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On the day I interviewed there, most of us were done by 3, but at least two people had interviews scheduled in the late afternoon, with the latest having one starting at 4 IIRC.
2015-2016 Interview Reviews
- Thread starter Rogue Penguin
- Start date
On the day I interviewed there, most of us were done by 3, but at least two people had interviews scheduled in the late afternoon, with the latest having one starting at 4 IIRC.
Program Name: Duke
Program Communication: Directions to parking garage were difficult to follow. Parking garage is the large structure directly across from the Brookwood Inn. The interview itself is located at the Civitan Building which is a short walk from the garage, but not directly adjoined. Parking validation did not work when leaving garage.
Accommodations: Discounted rates can be found on MedStay.com website for interviewees visiting Duke and UNC. Renting a car made travel around the research triangle easy. Brookwood Inn is within walking distance of the interview site/hospital.
Dinner: Dinner at a local restaurant with pre-fix menu (appetizer, main course and one glass of wine). Contact program coordinator in advance if you are vegetarian or have other dietary restrictions since entrees were meat heavy. Good resident turnout at dinner. Residents from diverse, international backgrounds.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Start at 8:00 am with overview of program from the Interim Chair (currently in the process of searching for new Department Chair). Half of interviewees had interviews in the morning, while other half had campus tour in the morning. Four interviews, each lasting approximately 30 minutes. Everyone had interview with PD and Chief Resident. Interview with PD was pleasant, conversational. She is clearly a great asset to the program and is very invested in resident education. Some of the other interviews felt more interrogatory with fast paced questions. I was asked questions that only peripherally related to my application, and were far enough off base that I could not answer some of them. Some of my interviews were uncomfortable and seemed to underline the intensity and workload of the program. My interviews at other institutions have been more relaxed and conversational. Lunch had low resident turnout, approximately 4 residents. We were given an extensive tour of the campus by an enthusiastic resident. Most of the buildings were beautiful with nice spaces for residents to work and relax in between shifts. VA is housed in an older building directly adjacent to the main hospital. Day ended at approximately 4:00 pm.
Program and Curriculum Overview
~11 categorical spots, additional med/psych. Sites include: Duke University Hospital, Durham VA, and Central Regional Hospital, which is a state hospital in Butner. PGY1 year is the traditional mix of 4 months IM, 4 months inpatient psych, 2 months outpatient psych at VA, 1 month nightfloat. PGY2- 6 months inpatient psychiatry at Central Regional Hospital (including 1 month nightfloat), 1 month outpatient psychiatry (VA), 2 months Duke ED nightfloat, 3 months C/L at Duke and VA. PGY3- outpatient clinics at Duke and VA and neurologyP GY4- addictions psych (1 day) and electives. Unusual components of the curriculum include neurology in PGY3 year, and the unique family studies program where you are overseen through a two-way mirror.
Protected academic half-day for didactics on Thursday mornings. Quality of psychotherapy curriculum unclear. They have a process group for PGY1s, which one resident called an “outlet for complaining.” Strong family studies program, CBT/DBT available, less psychodynamically oriented.
Program Feel and Culture
Residents emphasized that this is an intense, evidence based, service-oriented program. Residents work hard and at least one resident alluded to violating duty hours. It did not seem that the program had responded to the heavy workload. Residents work 6 days most of the year, at least during the first 2 years. Emphasized that this is a “resident run hospital” where residents are given a lot of independence, and some residents said that their treatment decisions were rarely contested. Residents gain a lot of independence early on, which helps them feel prepared after residency. However, this independence may be at the expense of quality supervision. Did not feel as “teaching oriented” as some programs.
Location & Lifestyle
Cost of living in Durham is reasonable. Some areas are patchy in terms of safety. Per program and residents, there are many restaurants, music venues, and performing arts venues around the city, including DPAC (Duke Performing Arts Center). However, Durham is not for those interested in a “large city.” Many residents married with families, though more singles in current intern class.
Salary & Benefits
PGY1 $52,284
PGY2 $54,408
PGY3 $56,508
PGY4 $58,812
3 weeks of vacation + “five additional days are customary at Christmas or New Years”
Program Strengths
-Varied training sites (VA, state hospital, private hospital) within close proximity of each other (except Central Regional Hospital which is in Butner)
-Diverse group of residents, many from international backgrounds
-Unique Family Studies program with two way-mirror supervision
-Emphasis on "evidence based medicine"
-Opportunities for ECT training (informal certification)
-Situated within large university with opportunities to collaborate w/ other departments
Potential Weaknesses
-Long work hours, service heavy program
-No specialized inpatient units
-Relatively inflexible curriculum prior to PGY4 year
-Currently searching for new Chairman
Program Communication: Directions to parking garage were difficult to follow. Parking garage is the large structure directly across from the Brookwood Inn. The interview itself is located at the Civitan Building which is a short walk from the garage, but not directly adjoined. Parking validation did not work when leaving garage.
Accommodations: Discounted rates can be found on MedStay.com website for interviewees visiting Duke and UNC. Renting a car made travel around the research triangle easy. Brookwood Inn is within walking distance of the interview site/hospital.
Dinner: Dinner at a local restaurant with pre-fix menu (appetizer, main course and one glass of wine). Contact program coordinator in advance if you are vegetarian or have other dietary restrictions since entrees were meat heavy. Good resident turnout at dinner. Residents from diverse, international backgrounds.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Start at 8:00 am with overview of program from the Interim Chair (currently in the process of searching for new Department Chair). Half of interviewees had interviews in the morning, while other half had campus tour in the morning. Four interviews, each lasting approximately 30 minutes. Everyone had interview with PD and Chief Resident. Interview with PD was pleasant, conversational. She is clearly a great asset to the program and is very invested in resident education. Some of the other interviews felt more interrogatory with fast paced questions. I was asked questions that only peripherally related to my application, and were far enough off base that I could not answer some of them. Some of my interviews were uncomfortable and seemed to underline the intensity and workload of the program. My interviews at other institutions have been more relaxed and conversational. Lunch had low resident turnout, approximately 4 residents. We were given an extensive tour of the campus by an enthusiastic resident. Most of the buildings were beautiful with nice spaces for residents to work and relax in between shifts. VA is housed in an older building directly adjacent to the main hospital. Day ended at approximately 4:00 pm.
Program and Curriculum Overview
~11 categorical spots, additional med/psych. Sites include: Duke University Hospital, Durham VA, and Central Regional Hospital, which is a state hospital in Butner. PGY1 year is the traditional mix of 4 months IM, 4 months inpatient psych, 2 months outpatient psych at VA, 1 month nightfloat. PGY2- 6 months inpatient psychiatry at Central Regional Hospital (including 1 month nightfloat), 1 month outpatient psychiatry (VA), 2 months Duke ED nightfloat, 3 months C/L at Duke and VA. PGY3- outpatient clinics at Duke and VA and neurologyP GY4- addictions psych (1 day) and electives. Unusual components of the curriculum include neurology in PGY3 year, and the unique family studies program where you are overseen through a two-way mirror.
Protected academic half-day for didactics on Thursday mornings. Quality of psychotherapy curriculum unclear. They have a process group for PGY1s, which one resident called an “outlet for complaining.” Strong family studies program, CBT/DBT available, less psychodynamically oriented.
Program Feel and Culture
Residents emphasized that this is an intense, evidence based, service-oriented program. Residents work hard and at least one resident alluded to violating duty hours. It did not seem that the program had responded to the heavy workload. Residents work 6 days most of the year, at least during the first 2 years. Emphasized that this is a “resident run hospital” where residents are given a lot of independence, and some residents said that their treatment decisions were rarely contested. Residents gain a lot of independence early on, which helps them feel prepared after residency. However, this independence may be at the expense of quality supervision. Did not feel as “teaching oriented” as some programs.
Location & Lifestyle
Cost of living in Durham is reasonable. Some areas are patchy in terms of safety. Per program and residents, there are many restaurants, music venues, and performing arts venues around the city, including DPAC (Duke Performing Arts Center). However, Durham is not for those interested in a “large city.” Many residents married with families, though more singles in current intern class.
Salary & Benefits
PGY1 $52,284
PGY2 $54,408
PGY3 $56,508
PGY4 $58,812
3 weeks of vacation + “five additional days are customary at Christmas or New Years”
Program Strengths
-Varied training sites (VA, state hospital, private hospital) within close proximity of each other (except Central Regional Hospital which is in Butner)
-Diverse group of residents, many from international backgrounds
-Unique Family Studies program with two way-mirror supervision
-Emphasis on "evidence based medicine"
-Opportunities for ECT training (informal certification)
-Situated within large university with opportunities to collaborate w/ other departments
Potential Weaknesses
-Long work hours, service heavy program
-No specialized inpatient units
-Relatively inflexible curriculum prior to PGY4 year
-Currently searching for new Chairman
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Is Temple really that bad of a program? How does it compare to Jeff or Albert Einstein(Philly)? Based on reviews it seems like the only 'decent' program in Philly would be PENN but seeing as that's not in my cards....
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in fairness i never said it was "really that bad" just that you have to raise your eye brows at 3 months of nightfloat and that there was minimal senior supervision for this. one the plus side i am sure you would see a lot of extreme psychopathology as it sounds like their psych ER serves a more underprivileged area and has a high flow through of patients. I dont really know much about the other programs except no one has really heard of Einstein (or confuse it with the nyc one) but i do know someone there. It appears to be predominantly indian but they seem to have good perks and the person i know there seems happy and has been able to achieve their goals. they also give a lot of money for educational expenses compared to other programs and flexible about time off to attend conferences later in residency. i dont know anything else.
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Been a while since I was in Philly, but as far as community programs go, Einstein had a really solid rep. Shared number of sites with Jefferson, and residents seemed happy.
Temple had a really iffy rep about a decade ago, but from people I know with opinions I respect, it's turned around quite a bit and is a solid program with a lot of pathology to treat. If you've ever spent any time in the area around Temple hospital, it's... interesting; however it's easily accessible to really nice parts of the city either from the 23 bus or the BSL (or the suburbs by car of course)
While 3 months of night float seems way excessive, I also came from an inner-city program that had a rep for throwing its first years to the wolves early on in training, particularly on call and nights. I actually think it ended up making me a better psychiatrist.
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Am interested in Texas programs-- especially UT San Antonio and Austin. Anyone been to either and willing to share? Wanna make sure they're worth the visit as they're slightly later in my interview year...
You obviously don't need the interviews, so why not just drop them for those that do?
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I'm not sure if he needs the interviews or not but folks should really be dropping interviews they don't want or need. Not to start self-back-patting but I dropped at least 6 in the last 3 weeks. (I stopped updating that interview thread after the first couple weeks so you likely won't know where I received invites from). Some of those were competitive programs in locales that as a family we realized we just didn't want to live there. I'm pretty much done w interviews, calling it at 8. Yeah I could've went on 12, 15, 20+... But it's not necessary and a bit greedy IMO. I feel confident that not only will I match but that others will benefit because I didn't hoard interviews...
Only take what you need folks. Don't let the fear rule.
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Two weeks from today I anticipate being done completely with interviews, because like you that will bring me to 8. I have been fairly ruthless in cancelling or declining interviews that have been less desirable to me than those 8, whether due to location or program characteristics. I get that it is a different game for IMGs and what not, but if you're being invited on a bunch of interviews you are at least a plausible candidate in many places.
FTR, I would be going on at least 12 if I was not sticking to this more reasonable number.
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12 was what I originally had in mind. 8 is enough.
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I've dropped plenty. And as I clearly said, I'm interested in them.
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I will say that while "more is more" makes sense when it comes to interviews, you definitely hit a point of diminishing returns.
If folks think their 16th interview is as strong as their second, they are likely mistaken. When you interview applicants, you can see the ones that are interview-weary and it doesn't put their best foot forward. Personally, I'd schedule accordingly.
If folks think their 16th interview is as strong as their second, they are likely mistaken. When you interview applicants, you can see the ones that are interview-weary and it doesn't put their best foot forward. Personally, I'd schedule accordingly.
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Same and same. Helps that I realized I'm probably not going to rank my home program any lower than 3 (and they like me.)
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Two cycles ago, I received 19 interview invitations - scheduled 15 or 16 (per my pre interview goal), canceled 3 or 4 of those along the way, and attended 12. I figured out that 8 was plenty, more than enough, a little too late in the cycle to be canceling interviews. I really wish I had had the insight and confidence to either not schedule or cancel at least 4 of those 12 early season (October) interviews that came at a significant cost to my wallet and body.
I agree that 8 is enough, more than enough, for average AMGs at least who have applied accordingly. Eight may even be more than enough for superstars who are only interviewing at the "top" places - but that didn't describe me or the places I interviewed at, so I haven't given it much thought.
This for sure. The point of diminishing returns for most people is surely at no more than 8 interviews.
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Last year all US Seniors, (not just psych), of those who matched:
51.6% got their first choice
16.5% got their second
10.3% got their third
6.74% got their fourth
And 14.9% matched at > 4th.
Trust me psych isn’t pushing many people into the 14.9%, that is optho, derm and ortho people.
If 8 isn’t enough for a senior US going into psych, 16, 20, or 30 will not be enough either.
Let's get canceling before it is too late to invite all of the well qualified people we have waiting.
51.6% got their first choice
16.5% got their second
10.3% got their third
6.74% got their fourth
And 14.9% matched at > 4th.
Trust me psych isn’t pushing many people into the 14.9%, that is optho, derm and ortho people.
If 8 isn’t enough for a senior US going into psych, 16, 20, or 30 will not be enough either.
