ACT team, Maryland psychiatric research center; VA: PTSD, substance abuse, integrated with primary care, geri/cognitive d/o; state hospital; others: deaf psych, correctional, recovery, crisis response, homeless, FDA, student mental health, chiefs, electives in UK or Vienna, planning to expand Ob, perinatal, telepsych, counseling options
Fellowships: child, CL, addiction, eating do, research, forensics, prefer own residents
Call:
-PGY-1: No overnight call in PGY1; alternate black and gold weekends throughout the 6mo of off-service rotations; short call 5p-[10p-midnight] q6 for 4.5mo, max 2 admits at SEPH; 3 extra calls during psych months at UMMC (brings this to something like short call q5 (5.28) by my calculation)
-PGY-2: 2 Sat calls at SEPH; 24h call q4 x 3mo (except on 1 week night float); 1 wk nights at SEPH; short call (but can actually be 3h, 24h, or 12h??? depending on day of week) q6 x 4 mo; 2-4wks night float at UMMC
-PGY-3: q13 call
-PGY-4: q15 call
Moonlighting: internal PGY3-4
Graduates: 22% employed at UMMC/SEPH, 33% fellowship at UMMC, 24 other fellowship, 21% other job (in last 4y), have had everything from full time research to private practice
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 54/57/60/62
Vacation: 20d during intern year, 15d sick leave/y, 120h of vacation per year (whatever that means)
Insurances: health: has 3 tiers available, no other details; dental: shared costs, no other details; vision: co-pay only within network; disability at 60%; $50k life insurance with option to purchase more
Retirement: voluntary contribution to 403b, no matching
Food: unspecified cafeteria discount, food on call?
Book conference stipend: $1500/y to present at conferences
Other benefits: FAS, 2x salary for workplace acquired HIV (hopefully never relevant), pre-tax transit pass, pre-tax parking
8. Program Strengths:
-early forensic exposure 1.5mo in PGY1
-unique clinical areas: HIV, trauma, transplant
-suboxone training
-research strengths in psychotic disorders (have research center), policy (division of psychiatric services research), addiction, chair responsible for brain sciences research consortium
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Are PGY1 psych months 5d or 6d/wk??
-Feel like the confusion of ever changing locations and call schedules might steal brain power from learning psychiatry
-Benefits listed are for residents on UMMC payroll (I assume they would be?)
-Very large program 17/y, 2nd largest residency at UMD after IM
-Baltimore: safety, security, they do have shuttles to common neighborhoods to help with this though
10. Overall Impression: They might work too much?
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
MUSC (Medical University South Carolina)
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: All communication via ERAS. No issues.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at Comfort Inn, which was very convenient in terms of location, but otherwise very mediocre. They did have breakfast at the hotel. Dinner the night before was basically an infinite feast at Indaco, all fixed menu, but there was plenty of vegetarian food. It was excellent. Lunch on the interview day was at Wickliffe House, and we just ordered whatever we wanted. Cute place and close by, there were lots of other MUSC people there not for interviews.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Ran ~7:45am-3pm. We got some nice (hot) breakfast, then overview from 8-9:15 with PD and chief resident, ran over considerably. Then 3 30min interviews with faculty and chief resident. Then lunch with residents and campus tour. All the main locations are within a few blocks so it is a quick walk.
No out of the ordinary questions. Mostly conversational. One interviewer was more aggressive than the others, asking why I switched to psych in my M3 year.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths: CBT, prolonged expsoure therapy, $6M PTSD research ctr, rural telemedicine (goal = telemedicine requirement), addiction, neuro-stim
Hospital has new women's center and child ER 2018
Sites:
-Psych ER just approved
-Institute of psychiatry: 90+ beds, geri, acute adult, child and adolescent, addiction, general adult, partial hospital, brain stim (TMS, ECT, DBS)
-VA: 18 bed psych unit, gen adult, ECT inpatient, outpatient (PGY2-3 clinics)
-Charleston-Dorchester Mental Health Center: part of SC Dept. of Mental Health, urgent care, mobile crisis, crisis stabilization unit (moonlighting), rural mental health outreach
Research: 2 QI projects required
Education/Service balance:
Didactics:
Therapy vs. biologic: Seems like they are trying to increase therapy, noting 'strong CBT and prolonged exposure therapy'
Clinical:
-PGY1: 1 mo inpatient MUSC IM, 1 mo VA IM, 1 mo outpt VA IM, 1 mo MUSC ER; 3 mo psych inpatient: child, acute adult, general adult; 2 mo VA psych inpatient adult; 2mo night float psych (admits and crisis); 1 mo inpatient neuro
-PGY2: 0.5d/week VA longitudinal med management clinic (can do some therapy, b. not most), 1 mo outpatient addiction at VA, 1mo VA gen inpatient, 1mo addictions inpatient MUSC, 1mo gen inpt MUSC, 1mo acute inpt MUSC, 1mo geri inpt MUSC, 2mo CL MUSC, 1mo crisis ED MUSC, 2mo night float admitting to crisis MUSC (17-18d/mo, 15h on weekdays, 12h on weekends), possible electives ("depending on staffing numbers"): brain stim elective/ECT, geri NS, addictions, community MH, HIV collab clinic
-PGY3: selectives: 3 x 0.5d/wk in core 5; 0.5d/wk child/community; 0.5d/wk VA; 2 x 0.5d outpatient seminars; 0.5d/wk teaching/research/QI project; 0.5d/wk supervision; 0.5d/wk elective: women's, HIV, sickle cell and homeless, telepsych --> primary care;
-PGY4: 0.5d/wk senior on 5S; 0.5d/week seminars/board review; requirements (select 1-2): 0.5d/wk of teaching students, outpatient 5S, or CL afternoon, or 8 x 14h call shifts, or 4 x24h call shifts, or 4 shifts as "super buddy," or 2 nights of retreat coverage; 3.5d/week electives: ECT/consults, brain stim, forensics, addiction, geri, teaching med students, collaborative care electives, research/qi, psychotherapy, continuation of outpatient from PGY3
Electives: see above, community, child, women's, HIV, sickle cell, homeless, telepsych to primary care, interventional
Fellowships: child, geri, forensics, addictions, interventional (sometimes offered)
Call:
-PGY-1: 2 mo night float during PGY1 year, average 17-18 shifts/mo (15 hours weekdays, 12h weekends), short call and night float during 2 mo on IM/peds (how much?), no call on inpt psych, ER, inpatient neuro, weekend rounding on psych ward rotations
-PGY-2: no call, weekend rounding while on inpatient units (so at the hospital 7 days a week for at least a little while?), "up to 4 mo with no weekend duties"
-PGY-3: 2x/mo 24h call supervising night float
-PGY-4: 0-1 weekend days per month
Moonlighting: internal and dept of mental health crisis stabilization unit, ?????what year this can start
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: #1 funded psychiatry PI in US. residents seem to like working with attendings
6. Location & Lifestyle: Small-ish, cute place. Pretty terrible traffic (due to lots of water and bridges making it hard to get around?) for its size. Very hot/humid in summer. Everything required is within 2 blocks of hospital. Living in the immediate downtown penninsula area is expensive for renting/prohibitive for buying, but residents have condos on nearby islands (Johns and James)
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 51/53/54/57
Parking: paid
Gym: paid, nice place, very central
Food: monthly meal allowance
Other: receive iPhone, $1200/y for pre-tax reimbursement of books, conferences, boards, license; program covers step 3 fee, SC trainee med license, APA membership fee
8. Program Strengths:
-Good call schedule, night float based system
-Seem happy
-big psych hospital
-DART program for research
-friendly chair
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-location, it's hot and kinda pricey/traffic-y for its size
10. Overall Impression:
Seems like a nice place. Good for launching people into research with K awards
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: All communication via ERAS. No issues.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at Comfort Inn, which was very convenient in terms of location, but otherwise very mediocre. They did have breakfast at the hotel. Dinner the night before was basically an infinite feast at Indaco, all fixed menu, but there was plenty of vegetarian food. It was excellent. Lunch on the interview day was at Wickliffe House, and we just ordered whatever we wanted. Cute place and close by, there were lots of other MUSC people there not for interviews.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Ran ~7:45am-3pm. We got some nice (hot) breakfast, then overview from 8-9:15 with PD and chief resident, ran over considerably. Then 3 30min interviews with faculty and chief resident. Then lunch with residents and campus tour. All the main locations are within a few blocks so it is a quick walk.
