2012-2013 Psych Interview Reviews

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Since I have my first interview this week, I suspect some others do too.

I copied the format used in past years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Comments appreciated on specific programs with respect to:
1. Interview accommodations/food
2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences)
3. Program overview
4. Faculty
5. Location, lifestyle, etc.
6. Benefits
7. Program strengths
8. Potential weaknesses

Purple Rain is willing to take anonymous submissions.

SirPsych has posted last year's list of reviews below.
Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Maldabrroc777 for getting things started. Good luck on your interview this week, can't wait to hear about it.

This is posted in the "pre-interview" thread, but just a reminder to check out last years interview review thread for inspiration and information.

I can definitely post any reviews people would rather keep anonymous. Just PM them to me and up it will go.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think we should just keep on adding to previous reviews... We can always just add the year on our review's text to keep things clear if need be...

Later in the season, as people post interview reviews for programs we should index those and put the links here too.

Purple rain has volunteered to take anonymous PM's if you don't feel like sharing with your screen name.

Here's the interview review format that has been suggested:

Comments appreciated on specific programs with respect to:
1. Interview accommodations/food
2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences)
3. Program overview
4. Faculty
5. Location, lifestyle, etc.
6. Benefits
7. Program strengths
8. Potential weaknesses
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interview Review List

California
UCLA-Semel: Review 1 Review2
UCSF: Review 1 Review2 Review3
UCSF-Fresno: Review 1
UCLA-Harbor: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3 Review 4
UC Davis: Review 1
UCLA-NPI: Review 1
USC-LAC: Review 1 Review 2
UCSD: Review 1


Colorado
U Colorado: Review 1 Review 2

Conn.
Yale: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3 Review 4 Review 5

District of Columbia
Georgetown: Review 1

Florida
University of Florida: Review 1
USF: Review 1

Georgia
Emory: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3

Idaho
UW-Boise: Review 1

Illinois
Northwestern: Review 1
U Chicago: Review 1 Review 2
Rush: Review 1
UIC: Review 1

Indiana
U Indiana: Review 1

Louisiana
LSU New Orleans: Review 1
LSU-Oschner: Review 1
Tulane: Review 1

Maine
Maine Medical Center: Review 1

Maryland
Hopkins: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3 Review 4
U Maryland: Review 1

Mass.
Harvard Longwood: Review 1 Review 2
Cambridge Health Alliance: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3
MGH-McLean: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3
UMass: Review 1
Harvard South Shore: Review 1

Michigan
U Michigan: Review 1
Wright State: Review 1

Minnesota
U Minn.: Review 1
Hannepin: Review 1

New Mexico:
UNM: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3

New York
NYU: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3
SUNY-Upstate: Review 1 Review 2
Mt. Sinai: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3 Review 4
Cornell: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3
Columbia: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3
Einstein: Review 1
St. Luke's-Roosevelt: Review 1
Beth Israel: Review 1

North Carolina
Duke: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3 Review 4 Review 4
UNC: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3
Wake Forest: Review 1 Review 2

Ohio
Cleveland Clinic: Review 1
Case Western: Review 1 Review 2

Oregon
OHSU: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3

Pennsylvania
Albert Einstein: Review 1
WPIC: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3 Review 4
Penn: Review 1
Drexel: Review 1

Rhode Island
Brown: Review 1 Review 2

South Carolina
USC-Palmetto: Review 1 Review 2
MUSC: Review 1

Tennessee
Vanderbilt: Review 1

Utah
U Utah: Review 1

Virginia
VCU: Review 1
UVA: Review 1 Review 2

Washington State
UW-Seattle: Review 1 Review 2 Review 3

Wisconsin:
UW: Review 1
MCW: Review 1

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Members don't see this ad :)
The following review was sent to me for anonymous posting.

1. Interview accommodations/food: The resident dinner the night prior was held at a resident’s house. Mexican food was catered in and was pretty good. The atmosphere is super casual and there are plenty of children around. Residents from all levels showed up, plus some faculty. It was a great opportunity to ask questions and get a feel for the program. The program pays for one night at a nice hotel by the hospital. You get one breakfast coupon. So if you are bringing a spouse, you must pay for their breakfast. Lunch during the interview day was at a local Italian restaurant, Pignettis, and was very good. No complaints.
2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences): The first item on the agenda is an hour with the residents at Starbucks to go over how the program works, call, electives, etc. It was a great way to get some burning questions out of the way early in the day. The residents then give a brief tour of Temple (the city), then the hospital. The interviews are in the afternoon. The interviews are extremely casual. The day ends around 3- 4pm.
3. Program overview: Scott & White system is world renowned for their multi-disciplinary approach to healthcare. The hospital is a Level One center with 636 beds and associated with Texas A&M medical school. There is an inpatient psych ward and patients are seen in the ER. There is also an outpatient facility on the campus. According to the package they gave, roughly 6 months of the training is spent off the Scott & White campus. This includes the VA (Temple and Waco), an addiction facility in Austin, and some outpatient clinics. You are reimbursed for the mileage. Research is encouraged, but not required. Call schedule breakdown: First year Fall: 4 buddy calls. First year Spring: 2-3 two week night float shifts (5 nights each), and 10 weekend shifts. PGY-2 Fall: 24 calls of 24 hours each (q5-7 days). PGY-2 Spring 12 weekend shifts. PGY-3 Fall: 12 calls of 24 hours (q2weeks), PGY-3 Spring: No overnight call. PGY-4: no call. There is a post call day, beginning at 8 am, which is protected. There is a child fellowship available The rotation schedule seems pretty standard. First 6 months are neuro, primary care, and IM wards. The second 6 months are inpatient psych at VA and Scott & White. There is 2-3 weeks of night float. Second year is a mix of emergency psych, substance abuse, geriatric psych, inpatient psych, PTSD/community psych, elective, C&L, and child/adolescent psych. Third year is outpatient. Fourth year is electives.
4. Faculty: The faculty seems to have a good relationship with the residents. Many of them are grads that have chosen to stick around. They also seem very dedicated to education.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc: All of the residents were very happy. Temple is a smaller sized town (60K), but close to Austin (1 hour) and Dallas (2 hours). This is a very family friendly program with most residents owning a house in Temple. Short commute time. Crime and cost of living are low. There was also some mention of reduced membership at the local country club. There is a resident gym at the hospital.
6. Benefits: $48.7K first year, 15 days vacation, 13 sick days, and 5 educational days. A board review course is offered. S&W pays 2/3 of staff medical plan. There is a tier system depending if you use S&W facilities/docs. The plan ranges from $60 (member only) to $326 (family) (I think this is correct- there is a clause about 25% grant reduction if limited family income, but not sure if resident salary counts for this)
7. Program strengths: Family oriented program. Happy residents. Diverse patient population. Moonlighting opportunities 3rd-4th year. ECT opportunities.
8. Potential weaknesses: Temple is not a super exciting place, if that is what you desire. Child is the only fellowship. I do not think addiction or forensics are strengths here, if that is your focus.
 
Another anonymous review.


1. Interview accommodations/food: Resident’s dinner was held the night before at a coffee shop patio. There were sandwiches, wraps, beer and cookies. It was very informal session with some of the residents and fellows. I drove into the interview, so I am not sure about the hotel accommodations. Lunch, catered, was provided in between interviews. It was sandwiches and salad. More residents and fellows came to the lunch than the resident’s dinner. The lunch is held in the conference room that is “home base” for the applicants.
2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences): The day started with a hospital tour. Then interviews are spaced out throughout the day. I had a total of four interviews. The interviews were fairly causal, with some questions from my background, personal statement and general life experience. Nothing quirky. The day was complete by 4 pm.

3. Program overview: I was very tired, so this is going to be a weak section. There is one month of observation as a PGY-1 before having responsibilities. I cannot remember the specifics of the rotations, but is a required time set aside in Alexandria, LA (one month?) and Monroe, LA (two months?). Housing is provided at these locations. Otherwise, for first year, there is two months of neurology & four months of primary care, ER, and IM. There is a dedicated psych ER. I do not remember the call schedule exactly, but it is very heavy intern year and tapers down significantly second year. There is a night float system. Maybe someone can pitch in and help me fill this info in. Third year is outpatient psych across from the hospital in a new building. Residents seem to be from all over the country. IMG friendly program.

4. Faculty: The faculty seem supportive. There is good community support with the private sector. There are plenty of research opportunities, bench or otherwise. I believe a research project is required of all residents at some point.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc: Low cost of living. Shreveport has some shady parts and some good parts of town. It is a mid-size, around 200K, so has all the basic chain stores. The commute time is very low.

6. Benefits: $44K as PGY-1 up to $49K as a PGY-4. Medical, dental, malpractice insurance- nothing stellar. Food is super cheap, but not free. Something like $16 a month for $250 worth of food. Free iPad. Free parking. 15 weekday vacation with pay first year. 20 weekdays 2nd-6th year. Vacation must be used and cannot be rolled over. 10 weekdays of sick pay.

7. Program strengths: Plenty of pathology. Low cost of living. Plenty of opportunities. Self driven pace. Psych ER experience. Cheap food. Free iPad.

8. Potential weaknesses: Heavy call schedule first year. State income tax. Having to go to Monroe and Alexandria for some rotations.
 
Posted anonymously

1. Interview accommodations/food

No hotel deals I was aware of. Lunch on day of interview with the residents in their lounge.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences)

9am start. Brief introduction from program coordinator. Everyone gets a 50 question multiple choice test to take (mostly basic psych, and it was emphasized that doing poorly or well wouldn't factor heavily into wether or not we would be selected to return for their second interview). Interview with PD and 2 chief residents. Time with each interviewer varied with each applicant, but over all, they were pretty brief (15 minutes-ish). A tour of the hospital, then lunch. No super bizarre questions, just be ready to answer about your strengths and weaknesses, why psych, be able to elaborate on past psych rotations/training., etc. We were told we'd hear back concerning rejection or follow up interview scheduling within a week.

3. Program overview

Hospital is a government/charity care facility. It has its own court and jail. Fun! All residents emphasized how busy the hospital is, and how working there will expose you to anything and everything. They have 14 (I think that was the number) in-patient units, everything from child, to detox, to involuntary admissions. The 4 month medicine rotation is done at an adjacent hospital about a 10 minute drive away. There is a required research project, but it is done in groups, and apparently with plenty of mentorship. There is protected didactic time 5 days a week. Call schedule for first year includes one short-call and one long call each week, normal day hours being from 8-4:30pm. And 2-weeks of night float.

4. Faculty

Didn't have a chance to interact with too many, so can't comment extensively.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc.

Driving through the Paramus area..it was a bit of a never ending subdivision. Lots of leafy deciduous trees, a few schools here and there. If you have a car, it's about 25 minute drive to Manhattan. 1 1/2 by bus.

6. Benefits

Not discussed.

7. Program strengths

Biggest strength seemed to be the shear quantity and diversity of pathology you will encounter. A lot of programs try to sell you on these points, but this place appears to deliver more than most. It also seems it is a program where those who can function independently and without too much supervision will thrive mores than someone who might prefer an environment where they are eased into full responsibility at a less accelerated pace. Another strength would be their visiting lecturer series. The current lineup featured many impressive people. Oh, and aside from the medicine rotation, all facilities are under one roof (no driving to different clinics around town for different rotations)

8. Potential weaknesses

Kept hearing over and over about how hard everyone worked, and how they were constantly busy (I'm only putting this as a potential negative, because of course it is a double-edged sword, and up to personal preference). Just be aware, if you're going into psych for an "easy residency," this is not the program for you Didn't have opportunity enough to get a sense of what kind of lives and hobbies residents were able to maintain outside of work. Also, the hospital itself is nothing fancy…no Starbuck's in the lobby or anything, but it was clean enough and well enough maintained that it didn't make you cringe.
 