Let's get canceling before it is too late to invite all of the well qualified people we have waiting.
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call me crazy, but...
I don't think it's entirely fair to say that having "too many" interviews is selfish or to pat ourselves on the back for *generously* declining interviews. While this process isn't perfect, it is important to try to find the perfect fit. Every applicant has different prerogatives and it's unfair to make any one feel guilty about how they go about their season.
I don't think it's entirely fair to say that having "too many" interviews is selfish or to pat ourselves on the back for *generously* declining interviews. While this process isn't perfect, it is important to try to find the perfect fit. Every applicant has different prerogatives and it's unfair to make any one feel guilty about how they go about their season.
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I think the idea that there is just one perfect fit for any given applicant is probably ill-founded, as opposed to programs that will work better versus programs that won't work as well.
If it is a sufficing rather than strictly optimizing process the idea that you need dozens of interviews is more suspect.
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This speaks back to my e-harmony suggestion. I agree that this isn’t like a Disney analogy of “true love”, but then again, I’m thinking I could have survived marriage with a few different women (No, I’m not suggesting polygamy). You will never find the perfect program, but some or more imperfect than others.
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Whether one feels guilty or not is entirely up to the individual.
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Guilt about having interview success was the furthest thing from my mind.
If programs need more interview slots for a growing pool of qualified applicants, they need to increase the number of slots...
Sorry if I misunderstood. Figured there wouldn't be a question of whether or not to go if you were that interested.
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The point is that there isn’t that much of a growing pool of applicants, only an exploding pool of applications thanks to all of the medical school deans scaring the heck out of MS4s who are giving generic advice to everyone without regard to which specialty they are applying into. Schools are competitively compared to each other in very few concrete ways, but number of unmatched MS4s is huge. If you were looking for objective data that separates Johns Hopkins from the Caribbean, this would be it. So students are told to apply to 15, 20, 30… why not, it isn’t their money. What irks me is that they openly say apply to 20, but go to 10. Right after Christmas, I expect half of my scheduled applicants to call with cancelations. Then we will be calling dozens of well qualified people we have been keeping hanging and they will answer the phone in between calls to cancel their dozens of places they cannot afford to travel to and tell us that they appreciate the offer, but cannot swing the time. This is a very strange year. I would love to “increase our number of slots”, but it does thin the experience on both sides. If applicants don’t mind a shallow experience after flying all the way over here, I’ll invite everyone.
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Not sure that this is a totally fair characterization. What's the worst possible case scenario for any PD? They get fired and end up with a raise and have to spend more time seeing patients. They can still live and work pretty much anywhere. What's the worst case for an applicant? They go unmatched and are saddled with debt. Less bad things include moving all over the country, serious financial/logistical issues with children/sick family members. Not great things including being stuck in a malignant program for 4 years. Even small increases in the applicant pool size create drastic increases in the number of applications per applicant as the bottom has to apply very broadly and eventually this creates upward pressure. Additionally, the incredible "noise" in the applicant pool makes it hard for the majority of applicants to stick out, so applying broadly gives them their best shot. This is just like some old economics game: yes, the best outcome overall would be if everyone only applied to 10 programs. However, the best outcome for any individual is to apply to 100, and I doubt Dean's advising students to apply to 10 would prevent some from getting an advantage by applying to 100. Further, while top candidates would be helped by everyone applying to 10, a certain % of middle "noise" candidates would probably be hurt unfairly. Finally, as I've said before and will say again: without fully disclosing all information about your program (which no PD wants to do) including the statistics (with ranges) of the current residents, there is no good way for students to make better application choices. Despite speaking to a ton of "advisers," I have no idea why certain places love me and others didn't offer interviews. I have no clue what statistics of residents at any specific program really look like. Applicants are playing blind and we loose nothing by over applying and risk everything by under applying. I don't think it's fair to put this on Deans who are providing advice that is consistent with the best interest of the individual students. If PDs want a better process, they should be more transparent.
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Got sent this review by someone else to post anonymously:
Program Name: UCR
Program Communication: E-mail for interview invite. I received a nice post-interview e-mail which I appreciated.
Accommodations: Happened to be passing through so no lodging necessary
Dinner: No pre-interview dinner
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Start at 8:00 am with overview of program from the program director. This was followed by interviews with a PGY-2, the program chair, program director, and assistant program director. Interview with chair was pleasant, conversational. He seems like a very enthusiastic leader, kind of like an uncle who wants you to do well. The program director essentially asked what would it take for me to end up at their program. Some of the other interviews felt more interrogatory with fast paced questions. There was also a very weird encounter in which all the applicants sat in a room and were called back one by one and asked three fairly personal questions by someone there for what seemed like resident wellness. It left me feeling a little weird. Lunch had a great resident turnout, approximately 7 residents. During this time the residents answer all questions we had, and also asked some questions about our personal lives as well. It was actually nice to see all of the residents interact and greet one another. It’s the first time that I’ve seen such behavior among residents and across the years as well. Also a majority of the residents told us that they chose the UCR program over some big named programs as their number one choice. After lunch we were given a tour of the inpatient facilities; which also housed the psychiatric emergency room. Along the tour the residents greeted social workers and attendings and were always met with a smile and kind words. The facilities are county facilities so a little dated, but not too bad. The day ended with everyone meeting with the heads of the department once again for last minute questions and then we were sent on our way.
Program and Curriculum Overview
4 spots, seeking 10-year accreditation next year (which I have no doubt that they will get) hoping to expand to 6 and possibly 8 down the road.
*NO NIGHT OR WEEKEND CALL WHILE ON PSYCH ELECTIVES *
First-year residents' (PGY-1) training includes:
Two months of internal medicine inpatient wards
Two months of family medicine outpatient clinics ( in an interesting location in relation to the main work sites)
Second-year (PGY-2) training includes, in addition to inpatient psychiatry:
Three months of geriatric psychiatry.
Three months of child and adolescent psychiatry (all outpt atm, but undergoing changes to do 2mo outpt and 1mo inpt. Plans to have child fellowship up and running by 2017 I believe)
Three months of consultation-liaison psychiatry.
Third year (PGY-3) training includes 12-months of outpatient psychiatry with a one month emergency psychiatry rotation (no required call)
Under supervision of a faculty attending, residents will be exposed to the full spectrum of psychiatric disorders and intervention techniques, including psychopharmacology as well as various aspects of psychotherapy. Exposure to psychotherapy will span PGY-3 and PGY-4 years of training.
During their fourth year (PGY-4), residents will have an opportunity to broaden their training experience by taking a combination of electives.
This may include three months of private practice psychiatry, six months of research at the UC Riverside Division of Biomedical Sciences, six months of administrative psychiatry and/or one month of addiction psychiatry.
Protected academic half-day for didactics on Wednesday mornings. Quality of psychotherapy curriculum unclear, the associate PD is in charge of teaching psychotherapy to the 2nd year class. They have a process group for PGY1s, which one resident called an “outlet for complaining.” Strong family studies program, CBT/DBT available, less psychodynamically oriented.
Obviously as a new program the electives are very fluid and the residents were adamant that if something was not working for you on a certain rotation, the program heads would act swiftly and do everything in their power to get you into an environment that is conducive to learning.
Program Feel and Culture
Residents and PD emphasized that this is a community oriented, close knit family style of program. The residents are very involved in the community and participate in a lot of outreach such as NAMI walks, volunteering at the medical student ran clinic every other Wednesday, and mentoring the medical students at UCR. The program heads and residents discussed their psych movie nights with discussion, happy hour events, retreats, conference trips, and baseball trips at length throughout the interview, it seems like the entire program likes to have fun which in my book is a plus, but may be a negative to someone else. Also despite the no call, these residents are busy! Last years intern class had poster presentation at the APA, which is in the process of getting published. All of the residents seem involved in research of some sort, and the 2nd years are working on second and third papers or book chapters. There is no research requirement, so you could say this is a very motivated bunch.
Location & Lifestyle
Cost of living in Riverside is reasonable. A lot of the residents seemed to commute from neighboring cities; including one who’s daily commute was from the SFV. Riverside has a nice small downtown with plenty of bars and places to eat. It is only a day trip away from the mountains, beaches, and LA.
Salary & Benefits
Postgraduate Year 1: $52,941
Postgraduate Year 2: $54,696
Postgraduate Year 3: $56,845
Postgraduate Year 4: $59,089
As of right now you can moonlight in the 3rd year at a rate of $120/hr/8hr shift. There is a dedicated psych ER and they are currently working on extending shifts there to 2nd year students.
All medical, dental & vision benefits are paid by the UCR School of Medicine.
Up to 15 working days per year that cannot be rolled over from one academic year to the
Up to 12 days available per year.
Residents receive up to five days for educational enhancement time (USMLE Step III, Continuing Medical Education lectures, post-graduate interviews, etc.)
$1000 annual education fund
This program has a TON of funding from recently passed bills for the state of California, one including a loan forgiveness opportunity stating that if you train at this program and then work in the public sector somewhere in California you can have ~$22,500 of your federal loans forgiven.
Program Strengths
-Personable, and attentive PD and department chair. Great opportunity to network with people from their alma mater if you plan on doing fellowships that may not be provided at the UCR program in time.
-Dedicated Psych ED
-Diverse group of residents, many from international backgrounds
-Opportunity to get almost anything you want out of this program. If you request something, it seems the program has the means to set it up, and the UC name to back you up.
-University student health electives, early psychotherapy exposure, 3 months of child experience.
-Strong community ties
-No call (I’m not sure if this is a strength or weakness…)
-Fellowships coming soon
Potential Weaknesses
-Very new program
-No dedicated outpatient specialty clinics as of yet
-Late addiction exposure, unsure of ECT exposure
-No established child fellowship (in the works though)
-Psychotherapy curriculum seems a bit weak.
-A fair amount of traveling for different sites (Lake Elsinore for family clinic, Moreno Valley for the rest of off service rotations)
-No VA work (outpt VA is in the works)
I really do get the sense that this program will soon be a huge name among the California programs and pretty soon will be running with the likes of the Harbor, USC, and UC Davis programs. If you are an applicant who wants a close-knit program and very social co-residents, with tons of community outreach and service this might be for you. If you are the type of person who may not agree with the way a service is being ran, but you keep it to yourself and suffer alone, this might not be the program for you. Your silence could easily effect the trajectory that this program travels in. I believe a motivated, outspoken resident, with a good sense of servitude will absolutely thrive at this program.
Personally I did not expect to like this program as much as I did and it is definitely the dark horse on my rank list.
Program Name: UCR
Program Communication: E-mail for interview invite. I received a nice post-interview e-mail which I appreciated.
Accommodations: Happened to be passing through so no lodging necessary
Dinner: No pre-interview dinner
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Start at 8:00 am with overview of program from the program director. This was followed by interviews with a PGY-2, the program chair, program director, and assistant program director. Interview with chair was pleasant, conversational. He seems like a very enthusiastic leader, kind of like an uncle who wants you to do well. The program director essentially asked what would it take for me to end up at their program. Some of the other interviews felt more interrogatory with fast paced questions. There was also a very weird encounter in which all the applicants sat in a room and were called back one by one and asked three fairly personal questions by someone there for what seemed like resident wellness. It left me feeling a little weird. Lunch had a great resident turnout, approximately 7 residents. During this time the residents answer all questions we had, and also asked some questions about our personal lives as well. It was actually nice to see all of the residents interact and greet one another. It’s the first time that I’ve seen such behavior among residents and across the years as well. Also a majority of the residents told us that they chose the UCR program over some big named programs as their number one choice. After lunch we were given a tour of the inpatient facilities; which also housed the psychiatric emergency room. Along the tour the residents greeted social workers and attendings and were always met with a smile and kind words. The facilities are county facilities so a little dated, but not too bad. The day ended with everyone meeting with the heads of the department once again for last minute questions and then we were sent on our way.
Program and Curriculum Overview
4 spots, seeking 10-year accreditation next year (which I have no doubt that they will get) hoping to expand to 6 and possibly 8 down the road.
*NO NIGHT OR WEEKEND CALL WHILE ON PSYCH ELECTIVES *
First-year residents' (PGY-1) training includes:
Two months of internal medicine inpatient wards
Two months of family medicine outpatient clinics ( in an interesting location in relation to the main work sites)
Second-year (PGY-2) training includes, in addition to inpatient psychiatry:
Three months of geriatric psychiatry.
Three months of child and adolescent psychiatry (all outpt atm, but undergoing changes to do 2mo outpt and 1mo inpt. Plans to have child fellowship up and running by 2017 I believe)
Three months of consultation-liaison psychiatry.
Third year (PGY-3) training includes 12-months of outpatient psychiatry with a one month emergency psychiatry rotation (no required call)
Under supervision of a faculty attending, residents will be exposed to the full spectrum of psychiatric disorders and intervention techniques, including psychopharmacology as well as various aspects of psychotherapy. Exposure to psychotherapy will span PGY-3 and PGY-4 years of training.
During their fourth year (PGY-4), residents will have an opportunity to broaden their training experience by taking a combination of electives.
This may include three months of private practice psychiatry, six months of research at the UC Riverside Division of Biomedical Sciences, six months of administrative psychiatry and/or one month of addiction psychiatry.
Protected academic half-day for didactics on Wednesday mornings. Quality of psychotherapy curriculum unclear, the associate PD is in charge of teaching psychotherapy to the 2nd year class. They have a process group for PGY1s, which one resident called an “outlet for complaining.” Strong family studies program, CBT/DBT available, less psychodynamically oriented.
