Official Inteview Review Thread 2011-12

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Thanks to everyone posting reviews. I also look forward to those awaiting the match to post theirs. I plan to apply this coming cycle so I'm eager to hear more.

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Thanks to everyone posting reviews. I also look forward to those awaiting the match to post theirs. I plan to apply this coming cycle so I'm eager to hear more.

I know I suck, but I'm waiting until 2/22. I will also try and update the index thread soon too...I've just been incredibly busy lately with rotations and final interviews and trying to sort out this rank list stuff with the fam.
 
Like digitlnoize and others, I was waiting until after match day to post reviews, in order to keep some anonymity (paranoia I know, don't judge me). However, I decided to post my reviews of the 2 programs I interviewed at but have decided not rank. Here goes.
 
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If anyone "waiting" to post reviews has Yale, Penn, or UCSF reviews and would be fine PMing them to me, I'd be interested. Thanks.
 
UCLA Harbor review

Accommodations/food: no hotel provided. I stayed in the Redondo Bach area, which I would recommend. About 6 miles (15-20 min from campus), but a real nice area right by the beach with plenty to do if you stay an extra day or so. No pre interview dinner or breakfast the day of the interview. Lunch in doctors dining area of the hospital with 1 resident.

Interview day: a short interview day. Begins around 10 and is done by 315ish. 3 interviews throughout the day, one with the chair in which all applicants interviewing that day attend. It's much more of a program overview than an interview. The next interview was with a faculty member, in my case director of output services. Again very non interview-y, much more of an overview of the program and pitch to what it has to offer. In fact she may not have asked me a single question about myself the whole "interview", seriously. The last one with the PD, who seems to be a real nice guy and the interview was conversational and pleasant. The day also includes lunch with 1 resident and a short tour of the facilities followed by a Q&A with the chief resident. I found the limited exposure to residents odd, and very different from my previous interviews where I had the opportunity to speak with a bunch of residents. Because of this I felt like I didn't get as god a feel for the program as I have at other places.

Program overview: This program is a combo of the LA County system and UCLA. I went in with the impression that this would allow county exposure with major university resources, and this may be the case but it's certainly predominately county. The vast majority of rotations are through the county with only a small handful (Geri plus 4th year elective opportunities) being university based. As far as the curriculum, it is pretty unique at least from other places I have experienced so far...
PGY1 is pretty standard with 7 inpt psych months which includes gen adult input and psych ER, 1 neuro, and 4 IM (1 inpt wards, 1 med ER, 2 outpt IM/peds).
PGY2 is where it starts to differ from other programs in that you spend 50% of your time on outpt services. How this works is most mornings are filled with inpt psych work and your afternoons are spent in the outpt clinics. You are assigned a pt load starting your second year, which slowly expands as you add new pts throughout the year, plus you have the option of taking on your inpts to your outpt service. I really like this idea, and think it's really one of the advantages of a county system. It also allows for good continuity of care and ability to follow patients as you keep your pt load all the way through 4th year.
PGY3 consists of 5 months each of C/L and child, 1 Geri, and 1 selective/elective. Again you continue to see your outpts, but in 3rd year its approx 1/3 of your time with the other 2/3 being spent on the service you are on that month. An important note is child is ALL outpt as there is no input child unit on campus.
PGY4 is 50% electives, 50% continuing with the outpts you have had since second year.

Didactics- no protected time per se, in that it's not one afternoon per week or anything along those lines. It seems to be more of a sporadic thing, but they do claim to have plenty of didactics in terms of lecture series, grand rounds, journal club etc and they are mostly conducted in the late mornings before outpt clinics begin.

Psychotherapy- lots of psychotherapy supervision since you spend so much time on outpt. They have a year long course on psychoanalysis in which you watch an analyst perform it on a pt behind a one way mirror. No direct supervision of you performing therapy, but plenty of time for case discussion as well as reviewing audio taped session with your supervisor. Seems like psychotherapy training is a strong point here.

Call- i asked both residents I spoke with but still am not 100% sure. From what I gather there is no required overnight call the entire residency. PGY1 is q7 short call (til 10pm), not sure how weekends work. PGY2 is call approximately 3 days per month; this includes weekends, although again from what I understand none of these calls in overnight. PGY3 I don't remember and PGY4 is no call. Pretty cush is if I understood right, but like I said it wasn't perfectly clear to me so if anyone can clarify that would help.

Moonlighting- tons of it, all in house and it pays well. They are able to avoid overnight call and night float by hiring in-house moonlighters to cover all night work. From what I gather there are at least 2 moonlighters in-house every night , and there are 24 hour moonlighting shifts available on the weekends. It sounds like every resident moonlights and why not, as it pays about $90/hr and is in house. A huge perk if you ask me.

Facilities- it's a county hospital and there is no hiding that. Buildings are old and to say they are less than aesthetically pleasing, would be a profound understatement. I guess that's to be expected, and is the tradeoff for the ability to be exposed to the level of psychopathology, but you better be ok with metal detectors and buildings that have passed their prime 50 year ago. Even with the aesthetic aspect aside I still found the facilities underwhelming. There are only2 inpt psych wards,both general adult units one is 24 beds and the other only 14. Plus no child inpt unit at all. Outpt you do have your own office starting 2nd year which is nice and essentially a must since you spend so much time in that setting. They do have a psych ER with 16 beds but they usually run overcapacity at about 20-25. The busy psych ER is probably the best aspect of the program facility wise. They all seem pretty proud of it, one resident even claimed it's one of only 12 psych ERs in the entire country although I tend to highly doubt the validity of that as out of the 4 places I've been so far 3 have had psych ERs. Either way though it is a nice thing to have exposure to.

Research- again an area I left feeling pretty confused about. For a while I have been under the assumption that harbor UCLA had a decent amount of research going on. The PD kind of suggested there was a split between research going on at harbor ( of which there is a fair amount) and the residency program, but said it's certainly something that can be done if residents so choose, as resources are there, and that the residency program would certainly support you financially and otherwise. However, one resident flat out told me, "we don't do research, this isn't the place to be if you want to do research you should look elsewhere". I think it can be done, but likely not till 4th year and probably not as many opportunities as other places.

Faculty: a couple highly published faculty. Residents claim all faculty are highly invested in the program and very dedicate to their patients and to teaching residents. They do have a large number of faculty that stay after completing residency, and technically all full time faculty are UCLA. Chair seems involved in residency and PD certainly seems vested and dedicated to the program, as well as proud of it. They are somewhat known as a close knit program mainly because of the faculty, and there are even rumors that the PD has covered resident call during personal emergencies before, which isn't something most places could claim.

Location/lifestyle: location is southern California and that alone is enough to draw a huge number of applicants. As far as Torrance specifically, it's not the nicest places, however it's a short drive to downtown LA and is only about 15 min from Hermosa/ Manhattan beaches which is a real nice area. Personally, I'm not sure if I'm a Cali person as LA is just so huge and overcrowded, but I know a ton of people love it.

Lifestyle- seems pretty damn good, especially if I have the call schedule right. Typical day for a pgy1 is 830-430 on the inpt unit. Typical day for pgy2 and above is 830 until whenever your outpt is work is finished, residents say no later than 430' often around 3ish. So it seems like lifestyle certainly isn't an issue, and you would likely have plenty of time to take advantage of all those moonlighting opportunities.

Benefits: no clue. This was not at all, brought up throughout my interview day. I'm guessing it's pretty standard, and can easily be looked up on freida or their website I'm sure.

Program strengths: Strong county training, if you're into that I would assume it's one of the strongest county programs in the country. Lots of outpt work, good psychotherapy training, busy psych ER, good schedule/lifestyle, tons of lucrative moonlighting.

Program weaknesses: one sided training as almost all your time is spent in the county system, research opportunities/access/time allotted on the weaker side, facilities on the edge of being decrepit, small number of beds with IMO lack of diversity, no child unit

Overall: this is a program that produces very good county system clinicians. That is what this residency is all about, they are proud of it and don't claim to be anything else. If you enjoy working with an underserved population and don't mind the facilities, this could be a perfect place for you. Personally I am looking for more diversity in a program, and honestly the dismal facilities would probably wear on me overtime.
 
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Wake Forrest Interview Review

Accommodations/food:
no hotel provided. Dinner the night before with a number of residents at a local Mexican restaurant. Breakfast provided the morning of the interview. Pizza for lunch, while you sit in on journal club.

Interview Day:
day begins around 8 with a short introduction by the PD followed by a DVD overview of the program. There is then a tour of the hospital facilities. 6 interviews follows (PD, random faculty, and residents) with lunch mixed in, during which time you sit in on journal club with the residents. The day concludes with a driving tour of Winston Salem, and ends around 3:30.

Program Overview: There was some deal breakers I learned about early on in the interview day, causing me to lose interest. Thus this review won't be as thorough as others, but from what i remember....
Curriculum-
PGY1 is the standard 4 months IM, 2months neuro, 6months gen adult inpt psych. The nice thing is all off service months including IM and neuro are outpt, and from what residents say are pretty Cush.
PGY 2 is 6 months consults/ER, and 6 months child/ ECT. The child months are all outpt, with some ECT time mixed in, although I don't remember how much time is spent with ECT. Outpt adult clinic starts this year as well.
PGY 3 is all outpt psych clinic, mostly at WFBMC, with some off site as well.
PGY4 consists of a 3 month Va selective ( which can be inpt, outpt, research anything really as long as its at the VA), 1 mo of child inpt, and 5 months elective. I really don't like to lack of inpt training. 6 total months of inpt the first 2 years seems quite low, especially for someone like myself interested in a career with that population.
Facilities- I was not impressed with the facilities, particularly the inpt unit, which is one 24 bed gen adult floor split into two units, high acuity and low acuity. However, on my interview day, census was so low that only the one unit was in operation. Cant see how you can have a psych residency with only 12 operating inpt beds. I guess that's why so much time is spent outpt, even in PGY2. The child unit was very nice and updated, I forget the number of beds, but again the census was extremely low when I was there. As far as outpt facilities, they are in the process of moving the psych department off campus, which will be in effect before the next year's class starts. I'm assuming this will be a nice facility but no way to know. A far as outpt time, you also make use of the local VA, as well as time spent at outpt centers in Mt Airy and Statesville, which could mean a decent amount of driving depending on your schedule. They used to have an affiliation with the state hospital, which likely supplemented there inpt training, but this relationship ended when the state hospital lost a certain accreditation they needed. Apparently they are in the works of getting this resolved.
Research- not very much research going on here. There is some in aging and cognitive functioning, as well as a little bit of depression work. Overall, not many opportunities, and resident involvement is slim to none. Although I was told if interested they will certainly welcome resident involvement.
Didactics- another thing I wasn't crazy about. They have a full day of didactics, however, the time isn't protected, at least not in PGY1, and from what it sounds like, you end up missing lots of lectures in your first year, as well as your consult months in PGY2. I think outpt months are good at protecting the time, which is a full day every Fri. Still, I don't really get the concept of having a full Didactic schedule and then excepting people to miss. Makes me question the strength of the didactics.
Moonlighting- Yes, however, I do not remember details.
Call- really bizarre call schedule. The only place I interviewed that has not adapted a night float system of some kind. Because of that it makes for what I consider a crazy schedule. For example, on a day that you have night call, you start you day as usual, but only work til 2p. You then have 8 hours off, come back at 10pm and work a 16hour shift til 2pm the next day. So effectively you work the am, take overnight call, work the next day and have no post all day. Makes no sense to me. I'm not sure of the call frequency, but does it really matter with such a ****ty system?
Psychotherapy- lots of outpt time, so I assume this is a program strength. I do not recall details.
Fellowships- child

Faculty: no big name or highly published faculty. The few I meet seemed like good people though, and the resident faculty interaction during journal club seemed very positive.

Location/Lifestyle: surprisingly, I found Winston Salem rather charming. Certainly a small city, but the downtown came alive on the Fri night I was there. There is also somewhat of a historic charm with old Salem and some of the other areas. There are some cool places to live like old tobacco factories that have been turned into trendy lofts, although I doubt their affordable on a residents salary. Overall, I think it would be a pretty nice place to live for a couple years, which was a surprise to me. As far as lifestyle, the bizarre call system scares me, but residents didn't complain about it, seemed happy, and a lot of residents including first years were able to attending the Pre interview dinner. So it's probably a pretty good lifestyle.

Benefits: salary is $44k-$47k, definitely on the low side.

Strengths: residents seemed happy, moonlighting allowed, Winston Salem seems like a reasonably good place to live

Weaknesses: lacking inpt facilities, focus on outpt at the expensive of inpt training, very little research, terrible call system regardless of frequency, didactics non protected

Overall Impression: not a particularly strong program in my eyes, but residents seemed happy and it would probably be a fine place for those interested in a career in outpt psych. Personally, not for me, and I don't plan on ranking it.
 
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If anyone "waiting" to post reviews has Yale, Penn, or UCSF reviews and would be fine PMing them to me, I'd be interested. Thanks.

Sorry, didn't go to any of those. I did mostly Southeast and a couple of Midwest programs. I did not go to Duke, UNC, or Emory...just FYI.

If anyone wants to discuss programs in these areas, I'm happy to do so via PM or whatever...and have done so with most of the people who are interviewing in similar areas, but if there's anyone else I've missed, I'd be happy to share data.
 
1. interview accommodations/food
No accommodation provided, no pre-interview dinner. Breakfast muffins, no fruit. Lunch in hospital, coffee with residents later in the day.

