2017-2018 Psychiatry Interview Reviews / Insight

I am ambivalent about some of the striped suits I've seen out there. Tends to stray into mafia or pajama-esque territory, I think.

 

Just don’t do it.

 

pinstripes are fine. it means you're a future forensic psychiatrist

 

Your general impressions would be good, also if anything in particular stood out (positive or negative). And if you stayed in one of the hotels they recommend, are they close? was it easy to get to the interview site?

 

Go with brown. Be different from even those who are trying to be different. And it doesn't look like pajamas or mafia garb.

Of course, now if you wear brown it's because I told you to do so. So you won't be different. You'll be a conformer.

 

I thought you were talking about the Brown program!

 

So I think my suit may have stripes. I didn't see them until AFTER spending $120 on tailoring it. Should I buy a different suit? Sometimes I see the stripes definitely, like holding it up in the sun. But in the mirror I really can't see them. The suit is gray. Money is an issue, but so is not matching.

Would you recommend a different suit?

 

I've seen striped suits on my interview trail. Don't overthink it. You'll be fine. Just grow a mustache & grease your hair back.

 

Eeeew! A mustache. That would not be good.

(am female. By the way, just checked and cannot see the "stripes" in indoor lighting. It's like that blue/black or gold/white dress meme.)

 

If it is hard to see, chances are it is not obnoxious. I wouldn't put yourself into financial disparity over it. I just think that folks make what should be very straightforward and easy into something more complicated. Especially if prone to neuroses -- Personally, I spent $400 on a mens wear house suit (this was all I could afford) and it was a BOGO so I purchased a navy blue and charcoal gray. Will someone who knows suits be impressed? Probably not. But it did the job well and I now have two suits which can be used in any occasion with most any coordinated tie/shirt. Practicality is good at this stage.

 

Keep in mind as well how the vast majority of your interviewers dress. Other than Mayo and a handful of big time department chairs, most of us are pretty far down the "casual" end of "business casual" in psychiatry, and rarely spend a lot on wardrobe.

 

you are forgetting forensic psychiatrists...

 

Hardly a majority of residency interviewers, are they...those doctors in lawyers' clothing.

 

Interviews are the last time I see any of our students in a suit unless I get invited to their weddings. Men's warehouse sale is a good enough idea.

 

Also the only time my residents see me in a tie except graduation.

 

UNC
I agree with almost everythinh Doggums wrote, so I'm just going to focus more on my overall impression.

Overall Impression
-Very strong program with lots of research opportunities and residents who seemed to get along well and hang out outside of work.
-I liked all of the residents I interacted with and they all seemed very down-to-earth (though, maybe they keep their narcissists in hiding).
-Call is front-loaded, but has improved over previous years due to EM taking over the Psych Emergency Department. Now that rotation is much more education focused and the night float in PGY2 was replaced with dayfloat.
-I disagree with Doggums's impression about the lack of tailoring though. I think UNC built a lot of choice into the curriculum, so that going off-script isn't necessary and/or would be too difficult to accommodate for everyone. For instance, PGY2 has flexibility in choosing your community psych clinic rotation (including an option for a year around ACTT rotation), also specialty clinics (including women's mood, eating disorders, child development, substance, and more) and the location of your child psych clinic and STEP Clinic. The clinician educator and research tracks can be applied to in the middle of PGY1 and create options for personalizing PGY2, since you essentially get 1-2 days a week PGY2 to do whatever your interests are within those tracks. PGY3 you can't choose your clinics really, but you can choose how large your outpatient panel so that you can focus on psychotherapy training by having a large panel or seeing less outpatients to continue doing PGY2 projects. Then PGY4 is mostly elective with very few restrictions. That said, it's not the most flexible program ever conceived, but if you're able to navigate the system, you can make it your own.
-You can do the Community Psych Fellowship during your PGY4 (I believe you can do the other non-ACGME fellowships as well like Eating disorders or Reproductive Mood, but I'm not entirely sure).
-Overall, I really liked the program and could definitely see myself there.

 

Yale

Ease of Communication: Prompt and clear. Had no trouble finding buildings and received good recommendations for housing nearby. Residents also emailed to offer their own couches.

Accommodation & Food: If you don’t stay with a resident, there are affordable airbnbs in the area, especially if you look ahead of time. I stayed in the East Rock area, which is full of tree-lined streets and Victorian houses (about $50/night). Within ~30 minutes walking distance of the medical campus or a cheap Lyft ride away.

Pre-interview activities included both a tour and dinner. Two residents led us on a tour of the Yale campus and New Haven. It's beautiful. The buildings and greenery are gorgeous. The library is practically a church. Even the gym looks like a castle. What a world.

