2012-2013 Psych Interview Reviews

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University of Kentucky

Dinner at this nice Jamaican fusion-y place. Pretty good. I had good crabcakes. Strange because 2 triple-board residents showed, and later, a PGY-1, who was older (my age-ish), and a PGY-2, who I didn't get to talk to too much…other end of the table. PGY-1 made a point of coming down and talking to me, which was nice of him. Also at interview was a guy I interviewed with at Indy, who was from Indy. He thinks Indy works a bit too hard for his tastes, especially off service, which is worth considering…and that Indy schools are TOO big…likely moving his kid to private school in Fishers out of Fishers public b/c public is too big…anyways…

Residents seem very happy. Psych work days seem to be 7:30-3 or 4 or 5:30, depending. Short call once a week or so until 9:30 (earlier if it's really slow). Weekend shifts are 12 hours, I think you have to do 4 weekend shifts during 1st year..at least that's what they said…unless I misunderstood, might be 8, now that they've gone to 12 h shifts... Regardless, residents do not appear overworked.

2nd year has a LOT of C-L service, maybe too much. 7:30-5:30 M-F. No call, no weekends. I think you might take regular psych short call and weekends though, as in first year…not much. Maybe. Maybe not? Regardless, not bad.

Parking pretty good at hospital, but minimized (you can park here, but it fills up, then there's another lot down there, and another one further down there…meaning you'll probably wind up "down there" I'm guessing…)

Call: Night Float, short call, weekends. Covers (in order of importance/priority)
1) inpatient unit
2) new ER admits
3) phone admits/consults at fancy hospital
4) Samaritan consults (pass off to morning, unless really slow)

Inpatient unit is 19 beds, divided into 2 teams of 11 and 8. Team with 11 has 2 residents, other team has 1 resident. Pretty much always full. Average length of stay just a few days. Everyone mixed together, no separate units for different diagnoses.

Overall, everyone seems very happy. After dinner, took a tour of Good Samaritan Hospital, where the psych inpatient unit is. Facilities are fine, but pretty crappy. Mostly have an EMR, but it's not Epic and I've never heard of it. Didn't really get to see it in action. Staff that helps out with new admits (social work types) are AMAZING and REALLY help you admit new patients, by interviewing them and giving you a good typed up H&P you can use for your note.

Then, took a tour of the fancy new hospital, where you do Neuro and some consults. There is also an "old" hospital attached where you do medicine and neuro and some other consults. Didn't see the old hospital, but the "new" hospital was a nice as any I've ever seen. Private patient rooms. Shiny.

Interview day went well. Started LATE (11:45) with lunch with many residents. All awesome and friendly. Sat in on a Grand Rounds (topic: "How to Make a Psychopath") which was interesting and awesome. One loser attending kept badgering the poor speaker about "yeah, but they thought genetics was responsible for blah-blah-blah for a while, then that didn't pan out…like he didn't believe what the speaker was saying…It was weird. He was a douche. Speaker took it all in stride.

Sat in on ½ of a didactic for 1st years. Mostly a book group, reviewing a book about psych basics, 4 dimensions...Interesting though. Some residents participated, some just sat there looking bored, but overall an ok group…probably would've felt it was a time waster as a resident, haha.

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OK. That's all I had written up. I went to a bunch of other places, but never wrote full summaries down, so I fear if I did it now, they wouldn't be accurate. Briefly however, I will say these things:

University of South Carolina - Palmetto Health

Loved it. Ranked #2. Was ALMOST #1. Very good community program, with the best work hours with still good training around. Would be an excellent program for someone with a family who still wants good training. Not strong on research obviously. Typical work week is ~40 hours, and call is minimal. Even off service months are like this, as they're done at the VA and expectations are minimal. PD is beloved by everyone and bakes every resident a pie of their choice on their birthday (and every says his pies are to die for). I did a C-L Rotation here and was very impressed with everyone I worked with. Takes 6 residents per year and typically pretty competitive.

MUSC

Very strong program with lots of research dollars in Charleston, SC. Ranked #3. Tells you everything you could want to know on their website, very open book. Work hard, but not too hard. Overall has everything you could want...except for jobs in the area after graduation, which was it's big negative for me. They're so big and have been graduating so many residents for so long, and Charleston is such a great town that every wants to stick around, and the market is actually saturated. Starting salaries are much lower there (mid to low 100's) than is the rest of the country. One fellow I interviewed with is leaving to take a job for >300k in Iowa vs 150k in Charleston. I'd leave too.

Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, Va

Did a rotation here because my grandma lives there and I had a free place to stay. Interviewed for kicks because it's in Virginia where my family lives. Would make a good backup place for someone who isn't a great candidate. Super nice PD and assistant PD. Feels like a big family. Lots of hugs and smiles. Inpatient unit is recently renovated and has great workflow. Residents work hard but not too hard. People here HATE HATE HATE doing child here, though, which turned me off, since that's what I want to do. Not sure why, but it's universal, so must be something wrong. Still, for Adult Psych, if you need a backup place, it's worth a look. Not malignant at all, kinda boring city, but still has surprises if you know where to look, and a few great faculty. VA half of the program was more strange, and I can't speak to that as much.

SUNY-Upstate

My warm-up interview. Was willing to give them a fair try as I'd heard mixed reviews. Wasn't my cup of tea. Hated syracuse. #1 problem with the program. VERY therapy oriented. PD tried to analyze me a bit too much. Most every felt uncomfortable with questioning. For example: "Tell me about your greatest failure." Kinda probing, personal stuff. Clearly trying to get under your skin, as evidenced by statement that "not much unnerves you does it?" after I maintained my composure throughout interview. Meh.

Hershey, PA

Giant Meh. Hated the town. Hated the traffic around the town. Everyone was super friendly at interview, but I feel the program has a cultural problem. Almost everyone at the program, residents and faculty, is Indian. Now, I love my Indian friends, truly, but the lack of diversity was striking and, to me, represented a problem. Topics of conversation were very focused on typical Indian topics (Cricket, arranged marriages, locations of places of worship, indian food (which we also ate for lunch, yum), and such...). I felt very out of place. I did feel welcome, and in no way did I get the feeling there was a discriminatory vibe there, but it was a bit odd. More importantly, the program is small, lacked decent facilities and was simply not memorable. Overall, I decided that between hating the town and the weakness of the program, combined with the weird vibes that I'd DNR it and not rank them. Might be a good place though if you can deal with Hershey...ugh.

U Vermont

So, I cancelled this interview to go to Hershey...stupid move. Spent a lot of time on the phone with various Vermont residents, all of whom I really liked, trying to make my decision on where to go. Wound up going with Hershey because I could drive there and Vermont would be ANOTHER plane ticket. Got nothing but good vibes from Vermont people, but didn't go to interview so I'll leave it at that. Probably worth a look if you're looking for a small town. Only 4 residents though, although residents said it wasn't an issue...

U Iowa

Great college town. Strong Program. Really liked it here, but it was just too far away from home. Closer to Chicago than people think though. Only a couple hour drive to the big city, so it's not like it's in the total middle of nowhere. Very strong program with any opportunities you could ask for. Tons of research pouring out. Really clicked with the PD. Definitely under-rated place. Check it out.
 
Any more thoughts on Stanford, UCLA, and UCSD? I'm trying to decide between the three.
 
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Any more thoughts on Stanford, UCLA, and UCSD? I'm trying to decide between the three.

Maybe you could post your own reviews of these 3 programs and see if anyone has anything else to add. If you're not sharing a review, why would you expect anyone else to? :)
 
As promised, below are my program reviews in alphabetical order. I tried my best to be as accurate as possible, but if there are any factual mistakes, please let me know and I'll correct them! Brief background on me as I think it will provide context for my reviews: I am interested/experienced in geriatric psychiatry clinical/community-based/health services research and looking for programs in cities that are "affordable" because I have a young kid and plan to have another in ~2 years. My family is located in the Midwest, which is why (in addition to the quality of life factors) I applied to many Midwestern programs. Would like to pursue an academic research career and have plans to do a geriatric psych fellowship. So, while University of Washington, Cornell, UCSF, and UCSD are all strong in clinical geropsychiatry research, from a cost-of-living point of view, they are simply too expensive. (We currently own a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in a nice neighborhood that is ~15 minute total commute from the medical center with a mortgage <$1,000 &#8211; how far would $1,000 go on the West Coast!? Also have to pay for daycare) Could not resist applying to Cambridge Health Alliance, however, due to its overall awesomeness with community-based research/clinical training and the approach to integrating primary care with mental health services.

Applied to 16 programs, and got interviews at all except for U of Arkansas and U of Minnesota. Cancelled interviews at U of Michigan (great fit, but spouse doesn't like Ann Arbor), Washington University (no geriatric psych fellowships, huge reduction in in-patient psych beds?, program felt a little too much like Johns Hopkins to me, little emphasis on community-based research), University of Indiana (got tired of traveling, still looks a like a good fit, however), and Cincinnati (tired of traveling and my second-hand impression of it was that it was not a "warm and cozy" program). Didn't apply to many programs in the south because I am socially/fiscally liberal, do not go to church, and do not want to raise children in states where flying the confederate flag is considered cool (to my knowledge, South Carolina's capitol statehouse still flies confederate flag &#8211; yuck).
 
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Brown

1. Interview accommodations/food:
Program gave list of hotels near hospitals available at a discounted rate, but no free lodging. Very nice dinner the night before at one of the many local restaurants (apparently Providence is a “foodies” town). Continental breakfast and Indian lunch during interview day; coffee available all day long.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
7:30 am to 5:40 pm; day longer because it was a “research” interview day. Six 30 minute interviews in the afternoon, which followed a morning of many short presentations covering research, psychotherapy, etc. Very quick tour of some of the facilities immediately after lunch (interviews start at 2:00 pm). Interviews somewhat low-key with good, informative back-and-forth (most interviewers clearly read application). Felt like a long day.

3. Program overview:
Program has many different training sites including VA, couple psych hospitals, large tertiary hospital (Rhode Island Hospital), and some community/women’s/children’s hospitals. Residency is based out of Butler Hospital, which is set on an Olmstead designed campus: has 120+ beds (with new construction for 20ish more beds). Compared to Rhode Island Hospital, patients are far bettered insured and seem to have less acuity at Butler. Rhode Island hospital has several inpatient psych units as well as a psychiatric emergency area. Most inpatient psych services are not resident-dependent. Consequently, residents typically carry between 4-6 patients. Much is attending specific, however, with workload varying across attendings. Medicine months sound pretty awful. Can choose between inpatient family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. Inpatient medicine and family medicine last 4 months (1 month of elective for internal medicine) and residents carry 10 patients and admit up to 5 on long call day (5 admits seems like a lot to me as my home school residents tend to max out at 3 on their long-call day). Different medical record systems across the hospital sites. Having these many different health record systems was sold as a “great learning experience”, but I have my doubts… Did not hear much about neurology. There are 2 months of night float PGY2 that go for 13 hour shifts five times a week. The night float month at Rhode Island Hospital sounds intense (one resident said his wife and baby left that month to visit family). Didactics sound strong. Fantastic research opportunities. For residents interested in research, have to be a self-starter here. They have a “research track” available that allows residents to carve out an afternoon PGY1-PGY3 (during psych months for PGY1) for research, with 2 months guaranteed for PGY4. (Research afternoons have to be negotiated with each attending) Compared to other residency programs, with and without a research track, the amount of protected time to perform research is quite limited, although the program is applying for NIH funding to increase this protected time.

4. Faculty:
Friendly and highly accomplished. Stressed how collegial the department was during interview day (but doesn’t everywhere?) Felt slightly ivory towerish, but for self-directed residents, incredible resources are available.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
Personally really liked Providence as it is one of the most affordable cities in the Northeast and it is close to Boston and not too far from NYC. Public schools are poor in Rhode Island, however, with many faculty choosing to send kids to $20,000-30,000/year private schools (ouch!), which are top-notch. Many restaurants and beaches if that is your thing. Easy commutes.

6. Benefits:
Good benefits. Starting salary is $53k with good health insurance options that are easily affordable. Residents regularly moonlight, starting PGY2 I believe. Good moonlighting opportunities within the program.

7. Program strengths:
Strong faculty with apparently good psychotherapy and psychopharmacology training. Great research occurring here (beyond the standard neuro-imaging and genetics research). Residents seem like a good, talented group. Providence is very livable with good moonlighting available.

8. Potential weaknesses
Medicine and night float months sound more intense than many other programs at which I interviewed. Elective time to pursue research much less than other programs. Many different health record systems and hospitals to learn (some may like this, but I would prefer 2-3 sites rather than 6-8 sites).
 