2. interview day -- (e.g. schedule, interview types, unusual questions/experiences...etc. )
PD gave tour of the wards and explained about the program, then interviewed with the Chair, Associate PD, former PD, followed by grand rounds, lunch with a chief resident, then interview with current PD, and a Chief Resident. Then there was coffee with the residents and talk with Bayview director, and then wrap-up with associate PD. Was very relaxed and informal, everyone was warm and welcoming, seemed genuinely interested and had read application – even people not interviewing me! Had some interesting discussions with faculty and grand rounds was traditional European way with a patient interview and discussion which I don’t think they do anywhere else in the US anymore.

3. Program overview
Intern year at Bayview (community hospital) including 6 months medicine all wards including 2 weeks ICU, and 4 weeks CCU; 2 months neurology (2 weeks o/p); 1 month o/p psychiatry; 3 months inpatient psych. Intense medicine, but now no overnight call no longer q3/4 overnight call so a bit more relaxed but can expect to stay until 8pm during medicine months. No call for neurology or psychiatry.
PGY2: all inpatient psychiatry rotating through 4 wards with intensive treatment, affective disorders, eating disorders, motivated behaviors, schizophrenia, geropsychiatry, neuropsychiatry, chronic pain. Start seeing outpatients
PGY-3: 2 months emergency psychiatry, 2 months C-L psychiatry, 8 months outpatient (psychodynamic, CBT, family/couples therapy, affective disorders, community (including homeless outreach), anxiety disorders, sexual disorders, HIV, forensics)
PGY-4: 4 months o/p (community, neuropsychiatry, intensive outpatient), 2 months child and adolescent, 6 months electives (clinical, research, opportunity to spend 6 months at the Maudsley Hospital/Institute of Psychiatry in London, or start MPH at Hopkins etc)

Hopkins is different to most places in that it is very much influenced by European psychiatry from the 1960s (i.e. love Jaspers, love phenomenological approach, recognise differing approaches to psychopathology, important of thorough assessment including biographical method, important of history taking and mental state examination, psychiatry has strong medical and neurological knowledge/skills, extremely self-reflexive and critical, Socratic). They are nihilistic on the one hand – don’t believe in DSM, don’t believe in biopsychosocial model, don’t believe in the explanatory power of one model of psychopathology, don’t believe hermeneutics and meaning in madness is scientific and critical of American psychoanalysts who pretended it was, don’t believe in ‘fads’ e.g. PTSD, multiple personality disorder, pediatric bipolar disorder; however they seem to have a ‘biobehavioral’ (my term) approach to other illnesses and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are ‘sacred cows’ that are viewed as diseases. I agree with much of what they say, but this is where they fall short (they are not diseases) and they have lapped up Kraepelin too easily (though most psychiatric geneticists will now tell you that there are no genes ‘for’ any mental illness, and most will admit that schizophrenia and bipolar are not diseases and they never were). They use the ‘perspectives’ approach which recognizes 4 approaches most often useful in trying to understand a patient rather than trying to say everything is a mixture of factors, or that one or two models applies to every illness.

4. Faculty
Current Chair Dr DePaulo is a bipolar disorder bigwig, very intelligent, down to earth, committed to teaching and patient care; all faculty spend 3 months on the inpatient units; PD and associate PD are nice; former Chair (Paul McHugh) who developed the perspectives approach is still floating about. He is a controversial and eccentric character, but I can’t warm to him even though he seems sweet because of his anti-gay, anti-transgender, anti-abortion stance, as well as being the Pope’s psychiatric advisor for the child abuse scandal...

There are lots of top notch people here in mood disorders, schizophrenia, consultation-liaison, neuropsychiatry, OCD, epidemiology, genetics, imaging, psychopharmacology... you name it...

5. Location, lifestyle, etc.
Baltimore – it’s not Boston or NYC, but it is not as bad as I expected. Yes there are so no go areas, but there are also some really nice parts too from what I can tell. Hard core program mind you...

6. Benefits
Pay seems a bit less than other places but Baltimore is probably cheaper than most places I interviewed; usual insurance; 4 weeks vacation;

7. Program strengths
strong commitment to teaching, excellent grand rounds, top notch faculty in almost every area, faculty are very warm, residents are friendly, amazing clinical facilities, great medical training, psychiatrists manage medical comorbidities you wouldn’t pretty much anywhere else in the US (can have IVs, transfusions etc on the psych units), diverse patient population, neuropsychiatry, HIV, consultation-liaison psychiatry, phenomenology/descriptive psychopathology, psychosexual medicine, can do elective in London (and via IoP in Eastern Europe, various African Countries, India etc for research projects – no medical voluntourism mind you except maybe medical education in Somaliland), family therapy, evidence-based psychiatry, critical thinking, will become familiar with the landmark papers in the field


8. Potential weaknesses
It will literally be over the dead bodies of some faculty members before the program is updated (format the same since the late 70s); only 6 months elective time (but you literally do almost every area of psychiatry); no VA or county hospital; no protected time in PGY-2 for o/p, less psychodynamic didactics than many top programs (but more than many), Baltimore is not the greatest city. If you want research time before PGY-4 then not for you. If you don’t like medicine, then not for you. Inpatient heavy. Don’t do child until PGY-4.

Final thoughts: This is the #1 program in the US for learning how to do a phenomenologically-based psychiatric assessment, but if you are looking to do research rather than see patients, if you are looking to relax rather than work, if you would like to uncritically sleepwalk through residency, if you would prefer a psychodynamically oriented residency, if you hate medicine or want flexibility to design your own residency then look elsewhere.
 
Hopkins is different to most places in that it is very much influenced by European psychiatry from the 1960s (i.e. love Jaspers, love phenomenological approach, recognise differing approaches to psychopathology, important of thorough assessment including biographical method, important of history taking and mental state examination, psychiatry has strong medical and neurological knowledge/skills, extremely self-reflexive and critical, Socratic). They are nihilistic on the one hand – don’t believe in DSM, don’t believe in biopsychosocial model, don’t believe in the explanatory power of one model of psychopathology, don’t believe hermeneutics and meaning in madness is scientific and critical of American psychoanalysts who pretended it was, don’t believe in ‘fads’ e.g. PTSD, multiple personality disorder, pediatric bipolar disorder; however they seem to have a ‘biobehavioral’ (my term) approach to other illnesses and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are ‘sacred cows’ that are viewed as diseases. I agree with much of what they say, but this is where they fall short (they are not diseases) and they have lapped up Kraepelin too easily (though most psychiatric geneticists will now tell you that there are no genes ‘for’ any mental illness, and most will admit that schizophrenia and bipolar are not diseases and they never were). They use the ‘perspectives’ approach which recognizes 4 approaches most often useful in trying to understand a patient rather than trying to say everything is a mixture of factors, or that one or two models applies to every illness.

I've read Jaspers and trained in phenomenology, but...do you have any "perspectives" reading material recommendations to round out my reading list?

Thanks for your great review, again.
 
The perspectives of psychiatry perhaps? (http://www.amazon.com/Perspectives-...0466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329241501&sr=8-1)

what do you mean by 'trained in phenomenology'? I have noticed American psychiatrists tend to use phenomenology in a different way than I would understand it or my friends would understand it. We often talk about the misappropriation of the term in mainstream American diagnostic psychiatry. One the one hand it can refer to the descriptive tradition in psychopathology (For this you could read Frank Fish, Kraepelin, Schneider etc), on the other it can refer to psychology/psychiatry captured through the lens of Husserl, Heidegger, Kierkergaard etc. For a more existential-phenomenological perspective you could read 'A different existence' or 'The Divided self' or 'The politics of experience'. The latter book starts out in this tradition and then seems to wander however..

If you are interested in the concept and nature of mental disorder pm me your email addy and I will send you some reading.
 
I am still skeptical of people who think they understand Jaspers (I certainly don't know what he's talking about half the time) and I am not convinced that many of these old professors who claim to understand him do - I remember all sorts of debates when I was at medical school re: the concept of ununderstandability and what did it really mean? was Jaspers sympathetic or antipathetic towards Freud? was Jaspers viewing psychosis from the perspective of a rationalist or a mysterian?

Personally the question I most often ask about Jaspers is: why couldn't he write in a more accessible style?
 
The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities is huge, and spans 3 different campuses across the cities. The main University hospital is on the East Bank (of the Mississippi river), but the psych department is on the West Bank. Other specialties located on the West bank include ortho, urology, the brilliant new children's hospital, and a small ED. Everything else is generally on the East bank, and there is a campus shuttle that goes back and forth. The psych building is kind of a free standing psych building with different psych units on different floors. Residents work in 4 of the adult units (two mood disorder/CD units and 2 psychosis units) as well as the inpatient children's unit; the others are all staffed by psych hospitalists and residents don't work with those patients. Patients get stratified somewhat randomly between the resident run wards and the hospitalist wards, but first episode psychosis patients are generally seen by the residents.

The other main training site is at the VA, which is a large, busy, tertiary care referral center for most of the mid-west. Vets report it's one of the nicest and well organized VA hospitals in the country. I've done a couple other med-student rotations here and it has its own unique set of VA pros and cons, but it's a decent place to learn.

Interview accomodations/food: This is my home program, but I think there's a University discount at the nearby Holiday Inn. The pre-interview dinner was at the Loring Pasta Bar, which is a trendy restaurant in Dinkytown, and was attended by the incoming chief resident and one other resident.

Interview Day: Interview day started at the VA. The current chief gave us a tour of the VA, and then we had coffee and scones with one of the faculty members. We then separately drove to the University, reconvened at the psych department, and then had lunch in the cafeteria with a bunch of psych residents.
I interviewed with the chairman, the program director, and the assistant program director. Each interview was about 30-45 minutes long. I had spoken to all of them in the past about my interests in psychiatry, so the interviews were all very informal and conversational. The current PD is stepping down and the assistant PD will be taking over in July. Residents report that the transition has been well thought out with no major changes taking place. They adore the old PD but are looking forward to the fresh energy the new PD will bring.

Overview - this is a very in-bred program, and almost all of the residents are from the University of Minnesota. This leads to great resident camaraderie, but possibly limits the influx of new ideas. PGYI year includes 6 months of psych, divided between the University and the VA, 3 months of medicine at the VA, one month of inpatient peds, and two months of neurology at the VA.
PGYII includes 2 months of inpatient child, 1 month of consults at the VA, 1 month of consults at the children's hospital, 1 month of ECT at the U, 1 month of geropsych at the VA, 2 months of inpatient psych, 2 months of Emergency psych, and 2 months of night float. You also start 1/2 day/week of supportive therapy PGYII.
PGY III is all outpatient, spread between the University, the VA, and a couple of community centers.
PGY IV has a forensics rotation, and lots of time for electives. There's one chief resident, and lots of residents fast track into child.

Didactics: Protected 1/2 day a week. PGY1s and 2s have lectures together, and 3s and 4s are together.

Faculty - Excellent, approachable faculty with diverse interests. Research seems to be focusing on psychosis, especially first episode psychosis, but there is research being done on eating disorders, genetics, neuroimaging, CD, and other stuff.

Location: The Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St Paul) metro area's combined population is about 3.3 million. It's a great place to live, and more diverse than you might expect. For quality of life and state resource reasons, large immigrant populations have settled here from all over the world. Gorgeous springs and summers make up for long winters.

Benefits: $49,267-$54,407 for 2012-2013. 3-4 weeks vacation/year, depending on PG level. Shared health insurance premiums. Free parking. Lots of opportunities to moonlight starting PGYII, I think you can moonlight at the VA and other locations for $125 an hour.

Strengths: Resident camaraderie, outstanding training in psychosis, high quality of life in the twin cities, child psych, supportive faculty

Drawbacks: I'm interested in CL, but strangely, the program does not have any CL rotations at the University. The two required CL rotations are at the VA and the new children's hospital. The CL rotation at the children's hospital sounds cool in theory, but the director said there is not enough volume yet. Also, there is limited training in women's health. There is no county component. Pharmacology seems to be emphasized over psychotherapy.
 
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The other Twin Cities psychiatry program. I don't have time for a comprehensive review, so I'll mention the highlights.

The program mainly has two very different sites:
HCMC is the county hospital and a level 1 trauma center that "serves the underserved" in downtown Minneapolis. I had several med-student rotations here; students love the hospital. Faculty from any of the hospital's specialties are outstanding and are here because they are dedicated to this patient population and they also love to teach. There's a high volume and variety of pathology. The program's rep is for being somewhat malignant 2/2 the heavy workload, but residents claim new ACGME rules have improved this situation, and several nurse practitioners have been hired to help with the volume. The upside is HCMC/Regions residents are extremely clinically strong, and residents who have come to the U for the child psych fellowship express that their clinical training may be better than the University's residents. They have an outstanding emergency psych center. There is a double locked ward for incarcerated patients. The hospital has amazing social workers.
Region's hospital is a tertiary care community hospital. Here you'll see some insured patients :) A new behavioral health center is being built and is scheduled to open next winter.

CL is strong at both HCMC and Regions. There's a women's mental health clinic and one of the faculty consults 1 day/week in the high risk OB/GYN clinic. Also, the program is associated with the Minnesota psychoanalytic institute; you can do an elective with them and analytically trained supervisors are available. They also have an association with Hazelden, Minnesota's well thought out CD program.

Lots of opportunities to moonlight starting PGYII. Residents can also moonlight in the ED.

Drawbacks: Not much research is currently going on, but if you're interested, you'll be supported.
 
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Cleveland Clinic
1. interview accommodations/food: Stayed at the Intercontinental on the hospital campus. Parking was valet for $14 or self park plus a short, indoor walk for $10. Dinner with four residents in the hotel restaurant the night before was excellent- gourmet, 3 course meal. Breakfast with Chair and Program Director was juice/coffee/pastries. Lunch with two residents was at the other hotel restaurant- a very nice upscale buffet.