Dinner was at Miya's Sushi and very well-attended by residents (including PGY-1s). Nearly every other seat was taken by a resident, and they intentionally switched places during the dinner to talk to more applicants. Some of the nicest & happiest residents I've met, hands down. A common thread for many residents I met was having a particular mission within psychiatry outside of subspecialties (e.g. working with the underserved, medical education, administrative work, etc.)

Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Starts off with the PD Dr. Rohrbaugh and one of the three APDs talking with the group about Yale's core values and approach to resident education. Mission was to support residents in having a wide breadth of training and depth of expertise in a particular area, whatever that may be. I’m a fan of the PD, Dr. Rohrbaugh--seems like a soft-spoken and thoughtful person.

Afterward, each applicant had four interviews around 30-45 minutes long each. Varied from extensive questions about particular interests of mine to career advice to whole conversations very far afield from medicine and psychiatry.

Lunch in a New Haven pizzeria followed by a tour of clinical sites, most of which are within 5-10 minutes walking distance of one another. Facilities are beautiful and hushed. Visited the Yale medical library and given a tour by the librarians, which included Harvey Cushing’s collection of brain specimens.

Afterward, a group Q&A session with the Chair, John Krystal. Given a farewell from the PD who shared an article written by a former student representative to the NRMP Match Board of Representatives describing his cynicism with the process. Informed us that no further contact from us would simply be interpreted as the fact that we had had all our questions answered. Lastly, optional session to talk with two recent alumni and ask more questions.

Program Overview: Training sites include Yale-New Haven Hospital (private, 76 psychiatric beds), Connecticut Mental Health Center (community MH center, 32 beds), VA (197 beds), Yale University Health Services (prepaid health services for Yale University students & faculty), Yale Child Study Center, and la Clinica Hispana within CMHC (outpatient mental health services for monolingual Latino community).

PGY-1: Medicine (5 mos), Neurology (2 mos), Psychiatry (5 mos with 3 months of VA, 1 month of adolescent at YNHH, and 1 month of child inpatient at YNHH), and PREP (1 month of rotation through non-traditional settings such as day hospitals, integrated primary care, or community treatment teams).

• Call on Psych service = Q7 of either Psych ED at YNHH 6-10pm weeknights or consult for YNHH 8am-5am on weekends.
• PREP call = only weekend coverage for YNHH 8am-5am.

PGY-2: General inpatient (3 mos), geriatrics (3 mos?), CL (3 mos?, Psych ED (1 mo), and CASE (3 mos).

• CASE = Clinical and Academic Skills Enhancement/time set aside for residents to begin scholarly work in area of interest to be continued throughout residency.
• Longitudinal psychotherapy in PGY-2 year with Yale undergraduate/graduate student begins with ½ day/week outpatient visits.
• Call = ~Q10 at CMHC or YNHH.

PGY-3: Spent in one of three settings (CMHC, VA, or YNHH) as determined by a lottery system (residents say most were able to get their desired placements, and if not, could rotate there for PGY-4 year instead). Perhaps less of a longitudinal, multi-clinic outpatient experience that one might find in other programs. 20% time for academic project or working with particular patient population.

• Call = ~Q11 at Crisis Intervention Unit at YNHH ED.

PGY-4: 100% elective time. Workshops/panels for career development.

Didactics: Emphasis on “adult-learning” (APD David Ross’ particular interest). For instance--asking residents to come prepared w/ pre-didactic work and use role-playing/teaching each other as an interactive way to consolidate concepts.

Psychotherapy: Seems pretty solid. Associated w/ a small psychoanalytic institute.

Vibes: Compared to some residencies in NYC and Boston (from my POV and brief impressions), slightly less of an externally-focused career-driven mindset. Instead, a sense of aiming for personal growth and infusing your work with w/ an overarching purpose, derived from contemplation and discussion. Residencies in the former cities may have hamsters on a wheel with their eyes on bigger and better wheels, while at Yale, the hamsters are scratching their hamster chins thinking about how to make all the wheels in the cage better. Forgive the analogy. Most residents seem to choose to stay at Yale after graduating.

Faculty Achievements & Involvement: So many leaders in their respective fields. Many who have stayed on as faculty at Yale or gone on to administrative roles in departments around the country.

Location & Lifestyle: I fell a little in love with New Haven. It has a lot of charm, and feels less transient than some other towns with universities or larger cities. Met some friendly locals. Affordable housing is a little easier to come by than in Boston or NYC. A good amount to do in the way of museums, restaurants, music, theater, local art scene, hiking in East Rock in addition to music & lectures brought in by the university. Personally, I’m kind of a homebody and don’t need to live in a bustling large city.