Cambridge

1. Interview accommodations/food:
Good pre-interview communications with a helpful information packet sent. Dinner is usually the night before the interview at a resident’s home (take-out). No lodging providing, but the information packet provides a list of nearby places to stay. Not surprisingly, the Cambridge hotels are quite expensive (I paid $250 for one night, including $50 for 1.5 days worth of parking – ouch!). Parking at the hospital is not covered by the residency program.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
Only five applicants, which made for a more intimate interview day than experienced at some of the other programs. Day goes from 8:15 am to 4:30 pm. Four 50 minute interviews: two interviews in the morning and two in the afternoon. In the morning there was a small continental breakfast with ~1 hr introduction to the residency program. Cambridge is a nice walkable area and, rather than eating the so-so continental breakfast, going to a one of the many local eateries on the way to the hospital may be more enjoyable. The program coordinator, Bob, was very personable as was the associate program director, Dr. Ruble. The program director, Dr. Forstein, was a little more intimidating with some probing interview questions (e.g., what about you annoys your significant other?, have you ever loved someone?); for some reason he reminded me of Robert Dinero, but he was still friendly. Meet with many residents at lunch and visited 2 of 3 primary training sites (the Cambridge Hospital units and the outpatient clinic on Central Avenue). The facilities were average/less than average. Residents do 3 months in-patient psych at Cambridge Hospital and at Whidden Hospital.

3. Program overview:
The CHA is very unique in that it has been integrating primary care with mental health for 2-3 decades (something that health care systems are only starting to do now in response to the healthcare reforms). Fantastic, indigent patient population that exposes residents to the entire socioeconomic spectrum, including Harvard/MIT students. Apparently there is much more structure at the Cambridge Hospital and more autonomy at the Whidden Hospital (can make it hard for residents who start at Whidden to then work at Cambridge Hospital). No overnight call in PGY1. Overnight call about once every 11 days PGY2 and PGY3. Full day didactics (every Wednesday) starting the last 3 months of PGY1 and extending to PGY4. During intern year, have a chance to meet all of the CHA medicine interns, which facilitates positive exchanges (e.g., medicine consults, psych consults) later on in residency. Fantastic psychotherapy training with many hours of supervision and case discussion. Best psychotherapy training that I have encountered. It does not hurt that many CHA faculty can practice psychotherapy because of Boston’s affluent population.

4. Faculty:
Amazingly talented faculty members that are invested in teaching residents. Program director mentions that he has to turn faculty members away from teaching didactics because there are so many who are interested in doing so. Also have access to other Harvard faculty members. Being part of the Harvard system makes the mentorship opportunities appear unparalleled (assuming the faculty members have or want to spend the time to mentor lowly residents).

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
Very supportive residency program. Boston has significant plusses/minuses.

6. Benefits:
Residents are part of a union, which negotiates nice increases in salary and protects benefits. Nice benefits with a resident-friendly moonlighting system of “back-up” call in which PGY3’s and PGY4’s are called in when the primary on-call resident gets too busy. Great health insurance, with the top-of-the-line costing ~$200 for entire family. $1,900 that can be used flexibly for “education expenses”. Conference funds readily available for residents presenting at meetings. Five days/year for conferences; if a resident is presenting, no conference days are used. Four weeks of vacation throughout residency. Bob, the program coordinator, is fantastic and makes the residents’ lives much easier (helps apply for licensure, etc).

7. Program strengths:
Great patient population diversity. Psychotherapy training is exceptional with many supervisors and many hours of supervision each week. Emphasis on education/quality of experiences over quantity (i.e., education>>services oriented). Very happy and intelligent residents. Cambridge seems like a fun place to live. Residents able to stay in area post-graduation, which was surprising because I thought that Boston was crawling with psychiatrists. Integration with primary care settings and opportunity to perform consult-liaison in the primary care setting. More humane schedule that allows for life outside of residency. Program encourages residents to receive psychotherapy, which most residents do. Great availability of mentors and good community-based/disparities research. Seems to be very family and gay friendly. For those of us whose self-worth/self-esteem is based on external validation the name-brand of this program is tough to beat.

8. Potential weaknesses
Boston is horribly expensive, especially for residents with young families (many of the faculty members of my school actually left Boston/NYC/Washington DC because raising family was so expensive/difficult in those cities). Not associated with a tertiary hospital system, which may be a concern for the CL-interested applicants. A whole day of didactics may be a little painful, especially if it is given in a typical lecture format (not a good use of time for non-auditory learners).
 
Case Western

1. Interview accommodations/food:
Discounted hotel downtown ($50/night). Had to drive to interview from downtown, which took about a 20 minutes. Dinner the night before with ~10 applicants and 4-5 residents. Toured the inpatient psychiatry units, which are on the Richmond campus about 30 minutes away from downtown. Made for a long night (did not get back to hotel until almost 10:00 pm).

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
8:00 – 4:00. Starts with grand rounds, which was interesting during our visit as it was an education update for the department. Toured Case’s hospitals/facilities in the morning. Four 30 minute interviews: Program Director, Assistant Program Director, resident, and VA faculty member. Interviews were low-key and informational.

3. Program overview:
Some highlights: very cush ED month (~ten 10-12 hr ED rotations/month) and didn’t hear too much complaining about non-psychiatry months. For inpatient psychiatry, time split between the Richmond facilities, VA, and C-L at the main hospital (as well as the child inpatient units at the Children’s Hospital). Apparently the VA provides a great opportunity to learn how to initiate clozapine treatment. The sickest patients appear to be at the VA; sounds like only insured patients are taken at the Richmond facility with all the uninsured (and Medicaid?) sent to Metrohealth downtown. I believe patient caps were ~8 total patients/resident. Case’s EMR system appears to be crappy. Seems to be middle of the road with the education and service balance. Call intensity also appeared to be in the middle of the road.

4. Faculty:
Good breadth with a fantastic forensic fellowship director in Dr. Resnick. Program director and assistant program director were quite nice and appeared to be strong resident advocates. All the fellowships and some non-accredited fellowships are present here. Research is available, but somewhat hit or miss (good bipolar research).

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
Cleveland feels like a livable city and Case’s “standard benefits” go further here than they would elsewhere. Lots of urban blight, with some areas of new development.

6. Benefits:
Fairly standard benefits. I believe residents could start moonlighting during PGY2.

7. Program strengths:
Absolutely beautiful inpatient units at Richmond and the new VA (the best units I have seen). Fantastic range of fellowships with strong dedication to community psych (which I found somewhat ironic given that they apparently send the uninsured in-patient level psych patients elsewhere).

8. Potential weaknesses
Research is less strong compared to other residency programs. While clinical training appears to be good, I was unhappy about the lack of a strong county inpatient experience. It’s important for me to learn how to treat the “sickest of the sick”, not just ship them to a different hospital that takes the un/under-insured. Crappy EMR system.
 
Hennepin-Regions

1. Interview accommodations/food:
Program gave list of hotels near hospitals available at a discounted rate, but no free lodging. At the end of the interview day, program paid for taxi to airport. Night before interview there was a light dinner at a faculty member's house that was well attended by residents (including interns!). ~12 applicants per interview day, but half of applicants start at Hennepin (in Minneapolis) and half start at Regions (in St. Paul). Switch locations at the middle of the day. Nice lunch with residents (no faculty present). Overall, met more than half the interns, none of whom seemed exhausted or stressed.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
8:15 am to 4:10 pm. Interviewed with ~2 people at each site, with a 10 minute interview with the program director. All interviews low-key. Interviewed with a social worker, which was nice. Be prepared to hand write a small essay (can choose 1 of 3 questions to answer).

3. Program overview:
Most rotations split between two level 1 trauma hospitals, both of which have Epic! (So strange that a county hospital with 100 psych beds has Epic while WPIC still has hand-written orders) Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) is a safety net hospital for Minneapolis and serves a very poor, diverse population (the inpatient psych units had the most patient diversity I have seen on the interview trail). HCMC has an ~8 bed psych ER that is very busy and has high acuity patients. About 100 inpatient beds at HCMC. Inpatient units are somewhat old, but there is apparently no computer shortage. There are plans to build a brand new 100 bed psych building/tower in the next couple years. Regions hospital is located in St Paul and has very nice inpatient med units. Opening a brand new 100 bed psych building in 12/2012, which has only single rooms and looks to be quite nice. One of the most education over service oriented programs that I interviewed at, with all of the psych services that the residents rotating through being able to function without the residents. Get this &#8211; call is relatively infrequent and is treated as a learning opportunity. Consequently, if a resident gets sick/pregnant/leaves the call opportunity is then either covered by a mid-level provider or offered as a moonlighting possibility. Mid-level providers provide much of the 24/7 coverage, which takes a lot of pressure off of the residents. About 4 calls/month split between the two sites (average 2 long, 2 short calls per month).

4. Faculty:
Down-to-earth and accessible. Probably the least "academic" of all the programs I interviewed. Only attendings who want to teach take residents (there are special "teaching" teams). More-so than many programs located farther East, attendings and the program director felt more like colleagues than "bosses".

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
The Twin Cities are cold, but have very rich cultural opportunities (restaurants, museums, etc.). Economy and housing market are healthy and there is actually a very strong middle class there. In regards to the commute, can feel like a mini-Los Angeles as the Twin Cities area is quite spread out and encompasses ~3.5 million people. Many short clover leaf merges, which are surprising given that Minnesotans take pride in thoughtful designs and good engineering. Good public schools. Plenty of things to do in the winter. Good place to raise a family.

6. Benefits:
Average benefits overall, but has some nice little perks such as a fridge that is stocked with frozen foods for on-call residents at HCMC, plenty of meal funds, and free parking at both medical centers. 3 weeks of vacation with an additional 5 days available for education/test taking. Something that I have not seen elsewhere is that PGY2-4 residents can schedule single days of vacation, which is amazing (quite a contrast to the logistically lazier programs that require residents to take vacation in 2 week blocks to make scheduling easier). Residents can moonlight with plenty of in-house opportunities available.

7. Program strengths:
Perhaps the most education over service driven program I interviewed at. Diversity of patient population and psychopathology acuity are fantastic. Many interesting elective rotations available in the Twin Cities area. Moonlighting readily available. A whole new psych hospital/building at Regions with one planned for HCMC. Twin Cities are a great place to live. In regards to patient population and in-patient facilities, this is one of my favorite programs.

8. Potential weaknesses
Not ideal for launching an academic career. Also, while the residents I met were nice, the quality of the interviewees seemed highly variable. Called the frozen tundra for a reason.
 
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Medical College of Wisconsin

1. Interview accommodations/food:
One night free lodging at the Radisson, which was nice. 7 applicants per my interview date. Dinner the night before was pleasant with 3-4 residents present (including 1-2 interns). Continental breakfast and a nice sandwich lunch on the interview day. Probably interacted with about 10 of 32 residents during the interview day, all of whom seemed well rested and happy.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
7:30 to ~2:00. Day started with breakfast with a 2nd year resident. Then some of us went on a tour of the clinical sites while others interviewed. Total of four 30 minute interviews: 1 with chief resident, 1 with program director, and 2 with other faculty members. Interviews were low-key and fairly standard. Had lunch with interim department chair who was quite nice and appears to be a finalist for the chair position. MCW is actively working on developing an additional psychiatry residency program in rural WI.

3. Program overview:
Some highlights include: very cush 1 month ED rotation (ten 8 hr rotations during entire month with flexible scheduling), 1 month inpatient medicine at the VA (sounded busy), 1 month inpatient family medicine, and 1 month out-patient specialty clinic (one resident spent an entire month at a derm clinic). First year was notable in that the in-patient neuro month was very, very busy (pushing the work-limit hours) – sounded like the neuro program was understaffed. Great diversity of clinical training sites including a busy free-standing psych ER that sees more than 10,000 patients annually. For many inpatient psychiatry rotations residents leave in the early afternoon. Inpatient psychiatry capped at 8 patients with 2 new admits max daily. Strong psychotherapy with outpatient year being PGY2. Lots of flexibility with scheduling psychotherapy patients (12 hours of psychotherapy required every W/R/F, but can be organized by the resident as s/he sees fit – some schedule so that they can go home by 1 pm on Fridays). Call responsibilities are very limited and primarily consist of three 2 week rotations during the inpatient psychiatry year (four 14 hour shifts per week with 6 hours of protected sleep time!?).

4. Faculty:
Down-to-earth and accessible. Program director was very nice and invested in resident education with the program being quick to respond to resident feedback. Faculty dedicated to teaching. Faculty overall weak in research with program director and department chair having little experience in the research arena. (Program director did not seem familiar with “K awards”).