2. interview Day- Started early with a meeting with both the Chair and the Program Director. Next got on a bus and visited Lutheran Hospital, where residents do their Inpatient Psychiatry. After getting back from Lutheran, we had a tour of Cleveland Clinic Main Campus, focusing mostly on some of the general medical units (C/L) and Neuro Units. Lunch with residents as described above. Finally, 6 20-minute interviews, including the Program Director, Vice Chair, Assistant Program Director, Psychotherapy Supervisor, and 2 more faculty. All very laid back.

3. Program overview- Pretty typical. I won't type out the entire schedule, but things that stuck out to me: 2nd year, you do 4 units of C/L. This is big at Cleveland Clinic just because of the large medicine focus. 3rd years often take time to do Chief Duties. 4th year only 3-4 blocks for electives. Research requirement during your 4 years needs to result in some scholarly piece of work- presentation, publication, etc. It seems like even though there is a requirement, they recognize that not everyone is going to be a researcher when they grow up. One of the residents I spoke to had no experience in research, but has had lot of help from her faculty mentor. It hasn't been a struggle for her. Research tends to be more clinical than bench. They plan on hiring a new Vice Chair for Research as well which will open up even more opportunities for those interested. Spoke at length to the Psychotherapy Head. Seems like they want you to be at least competent in therapeutic techniques, with further electives available if interested. You start with didactics based on techniques, then move up to observed encounters with standardized patients, and then finally carrying your own psychotherapy case load.

4. Faculty- All of my interactions were really positive. It seems like they have made a concerted effort to have a friendly working environment in contrast to the perceived image of such a large institution as Cleveland Clinic. Program Director and Chair both stressed "mentorship" and open door policy.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - It's Cleveland. Which is a plus for some and a minus for others. The residents stressed how close they are and how often they hang out.

6. Benefits- Meals are not provided, and the cafeteria is expensive. Parking is $60/month, which the residents hated.

7. Program strengths- Strong focus on consult/liaison service; lots of research opportunities if that's your thing. Program Director is energetic and open to improving on the program.

8. Potential weaknesses- multiple sites for different services, research requirement may be a turn-off for some.
 
University of Wisconsin (My memory is bad and I went on too many interviews, sorry if this sucks)

1. interview accommodations/food- free night's stay in a hotel downtown. Dinner night before was hors-douerves (SP??) with residents, faculty, program director, chair, etc, followed by evening at a local establishment with just restaurants.
2. interview day - Interviews with PD, Associate PD, 2 faculty, and 3 residents, all 30 minutes each. All were laid back and super chill. Resident interviews were 5 minutes of getting to know me, and 25 minutes of asking questions. Tour of university hospital, session on research opportunities, tour of VA. Wrap up session.
3. Program overview- Of note: you are basically doing 3 years of outpatient. You start as early as 2nd year with 4 half days /week, allowing you to have even longer continuity with your patients than other programs.
4. Faculty- "open door" policy was stressed. Also mentioned that lecturers for didactics were paid, ensuring better quality learning.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Madison- outdoorsy, midsized. Loved the lake front views. Absolutely gorgeous. Not for everyone though.
6. Benefits- Difficult remembering. I have "parking is expensive" written down.
7. Program strengths- PD and aPD were some of the nicest people I met on the trail. Residents were very happy. Entire department had very warm fuzzy, family feel.
8. Potential weaknesses- Lot of outpatient- not everyone's cup of tea.
 
Wright State (my memory is bad and I went on a million interviews. sorry if this sucks)

1. interview accommodations/food- dinner the night before. Drove in the morning of, so not sure of accomodations offered.
2. interview day- Was a weird day. I interviewed for an hour each with PD and Child/Adolescent Director. Both very nice, but an hour is a long time to fill! Apparently everyone is supposed to interview with the Chair, however he was busy my day. Lunch with 3-4 residents at local restaurant. Psychotherapy case conference in the afternoon.
3. Program overview- PD stressed WSU being a "community program" where education is first over clinical care. Being a community program, residents rotate through several (4+) hospitals, seeing a wide variety of patient populations. Very much into psychotherapy especially psychodynamic. Actual month to month schedule with nothing unusual. I got the impression that residents had it pretty easy with home calls.
4. Faculty-The one's i met were all very laid back. I imagine that if you live in Dayton, you want to be there.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. -Dayton is not the most glamorous city in the world. Some nice suburbs in the area if you're family oriented.
6. Benefits- $1000 yearly education allowance (one resident bought a TV), free food and parking at some of the hospitals. (Not just on call food- free meals, every day)
7. Program strengths- emphasis on psychotherapy, larger program (10/year)
8. Potential weaknesses- only one fellowship available (child), multiple hospitals may be seen as weakness, Dayton.
 
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Medical College of Wisconsin (Sorry if this sucks. My memory is terrible and I went on way too many interviews)

1. interview accommodations/food- Hotel reimbursement with return of receipt to department (everything except tax) Dinner night before downtown with residents.
2. interview day -- Interviews with PD, 2 faculty, and Chief Resident, each 30 minutes long. Lunch with interim chair. Tour of VA, county hospital, outpatient clinics. etc.
3. Program overview-Of note- 2nd year is all outpatient, includin 2.5 days/week of psychotherapy. Third year you finish up with your inpatient requirements.
4. Faculty-The people I met seemed nice. Interim chair situation may be a concern for some, but it sounded like he was trying to make it more permanent.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Milwaukee is not for everyone.
6. Benefits- nothing of note, either good or bad.
7. Program strengths- great deal of time devoted to pscyhotherapy. 5 fellowships offered. County Mental Health Center allows you to see some very sick people.
8. Potential weaknesses-multiple sites may be seen as a weakness. Location.
 
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Case Western (sorry if this sucks. my memory is terrible and i went on too many interviews)

1. interview accommodations/food- offered a $50 dollar credit on a $100 hotel room. I just drove in. Dinner was AFTER interview day.
2. interview day -- Interview day started at NOON with lunch and overview of program, followed by interviews with aPD, PD, and 2 residents for 30 minutes each. Tour of University Hospital and then dinner at local pizzeria
3. Program overview-Curriculum pretty typical. What stood out was 6 weeks of elective time during second year and 40 weeks of electives 4th year. It was a little strange how close they are to Cleveland Clinic (I think they share a building?).
4. Faculty- emphasized 300+ faculty with only 8 residents/ year. lots of opportunities for 1 on 1 attention, mentorship, research, etc.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Cleveland. Not my favorite C-city in Ohio, that's for sure. Low cost of living, some things to do. Some bad parts of downtown you do not want to be in at night though.
6. Benefits- Nothing that stood out, good or bad. Pretty typical
7. Program strengths- Fellowships in Child, Forensic, Gero, Addiction, Psychosomatic, as well as non-accredited ones in Community, College mental health, research and Community/addiction combo. Lots of elective opportunities to explore different specialties, and tons of faculty willing to work with you/take you on for a research project.
8. Potential weaknesses- If i remember correctly, one unit has been shipped off site, making it a drive. Has seen some change in PD's last few years, however the latest one is very capable, very nice, and very invested in the program and making her mark.
 
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University of Colorado (sorry if this sucks, my memory is poor.)

1. interview accommodations/food- Hotel was not offered. Stayed with an alumni connection. Dinner the night before at a nice mexican place.
2. interview day -- Day started with a welcome/overview from APD. Apparently he and PD trade off interview days. Had interviews with APD, 1 faculty, 1 PGY2 and the Chief Resident, all 30-50 minutes in length.. Warning: see who you're interviewing with in the afternoon. If it's a resident who's also attending lunch, do NOT sit by him at lunch. You will have a great time chatting at lunch, and have nothing to talk about during your interview. It will then be the most awkward 40 minutes of your life. Tour of a variety of clinical sites that I remember nothing of.
3. Program overview- So this place has taken a lot of flak about being "malignant". I did not get this sense at all. Yes, the residents work hard. Yes, one of the residents I met had some minor disagreements with leadership. That being said, everyone I talked to was very happy to be there. The actual program was pretty typical, schedule wise. Of note, there are 2-4 months of electives during second years. There is a child interest track available that is more Peds/ Ped-neuro/ Child Psych Outpatient heavy.
4. Faculty- very large faculty with multiple specialties represented. The one's I met were very friendly. The Chair is the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Psychiatry btw.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Residents were all very down to earth and active. Denver is an awesome city for the outdoorsy type, but downtown also has the metropolitan feel others prefer.
6. Benefits
7. Program strengths- fellowships offered in Child, Addiction, Forensic, and Psychosomatic. Education seemed very sound, with a heavy focus on therapy. Large department a variety of different experiences and resources available to residents.
8. Potential weaknesses- Residents work hard, but this is certainly not malignant by any means. Inpatient sites were recently moved to Denver Health--> more driving.
 
Maine Medical Center (please excuse my brevity, this occurred months ago)

1. interview accommodations/food- put me up in an awesome bed and breakfast within walking distance of interview day.
2. interview day --get ready... get ready... 7 interviews. 1 with PD for an hour, 3 with faculty, 30 minutes each, 3 with a Chief, a Senior, and a PGY3, 30 minutes each. Longest day of your life, punctuated by lunch. Get some sleep the night before.
3. Program overview- curriculum seemed pretty typical. Good emphasis on psychotherapy. Less elective time, but they expose you to every specialty pretty early. Residents all very happy.
4. Faculty- I liked everyone I met. Residents commented on openness and availability. PD was a good guy.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Portland seemed like your typical sleepy new england town. Right on the water. Downtown area very artsy/foodie/walkable.
6. Benefits- pretty standard
7. Program strengths- very open friendly department, nice facilities. MMC is a huge presence in the community.
8. Potential weaknesses - at 5 per year, probably a little to small for me. The feel/size of town is not for everyone. Patient population perhaps not as diverse as other places. Only one fellowship- Child.
 
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UMass (i don't remember much sorry...)

1. interview accommodations/food- No accommodations provided, stayed with alumni connection. Dinner was at the end of the interview day.
2. interview day -Tour, intro by PD, interview with APD (30), Lunch, Interview with PD (30), interview with 3 more faculty (30). PD was a very nice guy, invested in the residents and the program. Chair relatively new (i think?), pulled us aside and asked us about our long term career goals and how UMass can help with them. Pretty long day.
3. Program overview- standard curriculum. Outpatient therapy starts during 2nd year. Research is not required, but there are many opportunities to get involved.. Fellowships available in child, forensic, addiction, neuropsychiatry, and psychopharm.
4. Faculty- those i met were super chill. Over 300 faculty. Residents and PD stressed open environment and collegiality.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Worcester is in the middle of nowhere, which is quite unfortunate, because this is otherwise a strong program with good training and lots of resources.
6. Benefits- standard fare. Some money for conferences/books available.
7. Program strengths- Very large department for the size of residency. Opportunities in research are plenty. State Psych Hospital Experience.
8. Potential weaknesses- size of program could be a bit of a detriment. Location not ideal.
 
St. Luke's Roosevelt
1. interview accommodations/food- No accommodations, stayed with a friend. Breakfast and lunch provided day of.
2. interview day -- Intro from PD, tour of the St. Luke's facilities, but not the Roosevelt Facilities. Interview with APD and one faculty, each 45 minutes. Lunch with residents across the street at this nice Buffet on Columbia's Campus. 5 minute individual wrap up sessions with PD.
3. Program overview- month to month schedule pretty typical. Outpatient starts your second year with a half a day / week of continuity clinic. APD invested in psychotherapy and residents felt they had ample supervision.
4. Faculty- PD was a very laid back jovial guy. At the beginning of the morning he told us how the ranking process worked on his side, and that second looks, thank you cards DID NOT MATTER. It's nice that he cut out all the BS that goes into the match process. I really liked that he was a straight talker. APD is young and energetic. Had a great time talking with him. Seemed invested in residents getting good therapy training.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. -It's manhattan, you take the good with the bad. Two different locations- Subsidized housing by both hospitals( St. Luke's in Morningside Heights near Columbia, Roosevelt in Midtown) helps a little.
6. Benefits- Higher pay than other new york programs, subsidized housing
7. Program strengths- Diverse patient populations with two hospitals in two very different neighborhoods, Straight shooting PD and really young, energetic APD, good group of residents who all seemed extremely happy.
8. Potential weaknesses- less fellowship opportunities- Child and Psychosomatic, with some more at Columbia. NOT a place to do research. Facilities are older, but workable. It's New York. Two hospitals = more calls overall.

I almost didn't go on my interview here. My advisor knew nothing about them, and their website left me with lots of questions. I was pleasantly surprised and ended up ranking highly. To next years applicants- Go! See for yourself.
 
Beth Israel NY (pardon my brevity... and my memory.)

1. interview accommodations/food- no accommodations, stayed with a friend. Breakfast and Lunch provided during the day.
2. interview day -- Short day: Overview with PD, Tour, Interview with PD and 1 faculty, 45 minutes each. Lunch. Individual wrap up session.
3. Program overview- month to month schedule pretty standard. Pretty balanced training with therapy beginning during second year. There is a required research project which I know is a turn off for some people. Fellowships include Gero, Addiction, C/L, and Child.
4. Faculty- Both PD and the faculty I met were very down to earth and laid back. I got the sense that the department was very open.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Make sure you want to live in new york. Very cool part of town with subsidized housing very close by.
6. Benefits- subsidized housing, some money for books
7. Program strengths- diverse patient population, fun group of residents, location obviously, subsidized housing
8. Potential weaknesses - research requirement, cost of living
 
Hopkins

1. interview accommodations/food: No accommodations provided. No dinner with the residents or faculty. Lunch at a little restaurant in the hospital. Get the crab cake sandwich. Coffee in the afternoon.

2. interview day: One of the smaller interview days, I think there were only two other applicants interviewing the same day as me. Brief talk from the PD. Tour of the various wards. Pretty standard stuff really. Interviewers were generally friendly and easy to talk to. Dr. DePaulo seems like a really energetic and exciting department chair. The PD was a little bit standoffish by comparison.