No out of the ordinary questions. Mostly conversational. One interviewer was more aggressive than the others, asking why I switched to psych in my M3 year.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths: CBT, prolonged expsoure therapy, $6M PTSD research ctr, rural telemedicine (goal = telemedicine requirement), addiction, neuro-stim
Hospital has new women's center and child ER 2018
Sites:
-Psych ER just approved
-Institute of psychiatry: 90+ beds, geri, acute adult, child and adolescent, addiction, general adult, partial hospital, brain stim (TMS, ECT, DBS)
-VA: 18 bed psych unit, gen adult, ECT inpatient, outpatient (PGY2-3 clinics)
-Charleston-Dorchester Mental Health Center: part of SC Dept. of Mental Health, urgent care, mobile crisis, crisis stabilization unit (moonlighting), rural mental health outreach
Research: 2 QI projects required
Education/Service balance:
Didactics:
Therapy vs. biologic: Seems like they are trying to increase therapy, noting 'strong CBT and prolonged exposure therapy'
Clinical:
-PGY1: 1 mo inpatient MUSC IM, 1 mo VA IM, 1 mo outpt VA IM, 1 mo MUSC ER; 3 mo psych inpatient: child, acute adult, general adult; 2 mo VA psych inpatient adult; 2mo night float psych (admits and crisis); 1 mo inpatient neuro
-PGY2: 0.5d/week VA longitudinal med management clinic (can do some therapy, b. not most), 1 mo outpatient addiction at VA, 1mo VA gen inpatient, 1mo addictions inpatient MUSC, 1mo gen inpt MUSC, 1mo acute inpt MUSC, 1mo geri inpt MUSC, 2mo CL MUSC, 1mo crisis ED MUSC, 2mo night float admitting to crisis MUSC (17-18d/mo, 15h on weekdays, 12h on weekends), possible electives ("depending on staffing numbers"): brain stim elective/ECT, geri NS, addictions, community MH, HIV collab clinic
-PGY3: selectives: 3 x 0.5d/wk in core 5; 0.5d/wk child/community; 0.5d/wk VA; 2 x 0.5d outpatient seminars; 0.5d/wk teaching/research/QI project; 0.5d/wk supervision; 0.5d/wk elective: women's, HIV, sickle cell and homeless, telepsych --> primary care;
-PGY4: 0.5d/wk senior on 5S; 0.5d/week seminars/board review; requirements (select 1-2): 0.5d/wk of teaching students, outpatient 5S, or CL afternoon, or 8 x 14h call shifts, or 4 x24h call shifts, or 4 shifts as "super buddy," or 2 nights of retreat coverage; 3.5d/week electives: ECT/consults, brain stim, forensics, addiction, geri, teaching med students, collaborative care electives, research/qi, psychotherapy, continuation of outpatient from PGY3
Electives: see above, community, child, women's, HIV, sickle cell, homeless, telepsych to primary care, interventional
Fellowships: child, geri, forensics, addictions, interventional (sometimes offered)
Call:
-PGY-1: 2 mo night float during PGY1 year, average 17-18 shifts/mo (15 hours weekdays, 12h weekends), short call and night float during 2 mo on IM/peds (how much?), no call on inpt psych, ER, inpatient neuro, weekend rounding on psych ward rotations
-PGY-2: no call, weekend rounding while on inpatient units (so at the hospital 7 days a week for at least a little while?), "up to 4 mo with no weekend duties"
-PGY-3: 2x/mo 24h call supervising night float
-PGY-4: 0-1 weekend days per month
Moonlighting: internal and dept of mental health crisis stabilization unit, ?????what year this can start
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: #1 funded psychiatry PI in US. residents seem to like working with attendings
6. Location & Lifestyle: Small-ish, cute place. Pretty terrible traffic (due to lots of water and bridges making it hard to get around?) for its size. Very hot/humid in summer. Everything required is within 2 blocks of hospital. Living in the immediate downtown penninsula area is expensive for renting/prohibitive for buying, but residents have condos on nearby islands (Johns and James)
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 51/53/54/57
Parking: paid
Gym: paid, nice place, very central
Food: monthly meal allowance
Other: receive iPhone, $1200/y for pre-tax reimbursement of books, conferences, boards, license; program covers step 3 fee, SC trainee med license, APA membership fee
8. Program Strengths:
-Good call schedule, night float based system
-Seem happy
-big psych hospital
-DART program for research
-friendly chair
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-location, it's hot and kinda pricey/traffic-y for its size
10. Overall Impression:
Seems like a nice place. Good for launching people into research with K awards
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
Penn State
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Interview invite sent via ERAS. Communication via email, phone, and ERAS. Only one date option offered (even very early in season) with no flexibility. In person, coordinator was extremely kind and accomodating.
2. Accommodation & Food: Program paid for 1 night in hotel at Days Inn Hershey and shuttle to/from campus and the airport. Hotel has free breakfast. Night before there was dinner with 4 residents with pizza, appetizers, salad. Apparently residents had some trouble convincing administration to have this dinner (primarily for financial reasons, but this program has one of the higher salaries, especially compared to cost of living, so they clearly aren't stingy where it counts), but it was excellent for getting to know residents and learn more about the program. Lunch was a box catered sandwich which we got to select in advance.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Met program coordinator at 8:35 in lobby after taking shuttle from hotel with other candidates. She took us on a tour of the Hershey hospital. At 9am, overview with PD. 10:30-12:30, 4 30 min interviews. Lunch with residents (and a few people who didn't meet with the program director earlier did then). Shuttle to Pennsylvania psychiatric institute and tour of PPI. Wrap up with Dr. Hameed until 4:30. I then had an extra meeting with another faculty member they thought I should meet.
No out of the ordinary questions, and the people I had interviewed with knew my application well, especially the chief resident. Mostly we talked about past experiences on my CV, why I was interested in Hershey, etc. PD asked if we had questions constantly and left me wishing I had prepared *many* more questions for this particular interview--many more than others. This was particularly tricky since he volunteered most things I would normally ask about prior to the interview during his 1.5h orientation talk.
4. Program Overview:
Sites: inpatient in Harrisburg, outpatient in Hershey, new addiction place is 50min away but very fancy
-Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (PPI) in Harrisburg, more than 60 adult beds, a 16-bed adolescent unit and a nine-bed children’s unit. For Adult and Child Inpatient, and On-call experiences. I thought it was old, kinda run-down looking and very dark. Call room has window but seemed to imply that they were too busy on call to ever be in that room.
-Caron Treatment Centers (Wernersville, PA) Located in Wernersville, Lebanon County, Caron Pennsylvania is a gender-separate, residential primary and extended care treatment facility for adolescents, young adults, and seniors. Residents rotate through Caron for Adult Addictions experience, serving primarily in an inpatient setting.
-Harrisburg Hospital: The Internal Medicine rotation occurs at Harrisburg Hospital, the largest member of the 600-plus-bed Pinnacle Health System (a consortium of community hospitals based in Harrisburg).
-Lebanon VA Medical Center, about a 30-minute drive from Hershey; for Adult Inpatient, Geriatric, Outpatient, and Addictions experience.
-Hershey: main outpatient clinics are on/immediately near main Penn State hospital campus in Hershey
Flexibility: Offers flexibility but must plan far in advance
Research: Scholarly activity and QI project requirements
Education/Service balance: small program, not resident run, light patient load, always <10 patients
Didactics: Thursday 0.5d/week PGY1-2 protected, even on medicine; 1d/week PGY3-4 protected, 2 year rotating cycle for therapy and pharm, covering 1h (?) of each per week
Therapy vs. biologic: seems to be solid effort to balance these
Clinical:
-PGY1: 1mo EM, 2mo Neuro, 3mo IM/Peds, 6mo adult inpatient psych
-PGY2: 2mo partial, 4mo adult inpatient, 2mo child in/outpatient, 4mo CL
-PGY3: 0.5mo each ECT, eating do, forensics, 1mo geri, 9 mo outpt/longitudinal (patients usually inherited from graduating resident)
-PGY4: 1mo addictions, 4mo electives (Neuropsychology, Administrative Psychiatry, Addictions, Forensics, Research, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Sleep, ADHD, Autism and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy), 7mo gen outpatient/longitudinal
Call:
-PGY-1: per month: 3 weekday nights short call (5-10pm), 1 weekend day
-PGY-2-3: per month: 3 weekday 24h calls, 1 weekend day
-PGY-4: backup call only
Moonlighting: allowed, but no one does it (most can't since they are IMGs)
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Residents seem to think everyone is very approachable/nice/good at teaching. Good relationships with residents. PD has open door policy. Therapy supervision is extensive: 1 hr am and 1 hr pm daily on outpatient, plus 1h pharm and 1h therapy weekly supervision during every year, plus see outpatients with attending if insured (about 50% of patients).