Commuting-wise, many residents live within walking distance of the medical campus or within a 15-minute bike ride. Most residents recommend having a car so as to not have to bum rides all the time. Some residents split a commute with their partners who work in NYC by living in Stamford, CT. NYC is accessible via a 2 hr ride on the MetroNorth for $17.50.

Salary & Benefits: Fairly high salaries ($68,524-$78,316). Annual educational stipend ($1400). Free health insurance for you + family w/ the Yale Health Plan.

Program Strengths:

• Expectation of developing personal interests/missions you have within psychiatry.
• Strong in Child, Addictions, Forensics--by hearsay.
• Option to apply for Public Psychiatry fellowship for PGY4 year
  
• Very flush department, well-funded.
  
• Program touts that they’re particularly welcoming to IMGs. Several faculty members come from medical schools outside the U.S. as well.
• Along those lines, one of the most genuinely “diverse” (and happy) group of residents.
• New Haven is charming and very livable.

Potential Weaknesses:

• May feel out of place if your focus is to be a good clinician without necessarily having to wear other hats during your career.
• New Haven, if you prefer larger cities.

Overall Impression: Really felt at home and would be overjoyed to match here.

 

Indiana University
(from anon)

1. Ease of Communication:
Interview offered via email. Had 2 dates to choose from. Basic interview/hotel information provided 2wks in advance (basic outline with list of interviewers). Did not provide interview day schedule until morning of interview. Program coordinator is SUPER nice.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Food the night before was delicious. ~13 applicants & 8-10ish residents from all 4yrs. Alcohol cost us money. Family style appetizers & dessert with individual entrees & sides. Hotel was free; super nice; parking cost ~$30. Residents were very chill during dinner; had a lot of different personalities; really enjoyed this group. Breakfast was free at the hotel before the interview day. Could shuttle from hotel with baggage or drive & park at garage nearby with a voucher provided. Basic breakfast was at the program overview with coffee/water/juice. Lunch was catered BBQ with lots of residents to talk to. There were tide stain pens, coffee, snacks, lint rollers, etc. in the lounge we waited at.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Started at 8am. Started with program overview. Either do interviews in AM with tour of facilities/Indianapolis in PM or vice-versa. Comfortable shoes recommended for tour. Tour was pretty long: saw most the hospitals (maybe all?) plus a driving tour of Indianapolis. Lunch between with residents. 5x 30min interviews with a 30min break: 2x asst/chief residents, PD triple board, PD, & aPD. Very casual conversation. No tough questions really. Mostly “tell me about yourself,” “why psychiatry,” & application specific questions. Had one of my favorite interviews with a faculty here who asked me if I preferred the Stones or Beatles as well as a lot of other fun questions. He acted so impressed & said I wow'd him at the end of the interview (but I didn't match here). Felt like the triple board PD just talked at me mostly; he was super nice though.

4. Program Overview:
Great overview on their website. PGY1: 3mos inpatient medicine, 1mo ED (strict schedule, great rotation b/c IU is a top ED residency), 2mos neurology consults; 6mos inpatient psych (2mos VA). PGY2: addiction, geriatrics, CBT (though this is in the air right now for some reason), forensic, CL, CAP, CAP CL, & ED psych. PGY3: outpatient psychopharm clinic, psychodynamic clinics (supervised), & electives. PGY4: electives (12mos) & QI project; this will likely become more structured in future, so residents will likely supervise an intern team of their choosing for 1-2mos PGY4.

Research, global health, or educator tracks available. Not trapped in track if you choose it. Electives are very flexible per residents. They are affiliated with a Kenyan program & can travel for 2mos to work there in PGY4. ECT mandatory for 1yr. rTMS elective. Very few, if any DBS patients. Suboxone training. Tele-psych option. Fellowships in CAP, geriatrics, addiction, neuropsychiatry, consult-liaison (being accredited), pain, palliative, & sleep. They also have a triple board program (peds-psych-CAP). Short call (to 10pm ~qweek) for PGY1. Full call PGY2 year only (~qweek). Home call on weekends. No night float. PGY3s serve as emergency call for 1wk duration, but are usually not called in. Moonlighting PGY2+ with good salary. Lots of research opportunities. Can hop on projects or start your own (PGY1 if desired). Psychotherapy is through didactics & supervised clinic (CBT starts PGY2); 1-way mirror & audio/video recordings for practice plus protected psychotherapy didactics. CBT clinic is in the air right now; trying to balance how much to give; will likely have basic didactics PGY2 with option for clinic pending individual interest. Opportunity to work with medical students. Increasing autonomy over years.