Anonymous:

1. Interview accommodations/food: Pre-interview dinner, interview day breakfast, and then lunch at the cafeteria, parking at the hospital are all comped.
2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences): Day starts at 8 am with the program director orienting the interviewees to the program for about an hour. Three interviews, two of which are extremely relaxed. Interview with the program director felt slightly too psychoanalytic for my taste, but the program director himself is extremely friendly (although I left that interview with little to no idea how I performed).
3. Program overview: Residents praise the program, and admit that both the PGY1 and 2 years can be taxing, but state the experience is rewarding academically. PGY 3 and 4 years seems to be much more relaxed. Inpatient rotations during second year include the inpatient units at the county hospital, at the university hospital which sees insured patients, at the VA, and at the Children's Hospital. Program has a strong involvement and interest in community psychiatry, and has a diverse number of research possibilities.
4. Faculty: All of the faculty met through the interview day were amiable. Program director goes out of his way to ensure the students see at least one faculty member who's interests match the student's.
5. Location, lifestyle, etc. : Dallas. It's hot, everyone knows it, but most of the residents seem happy and they have a yearly retreat, as well as other resident support groups (see the T-group on the website).
6. Benefits:
7. Program strengths:Everything not listed below as a weakness
8. Potential weaknesses: self admittedly - addiction, forensic and possibly child psychiatry
 
Stanford

1. Communication: Email/ERAS- friendly and efficient.

2. Accommodations & Food: Free parking across the street from the department building. Breakfast bagels, sandwich lunch, and happy hour snacks in the early evening. Great food, and good resident turnout to lunch and happy hour. Most impressed by how happy, relaxed, energetic and friendly the residents were- a great group that reflects most strongly on the resident-friendly culture of the program.

3. Interview Day: Starts at 8am with orientation by the Associate PD. Then bagel breakfast with the Department Chair. Tour of the new VA hospital which includes the two inpatient wards, with your first interview with VA faculty. Tour of Stanford hospital and grand rounds, followed by casual lunch with residents. Four 25-minute interviews in the afternoon, with one resident and three faculty members including one of the associate PDs. Finally 15-minute individual wrap-up with the PD, ending with a group war-up. Atmosphere changes to casual with happy hour at the local wine bar with residents.

4. Program Overview: This is a program that has gone through tremendous change in the last 2 years. It begins up top, newly recruited Department Chair Dr Laura Roberts, followed by newly recruited Director of Education Dr. Alan Louie and new program director in Dr. Chris Hayward. These new faculty have strong interests in residency education, which is reflected in their experiences. Dr. Roberts is Editor-in-Chief of Academic Psychiatry, and brings a unique background in ethics and education to a program historically known for a strong reputation in neurobiological research. Dr. Louis has been recognized locally as medical education director at UCSF for decades, and most recently responsible for the revival of the strong location reptutation of the community-based San Mateo residency program. Finally, new program director Dr. Hayward is a psychiatrist's psychiatrist- someone who listens, and residents consistently report as genuinely responsive to resident well-being and education. In the last 2 years, the education focus of the program has really swung back from a reputation of strong biological psychopharmacology to a more balanced mix between psychopharm and psychotherapy.

What is most unique about the Stanford program is its flexibility, reflecting the ethos of the entire university. I still met residents interested most in psychopharmacology' or others on an academic track devoted to innovation and research- as has been the the historical strength of the program. A prestigious list that begins Dr. Alan Reiss to most recently with Dr. Karl Deisseroth- certainly a candidate if not shoo-in for a future Nobel, to join a list of 14 other faculty. However, I also met a a handful of residents who had a strong leaning towards psychotherapy- with goals of going into child & adolescent or working privately in the local community with an electic population. As an example, I met PGY4s carrying up to 8 psychotherapy cases, some meeting twice a week.

The Bay Area has strong psychotherapy resources, with over 80 clinical adjunct faculty willing to supervise therapy cases available to residents, as well as patients from other clinics/inpatient wards you can continue to recruit to build your therapy caseload. Noteable faculty include emeritus Dr. Irvin Yalom of existential therapy and psychologist Dr. David Burns of CBT. On face value, the program is still strongest foundationally in psychopharmacology and neurosicence. But a strong foundation in psychotherapy is still possible with a plethora of local psychoanalytics and psychodyanmics from the two local institutes and further in San Francisco. 6 months of CBT and Prolonged Exposure Training for PTSD are instructor strengths that are taught to all PGY2s.

A basic overview of the curriculum= PGY-1 is at the VA hospital, PGY-2 is at Stanford, PGY-3 is outpatient with electives, and PGY-4 is all electives. The flexibility starts in second year, with either a scholarly concentration track designed for academics or writers, versus a 3 month semi-protected psychotherapy track. This flexibility continues into PGY3, but truly expands during PGY4. Other clinical strengths of the program include a 6 month advanced working with Stanford undergraduate and graduate students.

Academically, arguably the strongest Departments in CAP and Neurology create interdisciplinary opportunities that are unparalleled at the resident-access level. A new hospital competing in Spring 2014 sees an expansion of the strong psychosomatic/consultation-liaison fellowship, with a psychotherapy track extending into PGY6, with numerous research fellowships, and finally an inside track to the strong Stanford CAP fellowship.

The true weakness of the program remains community. There is only 4 weeks of county experience in one of the busiest EDs in the Bay Area, but the child department in making important headway under the leadership of triple-boarder and well-beloved CAP program director Dr. Shashank Joshi. In the adult program, there is only hope for improvement under the leadreship of Dr. Roberts and Dr. Louie. Addiction clinical training is strong at the VA, but no forensics available other than the small but growing Center for Refugee and Torture based in San Jose.

5. Faculty: Solid clinical faculty. Outstanding research faculty. Strong child department. Nationally-reputed geriatric, mood disorders, sleep, and psychosomatic faculty.

6. Location & Lifestyle: Palo Alto is expensive, But Tahoe and Santa Cruz highlight the beautiful outdoors in the area, with San Francisco less than an hour away.

7. Salary & Benefits: With Zuckerbergs and Steve Jobs taking up local residence, cost of living is skyrocketing. Strong benefits package is a consolation.

8. Strengths: Arguably the most friendly and supportive culture in the West, with individualized program unparalleled flexibility and tremendous resources- research opportunities, psychotherapy supervision, top-notch academics, and national leaders in resident education, biological research, and psychotherapy. It is a small tight-knit program where no one is a stranger. From a resident perspective- and resident-centered program that will continue to dynamically evolve in the next few years.

In the sense that Splik one year ago argued that Mount Sinai's times has come in New York, Stanford's time is coming in the West. With cream of the crop at the top of the department, the quality of the residents will inevitably come to reflect what is likely the program with the most potential in California.

9. Weaknesses: Community. Forensics. Expensive.
 
ANONYMOUS:

1. Interview accommodations/food.
Two options for discount hotels very close to the action- I chose the 2nd one because it was cheaper (~$80). I drove but I understand there is some sort of shuttle bus service that may or may not take you to the hospital from the hotel.
Pre-interview dinner at Murphy's near the main campus of the university. Delicious, plentiful, save room for dessert. Had quite a few residents of different years including a few PGY1s.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences)
Started around 8AM with a meeting with the PD and associate PD. A brief power point about the program, formatting, etc. Very informal and comfortable. Followed by attending CL rounds, again very informal and comfortable. Next was 6 half hour interviews with different faculty, including both the PD and the associate PD. Seemed like they tried to match interests among interviewers and interviewees. Again, very informal and comfortable, nothing stressful or unexpected. Interviews were broken up by lunch with residents, some new faces some the same from the dinner. Just chatting and hanging out. The chair stopped by briefly which was nice. The day wrapped up with a tour by the chief and a wrap up with the PD.

3. Program overview
PGY1- 2 neuro, 4 medicine (2 in, 1 out, 1 ED), 6 in psych at Dartmouth and the VA
PGY2- 2 months in psych at state hospital, 2-4 at VA, 0-2 at Dartmouth, 4 months CL, 2 months substance, 6 weeks "jepoardy," longitudinal outpatient clinic with some therapy
PGY3- outpatient year- 12/ week of therapy/supervision
PGY4- do whatever you want, but they will help you figure out what you want to do and set realistic goals. Very flexible.

4. Faculty
They emphasized how carefully they select faculty based on their willingness to teach. Everyone I met seemed awesome. Residents said faculty are very open to helping, letting residents get involved in their research or whatever.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc.
So Dartmouth is a lot more rural than I had expected. I guess I didn't know what to expect. That being said it is within range of some more metropolitan areas- 2 hours to Boston, a couple hours to Burlington, VT, 3 to Montreal, etc. That being said, they do seem to have an enormous catchment area with a wide socioeconomic and pathologic range.

6. Benefits
full cover for health. Residents can get therapy for $10-15 out of pocket per session. Dental also good. Normal looking vacation days- apparently very easy to schedule.

7. Program strengths
CL seems very strong here, very laid back and collegial, a lot of flexibility to do things that interest you including research, apparently moonlighting is sweet, the area does look pretty cool- everyone raved about how great lifestyle was. The hospital itself was really swish, carpets and nice skylights. Sounds like the PD is really open to feedback and makes changes based on what residents say. They have some sort of feedback retreat every year.

8. Potential weaknesses
The inpatient units at Dartmouth are voluntary- which seemed weird to me, but then they explained if someone really wants to leave but shouldn't they can send them off, or threaten them with the State Hospital. All in all I think you see the same pathology, and philosophically/ethically maybe having it be voluntary is actually better treatment. Besides, you spend time at the VA and the State Hospital as well.

There is a bit of traveling to get to the other sites. But when you are at the State Hospital they actually provide you a car and pay for gas- so it seems like they are aware of this and try to keep it under control.

They mentioned they don't have a lot of forensics.
 
anon-

1. Interview accommodations/food:

There are many hotel options available. The Parkway Hotel is right at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital and I think it is very convenient to stay there, however I didn’t stay there myself. I stayed in the Residence Inn near the Galleria Mall. There is a direct connection via Metrolink to the Hospital or you can drive from there. I would probably go to the Parkway Hotel the next time.
The dinner with the residents the day before the interview was amazing. The food was great, we went to a very nice steak house with drinks included. The residents were certainly the highlight throughout the evening and interview day. They’re super-nice, answer all your questions, very interested in your background. There were 5 applicants and 5 residents at the dinner, and that it quite a nice ratio to really get in touch with the residents. I connected with all of them which was a great experience compared to other places I interviewed. Lunch was served in the hospital, and they brought some very nice pasta from a local restaurant. Virtually all residents attended the lunch, and I had the chance to chat with all of them. They made me feel very welcome. The residents are certainly one highlight of the program in St. Louis.

2. Interview day:

I received a schedule of my interview day (including the names of faculty/residents that do the interviews) one week before the actual interview day. We started at 7:45 and concluded at 15:30. There were 5 interviews, 4 with faculty and 1 with a resident throughout the day. Each interview last for 30 minutes, and between each interview you have a 30-minute break. The day was organized perfectly and I was always brought to the interview and back. During the breaks we would go back to the conference room, and the chief resident was always there to answer more questions or to watch videos on Youtube. After lunch we also toured the facilities with the chief residents. The Barnes-Jewish Hospital is very modern and nice. They have a brand-new outpatient clinic with every resident having his own beautiful (real windows) office there. The inpatient units are really nice and they do have tele-court. You don’t have to leave the hospital for most of your work. We didn’t go to the VA, however it is in close proximity (bike, car).
They day started with a Powerpoint presentation by the aPD. You’ll find the schedule on their webpage. They do offer electives at the Psychoanalytic Institute in St. Louis (shocker!) and I really think that they are very balanced program. All residents/faculty I meet said there is no real need to do a clinical fellowship after graduating from WUSTL, and this is supported by their educational approach. Two of my interviews were with the PD and aPD respectively, and they are super-relaxed and approachable. Dr. Farber doesn’t ask a lot of questions, so be prepared to ask your own questions.


3. Program overview:

Please refer to webpage, however I would like to highlight some points:
You can have psychotherapy cases from PGY2 and follow they until graduation. There is no real limit for that, and I met some residents that had quite a lot patients.
You don’t have any call in PGY3/4, however you can moonlight during that time. Their schedule is really flexible; you can follow your own interests while still experiencing all aspects of psychiatry.