3. Program overview: Intern year medicine is at Bayview Hospital with Bayview residents. Mentioned that this was done to "protect" the psych residents. 6 weeks of ICU in intern year. Emergency psych in 3rd year "so that you have an understanding of psychiatry before you try to evaluate psych problems". On inpatient psych, residents don't write notes, only put in orders. Only 6 months of elective time, all fourth year. Some outpatient exposure in 1st year. No tracks (research, educator, etc.) Everyone does the same thing. This philosophy also seems to apply to faculty in that everyone attends on the inpatient wards, which is nice. Want to train you to become a "physician and a psychiatrist", which seemed strange to me, like being a psychiatrist wasn't good enough. Repeatedly said that they view psychiatry as a subspecialty of internal medicine. I met three senior residents. One had transfered from another specialty at Hopkins, one had transferred in at PGY3 and the third was transferring out after PGY 3 to do child somewhere else. This did not give me a good vibe. Was told by PD that "research is for your fellowship".

4. Faculty: Seemed fine. However, given the rigidity of the program I am not sure it is easy to get access to many of the world class faculty to do research, etc.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc: The area around the hospital is quite nice, but its not far from some sketchy areas. Plenty of security around the hospital. People said they feel safe. Affordable city with some really nice areas that are within reach on a resident's salary.

6. Benefits: Two two week blocks of vacation intern year, 4 one week blocks after that*. 47K for intern year. Health, dental, etc.

7. Program strengths: Rigorous medical training. Get to work with top quality attendings. Diverse patient exposure with specialized wards, community patients, and people who come from far away for the name.

8. Program weaknesses: Less flexibility than most programs. Unclear how the department is thought of by other departments in the hospital. Not warm and fuzzy. Baltimore, for some people. Do not write notes on IP.

*corrected
 
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University of Maryland/ Sheppard Pratt
1. interview accommodations/food- no accommodations, stayed with a friend. Dinner the night before was hands down the best meal I had all season long.
2. interview day -- Breakfast and overview with PD. Interviews with 2 faculty, 30 minutes each. Tour of the Sheppard Pratt Hospital + Sit down talk with it's director. Lunch, tour of Maryland Medical Campus, wrap ups with PD.
3. Program overview- Pretty standard schedule. Residents rotate through a variety of hospitals (UMMC, VA, Sheppard Pratt, Springfield Hospital, Mercy Medical Center, etc) with a broad range of patients and pathology. Residents start outpatient during second year with good training in psychotherapy. Large program in large department with fellowships in forensics, child, consult, addiction, gero, community, etc.
4. Faculty-the two faculty I met were very nice. I was very impressed with the PD. Although I did not have an interview with him, during the morning welcome, he already knew our names and something about each of us (there were 7 or 8 of us). It probably took him an extra 10 minutes, but I appreciate it.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. -Baltimore- not a bad town. Cost of living is affordable and you are easily connected to the rest of the east coast through train.
6. Benefits- pretty typical. nothing that stood out, either good or bad.
7. Program strengths- one of the stronger programs I went to, both in academics and clinical training. Residents had a world of resources and seemed genuinely happy. Several fellowships. Large program, residents were down to earth.
8. Potential weaknesses- location is not for everyone.
 
Rush Unviersity

1. interview accommodations/food- No accommodations, stayed with a friend. Dinner the night before with residents, PD, chair, and a few faculty... which was a new experience for me.
2. interview day -- Morning started with case conference with Dr. Goldberg, their psychodynamic rockstar. Interviews with 3 faculty, 30 minutes each. Met with PD for info session. Lunch and tour of medical center. PBL type thing at the end of the day.
3. Program overview- Seemed pretty balanced with good psychotherapy training. Residents all seemed really happy. My memory is kind of fuzzy but I thinnnnnnnk they are doing an integrated inpatient/outpatient thing that lasts through 2nd and 3rd year. Interesting at least. One fellowship- Child.
4. Faculty- I liked the one's I met. They have this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Goldberg which is pretty cool. The residents all spoke really highly of him and how good he was with teaching.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Great location in Chicago.
6. Benefits- seemed pretty typical. nothing of note.
7. Program strengths- residents were down to earth and fun, awesome therapy training, new hospital is gorgeous. Diverse patient population
8. Potential weaknesses - only 1 fellowship, the new changes to 2nd and 3rd year are interesting to say the least. I'm not sure how it'll play out.
 
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UIC

1. interview accommodations/food- no accommodations, dinner the previous night with residents
2. interview day -- Welcome and INtro with PD, interviews with PD and 3 faculty, 30-45 minutes each, lunch with residents, tour of facilities.
3. Program overview-seemed like a good balanced program. inpatient is divided into 4 different teams: women's, psychotic, mood/anxiety, and neuropsychiatry. Kind of an interesting approach. Also a State run child inpatient unit. Apparently these kids are intense! Therapy starts second year. People have talked about how research focused they are. I did not get that. The PD emphasized the parts of UIC that I was looking for: a broad patient population with diverse psychopathology coupled with balanced training.
4. Faculty- PD was a nice guy who the residents all spoke highly of. Very open to feedback about the program and making improvements. Other faculty I met were very devoted to the program and invested in teaching.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - Chicago is an awesome city. Residents were happy and were living comfortably.
6. Benefits- some money for books available. otherwise nothing of note.
7. Program strengths- Diverse patient population with good balanced education. Fellowships available in child, women's, addiction, neuropsychiatry, and PRIME (which I guess is like C/L?) Research opportunities available, but not required.
 
University of Chicago

1. interview accommodations/food- no accomodations, dinner the night before
2. interview day --overview with PD. Tour. faculty interview 30 minutes, Senior resident interivew 30 minutes, PD interview 30 minutes, Lunch with residents, faculty interview 30 minutes.
3. Program overview- apparently this program in the past has had some turmoil, but I feel the program director has done a good job strengthening and improving the program. She was very open and honest about the past and fielded all of my questions without hesitation. Schedule is pretty typical. Sounds like medicine months at U of C are intense. Inpatient psychiatry is unfortunately a bit of a drive away... Mercy Hospital is in the city, but Northshore Unviersity Helath System is up in Evanston. Two very different patient populations though. 4th year year is very elective heavy and you can coordinate your own if you'd like. Fellowships available in child and consult. There is a research requirement which may be a drawback for some.
4. Faculty- PD was very warm and inviting. Got a really good feel from her. Committed to continual improvement of the program.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - South side of chicago apparently is a bit rough at times. Most residents don't live near campus. Chicago is awesome though.
6. Benefits
7. Program strengths- U of C is a huge medical center which is great for C/L. I wrote down "moonight calls" too... I think you can take on extra calls and get paid for it 4th year but I'm not sure.
8. Potential weaknesses-not as many fellowships. One of the inpatient psych units is a pretty long drive. Smaller program, which isn't really my thing.
 
Duke

1. interview accommodations/food: No accommodations provided. There was a dinner the night before.

2. interview day: Three faculty, PD, and chief resident. Tour of the facilities. My interview day seemed really disjointed and disorganized. One person missed an interview because the staff forgot about him. There was confusion about where to be and when.

3. Program overview: Intern year schedule was apparently quite rough this year. 7am to 7 pm six days a week. Even the PD admitted that by the end of the year the interns were "dragging". They've tried to address these concerns by changing a month of neuro to outpatient, a month of inpatient medicine to outpatient, capping IP psych patients at 7, and doing some night float at Duke instead of at the VA. As other people have posted, this is nice and shows that they are responsive to concerns from the residents, but also doesn't really change the thing that people were complaining about. Didactics are set up as a half day (I think thursday). PGY2 is 6 months at Central Regional Hospital which is a bit of a drive. This site is shared with UNC. The rest of PGY2 is CL, IP, Addictions, Emergency at Duke or VA. 1/2 day of outpatient. PGY3/4 are selectives/electives, OP Neuro, community psych, family studies etc. They are "revamping" their neuroscience curriculum.


4. Faculty: PD is very nice and a bit quirky. She has a treadmill at her desk, if that makes sense. The head of CAP also seems like a nice and funny guy. Plenty of impressive researchers here as well.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc: The weather is pretty nice in Durham, relative to many other eastern programs. The city itself seemed kinda blah to me, but I had a very limited exposure to it.

6. Benefits: 47K for intern year. Health, dental, etc.

7. Program strengths: Research, family studies program, flexibility, many people speak highly of the area. I liked the residents I met here. International training opportunities.

8. Program weaknesses: Possibly unhappy interns. By faculty's own admission, not particularly strong in one particular subspecialty that I am interested in. The administration seemed pretty disorganized, not just during the interview day but even during the followup. Not fully EMR'd yet. Not really sure about education/service balance here.
 
Case Western (Sorry for being so late, just didn't get around to it!)

1. Interview accommodations/food- This was a bit annoying, as they changed the time of the interview about a week before the time. This meant I had to wake up in North Carolina at 2h30am to make it there in time. As such, I didn't even spend a night in Cleveland! The food at the actual interview, however, was good!

2. Interview day- Small group of interviewees (four). Had usual overview, then three, extremely relaxed interviews. PD and assistant PD extremely nice and helpful. Then tour of University Hospitals - beautiful building, with really great units, but unfortunately only the site for CAP and IM. Didn't get to see adult inpatient units, which are off campus.

3. Program overview- Strong community focus, and good psychotherapy training. The research infrastructure did not appear to be extensive, although I think one would receive good support from the PD if you showed an interest. Neuroscience appears to be far more integrated with the neurology department.

4. Faculty - The PD drew attention to the expertise in psycho-sexual disorders, which is rather unique. Also good mentors for anyone with an interest in bioethics.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - The Cleveland International Piano competition is awesome, and the PD can get you to meet some of the participants. Thats sort of all I remember.

6. Benefits- I got the idea that the salary, at around $50k, wouldn't go quite as far as down south, where salaries are similar. Otherwise benefits pretty standard.

7. Program strengths- good psychotherapy, good experience in psycho-sexual disorders. Lots of elective opportunities, excellent CAP units. Extremely friendly program director (the Grace Thrall of the north, I would say!)

8. Potential weaknesses- not a ton of research; adult units not on campus.
 
WPIC

1. interview accommodations/food: No accommodations provided. Dinner with residents the night before the interview day.

2. interview day: Larger interview day. Orientation the evening before. I met with two residents, PD, the chair, three faculty. Also a Q and A session with the chair. Pretty typical day, with some downtime mixed in.

3. Program overview: The details are on the website ( http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/education/residency_training/ADULT_PGYs.htm). In general, this place seems like a machine for pumping out research and researchers. They have an amazing and intense mentoring program that requires multiple rounds of internal review before you are allowed to submit a K award application. This probably explains their amazing success rate, but also might make it difficult to do things your own way. While people wait for their grants to be funded, they are funneled into one of the many T32 fellowships. On the clinical side of things, the residents had no complaints about their therapy training. The residents did note that the Department of Psychiatry and WPIC are not the same entity. They seemed to like the Dept but had some complaints about WPIC being a "nurse-run hospital". I heard a few stories about attendings being stonewalled and possibly overridden by nursing staff. WPIC and the DEC (the psych ER) are high volume places, but they certainly are not the fanciest facilities I have seen.

4. Faculty: The PD seems great, I think he was my favorite PD I met while interviewing. He's British, earthy, and informal. There are tons of high powered researchers doing some pretty impressive work in almost any kind of research imaginable.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc: Lower salary (49k to start), but Pittsburgh is super cheap and a graduate of this program told me that he was making over 100K PGY4 with moonlighting. I liked the city of Pittsburgh.

6. Benefits: 12 days vacation PGY1 then 17 after that. Benefits seem really good, 50% match to retirement up to 4% of salary. Full health, etc.

7. Program strengths: If you interview there, they will give you a book (http://www.amazon.com/American-Hand...8840/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1330487645&sr=8-3), which is a 33$ value right there. Can moonlight PGY2. WPIC is a massive hospital with something like 300 beds. Research and training of future researchers, including a well established research track that allows for publication during residency.

8. Program weaknesses: Pittsburgh, to some (including some of the residents I met). Not that much vacation time. May be too structured for some.

In conclusion, I think this is a great (possibly the best) program for people who are interested in research.
 
Indiana University

1. interview accommodations/food: Accommodations provided at Conrad Hotel in Downtown Indy. Gorgeous hotel, and probably the best place I stayed during the whole season. There is a flat screen TV in the freaking bathroom, to give you an idea of the scale of this place. Also, it's right downtown, so it's connected to all the shopping and restaurants by the cool walkways. Fun times. Dinner at Weber Grill, which is the flagship restaurant for the company that makes, well, Weber Grills. Pretty good, if a bit ho-hum american food. About 2 PGY-1's and 1 PGY-3, with 4 applicants. Residents spoke openly about the program, with high praise.

2. interview day: Morning orientation from the interim chair (who is a lifer at Indy and loved by everyone. He may wind up taking over permanently if they can convince him to not retire. Dept. has grown under his leadership. Everyone seems to want him to stay and he seems in no rush to leave. No real concern about his departure since everyone (faculty and residents) trusts the current leadership to find someone awesome to be the new chair, when they need to...but their search doesn't seem very pressing right now, lol. Interviews with PD, 2 faculty, and a resident, followed by tour. Low pressure interviews. Toured University Hospital, VA Hospital (nice new psych ward like at many VA's), and Children's Hospital (amazing place). Didn't go to the County Hospital (which they're currently building a brand new version of, to be completed in 2013).

3. Program overview: See website: http://psychiatry.medicine.iu.edu/education-residency-programs/psychiatry-residency/

PGY-1:

IM or Peds: 3 months. Can't mix and match, they think this leads to poor training in both, which I probably agree with, despite the pain 3 months of IM brings. IM is basically q4 short call, 70h weeks. Typical IM, hard working but not malignant.