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
I believe Milwaukee is under-rated as a city. It felt like a smaller, less expensive, and more manageable/drivable city than the Twin Cities. Great place to raise a family. Excellent quality of life. One of the better programs at emphasizing service for resident education rather than service for cheap resident labor.

6. Benefits:
Fantastic benefits with PGY1 salary starting at ~54,000. For a ~$230/month, residents have good comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance for entire family. Parking is free at all of the sites with the only long walk being at the very large VA hospital. A fantastic $1,800 yearly educational fund (only topped by Cambridge to my knowledge!). 3 weeks vacation with 1 week available for conferences. Residents can moonlight at the psych ER starting PGY2 (~12 hour shifts with 6 hours reserved for sleep; $65/hr).

7. Program strengths:
Education >> service driven model. Very nice, social residents who seemed genuinely happy. Fantastic benefits with good moonlighting available early. Minimal call. Most fellowships available. Feels very Midwestern with how nice the faculty and residents appeared to be. Good training sites with great exposure to a variety of patient populations.

8. Potential weaknesses
Outside of neuroimaging (not something I am excited about), HIV research, and drug trials, not much going on here with research. Different EMR systems at the various sites (main teaching hospital includes EPIC, which is fantastic).
 
University of New Mexico

1. Interview accommodations/food:
No pre-interview resident dinner, but program paid for one night in a centrally located 4 star Albuquerque hotel (hotel used to be a hospital and was beautiful, but I was kind of creeped out by thinking of how many people had died in my hotel room – 100’s?, 1000’s?) Hotel had great complimentary breakfast. Nice Mexican lunch with many residents during the interview day. Did not see any interns at lunch, however.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
Only four applicants, which made for a nice intimate setting. Day ran from 8:15 am to 4:00 pm. Four 30 minute interviews. In the morning there was a brief tour of a nice, large VA that apparently is the major tertiary VA in the Southwest and we were able to observe 30 minutes of patient rounding, which was enjoyable and of high educational quality. One of my interviews was with a professor emeritus and was probably the worst interview experience I have had of 40-50 interviews. He spent 20 minutes being critical about how I presented something in my personal statement (one of those painful semantic discussions with an intrusive psychodynamic/analytic undertone). He used the next 5 minutes to convey that, given my CV and research accomplishments, he does not understand why I would even consider UNM and that I should instead be looking at places like MGH. Ugh! Other interviews were much more enjoyable. Outside of the outlier interviewer, the faculty members are probably the most easy-going and collegial group I have encountered on the interview trail. The day concluded with a 30 minute group meeting with the interim chair followed by a nice 1.5 hour tour of Albuquerque led by Dr. Lewis, the program director.

3. Program overview:
Main training sites are the VA and the UNM hospitals. I believe the VA is about 6 miles away from the UNM Hospitals. Lots of flexibility with medicine months, which was nice. Lot of time spent on in-patient psych at the VA (patient cap is 7 per resident). VA call is from home, with PGY3 backup and the requirement that interns can be at the VA in < 30 minutes (mainly an issue for residents who want to live in the Sandia foothills). PGY2 is also inpatient and appears to be the busiest time of residency. Some residents mentioned that patient volume is “high” and that sometimes service>education. Residents usually carry 8 patients in the UNM system, but if a fellow resident on the same service goes on vacation/calls in sick, the remaining resident will be responsible for all 16 patients on the unit! (Is this how other programs work?) World class opportunities in rural psychiatry (some residents spend most of PGY4 in Alaska) and telepsychiatry. Residents seem very happy with psychotherapy training. Program is in-patient heavy, and program director has decreased in-patient psych months from 14 to 12, with plans to further reduce the inpatient workload. PGY4 is almost entirely open to electives! Patient population is incredible with the catchment area including all of New Mexico and parts of CO, TX, and AZ. New chair reporting to work on 2/1/2013 – unclear how this will impact the residency/department.

4. Faculty:
Down-to-earth and friendly. Clinical teaching quality seemed quite high. UNM has some top-notch faculty members who like to teach.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
Albuquerque is an interesting city. Seems very livable, with easy driving and plenty of housing options. Constantly sunny with mostly temperate weather. Moderate workload program with in-home VA call PGY1, 14 back-up VA calls PGY3, and a 12 shift every other weekend (8 to 8) in the psych emergency room during PGY2. Two months of night float in the psych emergency room with five 12 hour shifts 8 to 8 and residents rotating between two weeks of night float and two weeks of day float.

6. Benefits:
Middle of the road benefits. In-house moonlighting available PGY3.

7. Program strengths:
Patient population is unbelievable. Great psychopathology exposure. Strong clinical teaching and psychotherapy training. Rural psychiatry is world class. Geropsychiatry clinical training is also strong. Great potential for community-based research. Down-to-earth faculty. People in Albuquerque seem very nice. Slower pace of living in the SW and seems far less pretentious than the NE or West Coast.

8. Potential weaknesses
Research outside of neuroimaging seems underdeveloped. More service>education driven than other programs I interviewed (not surprising given that UNM could be considered the county hospital for the entire state). As the inpatient psych months are being reduced, it seems as though the resident patient loads are increasing (e.g., used to have 4 residents provide coverage to ~32 patients, now have 3 residents cover the same number of patients). New chair with uncertain impact on department.
 
University of Pittsburgh/WPIC

1. Interview accommodations/food:
Hotel on-campus available at a discount. Large applicant group (~12 applicants). Dinner the night before with many of the residents. Extremely well-organized with seating arrangement organized based on interests (great attention to detail here!). Residents rotated seats x 2 to give applicants a chance to talk to as many residents as possible.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
I cannot get into too much detail, but let's just say that this program went above and beyond with connecting me to faculty of interest (met with many faculty members, the majority of whom was closely matched to my interests). The communication exchanges with the Program Director, Dr. Travis, were top-notch (he typically responded within 30 minutes). Prior to the dinner the night before, there was an hour long orientation session with Dr. Travis who is refreshingly direct and quite British (tended towards vulgarity a little more-so than other program directors : ). Interview day was busy with many short interviews. Research heavily emphasized. Met with department chair and many others. Interacted with many residents.

3. Program overview:
Much of the training is at WPIC, which is a ~310 bed psychiatric hospital with a special unit for just about everything. Very busy psych ER that seems to offer good exposure to psychopathology and a diverse patient population. Didn't hear much complaining about the inpatient family medicine, medicine, and neurology months. I believe patient caps for inpatient psych are ~8. As many others have highlighted, psychotherapy not strongly emphasized. That said, for residents desiring strong psychotherapy training, there are many electives available that provide more than adequate training.

4. Faculty:
Absolutely incredible. Most of the faculty I met were down-to-earth (including the department chair) and highly accomplished. Clearly a Mecca for those of us interested in research.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
Pittsburgh is highly affordable and has unique neighborhoods without much of the urban blight found in other cities. Highly ranked as a great place to raise a family. Good public schools and commute times. I grew up in the Midwest and am unsure about driving in Pittsburgh given its topography. Some of the highways have ridiculously short "merges" (calling them merges is a misnomer given how short some of them are, they almost should be treated as stop signs).

6. Benefits:
Fairly standard benefits, except for somewhat poor vacation time during PGY1 (only 12 days). I believe residents could start moonlighting during PGY2. Many residents moonlighting.

7. Program strengths:
The faculty is top-notch and appears highly accessible. The resources available here for aspiring psychiatric researchers is unbelievable. WPIC has a special K-award committee that pretty much provides one round of rigorous review for all K award applicants prior to NIH submission. This system has led to incredible success for those applying for K awards (WPIC has 30-40 K awardees at any given time). Many residents moonlighting. Elective opportunities in just about everything. Many residencies seem to prepare psychiatrists to be excellent clinicians, this residency seems to have the potential to foster the next generation of "who's who" in academic psychiatry. Fantastic program director who frequently responds immediately to emails. Overall, this felt like a very polished, professional program.

8. Potential weaknesses
Huge program, with ~17 residents (13 categorical) per year. I had a somewhat strange vibe from the residents. Many of whom were quite nice, but there were others who were cynical/sarcastic and edgy (not the most warm and fuzzy group). Maybe it was a sampling bias, but I found it unusual how many of the male residents had beards. (Maybe it's a Pittsburgh thing?) I am sensitive to this because a good proportion of bearded medical/grad students I have interacted with seem to be trying hard to project an overly intellectual persona (kind of like how some people wear glasses without having any visual impairment). A more objective, less silly concern is that WPIC has no EMR &#8211; all the orders are still handwritten! Pittsburgh felt a little dysthymic as a city.
 
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University of Rochester

1. Interview accommodations/food:
One night free lodging. 6 applicants per interview date. Dinner the night before was pleasant with 3-4 residents present. Continental breakfast and a nice sandwich lunch on the interview day. Residents were very visible (even interns!). I feel like we must have interacted with ~75% of the 20 total residents.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
7:45 to 3:15. Department chair gave presentation to start day – presentation was informal and interesting. He mentioned that at one point program had 16 residents/yr, which was cut back to 8 residents/yr in the 80’s. During the 80’s/early 90’s residency program was requiring the 8 residents to do the work of 16 residents and he said that the residency program was not very good. They completely revamped everything to focus on the educational needs of the residents, with only 4-5 residents/year. There were a total of four 30 minute interviews (2 with program directors, 1 with chief resident, 1 with faculty of interest). Relaxed interviews, lots of recruiting.

3. Program overview:
Epic everywhere except the VA, which is very nice. Some highlights include 1 month in the ED (20 10 hr shifts?), 1 month internal medicine (6:00-5:00 most days, with short call ~8:00 pm once per week; 7-8 patient cap), 2 months of inpatient internal medicine in the behavioral medicine unit (patient cap ~5 – wow!), and 2 months of neuro consult (no weekend call). Internal medicine and neurology rotations are high quality and well-reviewed. Weekend work appears to be limited to covering shifts in the comprehensive psychiatry emergency room (CPEP; 4 shifts/month intern year while on psych rotations, which decreases every year thereafter). About 2 of these 4 shifts fall on a weekend (weekend shifts are ~12 hours, and from 5:00-midnight if shift is during the week). All the residents seemed to enjoy their “call” in CPEP – good exposure to a wide variety of psychopathologies. Patient cap on the main in-patient unit is 8 I believe. The inpatient child psych months are capped at 3 patients per resident. Good social work support. Residents do not have to go to court as it is required for the attendings to go (seems like going to court could be a big time drain). All in-patient and out-patient uses the same electronic health record system (“EPIC”) which saves a lot of time trying to find charts and old records.

4. Faculty:
Down-to-earth and accessible. Some areas (e.g., geriatrics, family therapy) are top-notch, others are just okay.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
One of the best places for residents with families. Single residents may be bored, however, as the professional dating scene is largely limited to the medical school.

6. Benefits:
Good benefits overall, ~$51k/year, minimal insurance deductions. Can moonlight in-house during second half of residency. Residents frequently buy homes and are eligible for $9,000 to help with down payment. 4 weeks vacation starting intern year. Very flexible with scheduling vacation as only one inpatient service is dependent on residents.

7. Program strengths:
One of the most education over service driven programs I interviewed at. Residents have a lot of flexibility and support to modify the curriculum to their interests. Something that seemed somewhat amazing was that all 4 PGY3’s want to go into child psych at U of R, and if I understood correctly, U of R is making spots for all of them! Great racially, ethnically, socioeconomically diverse patient population to learn from – catchment area is much of Western NY. Also get some of the drug traffickers going from Toronto to NYC. Strong in community-based research. Residents seem sociable, easy-going, and happy (saw most residents on interview day – they weren’t hiding from us or drowning in work). Close to 100 in-patient beds.

8. Potential weaknesses
While the resources and support are fantastic for residents to develop their own interests, lazy residents could very well get away with being lazy at this program (i.e., it is “cush”). Weak in basic science research. Seems like few residents are ambitious about an academic career.
 
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University of Wisconsin

1. Interview accommodations/food:
Program paid for lodging at the Radisson, which has a great location in downtown Madison. Plenty of nice places to walk nearby. There were 9 applicants on my interview day, 2 of which were for the research track, which has a separate match designation. Research track applicants interview for 1.5 days. The night before the main interview there is a nice gathering a faculty, residents, and applicants at the outpatient clinic. Very low-key. After this gathering, residents take the applicants out to local bars. Continental breakfast the next morning. Lunch was nice. Great interaction with a large number of residents, none of whom seemed visibly distressed or struggled to stay awake.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
7:30 to ~3:30. Interview day was busy with six 30 minute interviews in the morning. Met with two residents and four faculty members (one of which was the chair). Interviews were low-key and informational. Be sure to have questions ready! Second half of the interview day consisted of lunch and tours. Inpatient psychiatry facilities at the University hospital (18 beds) and VA (15 beds) were average. Plenty of workspace, however. Parking can be a problem at the university hospital and costs $400-600 /year.