Obviously as a new program the electives are very fluid and the residents were adamant that if something was not working for you on a certain rotation, the program heads would act swiftly and do everything in their power to get you into an environment that is conducive to learning.
Program Feel and Culture
Residents and PD emphasized that this is a community oriented, close knit family style of program. The residents are very involved in the community and participate in a lot of outreach such as NAMI walks, volunteering at the medical student ran clinic every other Wednesday, and mentoring the medical students at UCR. The program heads and residents discussed their psych movie nights with discussion, happy hour events, retreats, conference trips, and baseball trips at length throughout the interview, it seems like the entire program likes to have fun which in my book is a plus, but may be a negative to someone else. Also despite the no call, these residents are busy! Last years intern class had poster presentation at the APA, which is in the process of getting published. All of the residents seem involved in research of some sort, and the 2nd years are working on second and third papers or book chapters. There is no research requirement, so you could say this is a very motivated bunch.
Location & Lifestyle
Cost of living in Riverside is reasonable. A lot of the residents seemed to commute from neighboring cities; including one who’s daily commute was from the SFV. Riverside has a nice small downtown with plenty of bars and places to eat. It is only a day trip away from the mountains, beaches, and LA.
Salary & Benefits
Postgraduate Year 1: $52,941
Postgraduate Year 2: $54,696
Postgraduate Year 3: $56,845
Postgraduate Year 4: $59,089
As of right now you can moonlight in the 3rd year at a rate of $120/hr/8hr shift. There is a dedicated psych ER and they are currently working on extending shifts there to 2nd year students.
All medical, dental & vision benefits are paid by the UCR School of Medicine.
Up to 15 working days per year that cannot be rolled over from one academic year to the
Up to 12 days available per year.
Residents receive up to five days for educational enhancement time (USMLE Step III, Continuing Medical Education lectures, post-graduate interviews, etc.)
$1000 annual education fund
This program has a TON of funding from recently passed bills for the state of California, one including a loan forgiveness opportunity stating that if you train at this program and then work in the public sector somewhere in California you can have ~$22,500 of your federal loans forgiven.
Program Strengths
-Personable, and attentive PD and department chair. Great opportunity to network with people from their alma mater if you plan on doing fellowships that may not be provided at the UCR program in time.
-Dedicated Psych ED
-Diverse group of residents, many from international backgrounds
-Opportunity to get almost anything you want out of this program. If you request something, it seems the program has the means to set it up, and the UC name to back you up.
-University student health electives, early psychotherapy exposure, 3 months of child experience.
-Strong community ties
-No call (I’m not sure if this is a strength or weakness…)
-Fellowships coming soon
Potential Weaknesses
-Very new program
-No dedicated outpatient specialty clinics as of yet
-Late addiction exposure, unsure of ECT exposure
-No established child fellowship (in the works though)
-Psychotherapy curriculum seems a bit weak.
-A fair amount of traveling for different sites (Lake Elsinore for family clinic, Moreno Valley for the rest of off service rotations)
-No VA work (outpt VA is in the works)
I really do get the sense that this program will soon be a huge name among the California programs and pretty soon will be running with the likes of the Harbor, USC, and UC Davis programs. If you are an applicant who wants a close-knit program and very social co-residents, with tons of community outreach and service this might be for you. If you are the type of person who may not agree with the way a service is being ran, but you keep it to yourself and suffer alone, this might not be the program for you. Your silence could easily effect the trajectory that this program travels in. I believe a motivated, outspoken resident, with a good sense of servitude will absolutely thrive at this program.
Personally I did not expect to like this program as much as I did and it is definitely the dark horse on my rank list.
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2004
- Messages
- 6,366
- Reaction score
- 4,298
What difference, really, would it make to you to know "statistics" (by which you presumably mean USMLE and/or COMLEX scores, perhaps medical school GPAs or class ranks?) in terms of choosing a program? Say you knew that a program's residents had a mean on Step 1 of 210 and 220 on Step 2, with a range from 190-245, what would that realistically mean to you? How would that information guide you?
I am hiding nothing. I don't get this idea that there is some hidden knowledge that the Supreme Cabal of Program Directors is holding back from innocent medical students...or is it that you want each individual PD to write a personal email saying specifically why they chose to interview 80 other people instead of you out of 1500 applications?
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2013
- Messages
- 2,542
- Reaction score
- 4,260
We upload so much that is public domain I wouldn't be surprised if they had endoscopy video on my program. Board pass rates, unfilled slots, years of accreditation. %AMG/%DO/%IMG, what more exactly would one be looking for? We have nothing to hide at this point.
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2015
- Messages
- 90
- Reaction score
- 69
Program Name: Columbia
Program Communication: ERAS for initial interview followed by occasional e-mails regarding applicant's preference for additional meetings (e.g. faculty or residents you want to talk to for some reason, entirely optional)
Accommodations: None provided. "Edge Hotel" is a sub-10 min walk away. If taking train to Penn Station, 1 or A subway trains can get you very close to the interview site within 20-30 min.
Dinner: I did not attend due to a pressing obligation. Candidates I spoke with stated that they really enjoyed the dinner, however.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Start at 7:45 am (!!) with the program coordinator introducing herself and making small talk until chief residents arrive and then the residency directors. Decent breakfast (small bagels and muffins, coffee) available. This lasts about an hour and then interviews begin.
Each applicant sees one of the two co-directors for 15 min and has three additional 30 min interviews. There is a random 15 min break in between where you can wait in a room with some residents who were very pleasant and answered additional questions. This is then followed by a long tour of the facilities and then lunch with residents. The whole day ends around 1:30 pm, which is incredibly nice, although if you opted for additional meetings, this is when they happen. I had two additional 15-20 min meetings so day was over by 2:30 pm or so.
The interview with the co-director is brief but I got the impression that she thoroughly read my application as she brought up a couple of interesting activities I did in college that no one has noticed previously. The 30 min interviews afterwards had fairly standard questions (e.g. motivation for psychiatry, describe your research, where do you see yourself in 5 years, what do you do for fun) but also a couple of uncommon but reasonable questions (e.g. what type of patient population do you most like/dislike). The questions and styles varied considerably with the interviewer, so this is of little value.
Program and Curriculum Overview
12 spots
PGY-1: 4 mo medicine, 2 mo neuro, 1 mo ER (not CPEP), 5 mo psych rotations. These are not in huge blocs but rather "mixed" with a couple of weeks of something followed by 1-2 week of something else, etc. Medicine experience will likely include 1 mo of ICU care, can also have some weeks on specialized services. No call while on psych rotations so you have nights/weekends off during those weeks.
PGY-2 through 4 is fairly standard and in the interests of space I will omit.
Didactics during PGY-1 are 1 hr/day (noon-1 pm) and apparently are quite protected.
Program Feel and Culture
Residents very pleasant and seemed like they really enjoyed the program. A lot of the facilities you rotate in are state-supported, meaning patients receive treatment for free and their length of stay is not insurance-dependent, which is nice. There is also heavy emphasis on teaching and protecting residents - for instance, when doing C&L in PGY-2, you are only given one new consult per day, regardless of how many new consults are needed. There appears to be a lot of supervision and residents appear to be a strong emphasis of the program.
Location & Lifestyle
Located quite a bit "uptown" but easily accessible by the 1 and A train. Some residents live nearby in subsidized housing, others choose to live further away along the subway route, and a couple of senior residents live even further away (one lives in Long Island, another in Queens) and commute by car.
Lifestyle: Intern year appears to be particularly stressful during medicine months because you are treated identically to a medical resident and the hours approach 80/week, but the remaining rotations seem to be quite reasonable.
Salary & Benefits
Too lazy to copy+paste but it is on the website. If this is relevant to your interests, let me know and I'll go through the effort. Briefly though, you get a big bump in your salary in PGY-3 and PGY-4. You can moonlight in the CPEP as soon as you finish your CPEP rotations in PGY-2. Subsidized housing is available apparently to all who want it without need for a lottery system.
Program Strengths
-Top-tier program with excellent reputation
-It is clear that residency training is a huge priority and focus for the entire Psych department and residents have a lot of supervision and support
-Robust psychotherapy curriculum
-Vast majority of residents end up doing a fellowship and the vast majority of those stay on in Columbia
Potential Weaknesses
-Feeling that residents are sheltered somewhat from having to deal with high volume (I think this is great, but your mileage may vary)
Impression
-Excellent program. Interview day was short and sweet although they go out of their way to give you optional opportunities to meet additional faculty and interact with residents, but stress that optional activities (e.g. dinner) are not required and do not impact your match chances.
Program Communication: ERAS for initial interview followed by occasional e-mails regarding applicant's preference for additional meetings (e.g. faculty or residents you want to talk to for some reason, entirely optional)
Accommodations: None provided. "Edge Hotel" is a sub-10 min walk away. If taking train to Penn Station, 1 or A subway trains can get you very close to the interview site within 20-30 min.
Dinner: I did not attend due to a pressing obligation. Candidates I spoke with stated that they really enjoyed the dinner, however.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Start at 7:45 am (!!) with the program coordinator introducing herself and making small talk until chief residents arrive and then the residency directors. Decent breakfast (small bagels and muffins, coffee) available. This lasts about an hour and then interviews begin.
Each applicant sees one of the two co-directors for 15 min and has three additional 30 min interviews. There is a random 15 min break in between where you can wait in a room with some residents who were very pleasant and answered additional questions. This is then followed by a long tour of the facilities and then lunch with residents. The whole day ends around 1:30 pm, which is incredibly nice, although if you opted for additional meetings, this is when they happen. I had two additional 15-20 min meetings so day was over by 2:30 pm or so.
The interview with the co-director is brief but I got the impression that she thoroughly read my application as she brought up a couple of interesting activities I did in college that no one has noticed previously. The 30 min interviews afterwards had fairly standard questions (e.g. motivation for psychiatry, describe your research, where do you see yourself in 5 years, what do you do for fun) but also a couple of uncommon but reasonable questions (e.g. what type of patient population do you most like/dislike). The questions and styles varied considerably with the interviewer, so this is of little value.
Program and Curriculum Overview
12 spots
PGY-1: 4 mo medicine, 2 mo neuro, 1 mo ER (not CPEP), 5 mo psych rotations. These are not in huge blocs but rather "mixed" with a couple of weeks of something followed by 1-2 week of something else, etc. Medicine experience will likely include 1 mo of ICU care, can also have some weeks on specialized services. No call while on psych rotations so you have nights/weekends off during those weeks.
PGY-2 through 4 is fairly standard and in the interests of space I will omit.
Didactics during PGY-1 are 1 hr/day (noon-1 pm) and apparently are quite protected.
Program Feel and Culture
Residents very pleasant and seemed like they really enjoyed the program. A lot of the facilities you rotate in are state-supported, meaning patients receive treatment for free and their length of stay is not insurance-dependent, which is nice. There is also heavy emphasis on teaching and protecting residents - for instance, when doing C&L in PGY-2, you are only given one new consult per day, regardless of how many new consults are needed. There appears to be a lot of supervision and residents appear to be a strong emphasis of the program.
Location & Lifestyle
Located quite a bit "uptown" but easily accessible by the 1 and A train. Some residents live nearby in subsidized housing, others choose to live further away along the subway route, and a couple of senior residents live even further away (one lives in Long Island, another in Queens) and commute by car.
Lifestyle: Intern year appears to be particularly stressful during medicine months because you are treated identically to a medical resident and the hours approach 80/week, but the remaining rotations seem to be quite reasonable.
Salary & Benefits
Too lazy to copy+paste but it is on the website. If this is relevant to your interests, let me know and I'll go through the effort. Briefly though, you get a big bump in your salary in PGY-3 and PGY-4. You can moonlight in the CPEP as soon as you finish your CPEP rotations in PGY-2. Subsidized housing is available apparently to all who want it without need for a lottery system.
Program Strengths
-Top-tier program with excellent reputation
-It is clear that residency training is a huge priority and focus for the entire Psych department and residents have a lot of supervision and support
-Robust psychotherapy curriculum
-Vast majority of residents end up doing a fellowship and the vast majority of those stay on in Columbia
Potential Weaknesses
-Feeling that residents are sheltered somewhat from having to deal with high volume (I think this is great, but your mileage may vary)
Impression
-Excellent program. Interview day was short and sweet although they go out of their way to give you optional opportunities to meet additional faculty and interact with residents, but stress that optional activities (e.g. dinner) are not required and do not impact your match chances.
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
- Messages
- 3,431
- Reaction score
- 145
Program Name Mt Sinai Beth Israel
Program Communication
Timely communication.
Accommodations and Food
Stayed at East Village Hotel, which was a brownstone building on 9th (interview building is on 17th). Room was clean and super cute, pricier though.
Was not invited for a pre-interview dinner. Not sure if there was one (forgot to ask anyone…) but there didn’t seem to be. Breakfast was fruit, muffins, bagels, coffee. Lunch was pretty good, assorted catered Thai food.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences)
Standard powerpoint presentation by PD. Next was tour given by two residents, including med and psych wards, subsidized housing, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. I thought the residents that gave the tour seemed really nice. Two 30-40 min interviews. Lunch. Last thing was “exit interview”, short and with PD or APD.
Program and Curriculum Overview (numbers are blocks)
PGY1
- General medicine (4)
- Inpt psych (7)
- Night float (2)
PGY2
- CL (2)
- Geri/ECT (1-2)
- Neurology (2)
- Addiction (3-4)
- Emergency psych (1)
- Night float (2)
- Elective (1)
PGY3
- Year long outpt clinic
PGY4
- Senior rotation (6)
- electives
- 4 or so chief positions
Lots of didactics throughout it would seem. Multiple slides on the powerpoint were dedicated to the psychotherapy curriculum, which seems to start in earnest during PGY2.