6. Location & Lifestyle: Small town, must drive. Larger number of restaurants and activities than might be expected for such a small town due to major tourism industry. Group Whatsapp to coordinate events every weekend. Residents look happy. Not resident run, light patient load.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 57/59/60/63
Vacation: 15-20d, can take one day at a time, don't have to take in blocks (residents like this)
Insurances: 2 tiers of health insurance available without much further specification, dental to $1.5k/yr/person, free eye exam and glasses each year, disability at 60% annual income, life insurance at 2x salary
Retirement: 403(b) voluntary, no matching
Tuition remission: 75% off tuition at Penn State for immediate family members after working 1 yr
Gym: $295 for self, $475 for self and spouse or child
Food: $150/quarter for cafeteria + fridge stocked during on call
Malpractice: "Penn State Hershey is a self-insured trust and provides claims made coverage with tail insurance to Resident. The current coverage is $500,000 per incident and $1,500,000 aggregate"
8. Program Strengths:
-Exposure to telepsych (from PPI for Hershey ER?)
-Good exposure to different subspecialties
-Child, CL
-Starting ketamine clinic.
-Education prioritized
-Sleep research
-Collegial atmosphere
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Small town if you aren't into that, apparently schools are good and cost of living is low, good for families with kids, seems very easy to buy a house given market but only one person owns
-Child is the only fellowship, planning to add community and addiction fellowships
-Pain clinic not integrated
-Small program so basically never on team with other residents
10. Overall Impression:
Residents seemed extremely happy and got along with each other and attendings very well. I wasn't super keen on the Harrisburg-Hershey split (especially imagining driving between the two on snowy roads) and am not really a small town person. For me the big downsides were the small town location and the weekly 24h call for two years (given that so many places have switched to night float, which I prefer).
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Interview invite sent via ERAS. Communication via email, phone, and ERAS. Only one date option offered (even very early in season) with no flexibility. In person, coordinator was extremely kind and accomodating.
2. Accommodation & Food: Program paid for 1 night in hotel at Days Inn Hershey and shuttle to/from campus and the airport. Hotel has free breakfast. Night before there was dinner with 4 residents with pizza, appetizers, salad. Apparently residents had some trouble convincing administration to have this dinner (primarily for financial reasons, but this program has one of the higher salaries, especially compared to cost of living, so they clearly aren't stingy where it counts), but it was excellent for getting to know residents and learn more about the program. Lunch was a box catered sandwich which we got to select in advance.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Met program coordinator at 8:35 in lobby after taking shuttle from hotel with other candidates. She took us on a tour of the Hershey hospital. At 9am, overview with PD. 10:30-12:30, 4 30 min interviews. Lunch with residents (and a few people who didn't meet with the program director earlier did then). Shuttle to Pennsylvania psychiatric institute and tour of PPI. Wrap up with Dr. Hameed until 4:30. I then had an extra meeting with another faculty member they thought I should meet.
No out of the ordinary questions, and the people I had interviewed with knew my application well, especially the chief resident. Mostly we talked about past experiences on my CV, why I was interested in Hershey, etc. PD asked if we had questions constantly and left me wishing I had prepared *many* more questions for this particular interview--many more than others. This was particularly tricky since he volunteered most things I would normally ask about prior to the interview during his 1.5h orientation talk.
4. Program Overview:
Sites: inpatient in Harrisburg, outpatient in Hershey, new addiction place is 50min away but very fancy
-Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (PPI) in Harrisburg, more than 60 adult beds, a 16-bed adolescent unit and a nine-bed children’s unit. For Adult and Child Inpatient, and On-call experiences. I thought it was old, kinda run-down looking and very dark. Call room has window but seemed to imply that they were too busy on call to ever be in that room.
-Caron Treatment Centers (Wernersville, PA) Located in Wernersville, Lebanon County, Caron Pennsylvania is a gender-separate, residential primary and extended care treatment facility for adolescents, young adults, and seniors. Residents rotate through Caron for Adult Addictions experience, serving primarily in an inpatient setting.
-Harrisburg Hospital: The Internal Medicine rotation occurs at Harrisburg Hospital, the largest member of the 600-plus-bed Pinnacle Health System (a consortium of community hospitals based in Harrisburg).
-Lebanon VA Medical Center, about a 30-minute drive from Hershey; for Adult Inpatient, Geriatric, Outpatient, and Addictions experience.
-Hershey: main outpatient clinics are on/immediately near main Penn State hospital campus in Hershey
Flexibility: Offers flexibility but must plan far in advance
Research: Scholarly activity and QI project requirements
Education/Service balance: small program, not resident run, light patient load, always <10 patients
Didactics: Thursday 0.5d/week PGY1-2 protected, even on medicine; 1d/week PGY3-4 protected, 2 year rotating cycle for therapy and pharm, covering 1h (?) of each per week
Therapy vs. biologic: seems to be solid effort to balance these
Clinical:
-PGY1: 1mo EM, 2mo Neuro, 3mo IM/Peds, 6mo adult inpatient psych
-PGY2: 2mo partial, 4mo adult inpatient, 2mo child in/outpatient, 4mo CL
-PGY3: 0.5mo each ECT, eating do, forensics, 1mo geri, 9 mo outpt/longitudinal (patients usually inherited from graduating resident)
-PGY4: 1mo addictions, 4mo electives (Neuropsychology, Administrative Psychiatry, Addictions, Forensics, Research, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Sleep, ADHD, Autism and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy), 7mo gen outpatient/longitudinal
Call:
-PGY-1: per month: 3 weekday nights short call (5-10pm), 1 weekend day
-PGY-2-3: per month: 3 weekday 24h calls, 1 weekend day
-PGY-4: backup call only
Moonlighting: allowed, but no one does it (most can't since they are IMGs)
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Residents seem to think everyone is very approachable/nice/good at teaching. Good relationships with residents. PD has open door policy. Therapy supervision is extensive: 1 hr am and 1 hr pm daily on outpatient, plus 1h pharm and 1h therapy weekly supervision during every year, plus see outpatients with attending if insured (about 50% of patients).
6. Location & Lifestyle: Small town, must drive. Larger number of restaurants and activities than might be expected for such a small town due to major tourism industry. Group Whatsapp to coordinate events every weekend. Residents look happy. Not resident run, light patient load.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 57/59/60/63
Vacation: 15-20d, can take one day at a time, don't have to take in blocks (residents like this)
Insurances: 2 tiers of health insurance available without much further specification, dental to $1.5k/yr/person, free eye exam and glasses each year, disability at 60% annual income, life insurance at 2x salary
Retirement: 403(b) voluntary, no matching
Tuition remission: 75% off tuition at Penn State for immediate family members after working 1 yr
Gym: $295 for self, $475 for self and spouse or child
Food: $150/quarter for cafeteria + fridge stocked during on call
Malpractice: "Penn State Hershey is a self-insured trust and provides claims made coverage with tail insurance to Resident. The current coverage is $500,000 per incident and $1,500,000 aggregate"
8. Program Strengths:
-Exposure to telepsych (from PPI for Hershey ER?)
-Good exposure to different subspecialties
-Child, CL
-Starting ketamine clinic.
-Education prioritized
-Sleep research
-Collegial atmosphere
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Small town if you aren't into that, apparently schools are good and cost of living is low, good for families with kids, seems very easy to buy a house given market but only one person owns
-Child is the only fellowship, planning to add community and addiction fellowships
-Pain clinic not integrated
-Small program so basically never on team with other residents
10. Overall Impression:
Residents seemed extremely happy and got along with each other and attendings very well. I wasn't super keen on the Harrisburg-Hershey split (especially imagining driving between the two on snowy roads) and am not really a small town person. For me the big downsides were the small town location and the weekly 24h call for two years (given that so many places have switched to night float, which I prefer).