3. Program overview:
Epic everywhere except the VA. 8 months inpatient psychiatry first year with neurology coming later (neurology requirement is satisfied with outpatient rotations I believe). Patient cap is 9 at the university hospital and 7-8 at the VA with most admissions being done by a day or night float person. 6 weeks of “day float” intern year (2 weeks at a time), which – to my understanding – consists of a 5 day/week rotation of doing admits from 2 pm to midnight. On inpatient units, average weekend call every other week with no unit rounding required. Lots of outpatient starts 2nd year. Residents seemed happy and there did not appear to be uniform agreement on what the “bad” rotations were. Moonlighting available, but the Madison area is much more saturated with psychiatrists than other areas of the country, making the moonlighting opportunities a little less easy to find than say Milwaukee. No psych ER, which is too bad.

4. Faculty:
Whole department seemed to know one another well (surprised by how many on the faculty knew the names of even the first year residents). Family feel. Some faculty quite accomplished in certain areas. Very strong clinically in community psychiatry programs designed to keep the sick out of the hospital. Nice program director and associate program director.

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
Residents, faculty, and many of the applicants were adamant about how awesome it is to live in Madison. City felt like a mini-San Francisco/California/Pacific NW with the interest level people had for living in Madison.

6. Benefits:
Middle of the road benefits. Can moonlight.

7. Program strengths:
Seemed to strike a workable balance between service and education. Strong in outpatient training. Can bike to work. Very progressive city. Great neuroimaging, sleep, and emotion research. High volume university health services (~100 new admits per week). Epic EMR inpatient and outpatient, which is fantastic!

8. Potential weaknesses
Patient population diversity and acuity seems less exciting at UW than compared to programs located in bigger and less homogenously well-to-do cities. Relatively few inpatient beds. Not as easy for psychiatrists to find their dream job in Madison following graduation due to how many psychiatrists live in the area compared to the area’s population. Strong in basic science research, less so in community focused research. Madison felt a little too vanilla and well-to-do for me (very subjective). Not sure how excited I am to live near 40 thousand college kids.
 
Yale

1. Interview accommodations/food:
Well organized with pre-interview packet emailed that contained a lot of helpful logistical information. Program gave list of residents willing to host as well as hotels near hospital available at a discounted rate. Very nice dinner the night before at a local sushi restaurant, continental breakfast, and lunch at Mexican restaurant. Coffee available all day and cookies at end of day.

2. Interview day (e.g. schedule, type of interview, unusual questions/experiences):
7:45 am to 3:30 pm (or 4:00 pm for those interested in Child Psych). Informational session to start day followed by four 30-45 minute interviews from 9 to 12. Interviewers seemed to know my application details very well. In the afternoon there was a tour and we met with chair.

3. Program overview:
Training sites include university hospital, a very interesting county medical center adjacent to the main hospital, a free-standing 75 bed psych building that has all of Yale hospital’s inpatient beds, and a VA. Yale is switching to Epic early 2013 which is fantastic! Yale is more “traditional” in that it requires 6 months of internal medicine. There used to be two separate medicine tracks, but now that Yale bought St. Rapheal’s hospital, there is only one track. Although some details are still being worked out, apparently the 6 months of medicine include 4 months of “ward” (1 of which may be VA?), 1 ICU month, and 1 ambulatory or ER month. Neurology may be a little intense, but seems manageable. Great exposure to a variety of psych patients including the chronically mentally ill at the nearby Connecticut Mental Health Center. Good socioeconomic and cultural diversity in patient population. Program plans for a 3 month academic experience for ALL residents in PGY 2 (compare this to the 2 months of research reserved just for the research track residents at Brown!). Has strong biological, psychotherapy, and didactics. Apparently all programs have ~1000 hours of didactic training over 4 years of residency training and Yale is moving away from the traditional lecture based (i.e., in one ear out the other) model of teaching. While residents will undoubtedly receive well-rounded training here, Yale was clear that it wants its residents to be future leaders and experts in something. Rather than accept 12 PGY1’s and 4 PGY2’s, Yale is going to now match 16 PGY1’s.

4. Faculty:
Talented and invested in training. I really liked the residency program staff (Dr. Rohrbaugh seemed down-to-earth). While some of the faculty were quite nice, other faculty members seemed stuffy and Ivory Towerish (not sure if I would want to drink a beer with many of them).

5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
At first glance New Haven is somewhat blah, but when you account for all the activities going on at the psychiatry department and the wider Yale University, there is a lot to do here. Spouses are also able to access the many Yale libraries and audit classes. Enough urban blight nearby to provide good exposure to social psychiatry issues.

6. Benefits:
Excellent benefits. Starting salary is >$60k with great health insurance options. Residents regularly moonlight, starting PGY2 I believe.

7. Program strengths:
One of the few places that has strong research occurring in social psychiatry rather than the typical neuroimaging/basic sciences. Great residents. As a group, they seemed thoughtful and well informed. Had many interesting conversations with them (beyond the standard discussions of the program logistics). Good support for research. Good, diverse patient population. Good program administrative support. Innovative didactics.

8. Potential weaknesses
Work harder than many programs. Not a fan of the ICU month. I think an outpatient month of family medicine probably would be more synergistic with training in psychiatry. Somewhat stuffy. Large program with 16 residents/year. Many MD/PhD’s now seem to be matching here, so I wonder if Yale now has too few research slots for the number of research residents it is attracting. New Haven is somewhat saturated with psychiatrists, which makes staying on in New Haven more challenging (I am not a fan of moving my family every few years!).
 
Now what program is my favorite? It’s quite simple really! My favorite program is located in Providence, RI (with MA public schools, however), has University of New Mexico’s patient population, has Pittsburgh’s or Cambridge’s faculty, has the warmth and family feel of Rochester, has the inpatient facilities of Regions, has Case Western's VA hospital, has in-patient and out-patient Epic electronic medical records (which Rochester, Cambridge, and Hennepin-Regions have I believe), has New Mexico’s climate, has Rochester’s residency size, has Hennepin-Regions emphasis on education over service, has Yale’s salary/benefits, has Cambridge’s psychotherapy training, and has Medical College of Wisconsin’s county-wide psych ER. I love how interviewing clears everything up! :)
 
UTHSCSA review

Accom/food
Accom - Hotel wasn't provided, but the recommended hotel (Hyatt Place Med Center NW) was very nice and reasonably-priced (the interview rate was $87, but the regular rate was only $71 when I went&#8230; I guess it's slow season). The program arranged airport pickup/dropoff via the hotel shuttle (which normally only goes in a 3-mile radius of the hotel).
Food &#8211; pre-interview dinner was at a nice local Mexican restaurant. Food was good, but not as good as I expected for one of the best Mexican restaurants in San Antonio (as described by a resident). It wasn't that much better than my favorite Mexican restaurant in St. Louis.
Breakfast was free at the hotel, which is where pretty much everybody was staying.
Lunch was about in line with the standard that you'd expect at a hospital lunch meeting.


Interview day
Most people drove from the hotel to the hospital, but the rest of us took the shuttle that was provided. Day started with an informal intro to the program by the PD followed by a quick presentation from the guy who was in charge of the military side of the program (the program takes both civilian and military residents). We also had a brief welcome by the department chair and the vice chair for education. All four of those guys seemed very accessible and friendly.
After that, we split into two groups &#8211; one group went off on a tour with two of the three chief residents, while the other group had three 30-minute interviews with faculty members. After that session, the groups switched places. I interviewed with the military guy, a senior attending, and a PhD researcher who is in charge of the research program. The interviews were pretty standard and low-stress, although the interviewers didn't seem to know my application as well as they did at most of my previous interviews. If I mentioned any of my past experiences, their responses always suggested that they hadn't actually looked at my CV&#8230; but on the other hand, everybody seemed to have read my personal statement &#8211; including the department chair, who wasn't even interviewing me. I think this was because of the overall large number of total interviewees (12ish) &#8211; as a result of that, the PD wasn't able to interview everybody personally, but he did take the time to have a brief chat with the people who he couldn't interview.


Program overview
There are a few particular things that make this program unique:
1. It's one of the biggest programs in the country. This year, they said that they expect to take about 18 residents. That includes 4-6 that come in through the Military Match, and the rest through the NRMP Match. I think this is a good thing overall &#8211; lots of research opportunities, lots of people to share the call schedule, etc. A theoretical downside is that you don't get as much personalized attention, but I didn't feel like this was the case.

2. The military integration creates a diverse range of experience. They work at some military sites (and the VA, of course), and the military residents also work directly with the rest of the teams (most of the rotations are the same).

3. Elective time is more distributed across PGY2 and 4. There are a few reasons for this: (1) If you want to do research, you can get your project started early on. (2) You can develop your interests early on (including psychotherapy) and use the rest of the time to find appropriate mentors. (3) In your last few months of PGY4, they give you some attending-level responsibilities (i.e. supervising a team, etc.) and spend give you time/resources to take care of PGY4 administrative stuff (i.e. boards, registration, job hunt, fellowship hunt, etc.).

4. Research is very strong. Everybody is required to do some sort of scholarly project, although it can just be clinical quality improvement if you're not interested in hard research. They also have a dedicated research track for people like me. There's also a lot of support for research, and they will even help you find a faculty mentor. The PD made it a point that he doesn't want his residents to "just see patient after patient after patient" and that our CVs should be "evolving" throughout residency with a variety of different experiences. And importantly, they do provide time and resources for the residents to engage in these sorts of extra activities.

5. You work at several different sites &#8211; University Hospital, VA, several military sites, several outpatient sites (including undergrad mental health clinics at UTSA and St. Mary's), etc. There's a fair bit of driving, but the residents don't complain about it because the traffic is pretty benign. They spin this as a positive by saying that when you graduate, you'll be able to work in any hospital system with a minimal learning curve. Personally, this isn't a huge plus for me because I rotated at a million different hospitals in med school, so I think I already have some of that experience (although I realize that residency scutwork is on a whole different level).

The PD is relatively new to the role, but he's young/energetic and he went to UTHSCSA for med school and residency. The previous PD was there for a very short time, but the guy before her was in charge for about 25 years. This is already a pretty strong program, but this new PD is really excited about implementing a variety of improvements that will make it stronger in the next few years.

Other details (didactics, psychotherapy training, moonlighting, etc.) seem to be about in line with every other place I've been to. The PD made it a point to mention that he wants to start offering some psychotherapy didactics in PGY1, but as it stands, they start in PGY2 like most other places. Call is relatively infrequent (can't remember the exact number) because there are so many residents. They're abolishing the night float starting on July 1, but I didn't fully understand exactly how they're planning to accomplish that.

A lot of the residents were UTHSCSA grads, which suggests that people like it enough to stick around. Of the rest, most were from elsewhere in Texas, which suggests that the place is reasonably well-respected in the rest of Texas. Of the 12 applicants, there were 8 from Texas and 4 from the SEC (one from Arkansas, two from Tennessee, and I'm from Missouri &#8211; which is barely SEC, but SEC nonetheless). So I'm not sure if they interview people from non-football conferences.

For a program this big, I was surprised at how few fellowship opportunities there are. There's the standard 3+2 child/adolescent program and a fairly consistent geri psych program (which is also the PD's subspecialty, so you can be fairly certain that this fellowship will stay reasonably strong). There's also a psychosomatic fellowship and a forensic fellowship, but they both generally take 0-1 fellows per year, so people were saying that they might stop offering it if they have a few years of no fellows.


Faculty
They have a few heavy-hitters in the research world. Not as much as some of the people I met at the big Midwestern medical/biological programs (WashU, Mayo, Iowa), but still, research is a strong part of the culture here and the faculty is accordingly large and diverse. The dept chair previously ran the department at Case Western and trained at Shepherd-Pratt if I remember correctly. The vice chair for education had a similarly impressive background. The PD and many other faculty members were homegrown at UTHSCSA.


Location/lifestyle
I like San Antonio &#8211; very reasonably-priced, warm weather, friendly traffic, lots to do. It has a small-town feel, but is still a reasonably big city. Everybody kept mentioning that it's the 7th or 8th-biggest city in the US... that didn't sound right to me, so I looked it up... the metro area is #24, but the city itself is #7. I think it's silly to compare city limits, since every city is structured so differently... so for practical purposes, it's the 24th-biggest city in the US. But you should also consider Austin, which is about 1.5 hrs away, and also has a lot of exciting stuff. Overall, I think it would be a great place to live.


Benefits
Salary and most benefits are pretty standard. One notable bonus is that you get a military contractor ID, which entitles you to military discounts and other random little things here and there.