4. Faculty

Everybody I met was genuinely interested in my background. They’re passionate about the education of great next generation psychiatrists, and encourage finding your own niche in the field. I also met some research faculty and they are down-to-earth. Everything you do should have educational value, and the faculty is very serious about that.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc.
St. Louis is a great city. It is modern, clean and very liveable. The reason for being on top of the crime statics is due to that they count Down-Town St. Louis only. It is an awesome midwestern city, and I consider it as a plus of the program. According to the residents, housing is very affordable. The catchment area is quite big and the patient population is diverse.

6. Benefits
Standard:
If you would like to see a copy of the current GME contract, please go to the GME web site http://gme.wustl.edu click on "Policy" under "About the GME Consortium", scroll down and click on Memorandum of Appointment, and then choose "BJH Memo of Appointment".

7. Program strengths
Faculty (approachable, dedicated to education)
Residents (laid-back, very happy)
St. Louis (sure it’s not NYC or San Francisco)
Curriculum (no call on PGY3/4, residents seem happy, not overworked, good support from other health care professions)
Forensics very strong
Balanced program

8. Potential weaknesses
Not much
Research could stronger, but I think it depends more on you than the program!
 
Not anonymous... just kidding, it is:

1. Interview accommodations/food:

You will receive a list of hotels that are very close to/right on the Vanderbilt campus. I did walk to my interview in the morning; I think there are many reasonable options available.
The food at the dinner with the residents was amazing. It was three-course menu, served in a fancy restaurant nearby. However, it was very crowed and loud. There were 4 residents and 8 applications, and I personally found it quite difficult to talk to the residents. Some of the residents didn’t seem very interested in the other applicants. If you have time to go to the dinner, you definitely should go because of the food.


2. Interview day:

Ms. Casner sent me an itinerary of my interview day with the names of my interviewers. It starts with breakfast at 7:45, and Dr. Heckers will then give a very informative presentation about the residency program. Every interviewee received a USB stick with the presentation on it, so there is no need to take any notes. You’ll have 6 interviews, including one with the chief resident and one with the PD, in the morning. Each interview is between 15 and 30 minutes long. The actual interviews were really enjoyable, every interviewer was well prepared, and they make every effort to match you with faculty members that have similar interests. All interview are done in the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, and you don’t have to worry about getting there. The lunch with the residents was really relaxing. However, I didn’t see a whole lot of their residents, they just snatched one of the delicious sandwiches. The day concluded with a tour through the facilities at Vanderbilt. It certainly is a very nice hospital.


3. Program overview:

Highlight: teams consist of residents from different years, strong team learning approach, everything’s EMRed

PGY1:
3 months of Internal Medicine (or 1 month of Pediatrics)
2 months of Neurology (1 month Inpatient, 1 month Outpatient )
1 month of Emergency Medicine
6 months of Psychiatry
PGY2:
4 months of Adult Psychiatry Inpatient service
2.5 months Adult Psychiatry Consultation Liaison service
1 month C&A Psychiatry Consultation Liaison service
2.5 months Emergency Psychiatry (Night Float / PTU)
1 month Community Psychiatry
2 months coverage (including 13th lunar month)
PGY3:
outpatient clinics/research
PGY4:
electives/research

There is a presentation on their webpage, please consult for further information.


4. Faculty

Extremely balanced faculty. Strong emphasis on teaching and educational experience. Recent recruitment of new C/L leader. Everybody is very approachable. Clinical care, research and teaching seem very solid.


5. Location, lifestyle, etc.

Nashville is definitely a fun place to live, especially if you like country music. Other than that there is a lot going on. Most residents live in walking distance from Vanderbilt, however few live a further away. The downtown area is really nice and I was genuinely impressed with Nashville overall.


6. Benefits

Standard, all residents will get a brand-new laptop/tablet (hopefully the iPad mini)


7. Program strengths

Chair/PD (Dr. Heckers is both)
Educational curriculum
Approachable Faculty
Location (Nashville is great)
Electives opportunities

8. Potential weaknesses

I didn’t see a lot of residents
Only two fellowships
 
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As usual- anonymous. Or maybe I'm just going to the most interviews EVER, you will never know.


1. Interview accommodations/food: I stayed with one of the residents in New Haven. Arrived early in CT, so I had a whole day to explore New Haven and the surrounding area. Downtown New Haven is really nice, and in a short distance you are in East Rock, a very quaint neighbourhood. I really suggest that you take time to see New Haven when you interview at Yale. New Haven is definitely a big plus for the residency program. There was a tour of the beautiful Yale campus before the dinner. We went to a great Sushi place, and I had the opportunity to meet many residents. They are a very big plus of the program. For lunch on the interview day we went to a nice southwest cuisine restaurant.

2. Interview day: There will be an introduction to the program from the PD and aPD after breakfast. The whole morning is reserved for interviews, and each interview is between 30 and 45 minutes. Every interviewer is well prepared, and is really curious to learn more about you. Know your application cold! You will then tour the hospital facilities with one or two residents. Yale has a stand-alone psychiatric hospital, and all their faculties are top-notch. After the tour you will have a meeting with the chair, Dr. Krystal. The interview day concludes with a wrap-up by the PD, and he really emphasizes that there will not be any post-interview communication from them. You are more than welcome to ask them more questions or communicate your ranking, however it will not affect their rank list at all. If you are interested in Child-Adolescent psychiatry you can also attend a meeting with another faculty member after the interview.

3. Program overview: Please refer to their webpage, however there are some thing I would like to point out. They have reduced internal medicine to 4 months in PGY1, which is not reflected on the webpage yet. There are tons of elective opportunities from PGY2 to PGY4, and you can follow your interest from a very early stage in your training. There is also a program for international mental health, as well as the Neurosciences Research Training Program (NRTP). Furthermore, there’s the possibility to fast-track into Child-Adolescent psychiatry.

4. Faculty: The PD, the three aPDs, the chair, the faculty and the residents are truly amazing. They are down-to-earth, approachable and really want you to find your place in psychiatry. I don’t think you can get any better than there.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc: New Haven is definitely a big plus for me. It has the right balance between being a small and big city. I have got everything I need in New Haven. The cost of living seems very reasonable to me.

6. Benefits: salary is high, very good benefits, money for educational materials. I couldn’t ask for more.

7. Program strengths: NEW HAVEN, faculty including on PD and 3 aPDs, residents, education, myriad of electives, fellowship opportunities.

8. Program weaknesses: bigger than other programs (may also be a plus for some)
 
How is it possible we are only 20 posts deep on Dec 1? Did the 2 week shift on ERAS submissions make this much difference? Did the interview season shift to more of a Dec/Jan thing this year? Or are people just not posting?

Any ideas? I am just a 3rd year so I am not part of the problem, but i am disappointed in the tepid response rate this year.
 
NYCMS2 said:
How is it possible we are only 20 posts deep on Dec 1? Did the 2 week shift on ERAS submissions make this much difference? Did the interview season shift to more of a Dec/Jan thing this year? Or are people just not posting?

Any ideas? I am just a 3rd year so I am not part of the problem, but i am disappointed in the tepid response rate this year.
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Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. The interviews from last year are great, and I feel like more recent reviews would be very helpful for those of us applying for residency in 2013. Hopefully more people will post in the next couple months.
 
Getting people to post reviews can be hard because people are paranoid that the programs will be able to guess who they are from the review and judge them for it. Seems like we always have people who intend to post reviews after the deadline for ranking but then never get around to it.
 
I'll be posting reviews for OU-Tulsa, Ohio State, New Mexico, Palmetto, UTSA and Texas A&M. It will be hit and miss, but if anyone is dying for one of those let me know and I'll do those first.
 
st2205 said:
I'll be posting reviews for OU-Tulsa, Ohio State, New Mexico, Palmetto, UTSA and Texas A&M. It will be hit and miss, but if anyone is dying for one of those let me know and I'll do those first.
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UNM and Palmetto first, please!
 
NYCMS2 said:
How is it possible we are only 20 posts deep on Dec 1? Did the 2 week shift on ERAS submissions make this much difference? Did the interview season shift to more of a Dec/Jan thing this year? Or are people just not posting?

Any ideas? I am just a 3rd year so I am not part of the problem, but i am disappointed in the tepid response rate this year.
Click to expand...

I've already written 8 reviews, but have yet to post them. I am waiting until my interviews are done (10 total, last one in early January) because my perspective changes with each interview. To therefore provide the same filter for all my program reviews I will update them one last time at the end of the interview season prior to posting. I've relied on these program reviews for years now and think it would be bad karma not to contribute when it's my year. (I hope others feel that way too!) My reviews should go up well before the rank list has to be submitted. From East to West my reviews will be on Cambridge, Brown, Yale, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Case, MCW, U Wisconsin, Hennepin-Regions, and UNM.
 
Anonymous:

1. Interview accommodations/food: No accommodations. Dinner the night before if you interview during the morning session, dinner the night of if you do the afternoon session. Dinner was good! Italian food, family style (bread + soft cheeses with honey, pesto, garlic and one or two others, pizza, and pasta. Two alcoholic drinks covered per person). Also, the bar next door (Prohibition) wasn't a bad place to hang out with other applicants until it was time for dinner.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences) - Morning session or Afternoon session. Everyone gets three half hour interviews plus a meeting with either the Training Director or the Associate Training director. Interviews are held in the offices of the third and fourth years (they each get their own), which are pretty nice. There's also a tiny lounge (another office) where you can spend any down time between interviews, and there's usually chief residents and a handful of other residents hanging around to chat with. There's also a tour, which was surprisingly comprehensive.

You also have the opportunity to set up extra meetings (I met with a child psych faculty member) on your interview day, and you can go to Friday Ground Rounds the next day. Do not feel like you have to go! Less than half of my applicant group went. Also, you don't have to wear your suit (but don't wear jeans either).

3. Program overview - http://columbiapsychiatry.org/residency/home
Nice variety of rotations even during first year (child psych & geri psych). I think everyone does do an ICU month (there's like ten or so different options for your medicine months and you rank them, and usually people get at least one of their picks).

Fourth year has been structured as a pure elective year, mainly so that those who want to do research (especially bench research) can have a longer uninterrupted chunk of time to get some work done.

Didactics are once a week during first year, every day during lunch PGY 2 and PGY 3, and I think it goes back to once a week during fourth year, except the website says three times a week, so I could be misremembering.

Call didn't sound too bad. (Sorry, I don't tend to take notes on the specific details because my decision is mostly going to be location & overall program feel). During first year you don't have any call during your psych months, which is interesting.

Most of the residents don't speak spanish well, if at all. Interpreters are very readily available.

I was really apprehensive about the program, based on past reviews. I though it was going to feel very cold and that I would feel out of place because I'm not a researcher at heart. However, I had a great time during my entire interview day, and during the dinner, and everyone seemed really nice and friendly, and the residents seemed happy. And while research is emphasized, the definition of research is very broad and there are a lot of clinical faculty who aren't very involved in research.

4. Faculty - I liked everyone I met, and none of the other applicants had anything negative to say about their interviewers. There were a lot of faculty who trained there and who have stuck around.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc. - It's New York. It's in Washington Heights, and very close to the subway and not hard to get around. It seems like the residents live in a variety of neighborhoods (but not near the hospital).

6. Benefits - Really high pay third and fourth year. Haven't seen a salary that high before.

7. Program strengths - Great place if you want to do research. They do really seem to care about the residents and have been making some good changes based on their feedback.

8. Potential weaknesses - New York isn't for everyone, but if you really don't like it, you probably haven't applied here.
 
If anyone has interviewed at UMass, I'd really appreciate a review!
 
Iowa
I interviewed for the med/psych program, but I'll talk about the things that are more specific to psych.

1. Interview accommodations/food
Most of the interviewees stay in the Sheraton about a mile from the hospital. It was a very nice hotel with huge rooms. The university also paid for our parking and our Internet connection at the hotel. A shuttle was provided in the morning and the afternoon to transport us between the hotel and the hospital.