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
St. Elizabeth's (DC)
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS and then via email. No info whatsoever about potential interview dates on the initial invite, which was a little unusual, but not really a problem.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed with family. No dinner the night before. They had a continental breakfast and a tasty lunch (sandwiches are the part I remember, but it was good).
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8am-2:30pm. Continental breakfast. 8am: program overview with PD, some residents?, APD. 9am: 3 x 30min interviews and breaks. noon: lunch with residents then tour
For the most part, pretty straightforward. I got some questions from one person that basically seemed to be getting at what in my childhood led me to go into psychiatry, which I didn't have much of an answer for. Also a bunch of questions from the same person about how I would describe my personality. It was kindof uncomfortable.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths:
-forensics
-lots of patients: big inpatient hospital, 28k outpatients
-only psych ER and mobile crisis team in DC
-faculty-run (presumably good education-service balance?)
-previous affiliation with NIMH, so continued less formal connections for research there
-3 training analysts and a CBT expert
Sites:
-St. Elizabeth's: (31.5mo) 300 bed tertiary psych hospital, equivalent to a state hospital for DC, lots of forensic cases
-VA: (7mo, 9mi, 30min) for more bread and butter psych
-Providence Hospital (12mo, 12mi, 30min)
-Prince George’s Hospital Center (4mo, 10mi, 20min)
-Washington School of Psychiatry (6mo, 13mi, 35min)
-Children’s Hospital National Medical Center (2.2mo, 13mi, 30min)
-Sibley Hospital (ECT) (0.6mo, 13mi, 30min)
-Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP): (5mi, 15min) a 24-hour psychiatric emergency room run by the Department of Mental Health
-Residents’ Clinic at 35 K Street NE (6mi, 20min)
-University Health Services Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia (6mo, 12mi, 30min)
-DMH Homeless Outreach Service: community psychiatry
Research: 1-6mo, half time max
Didactics: 1d/wk protected, even on neuro and IM
Clinical:
-PGY1: 4.5mo IM (~3mo gen IM and ~1mo ICU or ER, at Prince George’s Hospital Center or Providence Hospital); 3mo neuro consult to Dept of Mental Health (so neuro consult for psych patients); 1mo? gen inpt psych; 1.5mo geri psych (ECT training during this time)
-PGY2: 3mo gen inpt psych; 3mo CL (Providence); 1.5mo ea of: addiction (Providence), forensics (St E), emergency (CPEP), night float (8:30p-9am x5d, 8:30pm-10:30am x 1d)
-PGY3: 100% outpatient: 80% adult, 20% child; minimums: 8-12 therapy pts, 1 group, 16-20 med mgmt, 2h/wk intake for med mgmt, 4h/wk evals in homeless shelters
-PGY4: 50% outpatient: continue at adult outpt site, maintain min 1 child; 3mo jr attending, 3mo electives
Electives: work with Dept. of Behavioral Health, teaching elective, ECT, TMS, jr attending, geri, child, research, assertive community tx, child psych in courts
Fellowships: forensics
Call:
-PGY-1: 6 nights/wk x 6wk, 2-3 evening short call/mo, 1-2 weekend day call/mo
-PGY-2: evening call 5-8:30pm, 12.5h shifts on Saturdays
-PGY-3: weekly short call (5:30pm-11pm) x 12mo, home call 6weeks/y; weekends off, can moonlight
-PGY-4: no in-house call, home call 6weeks/y
Moonlighting: allowed internally at psych ER starting PGY3, I vaguely recall other moonlighting options outside also mentioned
6. Location & Lifestyle: DC, expensive, don't need car (all sites metro-accessible)
7. Salary & Benefits: government employees technically, so nice benefits
Salary: 53/58/60/64
Parking: free at St. E?
Vacation: 12d vacation/y; 18d vacation in PGY4; 13d sick days/y; 11 federal holidays per year, I think they said that if you work on these days, you get time and a half pay, definitely true on snow days; good family leave policy (8wks paid for birth, adoption, care of sick family)
Insurances: paid dental/vision, pay part for health insurance (Kaiser HMO $60-70/2wks, other options), short term disability at 66% (costs $0.98/mo per $100/mo of benefit); long term disability at 66% (costs $0.56/mo per $100 of benefit), life insurance with benefit of annual salary + $2k is provided, can buy more
Retirement: 457(b): if can contribute min $20/pay period; 401(a):100% Employer-Funded: 5% of the base salary after 1 y, vested after 5y
Food: provided on call
Book conference stipend: $1850/y to present at conference, $500/y for books and educational materials
Other benefits: pre-tax bikeshare membership, public transit (including shared lyft and uber), or parking, 0% interest loan for downpayment for buying first home in DC,
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS and then via email. No info whatsoever about potential interview dates on the initial invite, which was a little unusual, but not really a problem.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed with family. No dinner the night before. They had a continental breakfast and a tasty lunch (sandwiches are the part I remember, but it was good).
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8am-2:30pm. Continental breakfast. 8am: program overview with PD, some residents?, APD. 9am: 3 x 30min interviews and breaks. noon: lunch with residents then tour
For the most part, pretty straightforward. I got some questions from one person that basically seemed to be getting at what in my childhood led me to go into psychiatry, which I didn't have much of an answer for. Also a bunch of questions from the same person about how I would describe my personality. It was kindof uncomfortable.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths:
-forensics
-lots of patients: big inpatient hospital, 28k outpatients
-only psych ER and mobile crisis team in DC
-faculty-run (presumably good education-service balance?)
-previous affiliation with NIMH, so continued less formal connections for research there
-3 training analysts and a CBT expert
Sites:
-St. Elizabeth's: (31.5mo) 300 bed tertiary psych hospital, equivalent to a state hospital for DC, lots of forensic cases
-VA: (7mo, 9mi, 30min) for more bread and butter psych
-Providence Hospital (12mo, 12mi, 30min)
-Prince George’s Hospital Center (4mo, 10mi, 20min)
-Washington School of Psychiatry (6mo, 13mi, 35min)
-Children’s Hospital National Medical Center (2.2mo, 13mi, 30min)
-Sibley Hospital (ECT) (0.6mo, 13mi, 30min)
-Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP): (5mi, 15min) a 24-hour psychiatric emergency room run by the Department of Mental Health
-Residents’ Clinic at 35 K Street NE (6mi, 20min)
-University Health Services Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia (6mo, 12mi, 30min)
-DMH Homeless Outreach Service: community psychiatry
Research: 1-6mo, half time max
Didactics: 1d/wk protected, even on neuro and IM
Clinical:
-PGY1: 4.5mo IM (~3mo gen IM and ~1mo ICU or ER, at Prince George’s Hospital Center or Providence Hospital); 3mo neuro consult to Dept of Mental Health (so neuro consult for psych patients); 1mo? gen inpt psych; 1.5mo geri psych (ECT training during this time)
-PGY2: 3mo gen inpt psych; 3mo CL (Providence); 1.5mo ea of: addiction (Providence), forensics (St E), emergency (CPEP), night float (8:30p-9am x5d, 8:30pm-10:30am x 1d)
-PGY3: 100% outpatient: 80% adult, 20% child; minimums: 8-12 therapy pts, 1 group, 16-20 med mgmt, 2h/wk intake for med mgmt, 4h/wk evals in homeless shelters
-PGY4: 50% outpatient: continue at adult outpt site, maintain min 1 child; 3mo jr attending, 3mo electives
Electives: work with Dept. of Behavioral Health, teaching elective, ECT, TMS, jr attending, geri, child, research, assertive community tx, child psych in courts
Fellowships: forensics
Call:
-PGY-1: 6 nights/wk x 6wk, 2-3 evening short call/mo, 1-2 weekend day call/mo
-PGY-2: evening call 5-8:30pm, 12.5h shifts on Saturdays
-PGY-3: weekly short call (5:30pm-11pm) x 12mo, home call 6weeks/y; weekends off, can moonlight
-PGY-4: no in-house call, home call 6weeks/y
Moonlighting: allowed internally at psych ER starting PGY3, I vaguely recall other moonlighting options outside also mentioned
6. Location & Lifestyle: DC, expensive, don't need car (all sites metro-accessible)
7. Salary & Benefits: government employees technically, so nice benefits
Salary: 53/58/60/64
Parking: free at St. E?