Strengths
Military integration/resources
Big program = lots of opportunities and generous call schedule
Elective time in PGY2
Great research
People seem to stick around for a long time
Diverse patient population
San Antonio


Weaknesses
Several different sites
Not a lot of fellowships


Overall impression
I felt positive about it. The residents seemed happy and the faculty seemed supportive. I think this is in the upper-mid tier of the state schools with big research-oriented psych departments. Comparing it to the other programs I've been to, I might put it in the same category as Iowa &#8211; not quite as strong, but in a better location by most standards. Kansas and Iowa were clearly better for medical-oriented stuff and/or psychosomatics, but I think that this place is at least as strong as Kansas for most other things.
 
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Hennepin-Regions

...
5. Location, lifestyle, etc:
The Twin Cities are cold

.... Called the frozen tundra for a reason.

Think of it as a Sub-fellowship in Seasonal Affective Disorders. :D

BTW--you left out the mandated half-day off that all residents get in July so that they can get their parkas dry-cleaned if the snow melts by then. :rolleyes:
 
Think of it as a Sub-fellowship in Seasonal Affective Disorders. :D

BTW--you left out the mandated half-day off that all residents get in July so that they can get their parkas dry-cleaned if the snow melts by then. :rolleyes:
:)

Everything is relative. I prefer MN's cold and sunshine (sometimes the coldest days are the sunniest) over the perpetually gloomy Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest winter weather. The absolute worst weather for me is 30-40’s with rain and wind.
 
Yale

8. Potential weaknesses
Work harder than many programs.

I don't think this is true - my call schedule is pretty relaxed as a PGY-1. I work two weekend days a month on psychiatry, and have no call or weekend duties on neurology. On medicine I was averaging 55 hours a week. Seems pretty ok to me!
 
I don't think this is true - my call schedule is pretty relaxed as a PGY-1. I work two weekend days a month on psychiatry, and have no call or weekend duties on neurology. On medicine I was averaging 55 hours a week. Seems pretty ok to me!

That's better than my impression of the workload. I'm surprised you averaged 55 hours per week while on inpatient medicine working with the other medicine interns. I thought Yale would work its medicine interns much harder than that. A chill 7-5 schedule with one day rounding on the weekend is about 55 hours. Not bad!
 
That's better than my impression of the workload. I'm surprised you averaged 55 hours per week while on inpatient medicine working with the other medicine interns. I thought Yale would work its medicine interns much harder than that. A chill 7-5 schedule with one day rounding on the weekend is about 55 hours. Not bad!

The most I worked was 71, but I had 8 weeks when I only worked about 40 - 45. Not sure how it will be with the new schedule, but I certainly can't think it will be above average.
 
The most I worked was 71, but I had 8 weeks when I only worked about 40 - 45. Not sure how it will be with the new schedule, but I certainly can't think it will be above average.

Wow! Are you just extremely efficient? 40-45...wow!
 
I really don't see what the big deal is with working 7877393 billion hours on medicine. It's 4-6 months of your life, it really has no impact on my decision to rank a program.
 
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Duke University Psychiatry Program

This is a broad overview of my interview experience and second look at the program.
Right off the bat, everyone is extremely friendly and responsive. Very accommodating during second look and lab day. Angela and Jason are fantastic at communicating and organizing opportunities. Both interview and second look days were wonderful opportunities to get a broad exposure to facilities, faculty, and residents in work/educational environment. Everyone I met was very enthusiastic and interested in all of the applicants.

Thursday interview - opportunity to see morning teaching and see the family studies center. The teaching sessions are largely informal, which I personally felt allowed for more discussion and interaction between the residents. It was frankly exciting to get 15-20 people in a room who are all well learned in psychiatry and excited about the field and then just discuss/learn about physiology of schizophrenia. The family studies center is nothing short of a treasure. Amazing learning opportunity for residents to have faculty right there in real time giving feedback about counseling. Patients greatly benefit from this center as well - unique opportunity to moderate family interactions and create healthy communication opportunities. Tremendously strong teaching - A+.

Friday Lab day - Duke is a mega-giant in the field of psychiatry and research. My extremely high expectation were even surpassed. Their laboratories are in great condition and have excellent equipment to study the never-ending array of topics in neuropsych. They have top-notch researchers/PI's whom are more than happy to teach and have residents join their research. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming. The teaching and research is a major major strength of the program and the institution as a whole.

Program Overview - You work your tail off and learn to save lives. Their hours are very reasonable for how much they learn and contribute to the field of Psychiatry.

Residents - Sharp, enthusiastic, and friendly group of people. It is clear that the residents work hard, but they are by no means tired or "beat." They are exposed to fascinating patients and information and are extremely well informed on the old, new and future of psychiatry. It takes work to become a sharp psychiatrist and Duke is making sharp psychiatrists. Of this, there is no doubt.

Program Director - The best program director I've run into on the interview trail. Dr. Thrall's residents speak so highly of her and it is well-earned. She accommodates the many different passions and learning styles of her residents and creates an atmosphere of family
in the program. Almost every resident I spoke to had an example of some interaction or something that Dr. Thrall did for them that enhanced their residency and learning.

Personally, I think the caliber of the program in terms of its faculty, residents, and resources is one to rival other big name programs like Harvard, Yale, Hopkins, etc...
 
Duke University Psychiatry Program
...
Program Director - The best program director I've run into on the interview trail. Dr. Thrall's residents speak so highly of her and it is well-earned. She accommodates the many different passions and learning styles of her residents and creates an atmosphere of family
in the program. Almost every resident I spoke to had an example of some interaction or something that Dr. Thrall did for them that enhanced their residency and learning.

:thumbup::thumbup:
 
Duke University Psychiatry Program

Program Director - The best program director I've run into on the interview trail. Dr. Thrall's residents speak so highly of her and it is well-earned. She accommodates the many different passions and learning styles of her residents and creates an atmosphere of family
in the program. Almost every resident I spoke to had an example of some interaction or something that Dr. Thrall did for them that enhanced their residency and learning. .

:thumbup::thumbup:
 
IU-Indianapolis (no longer called "IUPUI medical school", but still on the IUPUI campus)

Accommodations/food
They paid for a 5-star hotel in downtown Indianapolis – probably the nicest hotel I’ve stayed in so far. Pre-interview dinner was at a generic American-ish restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. The residents were exceptionally jovial and very excited about recruiting us. Breakfast included bagels from Einstein Bros and juice/coffee/etc. Lunch was standard/generic (nothing particularly memorable). The residents were probably the friendliest bunch I’ve encountered… which is saying a lot, since everybody has been very friendly so far.


Interview day
There were four candidates interviewing on the day. They sent a guy with a nice SUV to come and pick us up from the hotel; I’m guessing it was some sort of car service, since he didn’t mention any affiliation with the program. Most of the interview took place at the brand new neuroscience building, which houses psych, neuro, neurosurg, and some neuroscience researchers.

The day started with a breakfast + intro with the PD and a brief visit from the interim department chair (they will likely have a full department chair soon – the previous one left to start a big research lab somewhere at Harvard). Then we went straight into interviews – I had sessions with the PD, a chief resident, and three random faculty members (one was a bench/translational researcher, one was the director of the addictions fellowship, and one was a clinical/epidemiological researcher). After the interviews, there was a lunch with residents, a tour of the IU Health complex (which is so big that it requires a monorail-type system to connect the hospitals), and a driving tour of downtown Indy with a senior resident.


Program details
General: This seemed like a spectacular program overall. I don’t know why it doesn’t get more love on SDN. It has a decent reputation, so it’s hard to call it a “sleeper” or a “diamond in the rough,” but I’d have to say that it was a pleasant surprise. There is a very diverse patient range – plenty of urban patients due to the urban location, plenty of rural patients because it’s the only program in Indiana, plenty of patients throughout the socioeconomic range because it’s based at a massive healthcare complex that includes hospitals catering to all sorts of different types of people.

Academic: Research and education are a strong part of the culture here, and they also have an exceptionally well-developed curriculum for development as an academic psychiatrist. They have a formal program (part of the general resident didactics) designed to teach you how to teach, and you can get further training if you’re interested. They also have a very structured program in their research track, which provides supervision for you to write a review article, submit a grant, and develop a project. This was the only place where I’ve seen this sort of structure in the research track (although I’m sure that the other places probably also provide something like this in a less structured manner).

Workload: Call schedule was fairly standard. This isn’t a huge concern for me, so I don’t remember the details… but I didn’t think it was too out-of-the-ordinary.

Rotations: Fairly standard (see website for details), but this place probably has the best patient diversity that I’ve seen anywhere. You can rotate at just about every setting imaginable – university hospital, state hospital, private hospital, VA, psych unit, student clinics, medical home clinics, general clinics, forensic stuff, etc… the only exception is the lack of a dedicated addictions unit, but addictions training is still well-established and is generally conducted at all of the different hospitals. Also, they have a nascent TMS clinic and residents can get certified in TMS.

Didactics: The didactic curriculum has recently been revamped, and PRITE scores have steadily increased from year to year. A senior resident (who was also in charge of recruitment) was convinced that each class has been stronger than its predecessor.

Moonlighting: Opportunities abound, since this is the only program in Indiana and it only takes 6 residents per year.


Faculty
The PD is very energetic and has great plans from the program… the place is historically fairly neuroscience-oriented, but the PD is into psychodynamic therapy. She’s been around for a few years and came from Yale along with her husband, who is also a faculty member. There are a lot of leaders in various research fields, and they all seem to be very interested in teaching. They currently have an interim dept chair because the previous chair took an opportunity to lead a huge autism research team at Harvard.


Location and facilities
The facilities here were particularly great. The hospital complex is huge, and is connected via a rail system. All rotations happen at facilities that were built or renovated in the last 5 years – even the VA. Apparently, this is just a case of lucky timing rather than a sudden stream of money that has been poured into the facilities. The brand new neuroscience building just opened a couple of months ago and houses most of the outpatient psychiatry clinics, faculty offices, labs, etc. This is also where they have the new TMS clinic and the like.

Indianapolis is a very practical place to live. It’s big enough to have NBA and NFL teams (and most other things that you’d want), but small enough so that the cost of living is reasonable. Unlike many cities, Indianapolis’s growth hasn’t been restricted by any major geographic barriers (i.e. ocean, big river, mountains, desert, etc), which means that it grew evenly in every direction… the downtown area is right in the middle of the city, all of the highways radiate outward with an interstate that surrounds the metro, the county is shaped like a square, etc… and as a result of all of this, you can get from skyscrapers to cornfields within 20 minutes.

Also, there has been a great deal of rapid development in downtown Indianapolis. I hadn’t been there in about 10-15 years, and it’s changed completely over that time period. I remember a mediocre city that didn’t feel particularly safe or nice. Now, downtown Indy seems to be on par with any other downtown area I’ve seen.


Benefits and lifestyle
Standard


Overall strengths
New PD has made major educational improvements
Supportive and well-reputed faculty
Strong research and education training
Great location in downtown Indy
Brand new facilities
High demand for graduates across Indiana
Biological research emphasis, but new PD is a psychodynamic person


Weaknesses
Not too many fellowship options
 
Baylor
Communication
Scheduling was quite awkward... I received my interview invite relatively late, but they had a list of dates that are still available. I chose three options and replied within 45 minutes, but then got an email 3 days later saying that all of the dates were full. Then I received several emails that were "recalled" about random scheduling things, and then I received a weird email that was intended for faculty. Then I got another email saying that an additional interview date was available, but that message was also "recalled." I replied to it anyway, and it turns out that the date was actually available. Not sure what to make of all of it, but the PC seemed to be sharp and on-the-ball, so I'm guessing it was some sort of issue with the system somewhere. One of the other candidates had a similar experience.


Accommodations/food
Accom: Paid for our own hotels, but they had reasonably good deals worked out with some local places, all of which had a shuttle to the hospital complex. For some reason, most of the hotels quoted a discounted price that was substantially higher than the discounted price that I was expecting. Only one of them gave me the "right" price (Holiday Inn at 8111 Kirby). The hotel was decent and not too expensive ($70+tax with the discount), but their shuttle was always late, so I had to take a cab to my interview.

Dinner was great - we went to a place called Raven Grill, which wasn't particularly upscale, but the food was excellent. There were three residents and five applicants at the dinner.

Breakfast and lunch were probably above average. I've had better, but I've also had much worse.


Interview day
There were seven candidates interviewing on the day. We had to arrange our own transportation... the recommended hotels all had a shuttle, but my hotel's shuttle was notoriously late, so I shared a cab with another applicant. The interview day was at a nice clinic building.