Call seems reasonable
New Bronx VA elective
3 pages of electives across all Mt Sinai campuses
Program Feel and Culture
- I left with a really good impression of the culture and people in the program
- No matter where you poked nobody seemed particularly unhappy or discontent with any aspects of the program
- Good resident turnout at lunch, approx 1:1 ratio of residents of all years to applicants
- It was clear the interviewers had thoroughly reviewed my application prior to the interview
- Classes seem closer to each other than most of the other places I interviewed
- All the “Mt Sinai” general adult programs” seem to stay pretty independent/self-contained, with not too much mixing academically or socially. Some exceptions are the child/adol fellowship which is combined at all sites, research, and some electives. It appears the electives are where the crossover seems to be increasing the most. In the handout we got lists of the electives at Mt. Sinai, Beth Israel, and St. Lukes.
- Heavy trend of people staying at BI or returning to BI for fellowships, faculty positions
- Program is 13 residents (I think), but I was told they don’t have plans to further expand.
- Following graduation, Numbers in powerpoint. 60% fellowships (many stay at BI but not all), 20% academic positions, 20% private practice/group
Faculty Achievements & Involvement
Chair-new chair, they said good things about him during the interview day. We did not see him at all.
PD:- Dr. Roane: described as friendly, supportive, and approachable. We did not interact with him much besides him giving the initial powerpoint presentation. I did not have my exit interview with him.
Apparently BI is historically known for their addictions research and is where some of the OTP protocols were initially developed and implemented.
Location & Lifestyle
East village seems great. Lots to do, huge variety of restaurants, close metro stops. Subsidized housing, with at least a studio guaranteed. Can request for location, floor, larger size, etc.
Salary & Benefits
- Not in my packet?
- Subsidized housing is the building next to the hospital or other buildings in the nearby area
Program Strengths
- large, diverse patient pool. Large variety of in-person language interpreters.
- Curriculum seems established, smooth, and very well balanced.
- solid psychotherapy curriculum
- The people seem great
- East Village location in Manhattan is great
- Ability to collaborate with research or take electives through the greater Mt. Sinai network
Potential Weaknesses
- No inpatient child ward or facility
- All faculty have majority clinical duties. There is still a surprising amount of research for this but there is less variety at the BI site for research projects. Of course can use the greater Mt. Sinai connection.
- Not as name brand as “original Mt. Sinai” but things may change as the Mt. Sinai system develops.
Program Communication
Timely communication.
Accommodations and Food
Stayed at East Village Hotel, which was a brownstone building on 9th (interview building is on 17th). Room was clean and super cute, pricier though.
Was not invited for a pre-interview dinner. Not sure if there was one (forgot to ask anyone…) but there didn’t seem to be. Breakfast was fruit, muffins, bagels, coffee. Lunch was pretty good, assorted catered Thai food.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences)
Standard powerpoint presentation by PD. Next was tour given by two residents, including med and psych wards, subsidized housing, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. I thought the residents that gave the tour seemed really nice. Two 30-40 min interviews. Lunch. Last thing was “exit interview”, short and with PD or APD.
Program and Curriculum Overview (numbers are blocks)
PGY1
- General medicine (4)
- Inpt psych (7)
- Night float (2)
PGY2
- CL (2)
- Geri/ECT (1-2)
- Neurology (2)
- Addiction (3-4)
- Emergency psych (1)
- Night float (2)
- Elective (1)
PGY3
- Year long outpt clinic
PGY4
- Senior rotation (6)
- electives
- 4 or so chief positions
Lots of didactics throughout it would seem. Multiple slides on the powerpoint were dedicated to the psychotherapy curriculum, which seems to start in earnest during PGY2.
Call seems reasonable
New Bronx VA elective
3 pages of electives across all Mt Sinai campuses
Program Feel and Culture
- I left with a really good impression of the culture and people in the program
- No matter where you poked nobody seemed particularly unhappy or discontent with any aspects of the program
- Good resident turnout at lunch, approx 1:1 ratio of residents of all years to applicants
- It was clear the interviewers had thoroughly reviewed my application prior to the interview
- Classes seem closer to each other than most of the other places I interviewed
- All the “Mt Sinai” general adult programs” seem to stay pretty independent/self-contained, with not too much mixing academically or socially. Some exceptions are the child/adol fellowship which is combined at all sites, research, and some electives. It appears the electives are where the crossover seems to be increasing the most. In the handout we got lists of the electives at Mt. Sinai, Beth Israel, and St. Lukes.
- Heavy trend of people staying at BI or returning to BI for fellowships, faculty positions
- Program is 13 residents (I think), but I was told they don’t have plans to further expand.
- Following graduation, Numbers in powerpoint. 60% fellowships (many stay at BI but not all), 20% academic positions, 20% private practice/group
Faculty Achievements & Involvement
Chair-new chair, they said good things about him during the interview day. We did not see him at all.
PD:- Dr. Roane: described as friendly, supportive, and approachable. We did not interact with him much besides him giving the initial powerpoint presentation. I did not have my exit interview with him.
Apparently BI is historically known for their addictions research and is where some of the OTP protocols were initially developed and implemented.
Location & Lifestyle
East village seems great. Lots to do, huge variety of restaurants, close metro stops. Subsidized housing, with at least a studio guaranteed. Can request for location, floor, larger size, etc.
Salary & Benefits
- Not in my packet?
- Subsidized housing is the building next to the hospital or other buildings in the nearby area
Program Strengths
- large, diverse patient pool. Large variety of in-person language interpreters.
- Curriculum seems established, smooth, and very well balanced.
- solid psychotherapy curriculum
- The people seem great
- East Village location in Manhattan is great
- Ability to collaborate with research or take electives through the greater Mt. Sinai network
Potential Weaknesses
- No inpatient child ward or facility
- All faculty have majority clinical duties. There is still a surprising amount of research for this but there is less variety at the BI site for research projects. Of course can use the greater Mt. Sinai connection.
- Not as name brand as “original Mt. Sinai” but things may change as the Mt. Sinai system develops.
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
- Messages
- 3,431
- Reaction score
- 145
Program Name: Vanderbilt
I would agree with most of the objective information from the above review (post 101) but had a much different experience subjectively.
- I had no unusual experiences with the PC. Communication was timely and standard, and included interview invite, interview confirmation, and dinner confirmation x2.
- Dinner was held at Cabana which had American/Southern style food. The place was nice. They said that the former location Boundry had remodeled to events only and they realized after going there that it was no longer what it used to be.
- So far (n<5) the residents here, at both the dinner and the lunch, have seemed the happiest and have had the highest turnout for both. About 1:1 ratio of residents to applicants at both of those.
- Nice facilities
- PD’s jokes were funny
- Interview day with lots of shorter interviews
Program Strengths:
- All facilities (freestanding inpt facility, children’s hospital, Vanderbilt university hospital, VA) are on the same campus, as well as university itself
- I thought the facilities were actually quite nice, freestanding psych hospital with ~88 beds. Separate units for child & adolescent (this unit is 1 hall child with 1 hall adolescent, separated by nursing station), psychosis, mood, addictions. ECT suite. TMS room. In-house partial day programs.
- Residents are personable, friendly and happy; class seems cohesive
- PD Ron Cowan and APD Sheryl Fleisch seem incredibly supportive and prioritize education
- Chair is editor of JAMA psychiatry, heavily involved in schizophrenia research
- Street medicine program led by APD Sheryl Fleisch is new and exciting. The premise is to provide psychiatric care to patients without stable housing by meeting them where they are at, whether it be at a campsite, bus stop, etc. She does these “clinic days” at least once a week, with full team of residents, social workers, medical students, mobile pharmacy. The institution supports the initiative and is actually expanding it to include primary care on the IM side, not just psychiatry. Dr. Fleisch will continue to direct this entire service.
Potential Weaknesses:
- only Child, geri, C/L fellowships
- department has particular research focuses, currently with less faculty/opportunities outside these areas
- no public hospital experience, although there is the street psychiatry/medicine program led by APD Sheryl Fleisch
- no inpt VA rotations
In summary, my opinion of this program improved after the interview, i.e. moved higher on the post-interview rank list from its spot on the pre-interview rank list.
I would agree with most of the objective information from the above review (post 101) but had a much different experience subjectively.
- I had no unusual experiences with the PC. Communication was timely and standard, and included interview invite, interview confirmation, and dinner confirmation x2.
- Dinner was held at Cabana which had American/Southern style food. The place was nice. They said that the former location Boundry had remodeled to events only and they realized after going there that it was no longer what it used to be.
- So far (n<5) the residents here, at both the dinner and the lunch, have seemed the happiest and have had the highest turnout for both. About 1:1 ratio of residents to applicants at both of those.
- Nice facilities
- PD’s jokes were funny
- Interview day with lots of shorter interviews
Program Strengths:
- All facilities (freestanding inpt facility, children’s hospital, Vanderbilt university hospital, VA) are on the same campus, as well as university itself
- I thought the facilities were actually quite nice, freestanding psych hospital with ~88 beds. Separate units for child & adolescent (this unit is 1 hall child with 1 hall adolescent, separated by nursing station), psychosis, mood, addictions. ECT suite. TMS room. In-house partial day programs.
- Residents are personable, friendly and happy; class seems cohesive
- PD Ron Cowan and APD Sheryl Fleisch seem incredibly supportive and prioritize education
- Chair is editor of JAMA psychiatry, heavily involved in schizophrenia research
- Street medicine program led by APD Sheryl Fleisch is new and exciting. The premise is to provide psychiatric care to patients without stable housing by meeting them where they are at, whether it be at a campsite, bus stop, etc. She does these “clinic days” at least once a week, with full team of residents, social workers, medical students, mobile pharmacy. The institution supports the initiative and is actually expanding it to include primary care on the IM side, not just psychiatry. Dr. Fleisch will continue to direct this entire service.
Potential Weaknesses:
- only Child, geri, C/L fellowships
- department has particular research focuses, currently with less faculty/opportunities outside these areas
- no public hospital experience, although there is the street psychiatry/medicine program led by APD Sheryl Fleisch
- no inpt VA rotations
In summary, my opinion of this program improved after the interview, i.e. moved higher on the post-interview rank list from its spot on the pre-interview rank list.
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
- Messages
- 3,431
- Reaction score
- 145
Program Name Miami
Program Communication
Timely communication. The PC is the most personable I have met yet on the interview trail. You get a link to a nice “for interviewees only” website in the invitation email.
Accommodations and Food
Stayed at Springfield Marriot, <5 mins away from the behavioral health hospital. Would be walkable, but took the hotel shuttle (leaves every 30 mins). The hotel was fine, but the location is kind of barren besides the medical center. The closest restaurant on Yelp was the hospital cafeteria… If I went again and maybe had a bit more time would have stayed somewhere a little more East towards downtown/Brickell/the water. Sidebar—I ended up leaving my glasses at the hotel and they overnighted them to me (A+!).
Pre-interview dinner was at a nice place on Grove island. Wonderful view at night. Breakfast was pastries and coffee from ABP. Lunch was an assortment of wraps, sandwiches, salad, and cookies.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences)
Pretty standard interview day. Tour is on the longer side but it’s nice to see the medical camps as all hospitals are onsite. The group meets with Dr. Nemeroff. I believe all the applicants also meet with the PD who has been at Miami for ~5yrs. I had total 4 interviews, all were quite conversational and about 30 min. The one with the PD was 15 min.
Program and Curriculum Overview
PGY1- call 16-18 wkday calls (4:30-10pm), 16-18 wknd call shifts (12hr day/night, sat or sun)
- 4 months adult inpt psych
- One mon night float
- 1 mo day shifts Psych ER
- 1 mo inpt medicine
- 2 mo inpt neurology
- 1 mo outp medicine
- 1 mo med-psych (this may go away)
- 1 mo MOD (I forget what this is…)
PGY2 – call 16-18 wkday call at VA (4:30-10PM), 10-11 wknd shifts
- 2 mo child psych (inpt and outpt)
- 2 mo CL (very busy!)
- 1 mo inpt detox
- 1 mo inpt geri
- 1 mo forensics
- 2 mo night float
- 2-3mo adult inpt psych
PGY3- call 16-18 wkday call (4:30-10PM), 4 or fewer weekend call
- Year long outpt clinic
PGY4
- Research (not required)
- Electives
- Moonlighting possible
- 2 chief positions
Program Feel and Culture
- definitely a program where you “learn by doing”
- high clinical volume, especially the first two years. Residents affirm you will work hard here.
- some themes were repeatedly emphasized by different individuals during the interview dinner and interview day: that the people who do well “are people who want to be there”, “people who will be responsible for their learning and not get lost in the crowd”, “
- large class size, they are expecting 14-16 residents for incoming class 2016
- most of the residents were nice and stated that they enjoyed their experience in the program
- some residents were not very eloquent in describing things. For example one responded “I don’t know” when asked about what they wanted to do in psychiatry, responded “because I matched here” when asked why they chose Miami.
- Only 3 residents at pre-interview dinner, which is the fewest I’ve seen so far (n<5)
- Interview lunch was fairly well attended
- Interestingly/notably, Dr. Nemeroff relayed that want to hear from you if they are your #1, and that this may/will affect your spot on their rank list. Spoke proudly of only going to number 20 to fill from last year’s match. This seems to match their philosophy that the people who do best there are people who really want to be there.