Vacation: 12d vacation/y; 18d vacation in PGY4; 13d sick days/y; 11 federal holidays per year, I think they said that if you work on these days, you get time and a half pay, definitely true on snow days; good family leave policy (8wks paid for birth, adoption, care of sick family)
Insurances: paid dental/vision, pay part for health insurance (Kaiser HMO $60-70/2wks, other options), short term disability at 66% (costs $0.98/mo per $100/mo of benefit); long term disability at 66% (costs $0.56/mo per $100 of benefit), life insurance with benefit of annual salary + $2k is provided, can buy more
Retirement: 457(b): if can contribute min $20/pay period; 401(a):100% Employer-Funded: 5% of the base salary after 1 y, vested after 5y
Food: provided on call
Book conference stipend: $1850/y to present at conference, $500/y for books and educational materials
Other benefits: pre-tax bikeshare membership, public transit (including shared lyft and uber), or parking, 0% interest loan for downpayment for buying first home in DC,
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
UNC Chapel Hill
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS and ERAs self schedule, then more details via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Chapel Hill University Inn: would highly recommend requesting the 'new building' (old building smelled a bit musty and had a dehumidifier in the room). Dinner at 411 West Italian Restaurant, which was good. Breakfast and lunch provded on day of.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
9am-3:30pm. 9a: breakfast with residents. 9:30am-10:30am: overview with PD. 10:30a-12:30a: 3 x 30 min interviews +break. 12:30-1:30pm: lunch with residents. 1:30-2pm: tour. 2-3pm: meeting with Associate Chair. 3-3:30pm: Wrap up with PD.
More detailed questions about things from long ago (>12 years ago) than other places, seemed like they had really dug through the application, any small mentions, etc. Would recommend being prepared to answer questions about anything even slightly unusual that they might see as a red flag.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-UNC Hospitals (Chapel Hill)
-Central Regional Hospital (Butner, NC)
Research: Research track available: apply during PGY-1, PGY1: 1 page proposal, PGY2: 1d/wk protected time, PGY3: 0.5d/wk protected (rumored hard to protect in practice), clinical research electives available, PGY4: <=80% research time
Didactics: Wednesday academic half day in afternoon; Teaching: Emphasis on med student teaching with many supplementary teaching activities available to those interested
Clinical:
-PGY1: 12-16wk Central Regional Hospital: 5d/wk, short call until 8pm every third weekday (10pm on Fri), half night float; 12-16wk UNC psych inpt: 4-6 weekend day shifts (8a-10p), on adolescent, psychotic, crisis; 4wk UNC ED psych (5d/wk, evenings M-Th 9p-midnight, F overnight 4:30p-8:30a); 8wk inpt family medicine: 4wk days (12h/d, 6d/wk), 4wk nights (12h/d, 5d/wk); 8wk IM at Central Regional (6 weekend day calls 8a-8p, 8 weekday short calls until 8pm); 4wk UNC inpt neuro (short call every other day until 8pm)
-PGY2: outpatient
-PGY3: 12-16wk consults, 4wk psychotic inpt, 4wk crisis stabilization, 4-8wk geri inpt (ECT training during this time), 8wk neuro (can be inpt, outpt, consults), 4wk ED, 4wk peripartum, 4wk eating d/o, 4wk child
-PGY4: 1h/wk crisis bridge, 0.5d/wk substance abuse, 1d/wk community psych, 8wk acting attending on inpt/outpt/ED/CL, remained = electives
Electives:
-outpatient: substance abuse, women's mood, child or adult developmental disorders, eating d/o, psychosomatic, geri, schizophrenia, acute, child and adolescent, community (some fly to rural clinics)
-neuro electives: outpt adult, outpt peds, neuro-onc, neuro CL, headache, sleep
-PGY4: mental health policy, memory, campus health, psychotherapy/supervision, geri, palliative, global, research, ECT cert, TMS elective, neuropsych
Fellowships: child, forensics, CL, community, eating d/o, reproductive mood d/o, addictions to be added 2019
Call:
-PGY-1: see above
-PGY-2: 7-8 weekend 24h calls/y, 18 weekday overnight calls/y 4:30p-8a, 4 x 1wk blocks of psych ED night float
-PGY-3: 6-7 weekend calls/y 'round on inpatient units with attendings' (do they leave after rounds or is it 24h?)
-PGY-4: 6-7 weekend rounding calls/y
Moonlighting: internal allowed starting PGY2
Graduates: last year 8 went to fellowship and 5 joined faculty/hospital/private practice
6. Location & Lifestyle: Chapel Hill is a small college town that is part of the research triangle with larger towns/cities Raleigh and Durham
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 52/54/55/58
Insurances: health insurance ($19 or $47/mo, depending on how nice a plan), dental ($24 or $43/mo depending on level), 1x salary life insurance free with option to buy more, disability insurance covered at 70% salary with max $3500/mo with option to buy more
Retirement: 457(b) and 457(b) Roth available, no matching
Food: start with $100-200 on meal card + $14/shift (resident said this works out to about 1 meal/day for him), can re-load meal card with your own money (card gives 20% off)
Other benefits: free will preparation, full service legal plan $16/mo, discount home/auto insurance
8. Program Strengths:
-Happiest, nicest residents of anywhere I went
-Seem to strike a nice balance of feeling very well trained/ready for anything and having time to pursure interests (research, teaching, etc.)
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-No separate half day for outpatient clinics in PGY3. This will soon become a problem since their outpatient clinics are moving out of the same building where inpt is located and to some other location (sounds not super close by), and they don't really seem to have much of a plan for this.
-Central Regional is far away (37min in no traffic per Google Maps) and there's a lot of time spent there (~6mo)
-Chapel Hill is really small
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: Initially via ERAS and ERAs self schedule, then more details via email.
2. Accommodation & Food: Chapel Hill University Inn: would highly recommend requesting the 'new building' (old building smelled a bit musty and had a dehumidifier in the room). Dinner at 411 West Italian Restaurant, which was good. Breakfast and lunch provded on day of.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
9am-3:30pm. 9a: breakfast with residents. 9:30am-10:30am: overview with PD. 10:30a-12:30a: 3 x 30 min interviews +break. 12:30-1:30pm: lunch with residents. 1:30-2pm: tour. 2-3pm: meeting with Associate Chair. 3-3:30pm: Wrap up with PD.
More detailed questions about things from long ago (>12 years ago) than other places, seemed like they had really dug through the application, any small mentions, etc. Would recommend being prepared to answer questions about anything even slightly unusual that they might see as a red flag.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-UNC Hospitals (Chapel Hill)
-Central Regional Hospital (Butner, NC)
Research: Research track available: apply during PGY-1, PGY1: 1 page proposal, PGY2: 1d/wk protected time, PGY3: 0.5d/wk protected (rumored hard to protect in practice), clinical research electives available, PGY4: <=80% research time
Didactics: Wednesday academic half day in afternoon; Teaching: Emphasis on med student teaching with many supplementary teaching activities available to those interested
Clinical:
-PGY1: 12-16wk Central Regional Hospital: 5d/wk, short call until 8pm every third weekday (10pm on Fri), half night float; 12-16wk UNC psych inpt: 4-6 weekend day shifts (8a-10p), on adolescent, psychotic, crisis; 4wk UNC ED psych (5d/wk, evenings M-Th 9p-midnight, F overnight 4:30p-8:30a); 8wk inpt family medicine: 4wk days (12h/d, 6d/wk), 4wk nights (12h/d, 5d/wk); 8wk IM at Central Regional (6 weekend day calls 8a-8p, 8 weekday short calls until 8pm); 4wk UNC inpt neuro (short call every other day until 8pm)
-PGY2: outpatient
-PGY3: 12-16wk consults, 4wk psychotic inpt, 4wk crisis stabilization, 4-8wk geri inpt (ECT training during this time), 8wk neuro (can be inpt, outpt, consults), 4wk ED, 4wk peripartum, 4wk eating d/o, 4wk child
-PGY4: 1h/wk crisis bridge, 0.5d/wk substance abuse, 1d/wk community psych, 8wk acting attending on inpt/outpt/ED/CL, remained = electives
Electives:
-outpatient: substance abuse, women's mood, child or adult developmental disorders, eating d/o, psychosomatic, geri, schizophrenia, acute, child and adolescent, community (some fly to rural clinics)
-neuro electives: outpt adult, outpt peds, neuro-onc, neuro CL, headache, sleep
-PGY4: mental health policy, memory, campus health, psychotherapy/supervision, geri, palliative, global, research, ECT cert, TMS elective, neuropsych
Fellowships: child, forensics, CL, community, eating d/o, reproductive mood d/o, addictions to be added 2019
Call:
-PGY-1: see above
-PGY-2: 7-8 weekend 24h calls/y, 18 weekday overnight calls/y 4:30p-8a, 4 x 1wk blocks of psych ED night float
-PGY-3: 6-7 weekend calls/y 'round on inpatient units with attendings' (do they leave after rounds or is it 24h?)