The day started with a breakfast + intro with a chief resident. Then we went into interviews - one with the PD, one with an APD, and two with other faculty members. Despite having been to 13 or 14 interviews so far, it was clear that the faculty here had taken the time to become familiar with my application to an extent that went well beyond any others (one guy not only visited my blog, but went far enough to click through to read some of my articles and note that there's some sort of problem with my server).

Most interview days included lunch at the Menninger Clinic, but our day was an aberration because it was on a Thursday (it was added on to the interview schedule at the end). If you go to Baylor, try to schedule your interview on a Monday or Friday.


Program details
General: This program had a lot of particular unique features, as I will proceed to outline.

Academic: Like any big academic center, they encourage research and teaching but don't require much beyond the standard day-to-day teaching on the wards. They do have a formal research track which gives you protected research time during your 1-month PGY2 elective, 0.5-1.5 days during PGY3 and PGY4, and up to 6 months full-time during PGY4. There's also a formal educator track, which involves a 4-5 hr/week commitment (starting in PGY2) for didactics, workshops, teaching sessions, and development of a scholarly project.

Also, I recently donated $25 million for development of new neuropsych facilities there (don't tell anybody it was me; I donated the money anonymously). That means a lot of cool research opportunities in neuropsych if you're interested. They also used that money to poach a big-name faculty member from Colorado.

In general, if you have a particular academic interest, this is a good place to find a mentor. It's part of the Texas Medical Center, a 37-hospital complex that includes 20,000 doctors (including 150ish psych faculty) and makes up the biggest hospital complex in the world. For an academically-inclined resident, that means that you'll be able to find a supervisor here for pretty much anything.

Workload: I know it has a reputation for being heavy on the hours, but I didn't think the call schedule seemed much worse than most of the other places I've been to. I did hear a lot of the standard "it was rough for us, but they've made the workload a lot lighter in the last couple of years," which seems to be pretty standard. FREIDA says that they average 50 hrs/week in PGY1, but I don't know how accurate that is. Also, it might be a bit misrepresentative because the off-service months are relatively light here.

Rotations: The Baylor residents cover several different hospitals, including Methodist ("best hospital in Texas" according to USNWR and one of the "top 100 places to work" according to Fortune... usually covered by Cornell residents who come in from NYC to do a 6-12 month term, but psych and neuro are covered by Baylor), the local county hospital, the Menninger Clinic, and various other sites. They're currently building a new "Baylor Hospital", but I'm not sure what impact that will have. They'll also have C/L rotations and psych-onc electives at MD Anderson starting pretty soon.
Also notable is the fact that off-service months are on the light side. You only do one month of inpatient medicine, and the rest of the med rotations are somehow different (can't remember the details). They also try not to work the psych residents too hard on off-service months&#8230; that might be a pro or a con, depending on your preferences.
I heard that the elective rotations are pretty flexible. One resident told me that he was thinking about going to Namibia and he'd done his PGY2 elective at Yale. Apparently, people have gone to Europe and the like for various reasons.

Didactics: Most residents seemed to think of the didactics as a particular strength. In PGY3, you get a weekly 2-hr didactic with Glen Gabbard, which is pretty amazing considering how much he charges per hour to see private patients. And of course, you also get specialized teaching from countless other faculty members who are heavy-hitters in their respective fields.

Therapy training: One of the better ones I've seen. Didactics start in PGY1, and you can start carrying two long-term patients in PGY2. You get 4-5 hours of protected psychotherapy time in PGY3 and also some amount in PGY4 (I don't remember the exact number). You get two 1-hr supervision sessions weekly starting in PGY2 &#8211; one in CBT and one in psychodynamic. Gabbard teaches a weekly 2-hr didactic with all of the PGY3 residents, and occasionally also teaches other didactics.

Moonlighting: In-house moonlighting is available. You can start in PGY2, but it's discouraged before PGY3. I didn't get the details regarding logistics and pay.

Fellowships: IIRC, I think they currently have child, geriatrics, and addictions. They don't have psychosomatics &#8211; they say it's because you can use your PGY4 year to do as much as 10 months of C/L, so most people don't feel the need for a fellowship. They're starting a new forensics fellowship in the next year or two. They've also started electives in sleep and pain, which suggests to me that those specialties will be relatively psych-friendly here. On the other hand, I was asking a senior resident about fellowships in pain and sleep, and she didn't even know that there was such as thing as a pain fellowship.


Faculty
The PD seems great and approachable, and she's big on developing their educational programs. The chair (Yudovsky) is a big name, and has a reputation for bringing in huge chunks of funding and renowned faculty&#8230; and he must be really good at it, considering that he somehow managed to poach the entire Menninger Clinic. Gabbard is also a big name, of course, and the residents all seemed to find him very approachable and helpful. I've heard they also have a few heavy-hitters in forensics, but I didn't catch the details there.


Location and facilities
The Texas Medical Center is the biggest medical complex in the world. It has 100,000 employees and 20,000 doctors. Baylor Medical College was the first building in this complex, and it features three medical schools, Methodist Hospital (always ranked highly in most categories by USNWR, ranked in the top 100 places to work by Forbes, staffed by Cornell residents from NYC in every department other than psych and neuro, which are covered by Baylor), MD Anderson, and all sorts of other stuff. Ben Taub, the local county hospital, is like any other county hospital&#8230; but Methodist seemed to be as nice as places like Mayo and Barnes-Jewish (WashU).

And then, of course, there's the Menninger Clinic, which just relocated to a brand new facility 10 minutes from the Texas Medical Center. You only do two months there in required rotations, but you can do as much as six months as electives and you can moonlight there as a PGY4 (which surprised me&#8230; if a person is paying that much to go to the Menninger Clinic, you'd think they'd be able to pay an attending to work nights).

Also, they're building a new "Baylor Hospital." I don't know what exactly that will mean for residents, but I'd imagine that it's something positive.

Houston seems like a pretty good place to live. It's warm, multicultural, and inexpensive. You can buy a pretty good condo within a couple of miles of the medical center for under $100k&#8230; or rent for $600ish. I think that's pretty amazing when you consider that it's the 4th-biggest city in the US, it's rapidly growing, and it has a desirable climate. I honestly don't understand why it's not more expensive to live there.
The traffic is supposedly terrible during peak rush hour, but it seemed pretty manageable when I was going to/from the airport (both trips were around 3:00-4:30 pm). There's also a train line that goes through the medical complex, so you can avoid traffic on most of your rotations if you lie along that line.


Benefits and lifestyle
Salary was on the low side last year, but they're increasing it by $4k next year, which will put it on par with the average. Also, Texas has no state income tax.
Everything else was pretty standard.


Overall strengths
Lots of big-name faculty
Department chair seems to be great at bringing in money
New neuropsych department
Great location in Texas Medical Center
Strong research and education training
New hospital under construction
Menninger Clinic
Massive numbers of faculty with either biological or psychological expertise
Very flexible options for away electives

Weaknesses
No psychosomatic fellowship
Lots of hospitals to cover call
 
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Hey Shan,
Just a quick correction/question re: Baylor. From my understanding, Methodist has its own residency programs that are affiliated with Cornell but based in Houston that cover that hospital. I've heard it's a good place to be a resident, but their programs are likely not as competitive as Cornell in NYC programs are currently. For example, here's the webpage for the IM program at Methodist.

http://www.methodisthealth.com/internalmedicineresidency

Not that it makes a huge difference, but you probably won't be rotating with residents from NYC much.
 
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Hey Shan,
Just a quick correction/question re: Baylor. From my understanding, Methodist has its own residency programs that are affiliated with Cornell but based in Houston that cover that hospital. I've heard it's a good place to be a resident, but their programs are likely not as competitive as Cornell in NYC programs are currently. For example, here's the webpage for the IM program at Methodist.

http://www.methodisthealth.com/internalmedicineresidency

Not that it makes a huge difference, but you probably won't be rotating with residents from NYC much.

Oh OK, thanks for the correction. I was just relaying something that one of the residents told me, but it seems that he wasn't entirely accurate...
 
U. Florida (Gainesville)

Accommodations/food
ACCOM: Program paid for our stay at the Hilton conference center, which was a great hotel. For some reason, they gave me a room with 2 double beds instead of a single queen/king, but that's not a huge deal. All of the pilots and airline staff also stay at that hotel, so there was a shuttle from the airport.
I wasn't able to make it to the dinner. They paid for an elaborate breakfast at the Hilton, and we were actually joined there by a chief resident and a fellow. Lunch was standard fare.

Interview day
Started with breakfast at the hotel with a chief resident and a person who created her own fellowship in DBS (split between clinical and research). Then we got on a shuttle for an extensive tour of the wonderful range of facilities with a chief resident who also happens to be an excellent salesman. After that tour, we went to the brand new clinic building, where we all settled into a conference room and split into two groups &#8211; one for interviews and one for another tour of more facilities (they're very proud of their brand new buildings here).
Everything and everybody along the tour were very impressive, and I got a great vibe for their pride in research/academic accomplishments, wonderful clinical settings, etc&#8230; but the interview session was very different. There were two interviews with PGY2 residents, which basically consisted of "ask me questions about our program." There was one 20-minute interview in which I was with both the PD and the APD, and they asked me standard interview questions. There were no other faculty interviews, which was clearly a bit strange. Also, it seemed like none of the interviewers had actually looked at my application, so all of the interview questions were very generic and not tailored according to my CV.
One of the residents who interviewed me had a generally negative vibe about her. At one point, she said something like "oh, well, I know this isn't the best program in the Southeast, but I came here because my husband is here"&#8230; or "if you're interested in research, you might want to look at other places&#8230; you should probably go to Duke or Emory" (despite the fact that the PD is an MD/PhD, they have a dedicated research track, and they have oodles of research funding). Other candidates said the same thing, so it wasn't just me. I guess I should take it with a grain of salt, but it left me with a weird taste, considering that the entire interview day had been very impressive until that point.
The lunch with the residents was great. Everybody was enthusiastic (except for that one girl), and a few faculty members stopped by to talk to us at various points. The chair also came by, and he seemed to be a bit of a rock star&#8230; he went through a long list of spectacular accomplishments of faculty and residents, and did a very convincing job of making us feel like he would help us become leaders in our fields if we're interested in doing so.

Program details
General: Overall, it was clear that psych actually brings in a lot of money here (and, as a consequence, has a lot of influence). This is largely due to the Florida Recovery Center, an addictions facility for professionals and celebrities. As a result, psych gets all sorts of perks &#8211; for instance, they are one of the few departments to get spots in the new clinic building, which was reserved for the specialties that are perceived as "big dogs" (in the words of the chief resident).

Academic: Standard fare for a big academic center &#8211; they encourage research and teaching but don't require much beyond the standard day-to-day teaching on the wards. They have a formal research track that seems to be relatively flexible in terms of the particular structure. One resident wanted to do more with DBS, so she created a DBS fellowship and they had the funding to let her do it.
They don't have a huge amount of NIH funding, but they get a lot of money from donors (Florida has a lot of wealthy retirees who like to donate back to the university when they get good healthcare). There is also a lot of grant money that comes in from Gatorade. And the psych department raises a lot of money through the Florida Recovery Center. Partially due to these factors, they have a lot of leading faculty in pretty much every area of psychiatry, but particularly in addictions and pain. So no matter what your interest is, you'll be able to find a supervisor/mentor.

Workload: Seems to be on the cushy side. I don't remember the exact details, but I left with the impression that you have plenty of time to engage in research activities or moonlighting. FREIDA says that they average 47 hrs/week in PGY1.

Rotations: Residents cover several different hospitals, so you'd need a car. Of course, Gainesville is a college town, so the commutes aren't too bad. All of the standard rotations are there; you can probably find specific details on the website. The hospital complex is extensive and serves pretty much every socioeconomic and cultural group that you'll find in Florida.

Didactics: Seemed pretty standard. The university has a diverse range of experts, which is great for the didactic curriculum, but I didn't get a lot of precise details.

Therapy training: Standard fare. You can start in PGY2 if you want to, but you get formal time and supervision starting in PGY3.

Moonlighting: Many options available in the hospital complex. The best jobs are taken by the PGY4 residents, but PGY3 residents can also get enough shifts.

Fellowships: Addictions is particularly strong because of the faculty, resources, and facilities associated with the Florida Recovery Center. One resident created a fellowship in DBS (see above). Pain is another fellowship option because of the addictions faculty/resources/facilities. I'm sure they also have several others&#8230; but if they do, I'm sure you can find it on their website.