The pre-interview dinner was at a high-end local restaurant. I think that wine was included, but most people (myself included) didn't have any, so I can't confirm that. The residents were all very friendly and seemed to be happy to discuss any topic... everybody had great things to say about the program, the faculty, the local area, etc.

A light breakfast (muffins, bagels, yogurt, coffee, soda, etc.) was provided on interview day. Lunch was provided along with the afternoon medical resident teaching case presentation - nice sandwiches and pasta. The psych department also gave us gift baskets at the end.


2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences)
Everybody was friendly. The med/psych interview day started with an introduction to the med program and finished with an introduction to the med/psych and psych programs. I interviewed with two med people (PD and APD), two med/psych people (PD and one other person), and two psych people (PD and one other person).
All of the faculty were happy to answer all of our questions. The individual interviews were mostly pretty conversational - they just asked a couple of straightforward questions and everybody left about half the interview time for me to ask questions. They never put me on the spot or asked anything particularly unusual. Everybody was already VERY (surprisingly) familiar with my CV, personal statement, rec letters, MSPE, etc., so there wasn't much left for them to ask. I think that they were really just trying to assess our fit with the program.

3. Program overview
I don't know much about the psych program, but the med/psych program was more flexible than I expected. The schedules are staggered, but you spend a total of 30 months on med and 30 months on psych. Each department allows three months of electives within that 30 months (for 6 total elective months). Both departments are flexible about how you'd like to do the rotations, so if there's a particular thing that doesn't fit well with your career plans, they'll try to find an alternative (within reason).
One nice thing is that they have a dedicated med/psych unit, so even psych residents can do their medical months in that unit.
Apparently, a lot of people believe that their psychotherapy training is a weakness. They made a point to address that - you can carry a reasonable supervised load of therapy patients during your clinical psychiatry rotations. I don't remember the specific details, but it seemed in line with my expectations for therapy training.

4. Faculty
As great as everything else is at this program, I think that the faculty is the best part. Everybody is not only super-friendly, but also very accomplished. The PD is the chief author of a major psychiatry textbook and the chief editor of a major journal. The department head is a very accomplished researcher who recently came over from Hopkins. Other faculty members also have a long list of accomplishments in research and education, and they all seem to be very interested in fostering the development of the residents.
Many of the residents end up with faculty positions, and it seems like you're very well-trained for an academic career. The fellowship placement also seems to be very strong.
I'd say that the faculty are more biologically-focused, but not to the point of sacrificing therapy training.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc.
Iowa City may not be everybody's idea of a dream destination, but it actually seems like a great place to live. It has the benefits of a small town (low cost of living, short commutes), but because of the university, it still retains a lot of culture (music, theater, etc.). The U.Iowa writing program has produced 28 Pulitzer Prize winners. Somebody told us (not sure of the source) that Iowa City was ranked as the third-most educated city in the US.

6. Benefits
On the higher end of standard. Good salary for a small town ($50k+). Three weeks of vacation plus paid conference leave. See the website for details.

7. Program strengths
Accomplished faculty who place high value on mentorship
Cohesive bunch of residents
Great town
Leader in cutting-edge biological research (genomics, pharmacogenomics, neuroimaging)

8. Potential weaknesses
May not be the best program for somebody who wants to focus on therapy, although therapy is definitely not neglected
 
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Mayo

1. Interview accommodations/food
Mayo will cover your stay at any of five local hotels, and will actually pay for two nights. The interview dinner is actually AFTER the interview, which probably makes more sense... I think it's better to talk to residents after spending the day at the facility. But this makes it a long day, which is why they pay for your accommodation the night before and the night after.

The interview dinner was at a nice restaurant near the Mayo campus. I think that wine was included, but most people (myself included) didn't have any, so I can't confirm that. There were four residents (including one chief resident) and four interviewees. Everybody was very open and friendly, as was the general theme on the day. I was also impressed by the general quality of the residents... they mostly seemed to be interesting and intelligent people with insightful personalities.

Throughout the day, we were in and out of one of the many mini-libraries, which was generally stocked with snacks and drinks. Lunch with the residents was also provided at the cafeteria.


2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences)
The interview day started with an informal intro with the PD. Surprisingly, there was no formal presentation with a program overview - they did explain it to us, but it was done in patches. The morning was a bit rushed because they wanted to get us off to observe a ward round, which was the main focus of the morning.

I had five interviews with faculty members in different subspecialties - the recruitment director (a general academic/clinical psychiatrist with a lot of experience in journalism and other various fields), the PD, the department head, the research director, and an expert on psychotherapy and personality disorders. Most of the faculty members are more interested in the biological side, but they all emphasize a balanced training scheme and they have experts on both the biological and psychological sides.

Everybody was friendly and it was clear that the camaraderie here is exceptional. It's really a place that fosters your learning and development without the pretentiousness that you might expect out of a place like Mayo. It was pretty clear that the residents were happy with their training and the faculty were pretty excited about their educational responsibilities. The interviews were pretty conversational, although each interviewer did ask some specific questions about my application (they were all very familiar with my app). There weren't many unusual questions, although there were a few questions that required a bit of insight into my own background. One person briefly analyzed me a little bit, but not to an uncomfortable extent. Most of them were just trying to see how well we fit into the program.


3. Program overview
The program is fairly front-heavy, but the workload doesn't seem too bad at any end of the spectrum. You'll usually carry 5-7 patients on most services. You might do long hours on medical and neuro rotations, but the psych rotations are pretty benign - there's no overnight call in the first two years (you just have "evening" call from 4pm to midnight) and you take overnight call for one out of every nine weeks during PGY3. There is one afternoon of protected educational time every week. Research and education are strongly supported by the faculty, which is part of the reason why your patient load is fairly light. Many different faculty members (especially the PD) couldn't stop talking about how important it is for them to make sure that they're training exceptional clinicians.

People mention that psychotherapy isn't really emphasized at Mayo, but I think that this is simply false (it may be mildly true at other biologically-focused programs, but not here). The new PD makes an effort to ensure that your therapy training is well beyond the recommended standards set by the ACGME. You get therapy patients and a therapy supervisor starting in PGY2, and the exposure increases in PGY3/4.

Another concern that some people mention is the patient diversity. Rochester is a growing city with many different ethnic groups, including migrant farm workers, Mayo/IBM employees, and various others. Another common misconception is that they only see rich patients - to the contrary, they have a large budget for seeing uninsured patients, and a substantial portion of the patient population is made up of locals who don't have insurance.

One more concern I've heard is that they have too much rare stuff and not enough bread-and-butter. That's not what I saw when I went on the ward round... plenty of run-of-the-mill depression, psychosis, PTSD, etc. Sure, a lot of people come to Mayo for treatment of weird stuff, but that only enhances your experience by allowing you to get exposure to rare things... most of the patients there are still just regular average everyday patients.

I think that the program is particularly strong if you're interested in psychosomatics. They have a dedicated med/psych unit and an elaborate C/L team to cover the rest of the hospital.


4. Faculty
The faculty are amazing, as you would expect. In my previous review, I mentioned that the faculty (at Iowa) are very accomplished... at Mayo, I wasn't even thinking about their accomplishments because they were just so impressive in a regular conversation. Every interview felt like a learning experience, and I can only imagine that it would be even better to be learning from these people on a daily basis.

In general, every faculty member seems to have a distinguishing feature. They're not just defined by their list of accomplishments - each person has a unique personality and unique expertise, but they still value the importance of the other subspecialties. Not everybody has a long list of publications and not everybody is famous (although many of them are), but everybody is in an elite class.

Most of the faculty members actually trained at Mayo... for such a big hospital, I was surprised at how much they seem like a family. Most people also seem to prefer to stay at Mayo for fellowships, which says a lot.


5. Location, lifestyle, etc.
Rochester isn't exactly the most desirable destination in the world, but it works for me because my family is in the Midwest. If it weren't for the family connection, I'd be reluctant to rank Mayo at the top because of the weather.
Be advised that my perspective was slightly tainted by the snowstorm that encompassed most of my drive up from Chicagoland.


6. Benefits
Salary is pretty standard. Great gym facilities on campus. Vacation and conference leave are in line with the usual (can't remember the details now). Health insurance is a bit weird - the coverage network is only within Mayo facilities, but out-of-network areas are also covered. They have an elaborate system for measuring how often you go to the gym... and if you go more often, your gym membership AND your health insurance rates actually go down.

7. Program strengths
Amazing faculty
Cohesive bunch of residents who have great camaraderie with faculty
Very intelligent crew of residents
Leader in many different types of research
Eclectic range of cases
Mayo name
Good therapy training for a biologically-focused program
IMG-friendly, but only if you have an interesting CV - and as a result, there's a lot of useful diversity in the resident class

8. Potential weaknesses
Rochester (not a big deal for me)
Strict dress standards (may matter for some people, but I actually like wearing suits)
Not a great place for somebody who doesn't want to do much research/teaching
 
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I interviewed there. Rochester is NOT known for an eclectic population or range of cases, their uninsured population is still nothing close to the uninsured in places like New York City and Los Angeles. In fact, a common complaint of residents at Mayo is its relatively homogenous population. And the Mayo name is 5-star in the midwest, but does not carry the same panache on the coasts.

I'd also hate wearing suits every day. But to each his own.
 
Sir James Bond said:
I interviewed there. Rochester is NOT known for an eclectic population or range of cases, their uninsured population is still nothing close to the uninsured in places like New York City and Los Angeles. In fact, a common complaint of residents at Mayo is its relatively homogenous population. And the Mayo name is 5-star in the midwest, but does not carry the same panache on the coasts.
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Hm... thanks for adding your experience. I didn't mean to suggest that Rochester is full of indigent populations... if that's what you want, go to the inner city. But going in, I thought that Mayo was entirely made up of people with good insurance, and I was wrong about that.

As far as range of cases, I guess it depends on what you're interested in. I like psychosomatics, which is big at Mayo. If you're interested in acute psychosis, the cases might not be as eclectic... but I don't know about that.

Why don't you post a full review?
 
You're right I should... I keep thinking I will but end up reading instead of posting. Maybe tomorrow or the next day I will post a few reviews. You do a really good job though with your reviews.
 
Another

1. Interview accommodations/food
I stayed at the Marriot and I would certainly recommend that hotel. There is an underground tunnel to the Mayo Main Building, so you don’t have to get out to get to your interview. They will pay for 2 nights, however parking and Internet is not included. I could use the free Internet, which is available in the hotel lobby, from my room. There is also a dinner after the interview day, which is rather unusual. They will NOT pay for alcohol, and everybody gets a cheque for alcoholic beverages. They certainly don’t want to support your alcohol problem…
You’ll also go to the Mayo cafeteria for lunch. During the interview day and at the dinner, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to meet the residents. They were really nice, and were happy to answer any of your questions.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences)
The morning is reserved for observing ward rounds. I think that this is a great opportunity to get a sense of teaching culture at Mayo. They’ll try to match it with your interests, and they were able to accommodate that when I was there. However, there is no formal presentation of the program. I found presentations to be quite informative during other interviews, so you will get your information about the program in bits and pieces from different people.
You will then have lunch, and I was very happy to meet many residents. They are all very nice, coming from different backgrounds, having diverse interests.
Your afternoon consists of 4-5 interviews with faculty members. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary there, however, one of my interviewer wanted to test my composure, I think. They really emphasize that they want to train good clinicians, and also to foster your research interests.

3. Program overview
I really cannot add much to shan564’s review. The residents seem very happy, although I think that the schedule is on the heavier side compared to other programs. You can do psychotherapy, but if you see yourself becoming an analyst you probably have better opportunities elsewhere.
The patient population is diverse (poor VS rich, ethnic groups, ect.) enough to train there. Having said that, you don’t want to come there for the most diverse patient population.
Very strong in psychosomatics.

4. Faculty
Everyone is down-to-earth, and yet very accomplished. The culture of teaching is great, and everybody I met emphasized that I will be able to follow my own interests at Mayo. You don’t have to do research, but they are happy if you do.
Most people, I met, have trained at Mayo or in the local area.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc.
Probably my biggest concern. Rochester is nice, but I would not call it a vibrant city at all. Most people you see are either Mayo employees or patients.