Neuro: 2 months. Neuro rotations are well liked by residents. Apparently, neuro department tries hard to convince you to switch over, hahaha. Schedule is reasonable, but don't remember the details.

Psych: 6 months inpatient (3 county, 3 VA). Intern psych call is q week short call. No nights or weekends. 2nd year call is 5-6 overnight calls a month.

PGY-2: 12 weeks at state hospital (different units). Then 1 month each of Forensics, Geri, EM Psych, Child, C-L, Addictions. 5-6 overnight calls a month. 1/2 day per week continuity care clinic. Child here seems particularly awesome with the Children's hospital and a great child PD. C-L is also busy and well liked.

PGY-3: All adult outpatient clinics. Minimal call, backup. 2nd years really get slammed with the call, which is fine.

PGY-4: I don't care since I'm going into child, hahaha. Sorry!

Lots of research to get into if that's your thing. New building being built to house all "brain related" departments: Psych, Neuro, and Neurosurgery. It will actually be located a bit away from the main campus on the monorail line (yes IU hospitals has their own freaking monorail), and it's not clear at this point how that will affect things...the guess is minimally for us. I think the faculty offices and outpatient psych might move to the new building? Not sure really. Either way, not a big deal.

4. Faculty: Liked the PD, and all faculty I met were awesome. Everyone in Indy generally is quite friendly, from the faculty, down to the salespeople at the stores.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc: I was very pleasantly surprised by Indianapolis. It's got a really nice, thriving downtown (anyone watch the 2012 Super Bowl?). Professional Sports: NFL (Colts), NBA (Pacers), Indy 500, and a big Motorcycle Race that happens at the Indy Speedway also. Great nightlife in a few different parts of downtown. One of the best (and THE biggest) Children's Museums in the country. Headquarters of Drum Corps International (DCI), and the football stadium is the site of the yearly DCI championship and the National Marching Band Championship. Very active and good Indianapolis Symphony, frequent broadway shows and concerts. Indy Zoo is apparently awesome, as is the Riverwalk area downtown. Large greenway trail system with miles and mies of urban greenway trails, bike paths, etc. Carmel, Indiana is regularly rated as one of the best places to live, with great schools (but BIG...high school has an indoor pool and it's own PLANETARIUM), low to no crime, an amazing park trail system, and their new flagship concert hall, widely regarded as one of the best in the country. Many other livable suburbs (Plainfield, Greenwood, etc) for those of us with families. Downtown is so awesome, I'd even consider living down there.

Location Negatives: Indy is rather large, so suburb living can mean a long commute, although traffic isn't that bad for a city of this size. They could definitely use a rail line out to Carmel at least, though...which is being discussed and is probably likely to come sooner than later. Weather can suck, but it's not as bad as you expect it to be. Check www.city-data.com for weather stats. Some crime, but again about average for this size city, and parts of the city we'd go to are pretty good.

6. Benefits: Salary: $48956. Middle of the pack. 21 days vacation PGY-1 and 2. 28 days PGY-3 and 4. Anthem BCBS Insurance for you and dependents. $350 deductible, $25 copay, $10 generics. 20k life insurance. $6 per on call meal. IU credit union has a "resident special" 3/3 ARM mortgage (I'd skip this with our current low interest rates), Awesome gym for $15/mo.

7. Program strengths: Great diversity of patients. Residents seem VERY well trained with all the different sites, exposure, etc. You would come out of here as a bad*****, able to handle anything, anywhere, anytime. Nice people, residents had lives, happiness factor. Good 2nd year subspecialty rotation diversity. Strong therapy training, maybe a bit too psychodynamic, but what do I know about that. High pay moonlighting available. A facility about 45min south of Indy pays >3k for weekend call. Woot.

8. Program weaknesses: Multiple facilities means different systems to learn, and some walking (although all are on the same large city block, except that state hospital which is 5 min away or so). Off psych months may be tougher than some other places I went to. Big city life not for everyone. Far from coasts and mountains for people who like that sort of thing. On the slightly colder side of things, but it's not Milwaukee, hahaha.

Conclusion: Awesome place. Probably my favorite PROGRAM of all the places I interviewed. It dropped to #4 on our list mostly due to location, city size, and fit for my family, and #'s 1-3 were VERY close behind it. I truly believe that if you want great training, and want to be able to handle any problem or setting, you should go here.
 
Columbia

1. interview accommodations/food: No accommodations provided. Dinner with residents the night after the interview day.

2. interview day: Short interview day, I was in the morning session and we were done by 1 PM. Only four interviews and a tour. Additional day for research interviews.

3. Program overview: The details are on the website (http://columbiapsychiatry.org/residency/overview). There is some variability in PGY 1, not everyone does ICU and it may be that there are a few different hospitals that you can be at for internal medicine. On medicine the cap is 10 and "you are always at cap". Do geropsych, child, addictions, and inpatient psych during PGY 1. Psychiatry is divided between NY Presbyterian and NYSPI which is a state run facility for underserved patients. NYSPI is actually pretty nice and NYP is also as nice as you would expect it to be. Pick up long term psychoanalysis patients in PGY 2. PGY 3 is mostly outpatient, with some night float and elective. PGY 4 is mostly elective with some outpatient.


4. Faculty: Clinical faculty seem good, although I don't really know how to judge someone as a psychiatrist and teacher from a short interview. Did not meet chair. Great core of basic science research.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc: NYC. The boring, but cheap, part of Manhattan. By PGY 3/4 residents live as far away as Brooklyn,but early on most live near the hospital or on the Upper West Side.

6. Benefits: Low salary to start for NYC (55) but jumps dramatically after PGY 2, so that by PGY 4 you get 84K. Four weeks vacation.

7. Program strengths: Doing child during PGY1 is nice. Combination of two different but adjacent training sites is great for getting vast exposure during training. The residents put together some nice inserts for the folder they give you when you visit. These include relocation guides to NYC neighborhoods with typical rents residents have been paying and a list of where everyone is from so that people don't assume it's all east coast types. CPEP (a psych ER that can hold people for 72 hours). NYC.

8. Program weaknesses: Many of the residents complained about the administrative hurdles at Columbia. They also said that there are great opportunities but you really need to "sell yourself" to get anywhere there. Pay not commensurate with NYC cost of living for the first two years. Residents said that there was a reputation that Columbia was "cold'. While most of the people I met did not fit this stereotype, there were a few who did. NYC (Washington heights particularly).
 
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UNC Interview Review

Accommodations/food: No hotel provided. Pre interview dinner with a couple of residents at a little Italian place with good food. Breakfast the morning of the interview and catered lunch with a number of residents.

Interview Day: Day beings at 8:30 with an introduction and Q&A with the chiefs. Following that is an hour long program overview with the PD. Three 30 min interviews follow, one with the PD, one with a faculty member, one with a chief resident. All interviews very laid back and conversational, no weird questions or psychoanalyzing. Lunch and a tour of the neurosciences hospital follow. You then have a group meeting with one of the big wigs (usually psychiatry chair), and day concludes with a wrap up with the PD ending between 3 and 3:30.

Program Overview
: 
Curriculum: is significantly different here than at most places. PGY1 is pretty standard with 13 4 week blocks and consists of 4 blocks of IM (2 at the state psych hospital CRH, and 2 with the Family Med team at UNC hospital), 1 block of inpt neuro, 7 blocks of inpt psych (3 gen adult at CRH, 4 at UNC: 2 psychosis, 1 gen adult, 1 adolescent), and 1 block psych ER which is night float. PGY2 is where the variation begins, as here your second year is your outpatient year. Your outpt time is split between gen adult, geri, schizophrenia, community, child, and an elective specialty clinic. The majority of outpt clinic is at UNC, although some (ie community) may be offsite. They even have opportunities to do some very far off site time, where they fly you to the sites for a day. (No joke. The PD mentioned this, and I thought it was one of those bogus things that are possible but never done, until a spoke with a resident who said he did this and 1 day a week flew to some rural NC area. Crazy. ) Again you have 1 month of night float, however, it is split into 4 separate 1 week periods scattered throughout the year. PGY 3, which is all at UNC hospital, you go back to inpt psych and have 3 months of geri (including 1 straight geri, 1 split with ECT, and 1 split with perinatal), 1 mo gen adult, 1 mo child, 1 mo eating d/o, 3 months C/L, 1 month psych ER pseudo night float (3p-midnight), and 2 months outpt neuro. All these are considered ¾ time rotations and approximately 10 hours/wk of continuity clinic persists this year. PGY 4 again has 10 hours/wk of continuity clinic, 3 blocks of junior attending electives, 8 hours of community psych (although it appears this can be used for a number of things including research and administration), and the remainer of the time being elective. 
Facilities: The majority of your time is spent at the UNC neurosciences hospital, which is very new and quite nice. It consists of 7 distinct psych units; acute crisis/gen adult 15 bed, psychosis 18 bed, geri 15 bed, child 8 bed, adolescent 10 bed, eating d/o 10 bed, and perinatal (which only consists of a 3 bed unit but they say is the only dedicated perinatal psych unit in the country). It’s a pretty impressive facility, and personally I really like the specialized units. The outpt clinics are also in the neurosciences hospital (which is effectively a psych hospital with 1 floor dedicated to neuro). You also spend some time (3-4 months PGY1 and elective opportunities) at the brand new state hospital, Central Regional Hospital, which is also a site for Duke psychiatry. This is supposedly an amazing 300+ bed facility, although unfortunately I did not get to see it on either my interview here or at Duke as its 20-30 min away from either campus. 
Call: UNC used to have the reputation of a killer call schedule (q4 all 12 months of intern year), however, due to duty hour regulations they have completely revamped the call schedule and IMO it is not bad at all. I’d even say its on the lighter side of the contimuim, at least of the places I’ve looked. PGY1 is 1 month of night float split into two 2 week blocks, plus the following. If you are at University hospital you also have one 12 hour Sat shift, either day or night, every other weekend, and NO during the week call. If you are at CRH you have 2-3 short calls per week, staying til 8 pm, but no NO weekend call. In PGY 2 you again have one month of night float, this time split into four separate 1 week blocks. You also have overnight call q12-13, which is either weekday or weekend overnights with a post call day. Which to me adds up to a lot of free weekends. PGY 3 has 1 more month of pseudo night float (3p-midnight) split into 2 week blocks, otherwise there is no call, but there is weekend rounding approximately q8-10 weekends, which consists of morning rounding only and no pager/overnight responsibilities. PGY4 has no ‘call’ but weekend rounding again approximately q8-10 weekends with parameters as in PGY3. Overall, not too bad at all.
Research: tons of research going on, #11 in NIH psych funding. Research in virtually every area of psychiatry, I’m interested in psychosis research, so in terms of that there is plenty from bench to neuroimaging, to clinic drugs trials and outcome trails, as well as a number of first break studies and some cool perinatal studies with neuroimaging. Lots of cool stuff here. There is a research track, which begins in PGY1 with statement of interest and identification of a mentor. You then have ½ day per week in PGY2 dedicated to research, and a half day per week dedicated in PGY3 with the potential of an additional elective month. PGY 4 can be 80% dedicate to your research. However, if you are not interested in research then none is required, including no required scholarly project.
Psychotherapy- focus on insight oriented psychodynamic psychotherapy and CBT. These seem to be the only 2 psychotherapies emphasized. Lots of time to do it, with the outpt year beginning a year earlier than most places. As far as supervision, your psychoanalytical supervision is mostly just didactics and case discussion. CBT is mostly didactics and case discussion along with some audio taped session review. No direct observation, or one way mirrors or the like. Residents seemed pretty satisfied with the psychotherapy training, however, if its your things and you know you want to do it for a career the lack of breadth in training (with focus just on the 2 modalities) could be a weakness. 
Didactics- dedicated ½ day a week, being one afternoon. Also, during the outpt year there is dedicated ½ hour of didactics in the speciality of whichever clinic you are having that day. Residents seemed pretty happy with didactics, and seemed to agree that the program is a good balance of teaching and service. One somewhat unique thing about didactics is the time is supposedly protected all year PGY1, even during your off service months. Which is a small point, but a point none the less (and likely would be a welcomed break on those medicine months). 
Moonlighting- available starting second year. It is pseudo in house, as its at CRH. Both weekday short shifts (5p-10p) and weekend long shifts are available. Doesn’t pay very well for moonlighting, about $55 an hour, but its nice to have the option available at a facility that you are familiar with. It appears lots of people moonlight, and there is more desire than there is availablitity, however they say you can average about 20 hours a month if you desire, which isn’t bad. They are also apparently working on setting up another site which should pay significantly better. Bottom line is; its available, starts early, and is relatively inhouse. A plus in my book.

Faculty: This is always a hard topic for me to comment on. They faculty I met seemed great, and residents had good things to say about faculty and their desire/willingness to teach and be actively involved in the residency. Not really sure what else to add.
Location/Lifestyle: The hospital is located right on the undergraduate campus, and Chapel hill is a very nice college town, if that’s what you are looking for you will be very happy with the location. Most residents live in Durham, which is about 15-25 min away and is much cheaper to live in, particularly if you are interested in buying a home. I’m not terribly familiar with either Durham or Chapel Hill, but both areas seem like favorable places to live. Chapel Hill apparently has great schools, and Durham is more of a young singles area. Raleigh is less than 30 min away, and being in the research triangle is probably a good place to be for families and singles alike. 
As far as lifestyle, it seems pretty good. Residents make a point to say that you stay busy when you work, but that hours aren’t terrible. They claim its pretty common to have some very long days at the beginning of your intern year, but after you get familiar with the system and become efficient most rotation days are approximately 7:30-5:30. Certainly not short days, but with the reasonable call schedule, and (most importantly for me) plenty of free weekends, it seems you can have a very good work life balance. I think this is supported by the number of people who are able and choose to moonlight.