Faculty
The PD is an MD/PhD from Indiana, which is another program that I think is quite similar to this one. Everybody spoke very highly of her, and although she wasn't a super-energetic type of person, it was clear that she places a lot of value on her role in the residency program.
The department chair, on the other hand, is definitely a "wow" type of person. He did a spectacular job of convincing us that his department is up there with the best&#8230; and he did it while sounding confident, but not arrogant. He seems to have personal relationships with a lot of big-name department chairs at other institutions, and seems to be very good at recruiting leading experts in every area to come to Florida. As a result, they have a wide and diverse array of experts in everything.

Location and facilities
Everything is new and nice. Even the VA is new and nice. I thought that Indiana had the nicest VA I'd seen until I went to Florida. There is a brand new clinic building that contains all of the psych clinics &#8211; the building was about a week old when we visited. They also have a new multidisciplinary DBS clinic where psych residents will rotate. And they have a new outpatient building for some specialized services like forensics. And adjacent to that, there will soon be a new freestanding emergency room (not sure how they'll handle the logistics there).
The Florida Recovery Center is a high-end facility that deserves a paragraph of its own. They get a lot of super-rich patients, which not only brings in money directly through their fees, but also brings in a lot of research donations down the road. They have a specific program just for physicians suffering from addiction, and they have about 20-30 doctors as inpatients at any given time&#8230; to create further incentive, those patients can actually go to medical lectures during their stay to get CME credit (and the residents also go to these lectures). People kept telling us that it's the "#3" addictions center in the US, but I'm not sure how they were measuring that.

Benefits and lifestyle
Gainesville may be a small city, but it has the standard vibrance that you expect out of a college town. And it's also within a ~1.5-2 hour drive of Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, and many beaches on both the Atlantic coast and the Gulf coast. Cost of living is very reasonable, since it's a college town. The airport is pretty small, only handles a few flights a day, and you have to fly through either Atlanta or Charlotte&#8230; but a lot of people drive to Orlando/Tampa/Jacksonville if they want to fly.
There seems to be a lot of senior support for junior residents. They have a big sibling/little sibling system for PGY1 and PGY2 residents. There's also a senior on call with you for the first several (six?) months of PGY1. Work hours are pretty light and there's plenty of time for moonlighting or getting involved in research/education.

Overall strengths
Diverse and well-accomplished faculty
Department chair seems to be great at bringing in money
New DBS electives/fellowship, and more electives/fellowships/strong programs being added
Gainesville
Strong research and education training
Brand spanking new facilities
Florida Recovery Center
Flexible options for away electives
Strong programs in addictions and pain medicine
Benign workload with lots of opportunities to fill the rest of your time

Overall weaknesses
Relatively few fellowships
Not in a big city
Weird vibe from one interviewer
 
Do any of you know anything about St Louis University Psychiatry residency? I am looking at their website but can't figure out much from it.
 
EDIT: contents of this message were better suited for a PM.
 
Hey Shan,

Regarding UF - Gville. I think the faculty not interviewing applicants it's a huge red flag. Throughout my interaction with the residents, one of which said "they took away this certain moonlighting location because we were making too much money and the faculty didn't like that" and just the general vibe of the day made me feel like residents are seen like peons and not colleagues. Another red flag is that Dr. Gold is starting a brand new residency in addiction medicine, which raises doubts as to the future of all that addictions money. I think this place is risky.
 
Any feedback on Albany Medical Center? Residents seem to be IMGs, FMGs, and DOs. Not really a SDN favorite.
 
Accommodations & Food:
Lunch Provided. No accommodations or Pre-interview dinner.

Interview Day:
2 time slots. Morning at 8:30 and afternoon at 11:15. Both groups overlap around 11:30am to 1:30pm when PD gave a presentation and answered questions , lunch with residents, and tour of the facilities. 3 interviews: PD, chief resident, and a faculty. No breaks during interview. PD is a very nice person but initially he was intimidating so don't get nervous. Everyone was very relaxed and only trying to know you.

Program Overview:
They take 10-12 residents every year. It is a University based program and places great emphasis on learning and research. The program has multiple sites with King's county and University Hospital being the main sites. King's county is a very busy hospital. The behavioral health building at King's county is >290 beds with a very busy Psych ER. Program is affiliated with the VA and really involved with the Brooklyn community. There is a dedicated research month in the second year when you take a overnight call on Sat. The program takes didactic very seriously and made adjustments to their night float system so residents can always attend didactic without any hardship. Their website is very accurate and very well made. I just wanted to highlight some things that are not there. There is a Child and Geri fellowship.

Location & Lifestyle:
Brooklyn is a very diverse place. The area around the hospital is a decent. Residents did mention parking is available for a monthly fee of $100 or more. Most residents use public transport. Residents live all around NYC and some even travel from NJ. Residents are a mix of IMGs, FMGs, and AMGs. The residents seem to get along and hang out with each other.

Salary & Benefits: Standard for a New York Program.

Strengths:
I think it is a very good program that will prepare you to practice psych in any setting. The PD really cares about resident education and knew a lot about his residents. Lots of research opportunity.

Weaknesses:
None in my view but you are expected to work hard.
 
Accommodations & Food:
Dinner before, breakfast, and lunch at a local restaurant.

Interview Day:
Meeting with PD and a few faculty interviewers, 1 resident interviewer.

Program Overview:
UCSD is the only program in all of San Diego, which gives it both tremendous clinical training opportunities in different settings (VA, university, county, college students) and enough volume to really experience psychiatry. While busier than most other big-name CA programs, it is still less busy that NY programs. UCSD does have strong researchers in specific areas, including community-based program, geriatrics, health care system and policies, epidemiology, and a very well-known neuroscience research institute. However, I was slightly disappointed with the sense that the neuroscience institute and psychiatry department did not have a closer relationship. They have some very well-respected faculty nationwide. They have a very strong PD who has been there for awhile and seems very warm and supprotive,, and the faculty and residents are all super chillaxed- it is SoCal after all. Even a New Yorker will soften in a few months after being bombarded by the sun and surf.

Location & Lifestyle:
La Jolla is a beautiful part of San Diego to live. There is affordable apartments to rent, alongside million dollar mansions such as that owned by Mitt Romney along the coast. Tons of surf, good food, decent nightlife.

Strengths: Strong clinical breadth of exposure. Strong research opportunities, especially those who want to dabble. Beautiful location. Only training place in the city, so if you plan to settle there should be tons of opportunities and connections you'll make.

Weaknesses: County service requires higher than average psychopharm service demands for residents. Likely fewer opportunities for psychodynamic training.
 
Accommodations & Food:
Breakfast and lunch catered on interview day

Interview Day:
All your interviews and orientation is located inside the psych administrative building, where the chair and program directors seem to all have offices. There are only 4 applicants total that day, which seems typical, and a chief is there throughout the day to answer questions and take you on the tour. It makes for a very relaxed and comfortable and intimate experience.

Interviews with 3 faculty. Had a warm psychoanalytic feel to it. They genuinely seem interested in your upbringing and what perked your interest in psychiatry. A tour of the local facilities and the subsidized housing apartments.

Program Overview:
This is a program that is smaller than the Manhattan programs, and it services a significant minority underserved population in the Bronx, with a strong flavor of psychotherapy that is most evident in the faculty leadership. It is a warm program, where residents seem taken care of. However, it is less academic than I envisioned, especially in comparison to the Manhattan programs, with a handful of PIs that most residents seem to repeat as the go-to- people for mentorship in residency research.

Location & Lifestyle: Bronx is a half hour+ train away from Manhattan, with very very affordable subsidized housing. Program does seem family-friendly.

Strengths: Exposure to underserved minority populations. Community feel to program and service mission. Psychotherapy tradition and flavor persists.

Weaknesses: Less academic than the Big 4 in Manhattan. Perhaps less diversity in clinical training sites.
 
Accommodations & Food:
Lunch during orientation, dinner with residents at fancy restaurant, breakfast, lunch with residents

Interview Day:
Two half-days split between MGH and McLean.8 total interviews split between two half days, including with the PD Felicia Smith and APDs John Denninger/Milissa Kaufman. You are matched with faculty that share common interests, and perhaps a resident. Each interview is thirty minutes. Great resident turnout for both dinner and lunch. Tours of MGH by child psychiatry faculty, and McLean Hospital by a Chief Resident. The longest interview days with the most interviews during my trail, but truly good chance for you to share your experiences and your goals for residency. No challenging or tough questions to test your intellect or throw you off balance. Everyone was super warm and welcoming.

Program Overview:
Academically,this is hands-down the top program in the country, due to its breadth in top-notch clinical research laboratories. Its reputation is well-deserved, with tremendous researchers at both MGH and McLean, and formal affiliations with the Harvard schools (Psychology, Public Health, Business School, Law School). Research areas that come to mind include addiction, neuroimaging, early life stress, adolescent suicide...and niche areas such as Asian mental health and mindfulness.

However, if you are also looking to find a lot of time to do research, this may not be the best program as it has a rigorous clinical curriculum from PGY1-PGY3. The most research-oriented residents seem to move to research fellowships during and after PGY4, where a wealth of internal and NIMH funded training grants support your research.

I can't imagine a better place if you have a strong interest in an academic psychiatry career, unless you have already established a specific academic interest with a better PI elsewhere (Think: Columbia, NYU, UCLA, Stanford). For undecided folks with a strong interests in child adolescent psychiatry, community psychiatry, personality disorders... MGH McLean is unparalleled as you will find an established PI in most areas of interest, eager to mentor you with funding and resources abound.

Clinically, MGH McLean is also top-notch. McLean is one of the four oldest free-standing psychiatric hospitals in the US, serving a diverse population and more importantly, devoted faculty that are knowledgeable in treating the specialized populations at each unit. MGH, apparently Man's Greatest Hospital, but truly a world-renowned tertiary hospital. With top fellowships in C/A and C/L.

Interestingly, for those interested in community psychiatry, their biggest recruit has been Professor Derri Shtasel from Cambridge Health Alliance.In a mere few years, she has really boosted MGH's community psychiatry opportunities (i.e., Kraft fellowship).

From the psychodynamic front, it has the PiP (Program in Psychodynamics), led by a very well-respected psychoanalyst Bob Waldinger recently recruited from Brigham. Furthermore, psychodynamics seem to run in the very historical blood of the program.

The most obvious drawback is the lack of a VA (Veteran Affairs) Hospital; so if you are interested in military trauma, there may be other programs out there. However there is trauma research scattered through the Harvard system, and a clinical treatment unit for interpersonal trauma unit at McLean under the leadership of APD Milissa Kaufman.

In terms of the faculty and residents, this was truly the biggest surprise. Possibly the warmest and most energizing and excited group of residents I met on the trail. I think there may be several reasons for this. MGH McLean is probably the most selective in terms of the interviews offered

Ten interview days of about nine to ten interviewees throughout the season, adds up to 90 spots. With 14 categorical and two integrated spots, that is close to one in five spots per interviewees.

My points is the residents and faculty seem to suffer less from applicant fatigue as compared to other programs, especially near the end of the interview season.

Both MGH and McLean are both research heavy hospital. Is it malignant? Not from those I met. Perhaps it is that many of the teaching faculty are also very esteemed professors, so a natural respect is given to them.

Overall, the warmth of the people and the tremendous community feel was the most surprising aspect of the program.

Location & Lifestyle:
Boston is cold. But you have the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots. Very liveable. Within a few hours commute from Manhattan.

Strengths: An embarrassment of riches both clinically and academically. Very warm and community feel to the program, which is surprising given that it is large academic program split between two historical sites. Should be at the top of the list for applicants who are truly committed to advancing psychiatry.

Weaknesses: Commute between the two sites, so you will need a car. No VA. Rigorous clinical curriculum that is not for those who want to take it easy. You will be BUSY training in the required rotations, whilst navigating a plethora of opportunities during your electives and free time. New PD Felicia Smith, but experienced commmited and warm.
 
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Accommodations & Food:
Dinner at resident home, breakfast, resident lunch

Interview Day:
Start at admin building, with small intimate group of 5 applicants, with orientation from PD (who is just as advertised, amazing), APD. Interviews at outpatient building. Tour of main hospital. Rest of interviews back at admin building. Warm community feel shined through.

Program Overview:
I was super excited about visiting this program, because it was so hyped across the SDN boards and by word of mouth among residents. It was surprising though, because Cambridge is really a perfect program for only people with specific interests. It is a mecca for LGBT and HIV psychiatry. In terms of other minority mental health, they do have immigrant and refugee populations- Blacks and Latinos, including significant research activity for Latino populations, but a Asian service team that has merged due likely to lack of a big enough clinical population. It is also a mecca for community psychiatry. They do a lot of outpatient clinical service, in collaboration with primary care. So for folks interested in LGBT/HIV psychiatry and community, this is the place to train clinically.

