Rep of med school for academic psych

[ham29]

I am interested in academic psychiatry. How much does the reputation of your medical school matter for working in this setting? I have worked in psychiatry research for several years now and have presented posters at national conferences (no pubs though)...would it hurt my chances of landing a position in an AMC if I went to a less research-focused medical school, or even a D.O. school?
My second question is, in your experience how much control do you have over rotations during 4th year? At the med school I currently work at 4th year students can do rotations in a variety of different psych specialties including C&L, child and adolescent, eating disorders, autism, etc. If the med school is not connected to an major AMC would there be less opportunity for this kind of thing?

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[notdeadyet]

I am interested in academic psychiatry. How much does the reputation of your medical school matter for working in this setting?

In general, in academics (and most workforces) the importance of your academic pedigree fades with time.

Your undergrad is important when applying to medical school, but folks don't care nearly so much about it when you're applying to residency. Your medical school is much more important then. When applying to fellowship, your residency is more important than your medical school. And once you're working, it's your last job that carries the most weight.

Residency has a certain cache that sticks around (surely it's only at academic social functions that you can ask someone where they are from to have them answer "Yale"), and folks will sometimes mention your residency ("she trained at NYU") as part of a casual introduction, but no one will much care about your medical school by the time you've finished residency, potentially fellowship, and held a job or two.

 

[milesed]

I was told in residency that you should try to do residency or fellowship at a program that is one level above the institution you hope to work in.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

This is probably good advice, but not strictly necessary. Top notch departments have to get faculty from somewhere. Once you have an MD, it is all about grants and publications. Of course where you got your MD may help get the grants and publications going.

It is interesting how undergrad, medical school and post graduate training are always included in academic CVs, and somehow high school gets dropped for sure. I guess there isn’t a high school that is swanky enough to include without looking like a fool.

I had an uncle in academic psychiatry who always included his eagle scout project on his CV. We always laughed about it, but now I’m not sure if he was poking fun at the academic environment, or if he was just clueless.