Benefits: Salary is $47k-$51k; pretty standard and other benefits I believe are also pretty standard, and I believe the cost of living is pretty reasonable.

Strengths: Strong academic program with a non-ivy but still relatively big name; tons of research particularly in my areas of interest.; located in a nice college town; a nice new stand alone psych hospital with specialty units; moonlighting starting second year with decent availability; happy residents with a non cush, but reasonable work schedule; reasonable call with lots of free weekends even in PGY1; seemed like a genuinely congenial and pleasant environment

Weaknesses: Psychotherapy training limited to two modalities and doesn’t seem particularly strong; 4 months of medicine wards, which seem intense even though your with the FM team; I got the impression that the social work wasn’t as great as at some other places which has the potential to leave you doing some bs work (although I was assured you would not be turned into a social worker); not near as much elective time compared to most places

Overall Impression: A great program that has everything I am looking for (stand alone psych hospital with specialty units, lots of schizophrenia research, congenial environment, and moonlighting opportunites). It is certainly going to end up very high on my list.
 
WPIC interview review

I'll preface this review by saying that I did a visiting rotation at WPIC, so the information here is a combination of what I learned on my interview day plus the time I spent rotating there.

Accommodations/ Food: no hotel provided but they give you a couple of recommendations for places nearby. *Pre interview dinner the night before which is awesome. *They rent out the restaurant so you have it all to yourselves, and they serve an incredible something like 7 course meal, with wine picked out by the PD ( which I thought was a nice touch). *Breakfast and lunch the day of the interview provided, during which time you have further chances to meet additional faculty and residents.

Interview day: *day begins at 8am with a meet and great / Q&A with the department chair. You then have breakfast, followed by 6 interviews (PD, other faculty, and residents) a Q&A with the director of the research track, , and lunch scattered in at one point. *The day wraps up around 2:30. *No anxiety producing interviews, mostly conversational, although some more traditional interview-esque. *

Program overview: this program is really a power house on a lot of levels. *
Facilities- WPIC is a very impressive freestanding psych hospital (attached to the general hospital by an underground tunnel), currently consisting of 289 psych beds, with expansion to 310 by early summer. *They have speciality units for pretty much everything (mood d/o, psychosis, psychosis step down unit, Geri, child, adolescent, adolescent bipolar d/o unit, dual diagnosis, eating d/o, and psych ER). *Really unparalleled in terms of clinical psych hospitals, at least in terms of places I looked, and I may even be missing a unit or two. *Most of your outpt time is spent there as well. *I believe the only required psych time spent outside of WPIC is an outpt substance abuse rotation at the VA during PgY1, although there are certainly elective opportunities abundantly available at other sites if you so choose.*
Curriculum- PGY1 is split into 13 four week blocks consisting of 4 IM ( 3with the FM team and one medical care of the psych patient at WPiC, all months inpt), *2 of neuro , and 7 blocks of inpt psych ( 1 night float, 3 psych ER, 2 substance abuse at WPiC, 1 outpt substance abuse at VA). *PGY2 is split into 10 week blocks consisting of rotations on the following units...Mood D/o, psychosis, child and adolescent, Geri, and *C/L. *You also begin some outpt although I'm not sure how much time is dedicated per week. *PGY3 is all outpt with clinics in gen adult, psychosis, Geri, child, psychotherapy, plus at least 3 elective clinics. *PGY4 consists of minimal requirements in community and forensics, with the rest of the time being elective, with abundant elective opportunities. *
Research- another area where WPiC is unparalleled. *They are number 1 in NIH psychiatry funding, by a lot. *Research going on in nearly every field of study; bench, clinical, drug trials/outcome trials, drug development, neuro imagining, really every modality and every major area of psychiatry (as well as a lot of niche areas as well, including a fair amount of first break psychosis studies). *They do have a research track, which seems to be a much more popular route here than most other places where I interviewed. *It consists of identification of a mentor and proposal to apply to enter the track at the end of pgy 2. *You then are afforded lots of elective time, approximately 30% in PGY3 and 70% PgY4 to conduct your research. *After you finish the track you are encouraged to stay on and do a research fellowship, as it will help to give you the resources to become an independent investigator and they have plenty of guaranteed funding available for it. *
Psychotherapy- may be the programs weakness. *They say they have a focus of motivational interviewing, CBT, interpersonal, and psychodynamic, although the requirements seem to be the ACGME minimum. *Most supervision is done with case discussion, and some with reviewing video taped sessions as all residents offices are equipped with webcams. *Residents said that they felt like they had adequate supervision, and no one complained about the lack of psychotherapy training, but it certainly wasn't emphasized by anyone and I got the impression that this is definitely more of a biological program (although with the ridiculous faculty number of 200+ the resources are there if its your thing and you want additional training)
Call- this is the only thing I did not like about the program, and it was not in the frequency but instead in what your responsibilities entail. *There are two separate call teams, one for the DEC (psych ER) the other for floor call at WPIC. *The DEC call is pretty standard in that your doing psych admits, however, the floor call is what I don't like. *Effectively you are the only physician in the psych hospital, so the vast majority of your call is for medical issues rather than psych issues. *This is not a deal breaker for me or anything, but I find it rather annoying. *Even though it is a psych hospital so most patients 'should' be pretty medically healthy, there is a Geri unit with a lot of comorbid medical issues, so it seems like you spend the majority of your call time dealing with that. *Also, although not common, this does entail being in charge of codes and other serious medical conditions. *Just something to keep in mind. *They stress that this is not the place to go if you are going into psych to throw away your stethoscope , and call is just one example of that. *As far as call frequency, it's not bad at all. *PGY1 is 2 months of night float (one in DEC and one on floor call) which is during the week only, plus a weekend shift every 2-3 weekends (likely closer to every other weekend). *PGY2 I am not entirely sure about. *The website says 1overnight shift in the dec q14 days, and 1 overnight floor call q14 days. *The Pd said one call every 9-11 days or so. *So I'm not really sure but it's likely between q7-q11 call, which is overnight and both during the week and Friday weekend shifts. *No call PgY3 or PGY4. *So overall, really not a bad schedule in terms of frequency, but I'm not a big fan of the medicine call aspect.
Didactics- 1/2 day per week of pseudo protected time, by that I mean you are excused from the floor of your rotations but can and will still get paged. *This is kind of annoying, but oh well. *Didactics taught by some of the leaders in the field, plus they also have the tendency to bring in big name guest lecturers. *So the didactics are likely pretty good, although its unfortunate your time is not fully protected. *
Moonlighting- yes, and it's allowed starting PGY2, as soon as you get licensed. *Lots of inhouse opportunities available, plus the ability to go out in the community to moonlight. *The amount you are paid depends on what moonlighting you are doing, but from the numbers I heard range from 75ish an hour to over $100/hr. *Plenty of it available too, and apparently there are one or two residents that really take advantage of it to the point that they are able to nearly double their salary. *So they got that going for them, which is nice. *
Fellowships and tracks- fellowships in child, Geri, forensics, addictions, public psych, research, sleep, and pain. Specialty tracks in administration, clinical educator, and research. *Really most everything you could ask for, except psychotherapy track. *

Faculty: an incredible number of faculty, and some big name researchers. *Clinical faculty seemed great as well, really invested in resident education, and very into teaching. *I base this more on the time I spent rotating there than on the interview day, per se, but residents seemed to echo this thought. *Research faculty also are apparently very interested in having resident involvement in their many projects. *

Location/Lifestyle: *I love the city of Pittsburgh. *It's not too big, but there is plenty to do including arts, music, food, and nightlife. *Not to mention its an avid sports town. *Cost of living is very low as well. *There are also some great suburbs with good schools for those with families. It's a real good place to be. *The weather however, is pretty terrible in my book. *Lots of snow, a long and cold winter, and even when it's not winter there tends to be lots of grey dreary days (if your a west coaster think Seattle or Portland). However, outside the weather Pittsburgh is a great place to live. *As far as lifestyle, it seems quite good. *You will be expected to work hard, but the clinical hours are very reasonable (7:30-4:30 or 8-5ish most days) and the call schedule is by no means terrible. *Take into account moonlighting opportunities and low cost of living and you can certainly have a pretty fine lifestyle. *

Benefits: salary is $49k-$53k. *the only other thing that stood out is the education/book stipend seems high (almost a grand a year), however, parking is not free so likely cancels this out. *Not sure on the other benefits. *

Strengths: incredible psych hospital with a huge number of beds and specialty units in pretty much everything, unparalleled in terms of research funding with pretty much every modality available, fellowships in everything, *a big name that will likely help those interested in academia, collegial environment full of people who are passionate about the field, a city that I like, great moonlighting opportunities

Weaknesses: pretty terrible weather, a heavy emphasis on medicine (to some this may not be a weakness,but to me it is) including what I consider to be medicine call, psychotherapy not particularly strong or emphasized

Overall impression: unrivaled research funding and an incredible psych hospital with great clinical resources. I'm not sure the merits people use when determining 'best' residencies, but WPIC has to be considered among the top few psych residencies in the country. *
 
The program does seem to be a bit under the radar. My views on it are as follows:
Location:One of the main reasons I ranked them high. Residents rotate through Hahnemann University Hospital, Friends Hospital (in the traffic warzone, Roosevelt Boulevard, probably have to brush up my road rage skills) and clinics at Abington.
Faculty: The Program Director included, the faculty lay considerable emphasis on Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Dr. Templeton was awarded the highest teaching honors by AAP.
Residents: Had a balanced mix of AMGs, IMGS, DOS, Caribbean grads and they had good working dynamics. Work load is manageable with Hahnemann giving the much needed "social/community" exposure and intense workings of city hospital and Friends', the more laid back air of an old hospital, in the process of some major overhauls. They have revamped the administration and though the population they cater to is not exactly "diverse", they get their share of the pie. There are plans to expand in-patient facilities and set- up an independent psychiatric Crisis center.
Work schedule: PGY-1 divided between Hahnemann (Med/In patient Psych/Neuro rotations/Psych ER) and Friends" ( In-patient psych).
Research:Not the top choice for those looking for research opportunities. It is encouraged and academically the Program is sound, but this is not their forte.
Interview: Was a very comfortable affair. The PD was perhaps the most interesting guy I have met. He analysed a country song into what I can only describe as a five -minute-class-on importance of psychotherapy. The two faculty and Chief resident were extremely honest and did point the weaknesses of the Program, primarily research.
Interview day food and accommodation: Lunch was with residents at the cafeteria which was just about adequate. Do not have expectations of a sushi bar:). No accommodation/ pre-IV dinner provided. Interview was conducted at Friends. No tour of other facilities.
Footnote: People may find the program wanting, but I felt it was perfect for me.
 
MUSC Interview Review

Accommodations/Food: No hotel provided. They give some recommendations for hotels with special discounted rates. I chose to priceline a place by the airport (about 10-15min drive from campus) which was about ½ the cost of the hotels they recommended, even at the discounted rates. Dinner with 4 residents the night before at a nice little Italian place. Very laid back and lots of opportunity to chat with the residents. Coffee/Danishes for breakfast in the AM. Lunch at a restaurant located right on campus which had very good food.

Interview Day: Day begins at 8am with an introduction from the program director then a presentation by one of the chief residents. 3 interviews in the morning, one with the PD and 2 others with faculty who specialize in your areas of interest. All interviews were pretty laid back, the one with the PD was particularly enjoyable, very conversational but at the same time assessing if I would be a good fit and then touting the benefits of the program based on my interests. One of the interviews had a lot of questions about my life growing up/family/friends/high school and college with very little psych or current interests questions, which I found kind of strange but it was actually a nice change from the same old “why psych/why program x” type of questions. The interviews were followed by a nice lunch and a pretty long tour of the campus/facilities. Day is scheduled to end at 2pm, but our tour ran to 3pm.

Program Overview: 
PGY1- 4 months IM: 1 VA inpt, 1 VA outpt, 1 University hospital Wards, 1 m ER; 1 month neuro; 4 months inpt adult psych; 1 month child psych; 2 months night float
PGY2- 3 gen adult inpt; 1 each of Geri psych, addiction inpt, addiction outpt, emergency psych, 2 C/L psych, 1 neuro consults, 2 months night float; outpt work begins with ½ day/wk all year
PGY3- all outpt clinics split between VA and university hospital outpt clinics
PGY4- full year of electives
*some gen adult and addiction months spent at VA, but majority at university psych hospital

Call for PGY1 and PGY2 is strictly your night float months. No during the week short call, which is different from what most other programs seem to do. This is nice but it extends your night float months to 15hours shifts (5pm-8am). No weekend “call” but you are required to weekend round, approximately 1-2 weekends a month. If your weekend rounds run past noon you get a bonus PTO day. Residents claim to have about 3 weekends a month free. PGY3 consists of approximately q12 overnight call (the only real “call” days in terms of having to continue to work at night after working a typical day) where you act as the supervising resident to the PGY1/2s. PGY4 is no call with the exception that most residents choose to help out the interns and do one buddy call to start off their year. A typical PGY1/PGY2 work day begins at 730-8am and I believe runs til sign off at 5pm. I did not hear about work days for the outpatient years but I assume its pretty standard 9-5ish.

Tons of research going on here, particularly addiction research. Many people may not realize that MUSC is actually in the top 10 in NIH funding for psych. They also claim to have the #1 and #3 highest funded individuals in the country for psych research. They have a research track that you can commit to during the middle of your second year, which dedicates and protects 50% of your time during PGY3 and PGY4 to do research. You pair up with a mentor who shares your interest and then it follows a mentorship model. They also have their own didactics for those involved in the research track. Surprisingly with all the research going on, they do not require residents to do any. Its an optional activity that can range from minor projects all the way up to the research track. Many residents do none and 2-3 a year do the research track.