Another noteable strenght is the psychotherapy training. The use of audio tapes and close supervision does seem pretty strong, but in actuality, psychotherapy is pretty strong in New York and Boston overall so you'll need to compare with other programs. If you are just interested in psychotherapy, this is a top place to consider, as well as MSSM. Finally, it also seems perfect for people who want to have lots of free-time to raise a family, or pursue outside interests.

The program was surprising for me, because even though it is a very warm fuzzy communtity feel of a program based on the PDs and the PGY1s I met, it didn't necessarily seem that way in its interactions with applicants. I felt myself and a fellow applicant were more scrutinized and observed during my pre-interview dinner than any other, and not all the residents fit the warm fuzzy type though most did. Perhaps I just had this fantasy expectation of everyone being super nice. I also felt in my interactions with the program leadership I was being examined to see whether I would be a good fit as a person. Slightly ironic given that this is a warm fuzzy progressive liberal community, but applicants character seemed to be under judgement for whether we can join the community. One issue that deserves discussion is the fact that the program matched only 5 applicants last year, leaving 3 spots unfilled. This is not due to the fact that this is not a top training program, based on my conversations with other residents and faculty in the area. Rather, I think it is because Cambridge is looking for specific types of people, so their rank list is not that long, and they would rather go unmatched than scramble in folks that don't fit with their culture. It is a tight community afterall, but once again, a little ironic IMO. There is also some component of the program being misled by applicant who repeatedly sent emails saying he''d rank it first but did not (a big no-no, given how small the psychiatry circle is).

Location & Lifestyle:
Cambridge is nice. College neigborhood with affordable good dining, and bikeable to all the community psych sites.

Strengths: Perfect if you want to become an outpatient psychotherapist, become a clinical leader in LGBT and HIV psychiatry, and want to raise a family during residency. A small tight-knit community.

Weaknesses: This program has notable strengths in the above areas, but lacks exposure in other areas such as CL. Not perfect for applicants who are undifferentiated in terms of clinical interest, and am interested in a significant research career. A small community with a particular culture fit.
 
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In regards to MGH, the new PD also did her residency and fellowship at MGH/McLean .. and she is personable, and can answer questions like a normal person... lets just say she is a strength to the program.
 
The most obvious drawback is the lack of a VA, so if you are interested in military trauma and veteran populations there are other programs; however there is trauma research scattered through the Harvard system and a clinical treatment unit for trauma at McLean.

It should be noted that if you really wanted VA experience you could make an arrangement to rotate at Harvard South Shore.
 
Accommodations & Food:
The program was surprising for me, because even though it is a very warm fuzzy communtity feel of a program based on the PDs and the PGY1s I met, it didn't necessarily seem that way in its interactions with applicants. I felt myself and a fellow applicant were more scrutinized and observed during my pre-interview dinner than any other, and not all the residents fit the warm fuzzy type though most did. Perhaps I just had this fantasy expectation of everyone being super nice. I also felt in my interactions with the program leadership I was being examined to see whether I would be a good fit as a person. Slightly ironic given that this is a warm fuzzy progressive liberal community, but applicants character seemed to be under judgement for whether we can join the community. One issue that deserves discussion is the fact that the program matched only 5 applicants last year, leaving 3 spots unfilled. This is not due to the fact that this is not a top training program, based on my conversations with other residents and faculty in the area. Rather, I think it is because Cambridge is looking for specific types of people, so their rank list is not that long, and they would rather go unmatched than scramble in folks that don't fit with their culture. It is a tight community afterall, but once again, a little ironic IMO. There is also some component of the program being misled by applicant who repeatedly sent emails saying he''d rank it first but did not (a big no-no, given how small the psychiatry circle is).
Although this program is absolutely perfect in terms of my interests, I also had some strange vibes. At least to me, it felt like it mattered much more here to have the PD and program staff like you. Not just respect you and believe that you will pull your own weight, but to actually like you. It's almost like you're joining a family at CHA, rather than just being co-workers.

On our interview day, the PD said that 14 applicants told CHA that they would rank CHA #1, but only 1 of those 14 matched at CHA. (Evidently they all would have if they were being truthful?) I hope the PD was exaggerating about how many applicants have lied to him. It doesn't really speak well about the physicians medical schools are producing if some of the most sought-after psychiatry applicants have no scruples about lying for a competitive advantage. Is this similar to what other PDs experience?? The PD also said that cancelling interviews with fewer than 2 weeks notice was a NRMP/match violation that is reportable. Although doing so no doubt displays bad manners, I was unable to find any reference to this being a match violation. Perhaps the PD simply tended towards hyperbole?
 
I've been curious about the things I've heard about CHA over the years. I appreciate that they're into diversity and such, but comments (obviously not made by the program) from applicants like "biological psychiatrists and republicans need not apply" give a very strange and ironic vibe. If they want diversity, then that's cool. If their idea of diversity is a cohesive group of like minded people, then they've obviously confused diversity for something else.
 
Accommodations & Food:
Breakfast at orientation, resident lunch, resident dinner after interview

Interview Day:
Full day with morning orientation, tour of hospital, PD and APD interview, chairman group meeting, vice chair group meeting interview, child fellowship director interview, faculty interview

Program Overview:
UMass is the only psychiatry residency program serving central Massachusetts, and I think the only one outside of Boston. This is a strong clinical program, due to the fact that it has a huge catchment area, and plays an important role in the state mental health care system. Being in Massachusetts does make a difference, as it is a progressive liberal state that pays attention to mental health, with innovative programs and mental health services that are unmatched IMO compared to any other state. As a corollary, just look at universalized health care insurance implemented a few years ago. More concretely, this state funding has led to the recent completion of the Worcester ?Recovery Hospital, a multimillion state-of-the-art facility for the chronically ill. Essentially, it is the only psychiatric institution for the chronically mentally ill in the state, and has progressive programs within that facilitate recovery.

Clinically, what was equally surprising to me, was how strong their integrated child psychiatry program is. The fellowship program has had 2 spots that have always been given to those entering the integrated program, and was recently able to expand to a third spot that can be offered (preferntially, it seems) to their own adult psychiatry residents. The integrated spot's intern year is most unique: it is mostly outpatient, and it was commended by the residency accreditation council per their PD. This curriculum really reflects the residency program's culture: one that is able to tailor their residency program to emphasize education within a large and strong clinical department. While it is a large psychiatric hospital system, they have very few spots due to historical reasons- ACGME residency spots are determined historically and the number per hospital is quite rigid, even if a hospital expands significantly as it seems for UMass. The end result is that this is a large clinical program with few residents, so they can pick and choose pieces of the curriculum to really optimize residency education.

The program director is really strong and committed to residency education.

Academically, the program has really been successful in the last few years recruiting big name researchers. They have a young dynamic chairman who seems to have had successful research career, and made a huge recruit with Jean Frazier from MGH, which is a huge boost to their child psychiatry research program, as her resources and mentorship has trickled down to more success among the junior faculty in child.

Just looking at the brand new hospital buildings, including a research building, state psychiatric hospital, and inpatient unit, you can really visualize how UMass is dynamically growing and why the residency program will continue to grow. According to the faculty, the reason UMass is growing is because they have state funding as well as research funding, which is quite unique given our recent economic climate. Among the more than dozen programs I visited, UMass (along with MSSM) is the one that seems to have huge growth potential and a true 'hidden gem'.

The hidden gem is seen in their residency match. They have strong residents, many of whom are UMass medical students and folks who grew up in Massachusets. But they also have some residents from lower on the RoL, including quite a few IMGs, which seems to reflect the fact that they struggle matching given how cold and undesirable living in Worcester is. UMass also likely doesn't have the national reputation to attract people to even apply.

Location & Lifestyle:
Worcester is like New Haven- cold, barren as living in the shadow of NYC and Boston, and as a result the program's biggest drawback. But I think given that interview runs through January, applicants typically see the worst month of the year. There are restaurants and bars,. Good for families, and very cheap to buy a place.

Strengths:
Fantastic integrated child program. Very strong and diverse clinical services and committed and experienced, resulting in a a residency experience optimized for education. A hidden gem, as the quality and reputation of the residency isn't necessarily reflected by their match list, given it is living in the shadow of huge reputable Ivy League programs in the Northeast and the vast majority of people can't pronounce Worcester properly, let alone have heard of it. Tremendous growth in the hospital system and research.

Weaknesses: Residents interested in psychotherapy will drive an hour to Boston to train in the instituetes and get supervision. Certainly strong residents, but also some weaker ones. Worcester, where? Lack of research breadth.
 
Accommodations & Food:
Resident dinner, orientation breakfast, resident lunch. Nearby hotels reduced rate for applicants.

Interview Day:
Co-PD interview, 2 faculty interview, resident interview, tour of Longwood (Brigham, Mass Mental, BIDMC, Children's)

Program Overview:
This is a top program clinical program, with a wealth of research opportunities through the Harvard and system. I hate to do this, but the easiest way for me to formulate this program is in comparison with its bigger cousin MGH McLean. I say bigger because MGH McLean is just a combination of two psychiatry research powerhouses, and has a better academic reputation. Longwood does have some top researchers in their system, such as Dr. Keshavan who focuses on schizophrenia neuromiaging. However, it is interesting to note that Longwood recently implemented a scholarly project requirement, which now requires residents to do something academic of 'publishable quality'. This suggests a resident culture that is quite different from MGH, where it seems like residents are more likely to be involved with too many research projects, and Longwood is pushing their residents to do more academically. The most obvious reason is that Longwood feels like there may be some weaker residents that are not taking enough advantage of their resources, which in turn reflects that they are likely going down further down their match list (they do interview around 50% more than MGH in my estimate to fill similar number of spots).

Clinically, it is a matter of making the right choice and the righter choice (i.e., can go no wrong) with Longwood vs MGH. Reasons to choose Longwood include: you have a really strong interest in exploring CL, including psychosocial issues such as those from transplant psychiatry. Their CL fellowship is one of the best, if not the best, in the country by reputation, with chairman Dr Silbersweig and Dr Gitlin at the helm and the sub-sub-specialization of their psych-onc attendings at Dana Farber. Another clinical reason to choose Longwood is that you get 2 months of child inpatient, vs none at MGH. So if you are undecided about choosing child psychiatry, Longwood will give you more exposure early on.

Longwood really benefits from the fact they have 3 strong clinical sites. Brigham as a top medicine program is well-known for neuropsychiatry and CL for very very medically complex patients; BIDMC is a reputedly a bastion for psychoanalytic thinking, and Mass Mental is the state department of mental health's medical center, serving the severely, chornically and persistently mentally ill with innovative outpatient programs. The latter site is most unique, as iits programs include CBT for psychosis and DBT (which Cambridge also sends its residents to rotate on, under a direct protege of Linehan's), and a sexual addictions program.

Its residents overall seemed strong, although there was more than one that seemed tired. Like MGH and NYU and Cornell, I associate their call schedule, rotations, and IM rotations as on the more rigorous end of the spectrum.

Location & Lifestyle:
Boston. Longwood area. All sites are close to each other, except their community affilitates at Faulkner and and Newton-Wellesley. Apparently you can get away with carpooling, unlike MGH McLean.

Strengths: Clinical training, diverse sites including Mass Mental. Top CL. Good child exposure in PGY2 at Children's Hospital Boston. Research through Harvard system.

Weaknesses: Clinically rigorous like all top clinical programs. Overshadowed by the academic prowess of MGH McLean. Weaker child program compared to MGH McLean (better clinically and academic) and Cambridge (community), unless you want child CL. Former PD Dr. Sams is now co-PD with Dr Surber. Two co-PDs can work well, but if it is necessitated by the fact that one doesn't want to do it full-time, their PDs can't be rated in the same top echelon as the partnership of the co-PDs at UPenn (It is interesting how much we applicants and residents focus such an inordinate amount of attention on program directors, who are the face of the program but probably play less of a role in our residency experience than we make it out to be). They don't all have to be Ron Rieder, they just have to be good to get our job done, and Dr Surber/sams definitely seem good.
 
In regards to MGH, the new PD also did her residency and fellowship at MGH/McLean .. and she is personable, and can answer questions like a normal person... lets just say she is a strength to the program.

Yes she is definitely a strength to the program. I just meant to say that she is new in her PD position, but definitely experienced and knows the inner workings, as you point out.

I just can't stop comparing all PDs to those seasoned experienced program directors who will continue doing it forever, and clearly list psychiatry education as both their hobby and passions and probably treat residency education conferences as vacation: a list that includes Dr. Summers, Rohrbaugh, Rieder, De Golia, Benjamin, Schlozman. Gosh I love them.
 
I would add Rostain and Bernstein to that list , but I agree with your point.
 
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