6. Benefits
Salary is standard. Health’s standard.

7. Program strengths
Strong teaching culture
Interesting residents
Plenty of research opportunites
Mayo…

8. Potential weaknesses
…which is not world-renowned for psychiatry.
Rochester
Suits (I don’t mind wearing suites at interviews, but it will certainly require some adjustment to wear them every day)
 
1. Interview accommodations/food: stayed with a friend, so not sure of accommodations. There was light breakfast (with bagels), very messy wraps for lunch (but yummy), and a snack in the afternoon with coffee.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences)
First was an info session with the PD, which was quite inspiring. There were 3-4 interviews, 1 resident and the rest attendings (including the PD, Dr Sams). At least one of the interviewers was interest-matched. Most interview questions were pretty basic, though Dr Sams did some of the "what is one thing you could change about yourself" types of questions.
They really solicited a lot of questions.

7. Program strengths: VERY smart, interested residents, amazing access to harvard professors/ resources

8. Potential weaknesses : No VA, poor work-life balance (in response to this questions, one of the residents said something along the lines of "yes, you totally have time to read outside of work."
 
Kansas med/psych
Another med/psych interview, but again, I’ll focus on the psych aspect

Food/accommodations
ACCOM: The program paid for us to stay at the Courtyard Marriott at Country Club Plaza, the trendy shopping district on the Missouri side of Kansas City. There was a little gift bag waiting for us at the hotel with info about KC and a few little KC-based trinkets. I had to pay for a shuttle to the hotel from the airport ($19 each way or $34 round-trip, plus tip). A shuttle was provided for transportation in both directions between the hotel and the hospital.
FOOD: The pre-interview dinner was at a nice local restaurant called Thomas, which is within a short walk from the hospital and is a popular venue for resident get-togethers. One of the residents picked us up from the hotel and gave us a little tour of the area, including the shopping district and the hospital vicinity. There was also ample food on the interview day, with a substantial hot breakfast with the program intro in the morning and pre-ordered sandwiches/salads in the afternoon (note: my breakfast was with the internal medicine department, so it might be different for categorical psych applicants).

Interview day
We arrived at the hospital at about 8am via the shuttle (provided by the hospital). We were guided to a nice meeting room where there was a hot breakfast buffet waiting for us. IM program presentation started at 8:30 and ran for about a half hour. Then all of the interviewees and the IM chief residents went to the resident lounge and talked casually there while some people were sporadically picked out for faculty interviews.
The med/psych people had two interviews – for me, one was the APD in charge of ambulatory and the other was just one of the IM faculty members. The interviews were pretty casual – like other interviews, most of the questions were about my experiences. They did ask me the standard “strengths and weaknesses” question in both interviews, but it was pretty low-pressure overall. One of them asked me to tell him about an interesting case, so I just chose to talk about a case that we wrote up that also happened to be a great demonstration of the value of combined med/psych training.
After the IM interviews, we went to a noon-ish teaching session where one resident presented a case and everybody worked together to make a differential list and a management plan. Then the IM candidates went off on a tour and the med/psych candidates were pulled over to the psych department for lunch with a med/psych resident and a psych chief resident, followed by a tour of the psych department.
Finally, we had three interviews with the psych department – one with the head of psych, one with the psych PD, and one with the med/psych PD. All three are dually certified in med/psych, so we spent most of the time talking about why we’re interested in med/psych and how we plan to structure our careers with this training. As usual, it felt more like them trying to sell their program to us.

Program details
Honestly, I didn’t get a lot of details about the psych program, but I did get the sense that it had a substantial influence from the med/psych program. The psych PD and the department chair are both trained in med/psych (although the department chair also has a PhD in psychology, so he’s quite a versatile guy). Also, the med/psych PD seems to be more involved in the psych department than the IM department. As a result, I think that this is a particularly good program if you’re interested in the areas of psych that have more of a medical tinge, such as pain medicine, drug/alcohol, psychosomatics, etc.
The med/psych program is unique in that you do 6-month blocks of either medicine or psychiatry (with several rotations in each block). The residents seem to like this, since it gives them a chance to really throw themselves into one side or the other. But the downside to this is that they tend to get rusty in one area when they’re spending 6 months in the other. I think that the two factors end up balancing each other out.
Aside from that, everything about the program is fairly standard.

Faculty
There are a lot of great faculty members in both IM and psych. It seems like the PDs in both departments are relatively young and are both graduates of the KU program. Everybody seems to be very interested in continuing to improve their program, and the IM faculty were very proud of their national rankings and their board pass rates.
The psych PD is a fairly recent graduate of the med/psych program, but it seems like her practice is more focused on psychiatry (as you’d expect for a psych PD). As I said earlier, the psych department head and PD are both med/psych trained, so they’re particularly good at supporting activities with a more medical focus. Exposure to therapy is still there, but it’s flexible – they recommend that you have five therapy patients, but you can have more or fewer depending on your long-term interests.


Facilities
This is one of KU’s biggest strengths. For several historical/political reasons, the hospital has become very profitable in recent years, and the administration has been nice enough to invest a lot of that profit into redevelopment. They’re currently undergoing massive expansion in several different departments, and a lot of the facilities are brand new. They also have the money to create little perks for residents (i.e. happy hour at a local restaurant, free baseball tickets, etc.).
There does seem to be a bit of travel between different facilities. The team covers three different VA hospitals (I think), and one of the rotations requires you to go to Wichita (1-1.5 hour drive) and commute back to KC for didactics. But as I understand it, the Wichita rotation is fairly short and is well-supported by the department. And a lot of residents like going to Wichita because it was the original location of the Menninger Clinic (one of the Menningers is still there), so there’s a strong psychiatric tradition there.

Locality
I hope that my fellow St. Louis people don’t slap me for saying this, but KC is actually a great town. It gives you all of the practicality of a Midwestern city (decent cost of living, decent traffic, relatively safe, etc.), but there are plenty of things to do. KC is full of arts and culture, which is surprising to a lot of people (but I grew up in Missouri, so I’d already been there a couple of times). If you get some extra time in town, try one of the Ethiopian restaurants.

Program strengths
Hospital is constantly investing money into redevelopment
Residents seem happy
Great place for training in medicine-heavy subspecialties
Kansas City is a cool place
Categorical program is IMG-friendly
PD is young, energetic, and accessible

Program weaknesses
Not much of a focus on therapy, although you can do it if you want to
Kansas City weather
 
Doesn't Longwood make you do 5 or 6 months of inpatient medicine in your first year? I remember that leaving me nervous and wondering why such training was necessary to a psychiatry residency.
 
no they do 4 months (I think it used to be 5). MGH, Columbia, Yale, Hopkins etc have more than the usual 4. Many places have been cutting down or at least lightening the load of medicine rotations for recruitment purposes - for example Columbia used to have 6 months, I think Yale are cutting down, Longwood did have 5, changed more for workhour reasons more that recruitment etc.

Now, you can get away with not doing medicine and be a decent psychiatrist, the point is the PGY-1 year is about becoming a physician which is partly about having the confidence of being able to recognize that a patient is unwell, and know the basic principles of initial management of problems. After doing medicine in a busy hospital caring for many more pts than was probably good, I am fairly unflappable even in the most stressful clinical situations (even when I dont know wtf to do!) This is important in inspiring confidence in others and recognizing that people will turn to you as the physician to be the leader when things go tits up. Psychiatrists are (or should be) physicians first are foremost. As other professions increasingly encroach on the aspects of mental healthcare that were once the purview of psychiatrists alone, it becomes more important, not less, to have a good foundation in medicine.

I would tend to think some outpatient months rather than all inpatient would be more practically useful however.
 
splik said:
no they do 4 months (I think it used to be 5). MGH, Columbia, Yale, Hopkins etc have more than the usual 4. Many places have been cutting down or at least lightening the load of medicine rotations for recruitment purposes - for example Columbia used to have 6 months, I think Yale are cutting down, Longwood did have 5, changed more for workhour reasons more that recruitment etc.

Now, you can get away with not doing medicine and be a decent psychiatrist, the point is the PGY-1 year is about becoming a physician which is partly about having the confidence of being able to recognize that a patient is unwell, and know the basic principles of initial management of problems. After doing medicine in a busy hospital caring for many more pts than was probably good, I am fairly unflappable even in the most stressful clinical situations (even when I dont know wtf to do!) This is important in inspiring confidence in others and recognizing that people will turn to you as the physician to be the leader when things go tits up. Psychiatrists are (or should be) physicians first are foremost. As other professions increasingly encroach on the aspects of mental healthcare that were once the purview of psychiatrists alone, it becomes more important, not less, to have a good foundation in medicine.

I would tend to think some outpatient months rather than all inpatient would be more practically useful however.
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Thanks for writing that. I keep looking towards it with fear and an eagerness to get past it. But I know it's the wrong attitude. You've given me a good thought clump to replace it with.
 
splik said:
no they do 4 months (I think it used to be 5). MGH, Columbia, Yale, Hopkins etc have more than the usual 4. Many places have been cutting down or at least lightening the load of medicine rotations for recruitment purposes - for example Columbia used to have 6 months, I think Yale are cutting down, Longwood did have 5, changed more for workhour reasons more that recruitment etc.

Now, you can get away with not doing medicine and be a decent psychiatrist, the point is the PGY-1 year is about becoming a physician which is partly about having the confidence of being able to recognize that a patient is unwell, and know the basic principles of initial management of problems. After doing medicine in a busy hospital caring for many more pts than was probably good, I am fairly unflappable even in the most stressful clinical situations (even when I dont know wtf to do!) This is important in inspiring confidence in others and recognizing that people will turn to you as the physician to be the leader when things go tits up. Psychiatrists are (or should be) physicians first are foremost. As other professions increasingly encroach on the aspects of mental healthcare that were once the purview of psychiatrists alone, it becomes more important, not less, to have a good foundation in medicine.

I would tend to think some outpatient months rather than all inpatient would be more practically useful however.
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No matter how you present it, and I must say you present it well in a compelling manner, internal medicine is hell as a resident. I will never like it, and have found the residents who are solely gen med to be anal, controlling, an mildly unpleasant.
 
Sir James Bond said:
No matter how you present it, and I must say you present it well in a compelling manner, internal medicine is hell as a resident. I will never like it, and have found the residents who are solely gen med to be anal, controlling, an mildly unpleasant.
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That much is undeniable, BUT, you only get one shot to learn it and do it. Might as well make the best of it. On a lighter note, you won't be a med student any more. That Asperger IM resident no longer has his life in your hands. You can deal with him as a peer, and embrace or ignore him at will.
 
Sir James Bond said:
No matter how you present it, and I must say you present it well in a compelling manner, internal medicine is hell as a resident. I will never like it, and have found the residents who are solely gen med to be anal, controlling, an mildly unpleasant.
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I couldn't agree less. I am two weeks away from finishing my 6 months of medicine, and it has been a great experience. Sure, it was hard work, but I learnt a considerable amount and gained in confidence. As Splik points out, its more about obtaining generic competencies then specific medical knowledge, and the more enthusiastic you are about the rotation the better it will be. I also found the categorical medicine residents to be great teachers, and very encouraging.

Something else that makes the medicine months a little easier is that you aren't necessarily pressured into doing a lot of reading, as people are generally aware that you are going into psychiatry. As long as you are attentive to your patients, and do what you need to do, you can enjoy a few months where your academic progress will be relatively free of scrutiny.

I am sorry if you found it to be hell, and I am sure you are not the only one, but by the same token I have found many people agree with me in actually enjoying the experience to a significant extent.
 
SmallBird said:
I couldn't agree less. I am two weeks away from finishing my 6 months of medicine, and it has been a great experience. Sure, it was hard work, but I learnt a considerable amount and gained in confidence. As Splik points out, its more about obtaining generic competencies then specific medical knowledge, and the more enthusiastic you are about the rotation the better it will be. I also found the categorical medicine residents to be great teachers, and very encouraging.