- So from reading around and various hearsay sources I’ve heard some pretty terrible rumors about the Miami program, specifically the high workload, lack of teaching, and poor administration support of residents. From what I have gathered, it seems that the program has really made some attempts to improve much of this. During the program outline, there were slides comparing the old schedule with the new schedule with the point of how much more organized and logical the new schedule is. The chief residents also emphasized how responsive the PD is and how the larger class size has made it easier on the schedule. I also have a source on the inside. In summary I think you will work hard here but I don’t think it is malignant like the rumors might say.
Faculty Achievements & Involvement
Chair-Dr. Nemeroff: meets with the interview group and goes around the table. Says some interesting comments about the programs where applicants are from. He is charismatic and is certainly quite accomplished, well-published, and can get things done. Was former chair at Emory but left following ethical concerns about pharma involvement. You can find more about this online if you look.
PD:- Dr. Suvano: seems friendly and approachable. Dr. Nemeroff described him as a teddy bear which is surprisingly accurate. Chief residents emphasized how responsive he was. He has been at Miami for about 5 years.
Chief residents state that Dr. Nemeroff and Dr. Suvano have helped turned the program around and are much in part for UM’s increasing training program quality.
Location & Lifestyle
The neighborhood of the actual hospitals is not that great but I think where it is located is great in that it is close to downtown and the water. Most residents seemed to live in the downtown/Brickell area with a few living in the suburbs or Miami Beach. There is a metro line that runs from downtown to the medical center. Overall I think the location and lifestyle of Miami would be fantastic. Some residents say they are really busy, some say they have more free time than in medical school, so somewhat hard to judge on that end. I definitely think that this is program tends towards the workhorse side of the spectrum.
Salary & Benefits (2015-2016)
PGY1 $51,250
PGY4 $57,201
$1250 annual education stipend
$1375 annual meal card
Health insurance is quite comprehensive
Program Strengths
- large, diverse patient pool
- Public (Jackson), Private University (UM), VA hospitals—and all on the same campus!!
- Miami
- Learn by doing if that is your preference
- Dr. Nemeroff can make magic happen sometimes it seems
Potential Weaknesses
- Seems to be a workhorse program, Residents affirm you will work very hard for, particularly during parts of the first 2 years, lots and lots of call
- Some residents seem to be there for the location rather than the program itself
- Working on improving psychotherapy curriculum
- Working on increasing allotted time for research, they say this will improve as number of residents increase
- Some controversy around Dr. Nemeroff leaving Emory
- few residents at pre-interview dinner?, some residents were not very outspoken about their adoration of the program itself (may or may not mean anything).
Program Communication
Timely communication. The PC is the most personable I have met yet on the interview trail. You get a link to a nice “for interviewees only” website in the invitation email.
Accommodations and Food
Stayed at Springfield Marriot, <5 mins away from the behavioral health hospital. Would be walkable, but took the hotel shuttle (leaves every 30 mins). The hotel was fine, but the location is kind of barren besides the medical center. The closest restaurant on Yelp was the hospital cafeteria… If I went again and maybe had a bit more time would have stayed somewhere a little more East towards downtown/Brickell/the water. Sidebar—I ended up leaving my glasses at the hotel and they overnighted them to me (A+!).
Pre-interview dinner was at a nice place on Grove island. Wonderful view at night. Breakfast was pastries and coffee from ABP. Lunch was an assortment of wraps, sandwiches, salad, and cookies.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences)
Pretty standard interview day. Tour is on the longer side but it’s nice to see the medical camps as all hospitals are onsite. The group meets with Dr. Nemeroff. I believe all the applicants also meet with the PD who has been at Miami for ~5yrs. I had total 4 interviews, all were quite conversational and about 30 min. The one with the PD was 15 min.
Program and Curriculum Overview
PGY1- call 16-18 wkday calls (4:30-10pm), 16-18 wknd call shifts (12hr day/night, sat or sun)
- 4 months adult inpt psych
- One mon night float
- 1 mo day shifts Psych ER
- 1 mo inpt medicine
- 2 mo inpt neurology
- 1 mo outp medicine
- 1 mo med-psych (this may go away)
- 1 mo MOD (I forget what this is…)
PGY2 – call 16-18 wkday call at VA (4:30-10PM), 10-11 wknd shifts
- 2 mo child psych (inpt and outpt)
- 2 mo CL (very busy!)
- 1 mo inpt detox
- 1 mo inpt geri
- 1 mo forensics
- 2 mo night float
- 2-3mo adult inpt psych
PGY3- call 16-18 wkday call (4:30-10PM), 4 or fewer weekend call
- Year long outpt clinic
PGY4
- Research (not required)
- Electives
- Moonlighting possible
- 2 chief positions
Program Feel and Culture
- definitely a program where you “learn by doing”
- high clinical volume, especially the first two years. Residents affirm you will work hard here.
- some themes were repeatedly emphasized by different individuals during the interview dinner and interview day: that the people who do well “are people who want to be there”, “people who will be responsible for their learning and not get lost in the crowd”, “
- large class size, they are expecting 14-16 residents for incoming class 2016
- most of the residents were nice and stated that they enjoyed their experience in the program
- some residents were not very eloquent in describing things. For example one responded “I don’t know” when asked about what they wanted to do in psychiatry, responded “because I matched here” when asked why they chose Miami.
- Only 3 residents at pre-interview dinner, which is the fewest I’ve seen so far (n<5)
- Interview lunch was fairly well attended
- Interestingly/notably, Dr. Nemeroff relayed that want to hear from you if they are your #1, and that this may/will affect your spot on their rank list. Spoke proudly of only going to number 20 to fill from last year’s match. This seems to match their philosophy that the people who do best there are people who really want to be there.
- So from reading around and various hearsay sources I’ve heard some pretty terrible rumors about the Miami program, specifically the high workload, lack of teaching, and poor administration support of residents. From what I have gathered, it seems that the program has really made some attempts to improve much of this. During the program outline, there were slides comparing the old schedule with the new schedule with the point of how much more organized and logical the new schedule is. The chief residents also emphasized how responsive the PD is and how the larger class size has made it easier on the schedule. I also have a source on the inside. In summary I think you will work hard here but I don’t think it is malignant like the rumors might say.
Faculty Achievements & Involvement
Chair-Dr. Nemeroff: meets with the interview group and goes around the table. Says some interesting comments about the programs where applicants are from. He is charismatic and is certainly quite accomplished, well-published, and can get things done. Was former chair at Emory but left following ethical concerns about pharma involvement. You can find more about this online if you look.
PD:- Dr. Suvano: seems friendly and approachable. Dr. Nemeroff described him as a teddy bear which is surprisingly accurate. Chief residents emphasized how responsive he was. He has been at Miami for about 5 years.
Chief residents state that Dr. Nemeroff and Dr. Suvano have helped turned the program around and are much in part for UM’s increasing training program quality.
Location & Lifestyle
The neighborhood of the actual hospitals is not that great but I think where it is located is great in that it is close to downtown and the water. Most residents seemed to live in the downtown/Brickell area with a few living in the suburbs or Miami Beach. There is a metro line that runs from downtown to the medical center. Overall I think the location and lifestyle of Miami would be fantastic. Some residents say they are really busy, some say they have more free time than in medical school, so somewhat hard to judge on that end. I definitely think that this is program tends towards the workhorse side of the spectrum.
Salary & Benefits (2015-2016)
PGY1 $51,250
PGY4 $57,201
$1250 annual education stipend
$1375 annual meal card
Health insurance is quite comprehensive
Program Strengths
- large, diverse patient pool
- Public (Jackson), Private University (UM), VA hospitals—and all on the same campus!!
- Miami
- Learn by doing if that is your preference
- Dr. Nemeroff can make magic happen sometimes it seems
Potential Weaknesses
- Seems to be a workhorse program, Residents affirm you will work very hard for, particularly during parts of the first 2 years, lots and lots of call
- Some residents seem to be there for the location rather than the program itself
- Working on improving psychotherapy curriculum
- Working on increasing allotted time for research, they say this will improve as number of residents increase
- Some controversy around Dr. Nemeroff leaving Emory
- few residents at pre-interview dinner?, some residents were not very outspoken about their adoration of the program itself (may or may not mean anything).
Last edited:
There seems to be a disparity between reported, and FREIDA compensation details - https://freida.ama-assn.org/Freida/user/programDetails.do?pgmNumber=4001121051#policies
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- Jun 22, 2015
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- 22
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Is this what the program advertised on interview day? Based on FREIDA, I was under the impression the compensation was much higher. This could influence by decision to attend the interview day.
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- May 17, 2010
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- 3,431
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- 145
I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information. Below is the sheet provided in the folder on the interview day. It says for 2015-2016, no other information was provided. If you have questions, I would just call them directly.
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2008
- Messages
- 7,080
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I don't really feel like writing a full review here, but I do want to write a short one. I did end up keeping my Vanderbilt interview and I'm glad I did.
The interview day was well organized. We were all led to each of our next interviews. 5 interviews, 4 were 15 minutes, one was 30. I was matched with faculty who all had very similar (or exactly the same) interests to myself. The residents were all super friendly and excited about Vanderbilt, although it seems like the major draw for a lot of them is regional. They are working on improving their research base, working on starting an accredited addictions fellowship, and CL is working on starting some integrated experiences.
I think their call is actually really lax. Sure, PGY-3 and 4 have to do some (rather rare) call, but there's rarely (never?) overnight home call, and only PGY-2's are in house overnight (with the exception of during IM offservice.)
In summary, I think they provide a strong therapy, CL, and addictions experience in a very supportive environment. They do not have the very extensive research base or sub-specialist base of some of the larger programs, so that should be kept in mind. Compensation is very reasonable for the area.
The interview day was well organized. We were all led to each of our next interviews. 5 interviews, 4 were 15 minutes, one was 30. I was matched with faculty who all had very similar (or exactly the same) interests to myself. The residents were all super friendly and excited about Vanderbilt, although it seems like the major draw for a lot of them is regional. They are working on improving their research base, working on starting an accredited addictions fellowship, and CL is working on starting some integrated experiences.
I think their call is actually really lax. Sure, PGY-3 and 4 have to do some (rather rare) call, but there's rarely (never?) overnight home call, and only PGY-2's are in house overnight (with the exception of during IM offservice.)
In summary, I think they provide a strong therapy, CL, and addictions experience in a very supportive environment. They do not have the very extensive research base or sub-specialist base of some of the larger programs, so that should be kept in mind. Compensation is very reasonable for the area.
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2011
- Messages
- 125
- Reaction score
- 56
Program Name: Harbor -UCLA
1. Ease Of Communication: Simple, through ERAS
2. Accommodation & Food: I stayed in town with some friends.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Meeting with the PD. He was very friendly and it was conversational. Then had a group meeting with the program chair. I really liked the program chair; he has been with the program for a while now and worked on the STARD paper along with the PD and a handful of other SoCal PDs as well. He also is a leader for the hospital wellness committee and seems to truly care about his residents and the training they receive. He did inform us that the ER was getting a new Peds wing added to it in the future, and also that there would be some changes to the LA county department of mental health and which umbrella they would soon fall under blah blah blah. I can’t remember exactly what he said but he did not think this would trickle down to the residents to affect them at all. I had a small break during which the chair took me down to the Psych ER. It’s a bit smaller than I expect but the census list was long, and there were tons of patients on beds in the halls. My next interview was with the director of outpatient services and we had a nice conversation filled with a lot of laughter and see was straight up with me when I asked if I was the type of applicant that would do well at the program. My final interview was with a 2nd year, I got to see his outpatient office (you get your own office for your ½ day outpatient appointments in 2nd year and you can decorate it however you would like. After this interview went to lunch with the other applicants and 5 residents and had a quick tour and that was that.
4. Program Overview:
· 1st year- 4mo inpt, 2mo psych ER, 1mo Addiction, 1mo medicine wards, 1mo neurology wards, 1mo EM, 1mo ambulatory med
· 2nd year- ~9 months inpatient with 1mo of neurology and Psych ER Mornings are spent on one of the inpatient units where you are capped at 4 patients. In the afternoons you see your outpatient cases, which can be a mix or med mgmt and therapy. I think you start off with about 25 cases and expand to 50. You have intakes each week and at least two hours of supervision. The residents I spoke to said that it was often very easy to create a schedule that would leave you with Friday afternoons off for most weeks.
· 3rd year- 4 months of child, 5 months of C/L, 1 month geriatric (at West LA VA), 1 month forensic, 1 month elective. One morning a week is spent at Kaiser doing outpatient to give you exposure to the worried well population.
· 4th year- Electives, many of which you can do at UCLA-NPI.
· Call- 1st year 1-2x/week 4:30-11 admit 2-3 pts a day, weekend call is about 2x/month and often 16 hour shifts. 2nd year 4-5 calls/month 3rd year ~20 calls 4th year no call. From what I understand call is performed in the Psych ER and you will triage patients as a 1st year, run the board as a 2nd year, and cover the inpatient units and consults as a 3rd year or while moonlighting.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: All of the residents spoke highly of the attendings that they worked with, and stated that they were great teachers while still giving the residents a lot of autonomy. While research was not emphasized during the interview, your attendings will be some of the leaders in different parts of the psychiatry world and seem willing to mentor and help out.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Torrance is what seems to be the southernmost part of LA county, I thought the area was a charming and calmer than the LA hustle and bustle. If you travel about 15 minutes in any direction of the hospital you can find nice communities and some beach communities where a lot of the residents reside.
7. Salary & Benefits: Remember this is a county program so $3811.04/mo with ~$350/mo increase each year.
24 vacation days, usually taken in two 2-week vacations blocks. I was informed that most people get one out of the two vacation blocks that they request.