-PGY-4: 6-7 weekend rounding calls/y
Moonlighting: internal allowed starting PGY2
Graduates: last year 8 went to fellowship and 5 joined faculty/hospital/private practice
6. Location & Lifestyle: Chapel Hill is a small college town that is part of the research triangle with larger towns/cities Raleigh and Durham
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 52/54/55/58
Insurances: health insurance ($19 or $47/mo, depending on how nice a plan), dental ($24 or $43/mo depending on level), 1x salary life insurance free with option to buy more, disability insurance covered at 70% salary with max $3500/mo with option to buy more
Retirement: 457(b) and 457(b) Roth available, no matching
Food: start with $100-200 on meal card + $14/shift (resident said this works out to about 1 meal/day for him), can re-load meal card with your own money (card gives 20% off)
Other benefits: free will preparation, full service legal plan $16/mo, discount home/auto insurance
8. Program Strengths:
-Happiest, nicest residents of anywhere I went
-Seem to strike a nice balance of feeling very well trained/ready for anything and having time to pursure interests (research, teaching, etc.)
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-No separate half day for outpatient clinics in PGY3. This will soon become a problem since their outpatient clinics are moving out of the same building where inpt is located and to some other location (sounds not super close by), and they don't really seem to have much of a plan for this.
-Central Regional is far away (37min in no traffic per Google Maps) and there's a lot of time spent there (~6mo)
-Chapel Hill is really small
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
UVA
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: All communication via ERAS (except I called to schedule a date after getting the invite). No issues.
2. Accommodation & Food: I stayed with friends, so I dunno about hotels. We met up at the hospital before dinner the night before and residents drove us on a little tour of town on the way to dinner. Dinner was at The Local (which my hosts told me is ironically almost exclusively visited by out-of-towners) and was excellent. Residents ordered appetizers and desserts for the table which we shared and we could pick our own entrees and drinks off the regular menu. Residents seemed to get along well with each other and have good lifestyles (especially after intern year). Lighter continental breakfast at the interview and lunch with residents in same room (sandwiches, salad, etc.).
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Ran ~9am-4pm. I don't remember the precise schedule. Overview in the morning, then interviews, then tour? I had 4 half hour interviews with faculty (including 1 psychologist) and the PD between 10:30am and 3pm with some breaks and a lunch with the residents.
No out of the ordinary questions, and the people I had interviewed with knew my application, especially the PD who knew it well. It was mostly conversational, though one interview was more question based (began with her asking me standard questions about my strengths, a memorable patient, tell me about yourself, etc; and concluded with me asking her my questions). Mostly wished I had longer to talk to people since I felt like I was just getting into good conversation when someone came to pull me off to the next one.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-Western State Hospital in Staunton, 248 beds; long term or violent, forensics
-Commonwealth Center: 2 inpatient child and 2 adolescent units, school program
-outpatient
-wellness recovery unit: 16 bed voluntary crisis stabilization unit through region 10
-region 10: PACT team and substance abuse tx
-5E (inpatient) 25 beds at main UVA hospital
-adding 18 bed psych ED at main UVA hospital
Flexibility:
Research: PGY3 research seminar-- must make a plan, execution optional
Education/Service balance:
Didactics: taped for watching during PGY1 since not protected, PGY4-board review
Therapy vs. biologic:
Clinical: ECT requirement, 1h/week year long supervisor
-PGY1: 2-3 mo inpatient on 5E with bridge clinic, 3-4 mo CL, 1mo outpatient northridge clinic, 1mo adult inpatient neuro, 1mo consult neuro, 1mo IM wards, 2mo IM consult, 1mo EM
-PGY2: 2mo 5E gen inpt, 1mo western state, 3mo consult/ER/night float, 1mo geri inpt, 1mo dual diagnosis w/ region 10, 1mo wellness recovery center, 1mo child, extensive telemedicine to other Charlottesville hospital, 17 FQHCs in SW Virginia (telepsych
-PGY3: outpatient, choose treatment per patient, 1h psychotherapy minimum, 50% didactic/supervision
-PGY4: supervise bridge clinic (1 week follow up outpatient appointments after inpatient hospitalizations); forensics at W State, write court eval, coordin with law school
Electives: toxicology, HIV (Ryan White), Palliative, PACT team, refugee clinic
Fellowships: child, geri, forensics (more policy oriented, works with law school)
Tracks: Global health track
Call:
-PGY-1: on IM/neuro-night float per their schedule,
-PGY-2: 5 nights per year of 24h call on C/L on Friday nights
-PGY-3: 1-2 weekend days per month
-PGY-4: 0-1 weekend days per month
Moonlighting: allowed at CCA and Western State, officially/technically UVA discourages b. program director thinks it is good and encourages
Graduates: 1-2/y --> telepsych only practices, one founded a telepsych company; 70-80% do fellowships
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Residents report good relationships.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Small town, must drive--Western State is FAR (40min drive). Cute town. Residents seem happy, report plenty of time off to enjoy life. Seemed like a younger partying-oriented resident group, but they claimed there were nerdier (more introverted?) residents also.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 55/57/59/61
Cash benefit for parking: can cash out to cafeteria card if not used for parking
Vacation: 3wk/y, time at holidays, interns get extra time since they start early
Insurances: health insurance, copays waived at UVA; dental and vision paid fully; life paid by resident, disability at 70%
Retirement: voluntary 403b or 457
Tuition remission: ? don't mention this, unclear if offered
Gym: $320 for self + $370 for spouse/household member
Food: $50/mo on call food
Malpractice: covered, not for outside moonlighting
Book conference stipend: get 2 free big stacks of books, $500/y in PGY3-4 + $750 if presenting, also get copy card and prescription pads
Annual retreat
Schedule: orientation 6/14-15, service starts 6/24
8. Program Strengths:
-Good call schedule
-Seem happy
-Cool electives
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Small town if you aren't into that
-Long drive to W State Hosp
10. Overall Impression:
Seems like a nice place. Only qualms = small town, residents seemed very young
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: All communication via ERAS (except I called to schedule a date after getting the invite). No issues.
2. Accommodation & Food: I stayed with friends, so I dunno about hotels. We met up at the hospital before dinner the night before and residents drove us on a little tour of town on the way to dinner. Dinner was at The Local (which my hosts told me is ironically almost exclusively visited by out-of-towners) and was excellent. Residents ordered appetizers and desserts for the table which we shared and we could pick our own entrees and drinks off the regular menu. Residents seemed to get along well with each other and have good lifestyles (especially after intern year). Lighter continental breakfast at the interview and lunch with residents in same room (sandwiches, salad, etc.).
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Ran ~9am-4pm. I don't remember the precise schedule. Overview in the morning, then interviews, then tour? I had 4 half hour interviews with faculty (including 1 psychologist) and the PD between 10:30am and 3pm with some breaks and a lunch with the residents.
No out of the ordinary questions, and the people I had interviewed with knew my application, especially the PD who knew it well. It was mostly conversational, though one interview was more question based (began with her asking me standard questions about my strengths, a memorable patient, tell me about yourself, etc; and concluded with me asking her my questions). Mostly wished I had longer to talk to people since I felt like I was just getting into good conversation when someone came to pull me off to the next one.