Regular (non research track) didactics are 2 hours a week, only on your “on service months”, so 6 months your intern year, all year except night float PGY2. It is protected time one afternoon a week. Psychotherapy supervision consists of one on one case discussion. If you so choose you can record your sessions to go over with your supervisor, but it seems not many ppl do this and the supervision is really just case discussion. No direct supervision as in 1 way mirrors, live viewing, etc. Residents claim to be happy with their psychotherapy training and supervision, although it didn’t seem particularly emphasized. They do have a specific psychoanalytical faculty member who is supposedly a big deal although I didn’t get much information about that aspect.

Facilities consist of a 90 bed free standing psych hospital with 1 acute/violent adult unit, 1 gen adult unit, 1 child/adolescent unit, 2 geri units, and an addiction until. VA psych unit has 18 beds. University hospital is large and nice. Both psych and general hospitals are tertiary care centers for the majority of the state and surrounding areas, so you likely won’t be short on psychopathology. &#8232;&#8232;Moonlighting: residents all list moonlighting as an advantage to the program, but unfortunately there is none on site, and in reality there aren’t even any opportunities in the city. Most residents moonlight in either Savannah (<2hrs away) or Greenville (approx 3.5 hrs). They both apparently pay very well for moonlighting >$100/hr, but it still seems like a negative to me.


Faculty: Some big name and highly published research faculty as I mentioned above. Residents seem to be happy with the faculty as a whole, claiming they are accessible and like to teach. The PD seemed great, very vested in the development of an already strong program, and seemed to be in tune with resident concerns and needs.

Location/Lifestyle: Charleston is pretty fantastic. They make the point to tell you it was voted the #1 city in America for 2011 by some agency or poll, and I can see why. Very pleasant weather almost year round, a cool historic section, tons of bars/restaurants, beaches 20 min away, and there seems to be plenty to do. I really enjoyed it because it had the least city feel of any “major” city I’ve ever been to. The campus itself is beautiful and pretty impressive. A number of hospitals all on what has a college campus type feel. All facilities that you will need are in walking distance, including the psych hospital, VA, regular university hospital and even the outpatient clinics which are attached to the psych hospital. Lots of new buildings popping up on campus and it has a clean crisp feel to it. &#8232;
As far as lifestyle, residents claim to have plenty of time to enjoy their lives outside of the hospital and generally all seemed very happy. To me it seems to have a heavier work schedule than many places, particularly the 4 total months of night float. The idea of 2 months of night float during PGY2 bums me out, especially with the 15 hours shifts and approx 17-19 shifts/months, which seems to add up to a pretty intensive rotation to do 4 times.

Benefits: Salary on the low end at about $45-50K/yr during PGY1-4. Honestly, on the scale of relative importance this is pretty low on my list so I didn’t pay all that much attention to the other benefits.

Strengths: Lots of research, happy residents, friendly people, and a great location that has city sized resources in a place with a small town feel. Pysch very strong relative to many of the other residency departments at the school, and residents make it a point that you are never looked down upon for being a psych resident at MUSC. Addiction program seems very strong. An invested PD, a very aesthetically pleasing campus, and overall I just had a real good feeling about the program.

Weaknesses: Schedule on the heavy side, especially those 4 months of night float. No psych ER, which is curious cause the PD’s background and interest are in ER psych and emergency crisis intervention. They don’t even have a psych holding area in their regular ER. This could certainly be an issue if you are an aspiring psych ER doc. Very light didactics. Questionable strength of psychotherapy. No in city moonlighting.

Overall impression: Great clinical resources plus tons of research. This residency came off as a strong program in a very desirable location, and I would be very happy if I were to match here.
 
I actually like the MUSC call schedule. If the 4m of intense night float means that I get to spend pretty much every other night with my family, then count me in. This system seems way smarter to me than q week short call + weekend call. I might not agree if I didn't have a family I wanted to see in the evenings.
 
I actually agree for the most part. I wrote these reviews directly after interviewing at each place, and MUSC was one of my first interviews.As I progressed through the interview season I realized that it is a pretty good system. Still think those 4 months would be intense. If the number of shifts I was told is correct then it breaks down to 64-72 hours per week for the month. I can handle it, but it's not an easy month. However, it does allow you to keep pretty standard 50 hr work weeks when not on weekend rounding, and about 60 when weekend rounding, so it does help to alleviate the intensity on the other 20 months. A pretty good trade off.
 
UNM Interview Review

Accommodations/food: program pays for a night in a hotel, there are a number of local options but I recommended Hotel Andaluz. *A very nice hotel located downtown. *No pre interview dinner the night before. Coffee and snacks at breakfast. *Lunch with a number of residents catered in from a local Mexican restaurant.

Interview Day: day begins around 815 with an introduction to the program and a quick discussion with the PD and vice chair of education. *4 interviews throughout the day (one with PD, vice chair of education, one of the chiefs, and a faculty member at the VA), tours of the VA, UNM hospital, UNM psych hospital, and a driving tour of Albuquerque with the PD. *Day ends with a short discussion with the PD and vice chair of education as a wrap up/ answer any further questions. *The day as a whole is pretty laid back, which seems to be the Albuquerque way. *None of the interviews were stressful although the one with the chief was very interview-esque ( tell me about a difficult situation and how u handled it, etc), whereas the others were more conversational. Day concludes around 4pm.


Program overview: from my understanding this program provides the majority of mental health services to the entire state of NM as well as much of the rural areas of surrounding states. *It also has a flagship VA which provides for the same coverage area, as well as being the tertiatry referral center for 7other VAs, so there is plenty of pathology here.
Curriculum: PGY1 is 4 months of IM (1 is inpt wards the other 3 are selective of inpt IM/FM/peds, outpt IM/FM/peds, and ER). 2 months neuro, and 6 months inpt psych general adult. *The majority of PGY1, including all 6 months of psych, is at the VA. *Some could see this as a negative, but the Albuquerque VA is real nice and not typical the VA drudges. *You also begin outpt VA psych/med clinic 1/2 day a week in which you treat both the psych and medical aspect of psych patients who come to the clinic. *PGY2 is all inpt psych with 7 months of general adult at UNM psych hospital, 1 month inpt child, 2c/l, and 2 psych ER ( one of which is night float). *You also begin psychotherapy clinic 1/2 day week. *PGY3 is outpt psych, both general adult and specialty clinics. *Most are split into half days a week instead of doing month long blocks. *There is also at least 1 elective, which generally consists of 1/2 a week for the year, which is generally used for more outpt work although I was told it could be used as a research time or scholarly activity. *PGY4 is 100% elective, and during your third year you meet with faculty to discuss your plans and are assigned a mentor to guide you through whatever you choose to do fourth year. *
Pschyotherapy- *PD and others list this as a strength. *Most supervision is case discussion or audio/video recording playback as opposed to direct observation/1 way mirror kind of thing. *Lots of in-house lectures on therapy as well as tele lectures from outside faculty who are experts in the specific area of therapy. *
Didactics- dedicated 1/2 day a week when on psych service pgy1 and entire pgy2. *Not sure about didactics in pgy3 or 4. *Not stressed much during the interview day and wasn't brought up by any residents as a strength or weakness. *I prolly should have inquired further.
Facilities: UNM general hospital is a really nice approx 400 bed hospital. *UNM psych hospital is 32 gen adult beds, a 15 bed Geri unit, and a separate 5 bed psych ER. *VA has 24 psych beds split into 2 gen adult units. *UNM children's psych has 53 beds, which is impressively large. All of the above are the territory referral centers for a very large geographical area, so I don't think lack of psychopathology would be a problem. *All facilities are pretty nice too, including the VA. *The University hospital campus is very large and has a real good feel to it. *VA is located about 15 min from the university campus but everything else,including outpt clinics, is located on campus.
Call- PGY1s have q7 call which runs til midnight. *However, they only take call thurs-sun, so from what I gather that probably comes out to rotating between a thurs/fri short call and a weekend call shift and doing one or the other every week. All pgy1 call is covering the VA. *PGY2 call is mostly night float, 1 month for each resident plus all residents share Dec to allow each other vacation time during the month. *In addition to the night float there is a 12 hr weekend day call approximately q3 weeks. All call during pgy2 is covering both the PES as well as floor call at UNM psych. *PGY3 is q24 supervision of interns at VA. *PGY4 is no call. *Other than call there is no weekend rounding.
Moonlighting- not allowed for the first 2 years. *There is in house moonlighting PGY3 covering nights at the VA, and PGY4 you can continue at VA or pursue offsite moonlighting. *The somewhat restricted moonlighting is kind of a downer for me. *This program used to be one of those wonderful places that if you were an upper level resident on one of your regular call shifts they would pay you as if you were moonlighting. *They unfortunately don't do this anymore, and they cited residency hour restrictions as the reason.
Research- there is actually a lot of psych research going on at UNM including some things that I think are really cool. *They do a bunch of schizophrenia research including first break studies. *They have first class neuroimaging and do a ton of psych research with that. *They also claim to have a big involvement in addictions research. *So there are lots of opportunities to be involved with some really special research, however, most residents do very little. *They are required to do a research proposal as an academic endeavor but most do it with the intention of not ever beginning or following through with the proposal. *A select few residents choose to be very involved with research. *There is no research track and most of resident research is not done until the 4th year (which is 100% elective and thus can be completely research year if you choose). *However, the PD said it would certainly be possibly to start getting involved in the 3rd year to some degree and that the residency would work with the residents to make that possible, and I genuinely believe him and think the people involved with the residency would be very accommodating to residents and would help them achieve their goals. *
Fellowships- child, Geri, addictions, and psychosomatic just approved*
Special things- this program also has a very renowned rural psych program including significant opportunities in native American psych, lots of rural opportunities in all parts of the state, and a relationship with a facility in Alaska which allows residents to spend a month there. *It is also possible, and I think relatively common for residents to spend significant amounts of time (at times months) at the rural sites throughout the state. *They are also big in telepsych, and use the tele technologies for other things such as tele lecture series as well. *Another really special thing going on at UNM is the IDEAS in psychiatry series. *Effectively, the department brings in world renowned subspecialists from all over the country and world to come to campus and have lecture series and other teaching activities with the residents, faculty, and community at large. *This seems like a really special program and a great opportunity for everyone involved. *It also shows the fiscal strength of the program.*

Faculty: all the faculty members that I met were fantastic. *Very pleasant, easy to talk to, showed sincere interests in residents and there interests/education. There are a number of highly published faculty, and lots of faculty that have come from other of the more "prestigious" places to get away from the coastal lifestyle or various other reasons I am sure. *Apart from the research publications there are a number of faculty who write for significant psychiatric textbooks and are working on the dms-v as well. I was quite impressed with the faculty. *

Location/Lifestyle: Albuquerque is unique. *It's likely a love it or hate it thing for the majority of people. *Tons of outdoor activities, great hiking, skiing, mountain biking and other things are all just outside the city limits. *Beautiful landscape with picturesque mountains you can see from pretty much any building on campus. *The downside is besides the outdoor activities there doesn't seem to be much going on. *It's certainly not a city renowned for it's restaurants or singles nightlife. *Personally, I don't think I would get bored there, and I appreciate the culture and general laid back feel of the city. *I could see others being miserable in Albuquerque though, and if you are a big city person it is almost certainly not the place for you and even I (who am by no means a city person) would have liked to see a move lively downtown area.
As far as lifestyle, on the continuum of hours worked I'd say the residents are somewhere in the middle. *Call (see above) is not terribly often, but intern year is almost every weekend (if you include Friday as the weekend). *As far as typical days for the first 3 years it seems pretty much 730/8ish to 5 when you're not on call. *One resident said he worked between 50 and 60 hours a week first 2 years, which would be consistent with the middle of the spectrum work schedule. *It seems you could easily maintain a good lifework balance, working hard but still having time for family and a social life. *

Benefits: pretty standard, 46-52k salary, benefits also seem pretty standard. *Albuquerque is on the cheaper end of the spectrum as far as cost of living is concerned, so it would probably go farther than other places. *Full list of benefits easily found on website if interested.

Strengths: great faculty who are invested in resident education, laid back and congenial atmosphere, lots of cool research going on, relaxed liberally minded city with lots of culture, great outdoor activities, pgy4 100% elective and I get the feel the residency works with residents to help them achieve goals, great faculty and research opportunities without the pretentious attitude, strong rural psych program, cool IDEAS visiting faculty series

Weaknesses: not a lot going on in Albuquerque in terms of social activities, no research track, middle of the road in terms of hours worked and call, restricted moonlighting*opportunities, I didn't really click with most if the residents I met (but that's more of a personal weakness)

overall: "middle of the road" in terms of name value, but overall deceivingly strong with great faculty and very good resources. *I have often seen this program described as a diamond in the rough, and I could agree with that. *It comes off as a very strong program in a location that's less than ideal for a lot of people. *I would by no means be disappointed if I ended up at UNM.
 
I actually agree for the most part. I wrote these reviews directly after interviewing at each place, and MUSC was one of my first interviews.As I progressed through the interview season I realized that it is a pretty good system. Still think those 4 months would be intense. If the number of shifts I was told is correct then it breaks down to 64-72 hours per week for the month. I can handle it, but it's not an easy month. However, it does allow you to keep pretty standard 50 hr work weeks when not on weekend rounding, and about 60 when weekend rounding, so it does help to alleviate the intensity on the other 20 months. A pretty good trade off.

I like our night float system and a big part of it is because of my family.