The residents said that you actually make money with the health plans that are offered.
They also offer a yearly resident retreat.
8. Program Strengths:
· A busy psych ER that will give you the opportunity to treat some really sick patients. Rumor has it that Harbor residents are among the most competent psychiatrists once they finish their training, and the recruiters know it.
· If patients need to be discharged to another state or country there is a possibility that a resident can accompany them on the flight. While I was interviewing they were talking about patients that had recently been taken back to Turkey, Australia, and France.
· Psychotherapy starting 2nd year, not a lot of programs provide this opportunity, and especially to the same degree that Harbor does. Residents shared that they had extremely helpful supervisors as well.
· Amazing community training and opportunity to serve the uninsured population. You learn how to treat the sickest of the sick, and really get to learn what resources are available in the area because you will be requesting them often.
· Early forensics experience, when working on the inpatient wards you might have to go to court and stand trail to get a patient conserved, and that can occur as early as your 1st year.
· Moonlighting begins 2nd year in the Psych ER. You can work 8, 16, and 24hr shifts as long as you stay within your work hour restrictions.
· Addiction training starting in 1st year, and C/L starting in third year. (may not be a strength for some)
· Everything up until 3rd year happens on one campus, so no running up the mileage on your car.
· Tons of electives to choose from given the relationship Harbor has with NPI
· The residents were all laid back and friendly, there seems to be a familial feel to the program.
· Torrance seems like a very nice area to live
9. Potential Weaknesses:
· You will work hard while you are at this program, I started wondering if the reason they provided so many vacation days is to prevent burnout.
· If you absolutely positive that you want to churn out research paper after research paper then this might not be the program for you.
· Though you will get to work with some medical students, it is not always guaranteed if that is important to you.
· If you have to go to court it is deep in LA and that is when you will feel the wrath of LA traffic.
· I don’t think there is an opportunity to work in a university-based clinic to treat undergraduates.
Overall I really enjoyed my interview and I think this program is going to end up high on my rank list, somewhere in the top 3. I am drawn to programs that provide good county experience and early therapy opportunities and Harbor provides both. I feel like if I were to train at Harbor I would leave prepared for whatever the world throws at me.
1. Ease Of Communication: Simple, through ERAS
2. Accommodation & Food: I stayed in town with some friends.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Meeting with the PD. He was very friendly and it was conversational. Then had a group meeting with the program chair. I really liked the program chair; he has been with the program for a while now and worked on the STARD paper along with the PD and a handful of other SoCal PDs as well. He also is a leader for the hospital wellness committee and seems to truly care about his residents and the training they receive. He did inform us that the ER was getting a new Peds wing added to it in the future, and also that there would be some changes to the LA county department of mental health and which umbrella they would soon fall under blah blah blah. I can’t remember exactly what he said but he did not think this would trickle down to the residents to affect them at all. I had a small break during which the chair took me down to the Psych ER. It’s a bit smaller than I expect but the census list was long, and there were tons of patients on beds in the halls. My next interview was with the director of outpatient services and we had a nice conversation filled with a lot of laughter and see was straight up with me when I asked if I was the type of applicant that would do well at the program. My final interview was with a 2nd year, I got to see his outpatient office (you get your own office for your ½ day outpatient appointments in 2nd year and you can decorate it however you would like. After this interview went to lunch with the other applicants and 5 residents and had a quick tour and that was that.
4. Program Overview:
· 1st year- 4mo inpt, 2mo psych ER, 1mo Addiction, 1mo medicine wards, 1mo neurology wards, 1mo EM, 1mo ambulatory med
· 2nd year- ~9 months inpatient with 1mo of neurology and Psych ER Mornings are spent on one of the inpatient units where you are capped at 4 patients. In the afternoons you see your outpatient cases, which can be a mix or med mgmt and therapy. I think you start off with about 25 cases and expand to 50. You have intakes each week and at least two hours of supervision. The residents I spoke to said that it was often very easy to create a schedule that would leave you with Friday afternoons off for most weeks.
· 3rd year- 4 months of child, 5 months of C/L, 1 month geriatric (at West LA VA), 1 month forensic, 1 month elective. One morning a week is spent at Kaiser doing outpatient to give you exposure to the worried well population.
· 4th year- Electives, many of which you can do at UCLA-NPI.
· Call- 1st year 1-2x/week 4:30-11 admit 2-3 pts a day, weekend call is about 2x/month and often 16 hour shifts. 2nd year 4-5 calls/month 3rd year ~20 calls 4th year no call. From what I understand call is performed in the Psych ER and you will triage patients as a 1st year, run the board as a 2nd year, and cover the inpatient units and consults as a 3rd year or while moonlighting.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: All of the residents spoke highly of the attendings that they worked with, and stated that they were great teachers while still giving the residents a lot of autonomy. While research was not emphasized during the interview, your attendings will be some of the leaders in different parts of the psychiatry world and seem willing to mentor and help out.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Torrance is what seems to be the southernmost part of LA county, I thought the area was a charming and calmer than the LA hustle and bustle. If you travel about 15 minutes in any direction of the hospital you can find nice communities and some beach communities where a lot of the residents reside.
7. Salary & Benefits: Remember this is a county program so $3811.04/mo with ~$350/mo increase each year.
24 vacation days, usually taken in two 2-week vacations blocks. I was informed that most people get one out of the two vacation blocks that they request.
The residents said that you actually make money with the health plans that are offered.
They also offer a yearly resident retreat.
8. Program Strengths:
· A busy psych ER that will give you the opportunity to treat some really sick patients. Rumor has it that Harbor residents are among the most competent psychiatrists once they finish their training, and the recruiters know it.
· If patients need to be discharged to another state or country there is a possibility that a resident can accompany them on the flight. While I was interviewing they were talking about patients that had recently been taken back to Turkey, Australia, and France.
· Psychotherapy starting 2nd year, not a lot of programs provide this opportunity, and especially to the same degree that Harbor does. Residents shared that they had extremely helpful supervisors as well.
· Amazing community training and opportunity to serve the uninsured population. You learn how to treat the sickest of the sick, and really get to learn what resources are available in the area because you will be requesting them often.
· Early forensics experience, when working on the inpatient wards you might have to go to court and stand trail to get a patient conserved, and that can occur as early as your 1st year.
· Moonlighting begins 2nd year in the Psych ER. You can work 8, 16, and 24hr shifts as long as you stay within your work hour restrictions.
· Addiction training starting in 1st year, and C/L starting in third year. (may not be a strength for some)
· Everything up until 3rd year happens on one campus, so no running up the mileage on your car.
· Tons of electives to choose from given the relationship Harbor has with NPI
· The residents were all laid back and friendly, there seems to be a familial feel to the program.
· Torrance seems like a very nice area to live
9. Potential Weaknesses:
· You will work hard while you are at this program, I started wondering if the reason they provided so many vacation days is to prevent burnout.
· If you absolutely positive that you want to churn out research paper after research paper then this might not be the program for you.
· Though you will get to work with some medical students, it is not always guaranteed if that is important to you.
· If you have to go to court it is deep in LA and that is when you will feel the wrath of LA traffic.
· I don’t think there is an opportunity to work in a university-based clinic to treat undergraduates.
Overall I really enjoyed my interview and I think this program is going to end up high on my rank list, somewhere in the top 3. I am drawn to programs that provide good county experience and early therapy opportunities and Harbor provides both. I feel like if I were to train at Harbor I would leave prepared for whatever the world throws at me.
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2008
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- 4,144
- Reaction score
- 7,929
OHSU
1. Ease Of Communication:
Unremarkable, responsive by email.
2. Accommodation & Food:
Had a super early flight home so stayed at a hotel not on the list way out by the airport. A list was provided of hotels, some of which had OHSU discounts, but on cursory inspection all of these hotels were very expensive. Word was that they were trying to provide names of hotels very close to the hospital itself, which means that options are somewhat limited due to topography.
Pre-dinner jappy hour in a private room at a restaurant near the hill, rather than a full on dinner. One complimentary drink per person, light appetizers, fancy pizzas. I definitely preferred this set-up to a sit-down dinner, having now had the experience of being stuck at the end of the table where you can't hear most of the conversation and only talk to one person all night. Only downside was only three residents in attendance, two of them administrative chiefs. Apparently far more were signed up to come, but this was happening at the beginning of a Great Deluge that came upon the city and would continue for the next day without ceasing.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Fairly standard format, overview with PD/Chair, four twenty-five minute interviews that will either be before lunch or after, with the off-group taking a tour of the facilities. There seemed to be a list of standardized questions that more than one interviewer used and seemed more like what I'd expect in a real job interview (tell me about a time you had an interpersonal conflict with a colleague in medicine and how you resolved it), but at least one question from one interviewer asking me to identify the earliest memory I had of being interested in human behavior. I was lucky enough to interview in the afternoon, so at least one of my interviews allowed me to ask pointed questions about things other people had identified as areas in need of improvement in the program; thankfully this interview was with the new-ish attending that been hired specifically to address these issues!
Lunch was unobjectionable, but a strange choice was made re: beverages, to whit, the program provided beverages sufficient for the # of attendees/2. Funding problems?
4. Program Overview:
Eight in each class, with one slot for a dedicated research track. First year off-service, two months of inpatient medicine (potentially one of these months on pediatrics or endocrine consult service), one month in the ED, one month in a outpatient primary care clinic, two months neurology (generally outpatient unless you ask for it to be inpatient). On psych, short call twice a week and you work every every other Sunday.
I am not going to regurgitate all the scheduling details (they are easily available on the program website), but three things worth mentioning. First, you start with therapy cases in the second year (½ day a week), allowing you to get good continuity. Second, you remain in the call schedule third year, and will still be scheduled as backup and jeopardy in fourth year. Third, night float is the standard 6-7 weeks in second year, but it is done in 3-4 week blocks, which is a bit more than the two weeks at a time I had seen in a lot of other programs.
Alot of the details of scheduling and call are a bit up in the air at the moment, because as of this time-ish next year, the inpatient unit is going to move off the hill to Unity Hospital, a new free-standing psych hospital that is a joint venture with a bunch of other healthcare systems. This will open up all kinds of moonlighting opportunities, but perhaps more importantly, will not be making use of residents for night float or call, relieving residents of the responsibility of covering two inpatient units at night (VA and OHSU).
For 6 months of third year you will spend a day and a half a week doing community psychiatry, and there is an excellent series of very focused didactics on public psychiatry that everyone raves about. Portland is a city of lefty do-gooders, so there are plenty of community options to mix and match for fulfilling that requirement. My personal favorite is the Intercultural Psychiatry Clinic, which has 1300 patients who are all refugees speaking 15 different languages where you act as psychiatrist and someone who speaks their language and from their culture acts as case manager and therapist. They have a grant from the UN to study approaches to treating torture survivors.
The website discusses several tracks you can choose but apart from research, these are in hiatus due to lack of resident interest.
Geri, Forensics, Psychosomatic, CAP and Addictions fellowship available.
A lot has been made of the OHSU acute inpatient unit not being very nice. It is in a basement and was clearly built in the 70s, but then, my home program utilizes a unit in a hospital that was built in the 50s, so it didn't seem like such a big deal to me. Regardless, it will be moving soon to a freshly renovated facility. The new hospital will also have a 50 bed dedicated psych ED, which the program currently lacks.
If true integrated care is your thing, the local VA is moving very heavily towards a model of having a psychiatrist embedded in their outpatient primary care clinics, and so exposure to outpatient C/L work is quite strong.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Program in the past has had a bit of a reputation of poor support from faculty, but there have been some new hires to try and address that. For example, previously no direct supervision of therapy sessions was offered due to a complete lack of video recording capability in the outpatient clinic. Now a new-ish attending has been made co-director of therapy training specifically so she can observe therapy sessions to offer more useful feedback.
Over the past decade the university has done a good job recruiting stronger neuroscience and psychology basic science folks, and the founder of Nike is in talks to give yet another ginormous donation for neuroscience, so this is likely to continue.
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Hospital itself is on Marquam Hill, which means driving to the medical campus and parking in the immediate vicinity is very expensive. However, it is well-served by multiple forms of public trans, including an aerial tram that is free for OHSU students/employees and has a bike valet service at the bottom, because of course it does. Most of the clinical sites are clustered on the hill, though the state hospital, where the forensic and gero rotations take place, is in Salem, a goodly schlep away from Portland.
Not going to wax poetic about Portland. My favorite city in North America, at least in terms of places I would actually want to live. I can imagine it would be rather alienating if your politics were at all conservative , you were strongly religious, or if you really can't stand hipsters. If it is your mecca, you know it already.
Residents seem to be a very sociable bunch and frequently hang out together outside of work. The program sponsors two resident retreats a year for bonding purposes.
7. Salary & Benefits:
All on the website. Residents say the health insurance is good provided you stick to OHSU providers. Subsidized gym access at the bottom of the hill by the aerial tram stop. Also, for family-minded, an OHSU-run daycare in the same building, which is apparently reasonably priced.