4. Program Overview:
Sites:
-Western State Hospital in Staunton, 248 beds; long term or violent, forensics
-Commonwealth Center: 2 inpatient child and 2 adolescent units, school program
-outpatient
-wellness recovery unit: 16 bed voluntary crisis stabilization unit through region 10
-region 10: PACT team and substance abuse tx
-5E (inpatient) 25 beds at main UVA hospital
-adding 18 bed psych ED at main UVA hospital
Flexibility:
Research: PGY3 research seminar-- must make a plan, execution optional
Education/Service balance:
Didactics: taped for watching during PGY1 since not protected, PGY4-board review
Therapy vs. biologic:
Clinical: ECT requirement, 1h/week year long supervisor
-PGY1: 2-3 mo inpatient on 5E with bridge clinic, 3-4 mo CL, 1mo outpatient northridge clinic, 1mo adult inpatient neuro, 1mo consult neuro, 1mo IM wards, 2mo IM consult, 1mo EM
-PGY2: 2mo 5E gen inpt, 1mo western state, 3mo consult/ER/night float, 1mo geri inpt, 1mo dual diagnosis w/ region 10, 1mo wellness recovery center, 1mo child, extensive telemedicine to other Charlottesville hospital, 17 FQHCs in SW Virginia (telepsych
-PGY3: outpatient, choose treatment per patient, 1h psychotherapy minimum, 50% didactic/supervision
-PGY4: supervise bridge clinic (1 week follow up outpatient appointments after inpatient hospitalizations); forensics at W State, write court eval, coordin with law school
Electives: toxicology, HIV (Ryan White), Palliative, PACT team, refugee clinic
Fellowships: child, geri, forensics (more policy oriented, works with law school)
Tracks: Global health track
Call:
-PGY-1: on IM/neuro-night float per their schedule,
-PGY-2: 5 nights per year of 24h call on C/L on Friday nights
-PGY-3: 1-2 weekend days per month
-PGY-4: 0-1 weekend days per month
Moonlighting: allowed at CCA and Western State, officially/technically UVA discourages b. program director thinks it is good and encourages
Graduates: 1-2/y --> telepsych only practices, one founded a telepsych company; 70-80% do fellowships
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Residents report good relationships.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Small town, must drive--Western State is FAR (40min drive). Cute town. Residents seem happy, report plenty of time off to enjoy life. Seemed like a younger partying-oriented resident group, but they claimed there were nerdier (more introverted?) residents also.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 55/57/59/61
Cash benefit for parking: can cash out to cafeteria card if not used for parking
Vacation: 3wk/y, time at holidays, interns get extra time since they start early
Insurances: health insurance, copays waived at UVA; dental and vision paid fully; life paid by resident, disability at 70%
Retirement: voluntary 403b or 457
Tuition remission: ? don't mention this, unclear if offered
Gym: $320 for self + $370 for spouse/household member
Food: $50/mo on call food
Malpractice: covered, not for outside moonlighting
Book conference stipend: get 2 free big stacks of books, $500/y in PGY3-4 + $750 if presenting, also get copy card and prescription pads
Annual retreat
Schedule: orientation 6/14-15, service starts 6/24
8. Program Strengths:
-Good call schedule
-Seem happy
-Cool electives
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Small town if you aren't into that
-Long drive to W State Hosp
10. Overall Impression:
Seems like a nice place. Only qualms = small town, residents seemed very young
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 149
UPMC/WPIC Pittsburgh
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: All via email, nothing via ERAS.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at Wyndham Pittsburgh University Center. They have a special discounted WPIC rate you have to call to get. I had to call many times to get the person who actually knew anything about it and could help me. I don't think this was mentioned anywhere, but you get free parking from WPIC for the parking garage next to the hotel and they give you the parking pass when you check in. Dinner the night before was at Cafe Du Jour. They rent out the whole place and really went on and on in advance about how amazing it was. It was probably the best or second best food I had on the trail, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if they hadn't built it up quite so much in advance. There's a seating arrangement that I believe is intended to seat applicants near residents with shared interests, then the residents switch twice during the dinner to mix around a bit more. I was really glad they switched because the residents who were initially near me were *super* weird and it was really uncomfortable trying to make conversation with them. One of them made some very inappropriate (racist) jokes. I also had an odd/offputting interaction with the resident who drove me to the dinner (we carpooled with residents driving). Other than those three residents, everyone seemed perfectly fine/reasonable, but I'm really uncertain now because of them. The program served catered breakfast and lunch on the interview day.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
We met for dinner the night before in the hotel lobby at 6pm (it went until 9 or 9:30pm, I forget exactly). Dinner was mandatory (only place where it wasn't optional that I went). They also had...a lot, I think they said 80min, but it seemed longer to me, of orientation video that they wanted us to watch in advance of the interview day. It was more pleasant than it sounds, because their PD is really funny, but it was still long.
Interview Day: 8am-3:30pm. 8a: breakfast, intro from PD. 8:30a: chair intro. 9a-noon and 1:30p-3:30p: 6 interviews and 2 small group presentations (on the clinician educator track and research track). noon-1:30p: lunch and tour with residents.
Individual interviews were for the most part friendly and relaxed; however, at one interview, a faculty member who is an expert in [pathology x] asked me to explain [pathology x] to him, which was terrifying. There was also a "read my mind" element to it, since what I said clearly wasn't the "right answer" and he kept asking me follow up questions that seemed to be attempting to nudge me toward the correct answer, which I seemed to never get closer to, and eventually he just gave up.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths: research, large psych hospital (280 beds)
Sites:
-WPIC
-St. Margaret's (~20min drive from WPIC)
-UPMC Presbyterian (immediately adjacent to WPIC)
-VA
Psych Research Pathway: #1 in NIH funding since 1980s, mtg with chief, mentors after the match, 2 slots for early 10wk research block in PGY2, early k application, apply by early summer PGY2, 3 protected half days in PGY3
Administrator, Clinician Educator Track: project proposal (gives protected time for projects that require extra time to complete)
Didactics: most residents seem to agree that these are one of the major weaknesses of the program
Clinical:
-PGY1: 3mo family med at St. Margaret's, 1mo family med consult service at WPIC, 2mo neuro consults (half as night float), 3mo DEC (psych ER), 3mo inpt psych (1 motivational interviewing, dual diagnosis), 1mo VA outpt
-PGY2: 10-11wk blocks x 5; mood, CL, psychosis, child, geri; long term dynamic and interpersonal therapy patients (min 1 each)
-PGY3: all outpt. 1d/wk x 6mo geri then child(?), 30-40% clinical electives
-PGY4: forensics and community required, otherwise electives
Electives: community, addiction, adult, developmental disabilities, child/adolescent, ECT, TMS, TDCS, trauma, geri, CL, palliative, forensics, therapy (many types), student health, HIV, pain, sleep, EEG, admin: managed care, policy, admin, quality; research; education
Fellowships: CL, forensic, geri, addiction, child, community/public service; 'access to': pain and sleep
Call:
-PGY-1: 12 shifts, 40 nights
-PGY-2: 4x24h; 17x12h; 15x5h/y
-PGY-3: no call
-PGY-4: no call
Moonlighting: starts PGY2
Graduates: they do many things, lots either stay or later come back to Pittsburgh, re: research ~80% K funding rate (in 3 submissions), ~75% K to R conversion rate
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 57/59/60/63
Parking: $90/mo (!) can take out of pay pre-tax
Insurances: health insurance, basic dental, and basic vision are all free (UPMC pays premiums) with cost sharing for copays/coinsurance/rx; life insurance for annual salary amount provided, can buy more; short term disability at 100% salary, long term disability at 60% salary/max $3k/mo; (Pretty sure this is irrelevant for psych residents, but there is a little section in the benefits book about how if you work for UPMC Mercy, they don't cover benefits for domestic partners, abortion, birth control, sterilization, or REI treatment because they are Catholic, which is pretty creepy.)