Something else that makes the medicine months a little easier is that you aren't necessarily pressured into doing a lot of reading, as people are generally aware that you are going into psychiatry. As long as you are attentive to your patients, and do what you need to do, you can enjoy a few months where your academic progress will be relatively free of scrutiny.

I am sorry if you found it to be hell, and I am sure you are not the only one, but by the same token I have found many people agree with me in actually enjoying the experience to a significant extent.
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I agree. This is probably program dependent, but I had an awesome time during my medicine months (finishing up Neurology now). I especially liked it when I had patients on the floor with psychiatric co-morbidities and learning how to manage them.
 
I ended up doing more IM than the average psych resident. There were good times and bad times. I think the quality of the experience depends a great deal on the personalities of your senior resident and attending. Some people are lucky and have good people to work with who make it a positive and educational experience. Others...not so much.
 
WashU

  1. Communication: Interview invite via email, scheduled via phone and email.

  2. Accommodations & Food:
    ACCOM: No accommodation was provided, but they do have a discounted interview rate at the Parkway Hotel, which is connected to the medical complex. I stayed with a friend in St. Louis, but if you need a hotel, I think the Parkway is the best option. That's also where they met us for the pre-interview dinner.

    FOOD: Pre-interview dinner was at a decent local restaurant, but they rotate the venue between interviews. Surprisingly enough, I was the only person who didn't have any alcohol - at my other 4 interview dinners, nobody had any alcohol at all.
    There was no breakfast on interview day, which was also a bit of a surprise - so I was slightly hypoglycemic for my morning interviews.
    We had lunch with lots of residents in a big conference room. They'd ordered in from St. Louis Bread Company (known in the rest of the world as Panera).

  3. Interview Day: We met in the residency training office at 7:30, and the PD gave us a thorough presentation starting at 7:45. The presentation covered the training philosophy of the program, the year-by-year details, and a brief summary of everything that is good about St. Louis. We all had five interviews - for me, it was the PD, the APD, the assistant department head (the full department head was on vacation), one of the PhD psychotherapist/researcher faculty members, and the attending who was in charge of PGY3 clinics. In the afternoon (before the end of the interviews), there was a lunch with the residents and a tour.
    During the various half-hour breaks during the day, we sat around in a room that was full of faculty publications/books and a computer for us to use.


  4. Program Overview:
    They take 11 residents every year. There is one main site (Barnes Jewish Hospital, the main WashU teaching hospital). There are no special tracks, but they encourage you to develop your own interests in your own preferred manner. They really emphasize a "medical model" of psychiatry, which means evidence-based practice and clinical decision-making, but they made a point to mention that "medical" doesn't mean "biological" or "pharmacological." The program is very research-heavy, but they still ensure that their priority is clinical training.

    Details are on the website, but here is an overview:

    PGY-1 includes 4 months of medicine (which can include 1 month of ER or pediatrics), 2 month of neuro (1 month stroke, 1 month general neuro), and 6 months inpatient psych. During your inpatient psych months, you do weekly night float q5-6 weeks.

    PGY-2 has several rotations - 2.2 months chemical dependency, 1.1 months day hospital, 1.1 months eating disorders, 2.2 months C/L, 1.1 months psych ER, 1.1 months interventional psych (mostly ECT), 1.1 months geropsych, 2.1 months electives/selectives (many options). You start doing a bit of therapy in PGY2, although you should have had a bit of exposure in PGY-1 in your inpatient rotation and your didactics.

    PGY-3 is all outpatient. You get your own office and you get 2-4 hours per week of supervision time, which could be used for therapy guidance, mentorship, etc. You're required to have at least two patients in each of the three main types of evidence-based psychotherapy. You can also have more if you're interested.

    PGY-4 includes two months of supervising juniors on inpatient rotations and two months of supervising juniors on consult rotations. The other 8 months are elective time, but at least 4 of those months should be spent on some sort of research activity. The research opportunities at WashU are endless, so you're bound to find something interesting... you don't have to develop an entire project if you don't want to.

    Didactics tend to be heavy on the basic science side. There are afternoon lectures daily. You will still get paged during the lectures, so it's not technically "protected" time, but as you know, you can usually delay your call until the end of the lecture.

    Research is a critical part of the program, and although they won't force you to do research, this is a place that's known for pushing the frontiers. Even if you don't want to do research, you'll be surrounded by experts in the next big thing, and you can learn from them. But this is a particularly good place for those of us who actually want to work with those people.

    In-house moonlighting is available in PGY-3/4. There is a moonlight night float every night. About $75/hour for floating until 10pm, and then you can take overnight home call at $120 for the night plus $75/hour if you get called in.

  5. Faculty:
    Despite the medical model and research intensiveness, the department is very diverse. One of my interviewers was a PhD clinical psychologist who also does research on patients with general medical illnesses. He was a full professor in the psychiatry department, was very influential in the therapy curriculum, and wasn't a fan of the medical/evidence-based model that's emphasized by most of the MDs in the department. But he is still a valued senior member of the faculty, along with many other experts with PhD's in various fields.

    Overall, the faculty were very impressive. Everybody seemed to encourage balanced training, but they also suggested that you find a niche within the field. Everybody has a narrow area of special expertise, and there are enough faculty members so that they have pretty much everything well-covered. There is a lot of exciting research going on. And despite all of that, the faculty are strikingly approachable.


  6. Location & Lifestyle:
    St. Louis is a decent place to live, although not the most exciting place in the world. It's very practical - friendly traffic, good cost of living, etc. St. Louis is home for me, so my opinion is a bit biased...

    Also, Barnes is one of the nicest hospitals I've ever seen. And outpatient psychiatry clinics are in a brand new building. The inpatient psych unit is located on the 15th floor of the hospital, so you get some nice views.


  7. Salary & Benefits: Pretty standard.

  8. Strengths:
    Spectacular research
    Diverse and well-accomplished faculty
    Good therapy training for a program that prides itself on "evidence-based" psychiatry
    Cohesive bunch of residents
    Excellent facility
  9. Weaknesses:
    SDNers seem to love the coasts
 
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YoungPsychDoc said:
I'll work on this thread a little at a time. Please be patient, more details will be forthcoming.
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Delete this, YoungPsychDoc.

When you are ready, make a post for a particular program. There's no need to placehold. And I have no idea why you are listing programs you aren't even planning to interview at. This post looks like a vanity project.

If you're actually trying to help folks, delete this and create reviews when you want to write them. All this post does is irritate people using the search function to learn more about programs.
 
SDN's favorite psychiatry program, Harvard South Shore.

  1. Communication: Interview invite via ERAS, scheduled via phone and email.

  2. Accommodations & Food:
    ACCOM: No accommodation was provided... they have a few recommended hotel options with special interview rates, but I chose to stay in the hotel across the street from the hospital (which, strangely enough, wasn't one of their recommended hotels). I'd probably advise against staying there... the walls are paper thin and it's hard to sleep at a reasonable time. I probably should have just splurged and rented a car or something.

    FOOD: Pre-interview dinner was at an Italian restaurant which is apparently a small chain across the East Coast (but I'm not an East Coast person, so I hadn't heard of it). The invitation described a "reception" with "appetizers", but they had a decent quantity of pizza, so you could make an actual dinner out of it. The residents were all fairly friendly and informative, although they weren't trying to sell the program as hard as some of the residents I've met elsewhere. It's a very multicultural bunch, and they do hang out with each other quite a bit.
    There was no breakfast on interview day, but the day started a bit later than most others (8:30 I think), so that wasn't a big deal.
    We had lunch with lots of residents in a random room at the hospital. We had sandwiches, salad, cookies, etc.

  3. Interview Day: We met in the residency training office at 8:30, and the PD gave us a thorough presentation starting soon afterwards. The presentation covered just about everything you might want to know, including details of the program, didactics, general ideas about their training philosophy, etc. She made a point to mention that they really value resident feedback and are constantly trying to improve the program. The residents also gave me the same sort of feedback. This was quite different from what I've read from previous applicants, so I'm guessing that this new PD (been around for a couple of years) has made a lot of changes to make the program more Harvard-caliber.

    We all had four interviews - PD, APD, random faculty member, and a senior resident. The random faculty member had looked at my application, but didn't know much about the program. There was also a "professor's panel", which was basically just a Q&A session with a senior faculty member. At about halftime, there was a lunch with the residents, and a tour at the end of the day.

  4. Program Overview:
    There are several sites, and quite a bit of driving. You do a lot of your rotations at the Brockton VA (which is where the program is based), but there are also rotations at community hospitals and at other Harvard hospitals. There is a "research track" and a "leadership track" for people who are interested in those areas. They go through a lot of effort to make sure that their training is balanced (due to the inherent unbalance present in a training program that's based at the VA) and that resident feedback is considered thoroughly. Everybody gets a faculty mentor.

    Details are on the website, but here is an overview:

    PGY-1 includes 4 months of medicine (including 3 months of IM at a local community hospital and 1 month ambulatory at the VA), 2 month of neuro (1 month at Beth Israel, 1 month at another VA), 1 month ER psych, 1 month substance abuse, 3 months inpatient psych, and 1 month geriatric psych at McLean. Call is q3-4 - until 10pm with attending present on weeknights, two different residents on Friday (4:15 to 10pm shift and 6pm to 8am shift), 9am to 10pm on holidays/Sundays. The residents seemed to be pretty happy with the workload on call.

    PGY-2 includes 2 mo. inpt psych, 1 mo. ER night float, 2 mo. C/L, 1 mo. at McLean Southeast, 1 mo. inpt psych at a community hospital, 1 month at clinical evaluation center at McLean, 1 mo. forensics somewhere in the city, 2 mo. CAP at CHA, 1 mo. inpatient at McLean. Also, there's a 2.5 hr continuity clinic all year long. I think therapy training starts in PGY2 in the clinic, but I can't remember now. Call is q6-8 with parameters similar to PGY1.

    PGY3 is all outpatient with various rotations. PGY-4 is mostly elective time, which can also be spent at other Harvard hospitals or even outside the Harvard network. There's also a teaching/supervision elective. Or you can do research with one of the countless super-amazing Harvard faculty people. Call is q9-10 overnight in PGY3, and no call in PGY4.

    Didactic schedule is almost certainly the best I've seen. You get a full protected day of didactics, and the attendings cover your patients during that time. Didactic teachers come from around the Harvard network.

    Lots of research opportunities, and you can use your elective time for research if you want to do the "research track."

    Fellowship placement is particularly good. Many of the residents match at fellowships throughout the Harvard network and elsewhere in the Ivy League.


  5. Faculty:
    The PD is a Harvard person with a long list of cool research publications. The APD is another Harvard person who focuses more on education. The department chair is a military person who came in via the VA... he doesn't have a strong academic background, but he's very approachable and seems like a great psychiatrist. The general group of VA attendings seems like any other group of hospital attendings. There are a few high-profile Harvard faculty who are supervising some research projects at HSS and often come down to teach some didactics.

    All that aside, the faculty are overwhelmingly supportive of the residents' development. They will cover your patients for an entire day when you have didactics. They provide personalized mentorship and take it quite seriously. They actively consider resident feedback.

  6. Location & Lifestyle:
    Brockton doesn't seem like the nicest place in the world, but many people live in Quincy, which is on the beach and is within about 20 minutes of most of the sites where you would rotate. Some people live in Brockton (there's a nice apartment complex across the street from the hospital), some people live as far as Cambridge (~45 minutes during rush hour).

    New England is an interesting place, but not for everyone. I was born in Pakistan, grew up in the Midwest, and went to medical school in Australia... but the biggest culture shock I've ever experienced was during a summer in Boston in 2005.

    Lifestyle-wise, this place is surprisingly cush. There is a decent amount of call, but the residents finish at 4pm every day on non-call days. Also, four weeks of vacation.

  7. Salary & Benefits:
    Great salary - $59k in PGY1. And four weeks of vacation. And a Harvard ID, which is like gold in Boston... my uncle told me that his Harvard ID once got him out of a speeding ticket.