8. Program Strengths:
- dat hill tho
- close connections to Oregon Psychoanalytic institute if that is your thing
- very strong emphasis on community and public psychiatry
-city is full of moonlighting opportunities
-a PD who seems very invested in the program and is now recruiting to try to address weaknesses
- located in the capital of Lefty Hipsterland
- shiny new hospital that is slated to open soon; interesting opportunity to see a new institution from the get-go
-a VA that by most accounts functions pretty well
-interns honestly seem happy
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-driving all the way to Salem for two months
-didactics historically weak, but by all accounts improving dramatically
-inpatient in the basement until the new hospital opens
-moonlighting strongly discouraged prior to 3rd year
- call schedule is somewhat more intense than at the median psych program; residents reported 50-60 hours was typical for inpatient psych blocks
-supervision patchy for therapy, especially in second year, although this is an area that is rapidly improving
-Californians buying up all the houses and making property super expensive (although still cheaper than the Bay Area or Seattle)
Overall, I went into this interview thinking it was going to be my top choice, and left the interview genuinely excited. My mind has not been changed.
1. Ease Of Communication:
Unremarkable, responsive by email.
2. Accommodation & Food:
Had a super early flight home so stayed at a hotel not on the list way out by the airport. A list was provided of hotels, some of which had OHSU discounts, but on cursory inspection all of these hotels were very expensive. Word was that they were trying to provide names of hotels very close to the hospital itself, which means that options are somewhat limited due to topography.
Pre-dinner jappy hour in a private room at a restaurant near the hill, rather than a full on dinner. One complimentary drink per person, light appetizers, fancy pizzas. I definitely preferred this set-up to a sit-down dinner, having now had the experience of being stuck at the end of the table where you can't hear most of the conversation and only talk to one person all night. Only downside was only three residents in attendance, two of them administrative chiefs. Apparently far more were signed up to come, but this was happening at the beginning of a Great Deluge that came upon the city and would continue for the next day without ceasing.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Fairly standard format, overview with PD/Chair, four twenty-five minute interviews that will either be before lunch or after, with the off-group taking a tour of the facilities. There seemed to be a list of standardized questions that more than one interviewer used and seemed more like what I'd expect in a real job interview (tell me about a time you had an interpersonal conflict with a colleague in medicine and how you resolved it), but at least one question from one interviewer asking me to identify the earliest memory I had of being interested in human behavior. I was lucky enough to interview in the afternoon, so at least one of my interviews allowed me to ask pointed questions about things other people had identified as areas in need of improvement in the program; thankfully this interview was with the new-ish attending that been hired specifically to address these issues!
Lunch was unobjectionable, but a strange choice was made re: beverages, to whit, the program provided beverages sufficient for the # of attendees/2. Funding problems?
4. Program Overview:
Eight in each class, with one slot for a dedicated research track. First year off-service, two months of inpatient medicine (potentially one of these months on pediatrics or endocrine consult service), one month in the ED, one month in a outpatient primary care clinic, two months neurology (generally outpatient unless you ask for it to be inpatient). On psych, short call twice a week and you work every every other Sunday.
I am not going to regurgitate all the scheduling details (they are easily available on the program website), but three things worth mentioning. First, you start with therapy cases in the second year (½ day a week), allowing you to get good continuity. Second, you remain in the call schedule third year, and will still be scheduled as backup and jeopardy in fourth year. Third, night float is the standard 6-7 weeks in second year, but it is done in 3-4 week blocks, which is a bit more than the two weeks at a time I had seen in a lot of other programs.
Alot of the details of scheduling and call are a bit up in the air at the moment, because as of this time-ish next year, the inpatient unit is going to move off the hill to Unity Hospital, a new free-standing psych hospital that is a joint venture with a bunch of other healthcare systems. This will open up all kinds of moonlighting opportunities, but perhaps more importantly, will not be making use of residents for night float or call, relieving residents of the responsibility of covering two inpatient units at night (VA and OHSU).
For 6 months of third year you will spend a day and a half a week doing community psychiatry, and there is an excellent series of very focused didactics on public psychiatry that everyone raves about. Portland is a city of lefty do-gooders, so there are plenty of community options to mix and match for fulfilling that requirement. My personal favorite is the Intercultural Psychiatry Clinic, which has 1300 patients who are all refugees speaking 15 different languages where you act as psychiatrist and someone who speaks their language and from their culture acts as case manager and therapist. They have a grant from the UN to study approaches to treating torture survivors.
The website discusses several tracks you can choose but apart from research, these are in hiatus due to lack of resident interest.
Geri, Forensics, Psychosomatic, CAP and Addictions fellowship available.
A lot has been made of the OHSU acute inpatient unit not being very nice. It is in a basement and was clearly built in the 70s, but then, my home program utilizes a unit in a hospital that was built in the 50s, so it didn't seem like such a big deal to me. Regardless, it will be moving soon to a freshly renovated facility. The new hospital will also have a 50 bed dedicated psych ED, which the program currently lacks.
If true integrated care is your thing, the local VA is moving very heavily towards a model of having a psychiatrist embedded in their outpatient primary care clinics, and so exposure to outpatient C/L work is quite strong.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Program in the past has had a bit of a reputation of poor support from faculty, but there have been some new hires to try and address that. For example, previously no direct supervision of therapy sessions was offered due to a complete lack of video recording capability in the outpatient clinic. Now a new-ish attending has been made co-director of therapy training specifically so she can observe therapy sessions to offer more useful feedback.
Over the past decade the university has done a good job recruiting stronger neuroscience and psychology basic science folks, and the founder of Nike is in talks to give yet another ginormous donation for neuroscience, so this is likely to continue.
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Hospital itself is on Marquam Hill, which means driving to the medical campus and parking in the immediate vicinity is very expensive. However, it is well-served by multiple forms of public trans, including an aerial tram that is free for OHSU students/employees and has a bike valet service at the bottom, because of course it does. Most of the clinical sites are clustered on the hill, though the state hospital, where the forensic and gero rotations take place, is in Salem, a goodly schlep away from Portland.
Not going to wax poetic about Portland. My favorite city in North America, at least in terms of places I would actually want to live. I can imagine it would be rather alienating if your politics were at all conservative , you were strongly religious, or if you really can't stand hipsters. If it is your mecca, you know it already.
Residents seem to be a very sociable bunch and frequently hang out together outside of work. The program sponsors two resident retreats a year for bonding purposes.
7. Salary & Benefits:
All on the website. Residents say the health insurance is good provided you stick to OHSU providers. Subsidized gym access at the bottom of the hill by the aerial tram stop. Also, for family-minded, an OHSU-run daycare in the same building, which is apparently reasonably priced.
8. Program Strengths:
- dat hill tho
- close connections to Oregon Psychoanalytic institute if that is your thing
- very strong emphasis on community and public psychiatry
-city is full of moonlighting opportunities
-a PD who seems very invested in the program and is now recruiting to try to address weaknesses
- located in the capital of Lefty Hipsterland
- shiny new hospital that is slated to open soon; interesting opportunity to see a new institution from the get-go
-a VA that by most accounts functions pretty well
-interns honestly seem happy
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-driving all the way to Salem for two months
-didactics historically weak, but by all accounts improving dramatically
-inpatient in the basement until the new hospital opens
-moonlighting strongly discouraged prior to 3rd year
- call schedule is somewhat more intense than at the median psych program; residents reported 50-60 hours was typical for inpatient psych blocks
-supervision patchy for therapy, especially in second year, although this is an area that is rapidly improving
-Californians buying up all the houses and making property super expensive (although still cheaper than the Bay Area or Seattle)
Overall, I went into this interview thinking it was going to be my top choice, and left the interview genuinely excited. My mind has not been changed.
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Yeah, 4 weeks vacation isn't "a lot" by any stretch for a psychiatry program. My own program had set blocks for intern year for scheduling reasons but for PG2 and above you took whatever days off you needed provided you weren't creating a massive coverage problems.
/btw, this continues to look like a year that neither my old program or the program I work at gets reviewed... START POSTING MORE MIDWEST REVIEWS, PEOPLE!
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Dear God, that sounds almost.... humane...
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I'm in love with my number one program. I feel significantly less excited about the cluster that may comprise 2-4 or 5. I know I will get good training at all of them, they just don't make me feel as pumped for different reasons. I'm thinking about canceling 3 interviews in January due to fatigue and money and the fact that a lot of the programs out there seem like slight variations of the same, but I'm worried about not being head over heels about all of the programs in my top 3, which is statistically where most people fall on match day. This makes me hesitant to cancel these three interviews, just incase I like them more. If I need to go on them I will suck it up and make it work for those three days since my future is important and I really want to find a good fit.
Is this normal? is there normally a wide emotional gap between 1 and 2 and 3? Should I be looking to close that gap?
Is this normal? is there normally a wide emotional gap between 1 and 2 and 3? Should I be looking to close that gap?
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I don't know what's normal. I feel ambivalent about almost all of my choices. I think they will all be great to excellent training in great to good locations.
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I suspect a lot of your feeling like nothing compares to your number 1 is probably connected to the fact that you have decided to is your favorite and thus are strongly biased towards interpreting all information about it with positive affect. At the end of the day it is professional training, so being deeply in love with the program seems superfluous, so long as the training is good and you don't think you'll be miserable.
You will probably go back to baseline happiness within six months of starting, modulo sleep deprivation. The job will not save you.
You will probably go back to baseline happiness within six months of starting, modulo sleep deprivation. The job will not save you.
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I personally have liked everywhere I've been - in general I feel like "malignant" programs are just rarer in psych than they are in some other specialties, and I'd have no problem at matching anywhere I've been (aka I'm not leaving anything off my rank list). They do shake down into 1/3rds pretty easy though. But the difference between my first 3 choices isn't really all that different from the next three... Ultimately I feel similarly about them as I do medschool - I'll only attend one and I'll never know what it would have been like to actually be somewhere else, so assuming I get what I need from it, it probably won't end up making much of a difference in the long run.
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Sounds like my program. First year we had to take a week at a time, and count vacation days towards weekends, too.
Year 2 it changed to taking off as few days as you want/need at a time (partial weeks), and for rotation/service months when there are no weekend shifts or calls, it is possible to stretch your vacation days (a week off bookended by 2 weekends = 9 consecutive days off at a cost of just 5 vacation days).
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Sounds like you are setting yourself up for disappointment since the stats show you have only approx a 50 percent likelihood of matching at #1 - like flipping a coin.
I would have been equally happy with 1 through 3, and there wasn't really any significant drop off until I got down to around #7 on my ROL (i.e., 4,5, and 6 were pretty even in my mind, but a notch below 1,2,3). I think this is more "normal" than what you are describing.
Also sounds like you owe it to yourself to attend more interviews since you feel such a big drop off from #1. You may need to still kick some tires...
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That's so interesting that you had such a different experience. I'm sorry it wasn't as positive. Re: work hours - it only came up in my case when talking about "attending didactics when post-call" and that sort of thing, so it seemed to be more focused on limiting consecutive work hours, rather than the work-week limits. But that's just my take on that.
I'm glad I'm not the only one burnt out from interviewing...but it's too bad you felt the program was as well.
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Program Name - SUNY Upstate
1. Ease Of Communication: Via ERAS and email. Specifics came sort of on the later side, but the really important things (like accommodations) was explained very early on in the process so it didn't really matter.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at the recommended hotel nearby (Crowne Plaza) at a negotiated reduced rate. There was a resident dinner the night before, which was very nice. Breakfast was available (bagels, muffins, coffee) and a typical lunch was provided.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): The interview started at 8am with a tour of University Hospital and the VA. Then there was an intro by the program chair and PD. Then 3x1hour interviews (actually about 45min in length) with a resident lunch in the middle. All-in-all, the day was pretty relaxed, but the interviews were somewhat intense. There were no "tell me about a time you worked with a team"-type questions. Instead, 2 of the interviews were very psychoanalytically-oriented ("how does your birth-order affect your future practice of psychiatry?", "how did you feel when X, Y, or Z happened to you?", etc). It was a little surprising, but the interviewers were very nice about everything and in the end the interviews made you think more than normal. The 3rd interview was more typical. Lunch with the residents was rather lightly attended, but they were all very friendly and funny and helpful.
4. Program Overview: Eight residents/class. This program is very psychoanalytically oriented. Not to say that you won't learn psychopharmacology here, but their view seems to be that you can learn that part very quickly/easily, so it's best to focus on the more challenging aspects of psychiatry. They were very cognizant of the fact that a lot of us might end up doing primarily med management, but they highlighted how a strong psychoanalytic training will help you do that better. There is a lot of time set aside for didactics, which seem to be very well thought-out throughout the years. Call is on par with most psych programs and gets lighter as you go along. There's a "draft call" system in place where you tell the chiefs the days you DON'T want call and they work the schedule around you. PGY-1 call is structured so you have help/supervision readily available. One very unique aspect of the program is the "Cornerstone" month that you have in July of your PGY-1 year. It's basically a month of orientation to psychiatry with seminars, practice interviews, etc to get you ready to start residency. One thing that really struck me with this program is that they tend to teach you things FIRST, then ask you to do them vs. other programs where you're expected to "figure it out as you go" a little more. Tons of research opportunities available (some are described on their website) if that's your thing, but each resident is only required to do some sort of scholarly activity during residency and the program provides a lot of mentorship to help with that. Teaching opportunities available with SUNY Upstate students. Clinical rotations are at a variety of sites, including the VA, which are almost all located within a few blocks of each other. The only downside to the clinical rotations that I could see is lack of an inpatient child rotation, but you DO get a selective in your PGY-2 year which you can use at your discretion, so if that's a big sticking point I think there are ways to work that experience in. In this program, you have the opportunity to take on 1 therapy pt in your PGY-1 year (after your addiction rotation...see below) and another pt in your PGY-2 year.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Many are heavily involved in research. One faculty member, Dr. Brian Johnson, who specializes in addiction, was mentioned repeatedly by the residents. His approach is focused on treating the "whole patient" rather than a "dual diagnosis" approach. All the residents I talked to said his service was very challenging but that it is where they started thinking like a psychiatrist and were thrilled to have the opportunity to train with him.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Syracuse = snow. But beyond that, the city seems to be undergoing a revival of sorts and I was told about all sorts of tasty restaurants, etc. Lots of outdoor activities in the vicinity. Lots of craft beer and wineries as well. Low cost of living, so you can actually DO all those things. The program has a strong focus on resident wellness, with the understanding that if you're miserable, you're not going to learn and you're not going to be able to properly take care of your patients. Therefore, there is a sense of real balance and the residents I spoke to seemed able to do all the things they enjoyed and still learn a ton.