Retirement: available, UPMC matches 50% of employee contributions up to 4% of salary after first 6mo of service, vested after 3 years
Tuition remission: 50% off for children (max $6k/y)/spouse/domestic partner (max $2k/y)
8. Program Strengths:
-Research
-Big hospital with lots of subspecialty wards
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Weird residents
-Rather gloomy weather
-Crazy football fans
anonymous
1. Ease of Communication: All via email, nothing via ERAS.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at Wyndham Pittsburgh University Center. They have a special discounted WPIC rate you have to call to get. I had to call many times to get the person who actually knew anything about it and could help me. I don't think this was mentioned anywhere, but you get free parking from WPIC for the parking garage next to the hotel and they give you the parking pass when you check in. Dinner the night before was at Cafe Du Jour. They rent out the whole place and really went on and on in advance about how amazing it was. It was probably the best or second best food I had on the trail, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if they hadn't built it up quite so much in advance. There's a seating arrangement that I believe is intended to seat applicants near residents with shared interests, then the residents switch twice during the dinner to mix around a bit more. I was really glad they switched because the residents who were initially near me were *super* weird and it was really uncomfortable trying to make conversation with them. One of them made some very inappropriate (racist) jokes. I also had an odd/offputting interaction with the resident who drove me to the dinner (we carpooled with residents driving). Other than those three residents, everyone seemed perfectly fine/reasonable, but I'm really uncertain now because of them. The program served catered breakfast and lunch on the interview day.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
We met for dinner the night before in the hotel lobby at 6pm (it went until 9 or 9:30pm, I forget exactly). Dinner was mandatory (only place where it wasn't optional that I went). They also had...a lot, I think they said 80min, but it seemed longer to me, of orientation video that they wanted us to watch in advance of the interview day. It was more pleasant than it sounds, because their PD is really funny, but it was still long.
Interview Day: 8am-3:30pm. 8a: breakfast, intro from PD. 8:30a: chair intro. 9a-noon and 1:30p-3:30p: 6 interviews and 2 small group presentations (on the clinician educator track and research track). noon-1:30p: lunch and tour with residents.
Individual interviews were for the most part friendly and relaxed; however, at one interview, a faculty member who is an expert in [pathology x] asked me to explain [pathology x] to him, which was terrifying. There was also a "read my mind" element to it, since what I said clearly wasn't the "right answer" and he kept asking me follow up questions that seemed to be attempting to nudge me toward the correct answer, which I seemed to never get closer to, and eventually he just gave up.
4. Program Overview:
Strengths: research, large psych hospital (280 beds)
Sites:
-WPIC
-St. Margaret's (~20min drive from WPIC)
-UPMC Presbyterian (immediately adjacent to WPIC)
-VA
Psych Research Pathway: #1 in NIH funding since 1980s, mtg with chief, mentors after the match, 2 slots for early 10wk research block in PGY2, early k application, apply by early summer PGY2, 3 protected half days in PGY3
Administrator, Clinician Educator Track: project proposal (gives protected time for projects that require extra time to complete)
Didactics: most residents seem to agree that these are one of the major weaknesses of the program
Clinical:
-PGY1: 3mo family med at St. Margaret's, 1mo family med consult service at WPIC, 2mo neuro consults (half as night float), 3mo DEC (psych ER), 3mo inpt psych (1 motivational interviewing, dual diagnosis), 1mo VA outpt
-PGY2: 10-11wk blocks x 5; mood, CL, psychosis, child, geri; long term dynamic and interpersonal therapy patients (min 1 each)
-PGY3: all outpt. 1d/wk x 6mo geri then child(?), 30-40% clinical electives
-PGY4: forensics and community required, otherwise electives
Electives: community, addiction, adult, developmental disabilities, child/adolescent, ECT, TMS, TDCS, trauma, geri, CL, palliative, forensics, therapy (many types), student health, HIV, pain, sleep, EEG, admin: managed care, policy, admin, quality; research; education
Fellowships: CL, forensic, geri, addiction, child, community/public service; 'access to': pain and sleep
Call:
-PGY-1: 12 shifts, 40 nights
-PGY-2: 4x24h; 17x12h; 15x5h/y
-PGY-3: no call
-PGY-4: no call
Moonlighting: starts PGY2
Graduates: they do many things, lots either stay or later come back to Pittsburgh, re: research ~80% K funding rate (in 3 submissions), ~75% K to R conversion rate
7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: 57/59/60/63
Parking: $90/mo (!) can take out of pay pre-tax
Insurances: health insurance, basic dental, and basic vision are all free (UPMC pays premiums) with cost sharing for copays/coinsurance/rx; life insurance for annual salary amount provided, can buy more; short term disability at 100% salary, long term disability at 60% salary/max $3k/mo; (Pretty sure this is irrelevant for psych residents, but there is a little section in the benefits book about how if you work for UPMC Mercy, they don't cover benefits for domestic partners, abortion, birth control, sterilization, or REI treatment because they are Catholic, which is pretty creepy.)
Retirement: available, UPMC matches 50% of employee contributions up to 4% of salary after first 6mo of service, vested after 3 years
Tuition remission: 50% off for children (max $6k/y)/spouse/domestic partner (max $2k/y)
8. Program Strengths:
-Research
-Big hospital with lots of subspecialty wards
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Weird residents
-Rather gloomy weather
-Crazy football fans
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We have a healthy dose of new reviews today - keep them coming, long or short doesn't matter, but it's always great to have multiple perspectives!
Also my apologies that the website is no longer allowing me to edit the initial table of contents post, so keep an eye out here for new reviews.
Also my apologies that the website is no longer allowing me to edit the initial table of contents post, so keep an eye out here for new reviews.
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So I genuinely appreciate the reviews here and I am continuing to go through them but I was also wondering what the general impressions were for several Midwesternish programs in regards to workload. What do people think are some of the most relaxed programs, not just based on call and hours, but those in combination with things they heard on the interview trail?
I'm fine with working hard but let's be real. I love and feel I would be happy at almost every place I've interviewed at so a place that's more chill but still has great training and opportunities would be nice. Some places I've been to are below.
Case Western UH
Cleveland Clinic
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Louisville
Indiana
Pitt -UPMC
Penn State
Rush
UIC
Loyola
U of Chicago
I'm fine with working hard but let's be real. I love and feel I would be happy at almost every place I've interviewed at so a place that's more chill but still has great training and opportunities would be nice. Some places I've been to are below.
Case Western UH
Cleveland Clinic
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Louisville
Indiana
Pitt -UPMC
Penn State
Rush
UIC
Loyola
U of Chicago
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Let's raise a cheer for raisinBran for doing all the hard work of keeping this thread organized.
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Very small corrections here for what it is worth:
Rotation schedule: 2 months total of neuro, 1 month of night float, but I can see where the confusion comes from because the NF is 2 week blocks interleaved with 2 week blocks of neuro. We only do two months of inpatient psych first year, both on the same dual diagnosis unit. The VA rotation is weird and actually you are providing psychiatric services to people engaged in a domiciliary rehab program but it does sort of function like an outpatient clinic, except the patients all are brought on the same bus so they have to show up. We don't rotate on the VA inpatient units really at all because the Other Residency Whose Name We Do Not Speak has that locked up.
You are correct that we do not work for UPMC Mercy in any capacity and thus we have no restrictions whatsoever using our health insurance for reproductive services. Unfortunately part and parcel of the UPMC system being a sprawling octopus of 31 hospitals to date with several acquisitions in the works and some new hospitals just announced (a ginormous cancer center, a standalone transplant hospital) is that some corners of the system still have vestiges of their former identities. Mercy for example agreed to buy out with certain conditions attached, and this was actually contentious enough that their outpatient mental health services spun off into a different and independent agency.
The videos also struck me as very weird as a requirement when I was interviewing here, but our PD just really likes to be thorough and comprehensive. It is coming from a good place.
The access to sleep is very real, we have not historically had problems placing residents in this fellowship. I know less about pain but some people have made a go at palliative/hospice as well and we have a dedicate palliative psychiatry service. About to start an in-hospital addiction psychiatry consult service, which should be interesting.
Always happy to answer questions by PM.
How do you feel the workload is? More, less, about what you expected?
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Sort of both? Our floor calls and night float in-house tend to be relatively laid back, our psych ED is like all EDs and alternates between crazy busy and slow, inpatient medicine works you like a dog but at least is very nice to you about it and the SMH seniors make a real effort to get you out on time. The thing that I didn't expect in terms of how heavy the workload would be was our C&L service, since my med school's C&L service was...underutilized. Ours by contrast gets 3,000 consults a year and when on holiday weekends covering the flagship hospital complex is a bear when you have 10 new consults before noon. The C&L rotation, everyone agrees, is by far the worst in terms of workload, but they definitely own you during that time.
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Are you sure about that?
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This is what I was told when I interviewed there in October 2015. Apparently a UofL alum was a higher up at a hospital up there and worked out this deal for them. It involved flying up on a Friday afternoon, working through the weekend, and flying back Sunday night. They were talking about very good money for this.