  8. Strengths:
    Full protected didactic day
    Lots of great research
    Decent mix of Harvard faculty and VA attendings
    Flexible therapy training
    Diverse range of hospital experiences

  9. Weaknesses:
    They make a huge effort to ensure that this doesn't affect your experience, but in the end, they can't make up for the fact that the VA limits your exposure
    Brockton
 
Has anybody else noticed this line item in the FREIDA data called: Avg. hrs/wk on duty during first year (excluding beeper call)? It seems to average around 53 for most program, but some have it as high as 70 and some as low as 40. It doesn't seem to correlate well with what the residents tell me about their work experience. Where does that number come from and what should we use it for?
 
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53 seems just about right on the money for interns at my program. It's strange that they would exclude beeper call since interns aren't allowed to take beeper call from home. I suspect the reason it doesn't correlate well with what residents have told you about their experience is that typically upper level residents are responsible for interviews/dinners/etc, and only the most recent change in duty hours (effective last academic year) required a lot of programs to go to pager call for 2's and above overnight because most programs used to rely so heavily on interns to take on the call burden. So, the upper level residents you talked to were probably describing THEIR intern year, which like mine, was a great deal more than 53 hours :) Hope that helps!
 
Because I promised I would...here are my reviews from last year finally. Some of them are more fleshed out than others...others are just shorthand notes, sorry. But, I thought they might be somewhat helpful. I apologize ahead of time for any grammatical errors or typos you may encounter.

Keep in mind that I was looking for a program that was strong in child and telemedicine, and was also family friendly (i.e. small to medium sized city, reasonable work hours, etc.). Here we go:

Indiana University:

Interview Accomodations: Wow. Free room at the Conrad Hotel (Hilton). Super-amazing, high scale nice. Comfy king size bed, super plush, nice couch, chair and desk in room. 42-50" LG Flat screen TV. Also a small flat screen in my freaking BATHROOM! Gym, Spa, and Indoor Pool. Connected to Circle Mall by walkways. Very nice part of downtown, looks lively, lots of bars, nightlife, etc.

Dinner: Dinner at Weber Grill (as in Weber Grills, that you buy for your house). Limited menu for the program, but free and appetizer sampler + entrée + desert. Pretty good food, but not the best thing ever. Dinner with 2 first years and one 3rd year. Residents were super nice, funny, relaxed, and answered all questions very candidly. Seemed to genuinely love the program. I could definitely see myself fitting in personality wise with these guys. When we toured the school and saw the monorail, I quietly sang the Simpson's "monorail" song to myself…the residents joined in and did the entire song…IN CHARACTER!

Indy seems like a great city. Mild-ish weather, winters aren't too bad comparatively. Sports are HUGE here (even though the Colts are sucking this year). Colts, Pacers, Indy 500. Arts are also a big deal: tons of concerts, Drum Corps International HQ and Championship, Marching Band Association Championship, Broadway shows come through regularly, active Symphony Orchestra, etc. Seems like it's got everything.

Suburbs sound nice, but haven't seen them yet. Carmel, IN has been ranked very highly as a great ‘burb.

Program: Great new call system. Intern call is q week until 10pm. No overnight or weekend call 1st year. Second year call is basically 5 overnight calls a month, but it sounds like the call workload isn't that bad. Call covers Wishard inpatient unit (~20 beds), Wishard admits, the VA (1-2 admits/call), University Hospital (rarely get paged, 1-2x per resident per year), children's hospital (rare), and State psych hospital. Overall, not bad. Residents described a pretty relaxed program and schedule, with time to have lives. It doesn't seem overly cushy, but is probably on the cushier end of things. 2nd year definitely sounds the hardest. IM is q4 short call (again, no overnights for interns), but you do have to do weekend call too. Basically, it sounds like you work 6 days a week on IM with days you have to stay until 10. It's pretty tough. IM is very inbred and young attendings, semi-malignant, but you get through it. It's 3 months of IM OR Peds. You can't mix and match. They're pretty insistent on that, which I think is probably a good thing. Neuro is very good. Strong program. Not a bad schedule. Apparently the neuro docs try to convince you to switch to neuro, hahaha. Normal days are (I think) 8:30-5 (ish) on psych. Different "tracks": educator vs research.

Rotations:

PGY 1:
• Two 3 month blocks on inpatient psych at Wishard Memorial Hospital (Midtown Community Mental Health Center)
o Intern Psych call:
• 1 short call per week. Covers VA (1-2 admits/call), University Hospital (rarely get paged, 1-2x/resident/year), Children's hospital (rare), and Larue Carter and/or Wishard (???)
• How does it work covering basically VA + Larue since Larue is a bit away. Are you doing a lot of driving back and forth or what?
• 3 months Primary Care (IM or Peds, can NOT mix, one or the other)
o In vs out?
o IM: q4 short call (includes weekends which are just like any other day)
• 2 months Neurology (in vs out?)

PGY 2:
• Two 6 week blocks on 2 different Larue Carter units
o 2nd year Psych Call = ~5 overnight calls per month.
• So you stay overnight after your 8:30-5 shift?
• Off the next day?
• Call hours? 5-when? Different on different services?
• 1m Forensics
• 1m Geri
• 1m ER Psych
• 2m Child
• 2m C-L
• 2m Addiction
• ½ day/week "continuity care" clinic (psychodynamic and CBT) all year

PGY 3:
• All Adult Outpatient
• ½ day/week "continuity care" clinic???

PGY 4
• All electives
• ½ day/week "continuity care" clinic

Research: Lots of it here. Up to you if you want to take part, but the department is trying to get more involved in research, so they like it if you're interested in it, maybe.

Trying to think of negatives: Interim department chair. Although he has been in the department (chair sometimes?) for a zillion years. Everyone loves the current guy, but he's old and needs to retire (but may or may not). Suburbs north of town have great neighborhood and schools, but are a bit far to drive maybe. Suburb south of town is a bit more "remote" maybe a bit sketchier? But has a better commute. Schools might be ok down there too.

Many sites, but all are "close" together. Parking isn't spectacular. Outside, slight walk. VA is nearby but seems like residents can drive over. Wishard right there. Larue carter is a few miles away, drive there.
 
Vanderbilt

Came in on Saturday night, long drive from east coast. Traffic coming in Sat. night was insane. Realized upon checking in that Nashville is in Central time zone, so I gained an hour…was very happy, until I realized it means I lose an hour driving back to home...

Dinner: Went to pretty nice restaurant. Sunset Grill. Caught hotel shuttle there. Amazing steak. Good service. Dinner with 2 1st years. Both are just finishing medicine months off service. 1 did med school at vandy too and decided to stay, which is a good sign, I guess.

Neuro Outpatient – a joke. 3 ½ days per week. Awesome, apparently.
Neuro inpatient – pretty busy…not sure about details.
IM outpatient – pretty easy. 4 weeks, but required to take 1 week of vacation during this time.
IM inpatient – 2 months. Sucks, but fair. 18 patient cap per team, so 9 per intern max. Seems busy, but doable per residents. Night float days here and there, but it's basically 6pm-10am, then skip a day and come back at 6pm the NEXT night. Then ~20h off and back to days. Can sub in 1-2 peds months (or even OBGYN) instead.

Psych unit recently renovated. Didn't find out a ton about psych since the interns at dinner haven't done it yet (sigh). Psych hours seem 8-5 (ish) but people tend to come in around 7-7:30 to "pre-round" and see what's been going on…kinda like what I've been doing in Roanoke.

Psych is split up by diagnosis. So spend 10 weeks doing psychosis. Good and bad here, but overall probably good.

EMR system is apparently "one of the best." Proprietary Vandy system. Doing auto blood checks for genetic compatibility with medications, like Plavix, and system will alert you to change meds if there is a problem (also doing with some bipolar medicine, she couldn't remember.) Seems like a very advanced, user friendly EMR. Vandy is a leader in this field, apparently, which could be good for me, although proprietary means the skills learned here wouldn't translate as well to other "less advanced" places.

Moonlighting…they weren't really sure. 3rd and 4th year only it seems.

Residents live all over. Half married, half not. Some with kids. Apparently some good places to live closer than Hendersonville…Good schools in some place (Brentwood? Not sure…)

Seems like they have tons of free time. Has been to many, many concerts, even on off service months. Often get emails with free tix or special deals for stuff. Easy to switch call with someone. Know your call schedule 1 year in advance. Program coordinators are super awesome and organized.

You only get 1 golden weekend every 3 weeks. Others you have to pull a 12h sat or sun shift…

PD is leaving because she is the CAP fellowship director, director of education at Vandy and a bunch of other hats. She's staying around, just not adult director anymore once they find someone. No one seems very concerned about this…
 
East Carolina U

Got in Wed afternoon. Hospital is HUGE. Parking lot reminds me of the parking at the Richmond Speedway. Not a garage, but loads of spaces stretching out from hospital. Saw lots of people walking from a moderately far distance (1/2 mile or so, I'd guess), including some in long white coats who seemed like residents(!!). At the dinner, the psych residents minimized this issue, saying that the nurses have to park really far away, but that we get decent parking, and the psych building is one of the closest buildings to the lots, so it's not as far of a walk for us.

Went to Starbucks (right near the hospital) and waited for a friend of mine who is an EM resident at ECU to get off work. Went to his place and hung out. He likes the EM program ok, but doesn't like the town. His off service months are pretty tough, and the psych residents also said that those months kind of suck. You're on their schedule, which basically sounds like q4 short call. He doesn't like the town very much, and plans to move ASAP when his 3 years of EM are up.

Thursday morning, got up, hung out, played some Fallout, watched some Breaking Bad, played with his puppy. Left and went to have lunch at B's Barbeque, a sketchy looking redneck shack right by the hospital with AWESOME BBQ. #1 rated place on Urban Spoon. Was very good Carolina BBQ. Noticed a nice apartment complex right behind the hospital, where many residents live.

Went to find the Hilton and checked in. Pretty nice place. Down south of town near Best buy, target, etc. Hotel looks nice, but not compared to other places I've been staying. It's fine. Lots of Marines everywhere for events. All loud and going crazy-like. I probably won't sleep at all tonight. Great. Lots of yelling, "don't lay your f***ing hands on me". Holy crap what an explosion of *** tonight. Sigh. Might have to switch rooms...

Edit: I didn't have to switch rooms, it calmed down pretty quickly. Turns out it was the evening of the Marine Corps ball, and in fact, it was the ball that Mila Kunis went to on the date with that Marine who asked her out on YouTube. She was staying at our hotel also, which created a bit of a s***storm with news cameras and whatnot...Saw blood (a moderate amount) on the floor of the elevator in the morning...nosebleed from a fight, I'd guess. When Marines throw down, they throw down hard. Rock.

Went to dinner with residents. PGY-2 guy was a DO. He was nice, but kind of socially awkward. ECU was around the middle of his rank list, he said. Ugh. He also interviewed at very strange spread out places (case western, texas somewhere, NE somewhere (Phily?), USF, ECU…) Maybe he wasn't the best candidate... Also with the chief who is a PGY-4 (I think?) And grad from Ross, as are many of the people around here, it seems. Strong Ross ties, it seems.

Went to dinner at a nice looking Italian place. Food was ok, not spectacular. 1 other DO, girl from WVa. Others were USA peeps from Ross. Residents seemed relatively happy, but not super. Talked openly.

Inpatient psych call is short call q4-ish? Night float 2nd year. Also is backup call in case someone is sick. Psych didactics during off service months. I get the feeling off service months suck. Great social workers in psych (less so in other departments, you do everything when off service). Epic EMR.

Patients are lower socioeconomic, mostly white/black. Few other races. Not much diversity.

Family medicine call consists of 2 weeks of night float. No call on Peds. No call on outpatient neuro (? Pretty sure?).

Lots of hidden bonus money. $1000 moving bonus. $100/mo meals. $1000 xmas bonus after PGY-1. 5 days off at xmas or new years. 4 days off at thanksgiving. 3 days at easter. Many other state holidays (labor day, etc) off.