7. Salary & Benefits: PGY-1 — $50,061.00; PGY-2 — $53,821.00; PGY-3 — $56,318.00; PGY-4 — $58,622.00. 20 vacation days with only a few restrictions on when you can take them (can't miss 50% of a rotation, for example). $700/yr for meals, book stipend, conference stipend, health benefits, etc.
8. Program Strengths: Strong focus on psychoanalysis. Large # of research opportunities. Child, addictions, forensics, and psychosomatic fellowships available. PD seems to genuinely look out for his residents. Good work-life balance.
9. Potential Weaknesses: No inpatient child. No true psych ED exposure. Snow.
1. Ease Of Communication: Via ERAS and email. Specifics came sort of on the later side, but the really important things (like accommodations) was explained very early on in the process so it didn't really matter.
2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed at the recommended hotel nearby (Crowne Plaza) at a negotiated reduced rate. There was a resident dinner the night before, which was very nice. Breakfast was available (bagels, muffins, coffee) and a typical lunch was provided.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): The interview started at 8am with a tour of University Hospital and the VA. Then there was an intro by the program chair and PD. Then 3x1hour interviews (actually about 45min in length) with a resident lunch in the middle. All-in-all, the day was pretty relaxed, but the interviews were somewhat intense. There were no "tell me about a time you worked with a team"-type questions. Instead, 2 of the interviews were very psychoanalytically-oriented ("how does your birth-order affect your future practice of psychiatry?", "how did you feel when X, Y, or Z happened to you?", etc). It was a little surprising, but the interviewers were very nice about everything and in the end the interviews made you think more than normal. The 3rd interview was more typical. Lunch with the residents was rather lightly attended, but they were all very friendly and funny and helpful.
4. Program Overview: Eight residents/class. This program is very psychoanalytically oriented. Not to say that you won't learn psychopharmacology here, but their view seems to be that you can learn that part very quickly/easily, so it's best to focus on the more challenging aspects of psychiatry. They were very cognizant of the fact that a lot of us might end up doing primarily med management, but they highlighted how a strong psychoanalytic training will help you do that better. There is a lot of time set aside for didactics, which seem to be very well thought-out throughout the years. Call is on par with most psych programs and gets lighter as you go along. There's a "draft call" system in place where you tell the chiefs the days you DON'T want call and they work the schedule around you. PGY-1 call is structured so you have help/supervision readily available. One very unique aspect of the program is the "Cornerstone" month that you have in July of your PGY-1 year. It's basically a month of orientation to psychiatry with seminars, practice interviews, etc to get you ready to start residency. One thing that really struck me with this program is that they tend to teach you things FIRST, then ask you to do them vs. other programs where you're expected to "figure it out as you go" a little more. Tons of research opportunities available (some are described on their website) if that's your thing, but each resident is only required to do some sort of scholarly activity during residency and the program provides a lot of mentorship to help with that. Teaching opportunities available with SUNY Upstate students. Clinical rotations are at a variety of sites, including the VA, which are almost all located within a few blocks of each other. The only downside to the clinical rotations that I could see is lack of an inpatient child rotation, but you DO get a selective in your PGY-2 year which you can use at your discretion, so if that's a big sticking point I think there are ways to work that experience in. In this program, you have the opportunity to take on 1 therapy pt in your PGY-1 year (after your addiction rotation...see below) and another pt in your PGY-2 year.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Many are heavily involved in research. One faculty member, Dr. Brian Johnson, who specializes in addiction, was mentioned repeatedly by the residents. His approach is focused on treating the "whole patient" rather than a "dual diagnosis" approach. All the residents I talked to said his service was very challenging but that it is where they started thinking like a psychiatrist and were thrilled to have the opportunity to train with him.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Syracuse = snow. But beyond that, the city seems to be undergoing a revival of sorts and I was told about all sorts of tasty restaurants, etc. Lots of outdoor activities in the vicinity. Lots of craft beer and wineries as well. Low cost of living, so you can actually DO all those things. The program has a strong focus on resident wellness, with the understanding that if you're miserable, you're not going to learn and you're not going to be able to properly take care of your patients. Therefore, there is a sense of real balance and the residents I spoke to seemed able to do all the things they enjoyed and still learn a ton.
7. Salary & Benefits: PGY-1 — $50,061.00; PGY-2 — $53,821.00; PGY-3 — $56,318.00; PGY-4 — $58,622.00. 20 vacation days with only a few restrictions on when you can take them (can't miss 50% of a rotation, for example). $700/yr for meals, book stipend, conference stipend, health benefits, etc.
8. Program Strengths: Strong focus on psychoanalysis. Large # of research opportunities. Child, addictions, forensics, and psychosomatic fellowships available. PD seems to genuinely look out for his residents. Good work-life balance.
9. Potential Weaknesses: No inpatient child. No true psych ED exposure. Snow.
Program Name: Wash U
Program Communication: No problems with scheduling or communication.
Accommodations:
Parkway Hotel is connected to the Hospital. Expedia rate was cheaper than the Wash U discount. Allow approximately 20 minutes to get to the interview from the hotel. Residents will pick you up from the hotel for dinner.
Dinner:
Excellent dinner in Central West End. Great resident turnout. The residents were incredibly friendly and cohesive.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Start at 8:15 with coffee, tea, and granola bars available (smallest breakfast of interview season). Eat before interview day if you like breakfast. Dr. Farber, the PD, gives an introduction to the program. Provided overview of program, emphasized biologic approach, and discussed required 4 month research elective in 4th year (flexible in nature). The day consists of ~5 interviews including interviews with Dr. Farber (PD) and Dr. Harbit (APD) as well as a short meeting with Dr. Zarumski (Department Chair). Lunch and tour in the middle of the day. Barnes-Jewish Hospital is enormous. 48 inpatient beds divided into general, acute and gero psychiatry units. No dedicated psych ED. Day ends by 4 pm, possibly earlier depending on your schedule.
Program and Curriculum Overview
~11 residents per year, some fast track into child. Residents rotate at Barnes Jewish, VA, McCallum Place (eating disorders), Bridgeway Behavioral Health (detox/substance abuse). PGY1 is traditional mix of neurology, psych and internal medicine. PGY2 consists of variety of inpatient rotations Inpatient child is not required, but can be done as a selective. PGY3 follow 150-200 outpatients, mostly adult, but also rotate 2 months in outpatient child clinic. Residents have their own offices. PGY4 consists mostly of electives and 4 month research elective. No overnight call as PGY1 but do have nightfloat. PGY2 on call in ED, approximately one overnight call per week.
Program Feel and Culture
Very social, close-knit group of residents. Work hard first 2 years, but call stops by 3rd/4th years. This program has less supervision and more autonomy than most programs. While residents are on the ED shift there is no faculty member present. Faculty members are only available by phone. Only 2 hours of supervision per week during outpatient months as 3rd year. The program believes that residents should have relatively little input from faculty so they develop their own style. Residents like the autonomy and did not feel overwhelmed by it.
This is a very biological program. One of Dr. Farber’s slides mentioned that “psychotherapy is not psychoanalysis”. Many faculty/residents believe psychiatrists should handle the “medical” aspect of psychiatry while psychotherapy should be delegated to psychologists and social workers. Residents wore white coats on all inpatient units. As someone with a strong interest in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, I felt somewhat out of place at the program. Program seemed dismissive of less "evidence based psychotherapies” such as psychanalysis. Program focuses on basic science research, but does not seem to have very many research opportunities in psychotherapy.
Location & Lifestyle
Most residents live close together in the Central West End. Good place for singles as well as families due to the low cost of living and social nature of the program. The Central West End was very nice with many small restaurants. Residents really like going out to restaurants and drinks together. Some residents buy houses whereas others rent apartments. Many different types of apartment buildings (from houses to high rises) available. They are building a Whole Foods and have an Ikea.
Salary & Benefits
Uncertain, these were not listed in the pamphlet they sent us
Program Strengths
-Heavy emphasis on “biological” approach, could be seen as positive or negative. This program pioneered the biologic approach to psychiatry in the 70s and were leaders in creating the DSM III.
-St. Louis (reasonable quality/cost of living in Central West End)
-Close knit, enthusiastic, happy group of residents
-Many opportunities for basic science research, required research elective in 4th year
-Eating disorders, ECT and addiction training are strong
-Heavy focus on resident autonomy could be seen as positive or negative
Potential Weaknesses
-Not for those interested in strong psychotherapy training. Believe in outsourcing psychotherapy to psychologists/social workers.
-Somewhat of a hostile stance towards psychoanalytic therapy in particular.
-Heavy focus on autonomy/resident independence could be seen as positive or negative. No faculty member present in ED with residents. Only 2 hours per week of supervision in 3rd year.
-Unclear if residents truly have an exposure to diversity of perspectives outside of the "biologic model." While PD said that the goal of the program is not to churn out researchers, several interviewers seemed like they were biased towards basic science research over other types of research.
Program Communication: No problems with scheduling or communication.
Accommodations:
Parkway Hotel is connected to the Hospital. Expedia rate was cheaper than the Wash U discount. Allow approximately 20 minutes to get to the interview from the hotel. Residents will pick you up from the hotel for dinner.
Dinner:
Excellent dinner in Central West End. Great resident turnout. The residents were incredibly friendly and cohesive.
Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Start at 8:15 with coffee, tea, and granola bars available (smallest breakfast of interview season). Eat before interview day if you like breakfast. Dr. Farber, the PD, gives an introduction to the program. Provided overview of program, emphasized biologic approach, and discussed required 4 month research elective in 4th year (flexible in nature). The day consists of ~5 interviews including interviews with Dr. Farber (PD) and Dr. Harbit (APD) as well as a short meeting with Dr. Zarumski (Department Chair). Lunch and tour in the middle of the day. Barnes-Jewish Hospital is enormous. 48 inpatient beds divided into general, acute and gero psychiatry units. No dedicated psych ED. Day ends by 4 pm, possibly earlier depending on your schedule.
Program and Curriculum Overview
~11 residents per year, some fast track into child. Residents rotate at Barnes Jewish, VA, McCallum Place (eating disorders), Bridgeway Behavioral Health (detox/substance abuse). PGY1 is traditional mix of neurology, psych and internal medicine. PGY2 consists of variety of inpatient rotations Inpatient child is not required, but can be done as a selective. PGY3 follow 150-200 outpatients, mostly adult, but also rotate 2 months in outpatient child clinic. Residents have their own offices. PGY4 consists mostly of electives and 4 month research elective. No overnight call as PGY1 but do have nightfloat. PGY2 on call in ED, approximately one overnight call per week.
Program Feel and Culture
Very social, close-knit group of residents. Work hard first 2 years, but call stops by 3rd/4th years. This program has less supervision and more autonomy than most programs. While residents are on the ED shift there is no faculty member present. Faculty members are only available by phone. Only 2 hours of supervision per week during outpatient months as 3rd year. The program believes that residents should have relatively little input from faculty so they develop their own style. Residents like the autonomy and did not feel overwhelmed by it.
This is a very biological program. One of Dr. Farber’s slides mentioned that “psychotherapy is not psychoanalysis”. Many faculty/residents believe psychiatrists should handle the “medical” aspect of psychiatry while psychotherapy should be delegated to psychologists and social workers. Residents wore white coats on all inpatient units. As someone with a strong interest in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, I felt somewhat out of place at the program. Program seemed dismissive of less "evidence based psychotherapies” such as psychanalysis. Program focuses on basic science research, but does not seem to have very many research opportunities in psychotherapy.
Location & Lifestyle
Most residents live close together in the Central West End. Good place for singles as well as families due to the low cost of living and social nature of the program. The Central West End was very nice with many small restaurants. Residents really like going out to restaurants and drinks together. Some residents buy houses whereas others rent apartments. Many different types of apartment buildings (from houses to high rises) available. They are building a Whole Foods and have an Ikea.
Salary & Benefits
Uncertain, these were not listed in the pamphlet they sent us
Program Strengths
-Heavy emphasis on “biological” approach, could be seen as positive or negative. This program pioneered the biologic approach to psychiatry in the 70s and were leaders in creating the DSM III.
-St. Louis (reasonable quality/cost of living in Central West End)
-Close knit, enthusiastic, happy group of residents
-Many opportunities for basic science research, required research elective in 4th year
-Eating disorders, ECT and addiction training are strong
-Heavy focus on resident autonomy could be seen as positive or negative
Potential Weaknesses
-Not for those interested in strong psychotherapy training. Believe in outsourcing psychotherapy to psychologists/social workers.
-Somewhat of a hostile stance towards psychoanalytic therapy in particular.
-Heavy focus on autonomy/resident independence could be seen as positive or negative. No faculty member present in ED with residents. Only 2 hours per week of supervision in 3rd year.
-Unclear if residents truly have an exposure to diversity of perspectives outside of the "biologic model." While PD said that the goal of the program is not to churn out researchers, several interviewers seemed like they were biased towards basic science research over other types of research.
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