I am on night float currently and I have 17 shifts this month, my first month I had 20. In general as an intern you get 17-20 depending on how long the month is. A second year it is more on the line of 14-17. I have structured mine so that I will have a couple of really busy weeks (I have never gotten to 80 hours because weekends are 12 hour shifts) but I have a week off at the end that is not vacation time. Our shifts are long and taking call is always rough but I like just getting it all out of the way at once.

Another benefit to this system is that once it hits 5 you are done with only a few exceptions, and in reality on some rotations you can get done with work early in the day and can alternate staying til 5 with other residents. This meant that once or twice a week I am getting home at 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

Overall I think your review was very fair Psychphan.
 
It's nice that they give you flexibility on those night float months. I would definitely work a couple intense weeks for an extra week of vacation.

And I'm glad you thought the review was a fair representation. I absolutely loved your program and would be thrilled to match there.
 
One plus for New Mexico even if Albuquerque isn't known for restaurants -- New Mexican food is about the most delicious food on earth, and it's hard to get anywhere else. So maybe they don't have fancy restaurants, but there's still lots of good food.
 
I actually agree for the most part. I wrote these reviews directly after interviewing at each place, and MUSC was one of my first interviews.As I progressed through the interview season I realized that it is a pretty good system. Still think those 4 months would be intense. If the number of shifts I was told is correct then it breaks down to 64-72 hours per week for the month. I can handle it, but it's not an easy month. However, it does allow you to keep pretty standard 50 hr work weeks when not on weekend rounding, and about 60 when weekend rounding, so it does help to alleviate the intensity on the other 20 months. A pretty good trade off.

I also wanted to add that it's rare for us to hit 60 hours in a week on inpatient psych months even with weekend rounds. There are obviously exceptions but weekend rounding is quick (like 2-4 hours each day) so 50 hours was more like a week with weekend rounds.
 
I also wanted to add that it's rare for us to hit 60 hours in a week on inpatient psych months even with weekend rounds. There are obviously exceptions but weekend rounding is quick (like 2-4 hours each day) so 50 hours was more like a week with weekend rounds.

That was the impression I got. The hours seemed VERY reasonable, except for, and because of, the night float months. Which I am totally fine with.

If you think about it, doing an extra 5pm-10pm shift each week means an extra 5x52h=260h/yr. Plus you still have 1 night float month at these places. Instead, MUSC does 17x15h=255h/yr. This makes up for those 5p-10p shifts you see elsewhere, and the other night float month is the night float month everyone else has.

I'm also betting that the autonomy produced by the night float month is a better training experience than the 5p-10p weekly "short call" system. Being on your own overnight I think would be way cooler than being the short call scutmonkey.
 
One plus for New Mexico even if Albuquerque isn't known for restaurants -- New Mexican food is about the most delicious food on earth, and it's hard to get anywhere else. So maybe they don't have fancy restaurants, but there's still lots of good food.

Plus it has one of th best burger places I have ever been to, called Holy Cow. Great burger.
 
I wanted to pipe in on UNM. My ex-wife is a resident there.

UNM received a large grant, and chose to start the IDEAS program, which pays famous doctors money to come and spend a week to give lectures. These visitors have little impact on the educational experience, and reflect odd values on UNM, as NM is a very poor state which is severely underserved.



UNM Interview Review

Accommodations/food: program pays for a night in a hotel, there are a number of local options but I recommended Hotel Andaluz. *A very nice hotel located downtown. *No pre interview dinner the night before. Coffee and snacks at breakfast. *Lunch with a number of residents catered in from a local Mexican restaurant.

Interview Day: day begins around 815 with an introduction to the program and a quick discussion with the PD and vice chair of education. *4 interviews throughout the day (one with PD, vice chair of education, one of the chiefs, and a faculty member at the VA), tours of the VA, UNM hospital, UNM psych hospital, and a driving tour of Albuquerque with the PD. *Day ends with a short discussion with the PD and vice chair of education as a wrap up/ answer any further questions. *The day as a whole is pretty laid back, which seems to be the Albuquerque way. *None of the interviews were stressful although the one with the chief was very interview-esque ( tell me about a difficult situation and how u handled it, etc), whereas the others were more conversational. Day concludes around 4pm.


Program overview: from my understanding this program provides the majority of mental health services to the entire state of NM as well as much of the rural areas of surrounding states. *It also has a flagship VA which provides for the same coverage area, as well as being the tertiatry referral center for 7other VAs, so there is plenty of pathology here.
Curriculum: PGY1 is 4 months of IM (1 is inpt wards the other 3 are selective of inpt IM/FM/peds, outpt IM/FM/peds, and ER). 2 months neuro, and 6 months inpt psych general adult. *The majority of PGY1, including all 6 months of psych, is at the VA. *Some could see this as a negative, but the Albuquerque VA is real nice and not typical the VA drudges. *You also begin outpt VA psych/med clinic 1/2 day a week in which you treat both the psych and medical aspect of psych patients who come to the clinic. *PGY2 is all inpt psych with 7 months of general adult at UNM psych hospital, 1 month inpt child, 2c/l, and 2 psych ER ( one of which is night float). *You also begin psychotherapy clinic 1/2 day week. *PGY3 is outpt psych, both general adult and specialty clinics. *Most are split into half days a week instead of doing month long blocks. *There is also at least 1 elective, which generally consists of 1/2 a week for the year, which is generally used for more outpt work although I was told it could be used as a research time or scholarly activity. *PGY4 is 100% elective, and during your third year you meet with faculty to discuss your plans and are assigned a mentor to guide you through whatever you choose to do fourth year. *
Pschyotherapy- *PD and others list this as a strength. *Most supervision is case discussion or audio/video recording playback as opposed to direct observation/1 way mirror kind of thing. *Lots of in-house lectures on therapy as well as tele lectures from outside faculty who are experts in the specific area of therapy. *
Didactics- dedicated 1/2 day a week when on psych service pgy1 and entire pgy2. *Not sure about didactics in pgy3 or 4. *Not stressed much during the interview day and wasn't brought up by any residents as a strength or weakness. *I prolly should have inquired further.
Facilities: UNM general hospital is a really nice approx 400 bed hospital. *UNM psych hospital is 32 gen adult beds, a 15 bed Geri unit, and a separate 5 bed psych ER. *VA has 24 psych beds split into 2 gen adult units. *UNM children's psych has 53 beds, which is impressively large. All of the above are the territory referral centers for a very large geographical area, so I don't think lack of psychopathology would be a problem. *All facilities are pretty nice too, including the VA. *The University hospital campus is very large and has a real good feel to it. *VA is located about 15 min from the university campus but everything else,including outpt clinics, is located on campus.
Call- PGY1s have q7 call which runs til midnight. *However, they only take call thurs-sun, so from what I gather that probably comes out to rotating between a thurs/fri short call and a weekend call shift and doing one or the other every week. All pgy1 call is covering the VA. *PGY2 call is mostly night float, 1 month for each resident plus all residents share Dec to allow each other vacation time during the month. *In addition to the night float there is a 12 hr weekend day call approximately q3 weeks. All call during pgy2 is covering both the PES as well as floor call at UNM psych. *PGY3 is q24 supervision of interns at VA. *PGY4 is no call. *Other than call there is no weekend rounding.
Moonlighting- not allowed for the first 2 years. *There is in house moonlighting PGY3 covering nights at the VA, and PGY4 you can continue at VA or pursue offsite moonlighting. *The somewhat restricted moonlighting is kind of a downer for me. *This program used to be one of those wonderful places that if you were an upper level resident on one of your regular call shifts they would pay you as if you were moonlighting. *They unfortunately don't do this anymore, and they cited residency hour restrictions as the reason.
Research- there is actually a lot of psych research going on at UNM including some things that I think are really cool. *They do a bunch of schizophrenia research including first break studies. *They have first class neuroimaging and do a ton of psych research with that. *They also claim to have a big involvement in addictions research. *So there are lots of opportunities to be involved with some really special research, however, most residents do very little. *They are required to do a research proposal as an academic endeavor but most do it with the intention of not ever beginning or following through with the proposal. *A select few residents choose to be very involved with research. *There is no research track and most of resident research is not done until the 4th year (which is 100% elective and thus can be completely research year if you choose). *However, the PD said it would certainly be possibly to start getting involved in the 3rd year to some degree and that the residency would work with the residents to make that possible, and I genuinely believe him and think the people involved with the residency would be very accommodating to residents and would help them achieve their goals. *
Fellowships- child, Geri, addictions, and psychosomatic just approved*
Special things- this program also has a very renowned rural psych program including significant opportunities in native American psych, lots of rural opportunities in all parts of the state, and a relationship with a facility in Alaska which allows residents to spend a month there. *It is also possible, and I think relatively common for residents to spend significant amounts of time (at times months) at the rural sites throughout the state. *They are also big in telepsych, and use the tele technologies for other things such as tele lecture series as well. *Another really special thing going on at UNM is the IDEAS in psychiatry series. *Effectively, the department brings in world renowned subspecialists from all over the country and world to come to campus and have lecture series and other teaching activities with the residents, faculty, and community at large. *This seems like a really special program and a great opportunity for everyone involved. *It also shows the fiscal strength of the program.*

Faculty: all the faculty members that I met were fantastic. *Very pleasant, easy to talk to, showed sincere interests in residents and there interests/education. There are a number of highly published faculty, and lots of faculty that have come from other of the more "prestigious" places to get away from the coastal lifestyle or various other reasons I am sure. *Apart from the research publications there are a number of faculty who write for significant psychiatric textbooks and are working on the dms-v as well. I was quite impressed with the faculty. *

Location/Lifestyle: Albuquerque is unique. *It's likely a love it or hate it thing for the majority of people. *Tons of outdoor activities, great hiking, skiing, mountain biking and other things are all just outside the city limits. *Beautiful landscape with picturesque mountains you can see from pretty much any building on campus. *The downside is besides the outdoor activities there doesn't seem to be much going on. *It's certainly not a city renowned for it's restaurants or singles nightlife. *Personally, I don't think I would get bored there, and I appreciate the culture and general laid back feel of the city. *I could see others being miserable in Albuquerque though, and if you are a big city person it is almost certainly not the place for you and even I (who am by no means a city person) would have liked to see a move lively downtown area.
As far as lifestyle, on the continuum of hours worked I'd say the residents are somewhere in the middle. *Call (see above) is not terribly often, but intern year is almost every weekend (if you include Friday as the weekend). *As far as typical days for the first 3 years it seems pretty much 730/8ish to 5 when you're not on call. *One resident said he worked between 50 and 60 hours a week first 2 years, which would be consistent with the middle of the spectrum work schedule. *It seems you could easily maintain a good lifework balance, working hard but still having time for family and a social life. *

Benefits: pretty standard, 46-52k salary, benefits also seem pretty standard. *Albuquerque is on the cheaper end of the spectrum as far as cost of living is concerned, so it would probably go farther than other places. *Full list of benefits easily found on website if interested.

Strengths: great faculty who are invested in resident education, laid back and congenial atmosphere, lots of cool research going on, relaxed liberally minded city with lots of culture, great outdoor activities, pgy4 100% elective and I get the feel the residency works with residents to help them achieve goals, great faculty and research opportunities without the pretentious attitude, strong rural psych program, cool IDEAS visiting faculty series

Weaknesses: not a lot going on in Albuquerque in terms of social activities, no research track, middle of the road in terms of hours worked and call, restricted moonlighting*opportunities, I didn't really click with most if the residents I met (but that's more of a personal weakness)

overall: "middle of the road" in terms of name value, but overall deceivingly strong with great faculty and very good resources. *I have often seen this program described as a diamond in the rough, and I could agree with that. *It comes off as a very strong program in a location that's less than ideal for a lot of people. *I would by no means be disappointed if I ended up at UNM.
 
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I wanted to pipe in on UNM. My ex-wife is a resident there.

UNM received a large grant, and chose to start the IDEAS program, which pays famous doctors money to come and spend a week to give lectures. These visitors have little impact on the educational experience, and reflect odd values on UNM, as NM is a very poor state which is severely underserved.

There is not a lot of research outside of brain imaging and schizophrenia going on at UNM.

Also, the PD seems personable on interview day, but at social events, most residents have been very disillusioned by his actions. I don't know why UNM has a reputation for being so friendly and caring, because after hanging out with the residents there for several years, it seems rather unfriendly. It is non-hierarchical, however. That's true. And NM patients are wonderful.

I'm sorry you ex-wife didn't not find the IDEAS program rewarding, but I can't see how having experts come in and do week long lecture series at least doesn't add some positive learning experiences.


As far as research, my perception may be a little skewed, as schizophrenia is my area of interests. So when I bring that up, and immediately am given lists of active schizophrenia projects, including a research group dedicated to first break psychosis, it gives me the perception that they are a strong research insitution. You may be right that the breadth of opportunities is somewhat narrow, but I would disagree that it's limited to neuroimaging and schizophrenia. A simple skim of their website shows there is also a significant amount of addictions research going on, plus I know they have a number of active VA faculty conducting research, in areas including but not limited to PTSD.

An interview day is only a snapshot in a time of the program, and your ex-wife's experience (or rather your view of your ex-wife's experience) may be a more accurate portrayal of the program, but I stand by my review and if asked will continue to tell others how strong of a program I felt it was.
 
AchooSneeze-

I think the point of this thread is for folks to post their firsthand impressions of programs. This usually comes from interviews. Sometimes current residents chime in with their impressions. Sometimes there is disagreement, which is fine. Anyone in residency knows there are people that are happy with their program and people that are less happy and their reviews would read very differently.

I'd invite your ex to post her thoughts here if she's so inclined but I'd avoid posting second hand impressions of a program. It's tough enough trying to get a feel from first hand accounts from strangers, let alone second hand. And when folks are once removed, they are no longer posting impressions, they're posting "I heard..." which SDN is already rife with.

Just my $0.02. Means little...
 
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