Apartments right behind hospital are pretty cheap (~$750 for a 2 BR/2 BA). Many residents live there, and they looked nice-ish. Might take a closer look tomorrow after interview.

Good music scene in town, local music only. Seems there's not a lot to do outside of ECU related stuff (ECU symphony, theater, etc). Have access to ECU tickets as "faculty". Overall, residents seemed very happy with the psych department, it just seems to be the off service months that really, really suck.

There is some Telemedicine here, but still working to get residents involved.

State hospital has 3-4 months 2nd year, and is "40 minutes" from town. Moonlight here also.

Moonlighting isn't until 3rd year, maybe in 2nd if you get special permission and have passed step 3 and have license. Seems like most moonlighting is farther away. Residents claim there might be more local moonlighting but they haven't looked into it. $60/hour or so.

Lots of married residents, some with kids. Good cost of living. City-data website has lots of worries about crime, schools. Not near any major cities. Pretty much 4 hours to anything worth going to. Guess the outer banks are 2 hours or so…

Edit: Post interview season, they were recruiting me pretty hard. Lots of emails and pre-match offers. Turned them all down as I was pretty confident I could do better.

I DO think they are an ok program for someone who needs a quality backup or lower tier place. I really liked the PD and they seemed very, very nice and easy to get along with.
 
Medical College of Wisconsin

Dinner at Café Benelux in Milwaukee's "Third Ward" district downtown. Seems like a hip, trendy area with a lot of nice restaurants, bars, and nightlife. Many residents showed up, around 3-4 and talked very candidly about the program. Food was pretty good, especially the "tater tots" which are more like yummy risotto balls of goodness.

Interview Day began with Breakfast at 7:30 with 2 more residents who answered some more questions for us. This was followed by a series of 4 interviews, with the PD, 1 Faculty, 2 Chief Residents. Easy relaxed interview. Nice people all around here. This was followed by a driving tour of the multiple facilities, which are fairly close together but not as ideal as it could be. The upside is that you're usually at each facility only when you're there, so you won't often be rushing to drive between different places on a given day. You just show up and plant yourself at your worksite for the day. Only exception is didactics, where you might have to leave the VA and head over to your protected didactics, but it's a very short drive to all the sites, and Milwaukee traffic is not bad at all.

Strengths of the program: Work hours are extremely reasonable. Basically 8:30-5 when on psych service. No overnight call as an intern on psych. 2nd years have 1 overnight call every 6-8 WEEKS. 3rd years have NO CALL, but 3 two week blocks of night float. Strong department, well funded, respected, multiple sites = broad training, diverse patient population beyond just black/white. Milwaukee is a true melting pot of ethnicities, which is cool. Children's hospital is one of the best in the world. Child program there is very strong. Consult service also very strong. Multiple fellowships are available. Tons of cool research going on here, if that's your thing, if not, that's cool too. Faculty and Residents were very nice, friendly, and seemed truly happy here. Outpatient is done in 2nd year, instead of 3rd, and you get your own office(s) 2nd year to decorate however you want. Pretty nice offices with windows, with almost views of Lake Michigan. Very nice. You're only at that site 3 days a week though, the other 2 days you're at other sites and other offices that aren't "yours" per se. Great security and help it seems, especially at county mental health. County mental health has one of the busiest psych ERs in the country. Milwaukee seems like a great city, mostly, with some good areas and some very, very poor areas. Lots of cultural events: sporting events, concerts, world class art museum, etc.

Weaknesses: Multiple sites means multiple systems to learn. Epic EMR at children's and private hosptials, paper charts at county mental health facility (the main psych rotation site), VA EMR at the VA. Psych facilities at county mental health are old and need an update. Very low tech, state hospital feel. VA unit recently remodeled, as at other VA sites around the country, for safety issues mostly. Tops of doors are now cut at 30-40 degree angles so nothing can be hung on top of door without sliding off. Same for doorknobs. Shower bars, etc are all breakaway at a certain weight. All furniture is too heavy for anyone to throw, etc. Very nice. Medical facilities at child and private hospital are top-notch. New and shiny. Wish psych could move into those hospitals. Milwaukee weather can really suck. It's pretty far north and can get quite chilly and snowy. City does an ok job of fixing it, but it's far from ideal weather. Streets and chemicals are hard on cars, and can greatly decrease the longevity of your vehicles. Interim chair currently, but he is expected to stick around and he was PD before he got the interim chair job, and is doing a great job and growing the department as interim chair, so everyone expects that they'll drop the "interim" title soon. Also, the hospital hasn't announced a search for a new chair, so that's a good sign. Good balanced training, strong in psychotherapy AND psychopharm. Would expect to be an excellent psychiatrist if trained here.

Benefits: Great pay and benefits. Look it up online. Start around $55k, up to 59k by the end. $1500 yearly bonus for licensing, CME, books, etc. $300 extra for books. Tons of moonlighting available at county. Can do discharge summary dictations for ~$70/hr (expect 4 dictations per hour), or shift work covering nights/weekends in the psych ER for ~60-65/hr. Tons of opportunity to do this and most residents do.

Overall, I really liked the program and the people. This is a great program with good people, in a cool city. You just need to decide if it's right for you.
 
Wake Forest

Dinner: Many, many residents. Sat next to a 34yo PGY-1 from Richmond. Also next to a married couple, he's a PGY-2 and she's a psychologist. All were very nice. They have a 2yo. Dinner was at Village Pub, had fish tacos, excellent sweet potato fries. About 5 applicants and 8 residents.

Everyone seemed really subjectively happy. 2 months of IM done Outpatient at VA in Salisbury, NC, about 40 minutes south. Generally excellent hours, depends on attending, but ~9-2 or 4pm at the worst. Neuro is 2 months of clinics at Baptist hospital, which is a top neuro program. PGY-2 loved the movement disorders clinic, which he said was really helpful for psych side effects.

Intern call is divided between short call until 10pm (but wind up staying until 11-12) and 12 hour weekend shifts. If you Saturday night, you also do Sunday night and are off Monday. Avg 6 call shifts a month total, but can be kinda random (i.e. 2 short calls one week, then one weekend shift that week, then none for a couple weeks). Call covers the entire hospital: inpatient adult psych, child psych, hospital consults, new ER admits…everything. Sounds like it can be busy. 1 resident on backup call in case you need help. Call 2nd year is more odd, with working from 8am-2pm, then off from 2pm to 10pm, then back in at 10pm for the rest of the night. This gets around the "10 hour off between shifts" work hour rule, and still lets people do what basically amounts to old fashioned call...

Edit: I should note that this was not told up front when asked about call. I'm not SURE that they made an attempt to hide this fact, but it still seems pretty sketch. Just sayin. Still, residents *appeared* happy and did not seem to be acting.

2 ½ days off per week to schedule psychotherapy patients (have to schedule yourself) and to talk with attending for therapy training. All day Friday didactics. 2nd year there is ½ day of child outpatient Tuesday and full day Thursday. Child inpatient during child fellowship. ECT clinic x 3 months a couple days a week.

Discounts to all kinds of stuff, 20% off Verizon bill, gym membership (there's one in the hospital but it sucks, but there's a nice "rehab" gym).

All the residents seemed very happy and well adjusted. One guy said it's more Biological than therapy oriented, but seems pretty even. So much outpatient all around. Wife says she gets to see hubby plenty. Attendings are super nice, but never, ever come in at night, but are fine with getting calls on the phone.

Moonlighting: "too busy" first year and don't know enough. Some residents start 2nd year. By 3rd year, many residents are making 6 figures, supposedly.
 
West Virginia University


Put me up in Hilton Garden Inn right by the hospital the night before. They only interview on Thursdays, and have 2 sessions, am or pm. I did the am session. Hotel is fine, I guess. Had to switch rooms because they put me in the handicapped room by the elevator motor, which was VERY loud, but wasn't a problem. New room's shower handle came off in my hand in the morning, but otherwise fine. No dinner, but they take you out for food after your interview (either lunch or dinner), with a faculty member, which was actually a lot of fun.

Morning: No breakfast, but had a nice photo album of residents activities to look through. Particularly impressed by comraderie of residents. One retreat had a T-shirt contest with some pretty funny/suggestive shirts (i.e. "This is where electricity comes from" (with lightning bolts pointing at crotch), "Who needs drugs?" (like a DARE shirt), then underneath "No seriously, I've got drugs." That kind of stuff. One pic had someone flipping off the camera. Shows a certain level of comfort with each other and faculty to let loose like that, AND be willing to put it in a book in their office waiting room for applicants to look through.

PD said they interviewed ~50 people for 6 spots. Committee is mostly residents (11:4 ratio, I think).

Facilities: Free standing psych hospital, currently expanding/renovating to add more outpatient space, but I didn't see any construction, so who knows... Separate units for adult psychosis, dual diagnosis, depression and for child, child sex offenders, child substance. Didn't get to see main medical hospital, which is across the street, but looks nice and residents promise it's awesome. ED is supposedly very nice. Use Epic.

Other Sites: VA is about 45m-1h south of town. State hospital is 1h 15m away. Check on map to be sure. Only spend a few months here total though, so probably not a huge deal. But more driving than other places in the West Va mountains and snow.

Psych Days: Residents are encouraged to come in by 8-ish, although most services don't start until 8:30 or 9am. Work day always DONE BY 4PM if done with your work (pretty much always) when on service 2nd year says he was around 50-60 TOPS even during a call week. Which is awesome.

Short Call is 4-8pm. Website says 2-3 times per month, but I think it's more like 3-5 times, so q week-10d. Night float covers nights, 2 blocks Sun-Thursday 8pm-8am 2-3 times a year. Covers psych hospital (adult and child units) problems and admits, ED admits, and hospital consults. If bogged down, can push extra work to morning shift. Busy call, but not bad.

Weekends are Friday 8p-8a, Sunday 8p-8a, or Saturday+Sunday 8a-8p. Not sure how often. Should ask about this and about frequency of short call/long call.

Off service: Neuro sucks bad. Pushing 80h week. Some good attendings, some less good. All other services have only awesome attendings. EM, IM x 2, FM clinic.

Child seems busier in some ways than adult, but no call and sometimes here until 6, rarely later. Mostly seems to be due to catching up on paperwork, so maybe efficiency is the key?

Lunch with associate PD, he's leaving to follow his wife to a new place where she is going to do neuro psych. Nice guy. Very encouraging, said that others told him that he was going to like his interviewee (meaning, me).

Note: This guy wound up at my matched program as our new consult psych attending, and is awesome, as I felt on our lunch interview. He now has only good things to say about WVU. The off at 4pm thing is true. He seemed happy there. His biggest complaint about their program is the HEAVY focus on substance abuse.

Outpatient continuity clinic ½ day per week starting 1st year. Even off service. Awesome. ½ day didactics, protected time.

1 month of sleep medicine (cool). Suboxone training, ECT. Lots of addiction here since WV is #1 addiction state in US. Also lots of depression. Residents say they've seen everything though.

Moonlighting: TONS. ~$100/hour, some places pay $130/hr. Awesome.

Open door faculty policy. Residents say that can ask any psych faculty anything at any time. Love them all.

Chairman is the longest serving chairman of ANY medical department (all specialties) in the country. He knows EVERYONE. Can get pretty much any hookups you need for fellowship or jobs because of this. Assuming this also means that if he didn't like you he could screw you, but we'll ignore that. Supposedly not retiring for AT LEAST 5 years. He's been there >35 years. Wife died, has no kids, so the residency is like his family. Keeps him going. He takes 2 hours out of each day to talk with residents informally, just whoever he sees around.

Every Wed. is resident hang out night (if you want) at a local bar or restaurant. Chair will also randomly invite people out to lunch or dinner. Everyone seems really, really nice. Lots of hanging out (too much?).

Week off at Xmas or New Years.

EMR: Epic.

Some interesting notes from Scutwork reviews (not mine): Curriculum changes have recently been a source of contention. Parking can be an issue. Some boundary issues exist between residents and attendings. There is a larger degree of homerism. Differing opinions are often not heard. No inquires.
 
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