No social scut work (got a new social worker to cover this). Social workers do a lot of work for you during call; they won’t waste your time with easy cases. “Resident business meetings” is protected time every Friday where residents get together to talk about the program or concerns. “Power hour” after that is a lecture. Didactics Fri early afternoon (protected) plus other protected times throughout the week (e.g., psychodynamic).

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Very friendly faculty. Lots of research. Approachable. Eager to work with residents for research.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Residents live all over. They seem very happy & not overworked. Sounds like a cushy lifestyle. This isn’t a resident-driven residency, so they won’t push back if you are sick or need to take a day for emergencies or whatever. Decent amount of things to do in Indianapolis: Colts, Pacers, zoo, food, & hiking/biking/running. Pretty safe city per residents. Snow & temperature aren’t as bad as Chicago. Have friends who lived here & actually really enjoyed it. Lots of pro-abortion, pro-god billboards driving around Indiana. Good cost of living. Lots of residents are Indiana natives. Mix of different ages & marriage status among residents. Many residents stay in Indiana. Mix of fellowships (CAP > addiction > forensics > geriatrics) & private vs. academic settings. Hospitals were the nicest I’ve seen so far; even the VA (which they said was not nice) was the nicest I’d seen.

7. Salary & Benefits:
PGY1 $55k to PGY4 $60k. Vacation is 3wks for PGY1-2 & 4wks for PGY3+; can take individual days & it usually requires 45d notice (but can be more relaxed depending on rotation). 5d for education. Parking is free ($20 for easy access that bypasses patients). Health & dental insurance covers you & family (~$300 copay). Gym access: free at hospital, $20/mo at YMCA (super nice one downtown).

8. Program Strengths:
- Residents
- Lifestyle, call schedule
- Elective flexibility
- Research opportunities
- Early psychotherapy (CBT) training
- Indianapolis
- Inhouse fellowships
- VA experience
- Clinical (?) & socioeconomic diversity
- Indiana job opportunities, malpractice

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Other treatment modalities (DBS, VNS)
- Other psychotherapy modalities (group, couples/family, ITP, supportive, DBT ???)
- Indianapolis/Indiana
- Racial diversity
- Few zebra pathologies

10. Overall Impression:
I did not expect to like this program; almost canceled it. Really love it though. Best resident group I have met. Sounded like a very balanced & flexible program with opportunity to pursue your interests (both in psychotherapy & research/biology). Great lifestyle. Friendly faculty. Cheap cost of living in a pretty decent city. May not get exposure to anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, but should receive great training.

 

University of Wisconsin – Madison
(from anon)

1. Ease of Communication:
Through ERAS messaging. Choose top 3 dates for interview + interests + faculty you want to meet with if wanted (didn’t get any I chose). Hotel information provided some weeks/month in advance.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Free hotel at DoubleTree in downtown Madison night before; very nice; gave us a delicious (310 calorie!) cookie on check in. Appetizers & wine/beer night before at their outpatient clinic with residents & faculty. Well-attended. Got a presentation about research opportunities. Strongly suggested (numerous times) to go out with residents that night at Hop Cats (bar). Were a decent amount of residents there. Opportunity to ask more questions & get a good understanding of the group dynamic within & between resident years. Ordered some fries & cheese curds. Most people had 1x beer or so. Got back around 9pm. Breakfast was pastries from a local bakery (pretty yummy), coffee, water, & fruit. Lunch was catered with salads, sandwiches, & chips. It was very good. Residents were present for more questions. Ended with hot cider & cookies during a psychoanalysis chat. Pen provided. Goodie bag provided.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
~10 applicants. Started at 730am with an CAP overview at outpatient center. 1 applicant had an interview at this time. 6x interviews before noon: 30min with x2 residents (PGY 2 & 3), PD, + child psychologist; 15min with chairman (research focused) & aPD (psychotherapy focused). Questions mostly “tell me about yourself.” Had a “tell me about a time you failed,” “what about you should I know that’s not on your CV,” “how do you approach psych pts (bombed this one),” & “what people do you work best with?” Obviously a lot of “what questions do you have?” Met with a child psychologist for an interview: definitely one of my harder interviews of the season. Presentation on research groups/opportunities just before noon. Lunch at UW hospital with residents. Tour. Psychotherapy talk with faculty at end over hot cider & cookies, which was very interesting. Faculty I spoke with were very personable & seemed very involved in bettering the program. Casual talk was mostly with residents.

4. Program Overview:
Accepts 9-10 residents/yr (may be 10 starting this year). Overview located online. Outpatient heavy. PGY1: 8mos inpatient psych + 4mos “primary care.” Psychotherapy starting in PGY2 for 3yr patient follow up care. No inpatient neuro or medicine (it’s family medicine here) in PGY1. Neuro is outpatient PGY3. ECT in PGY3. 50% elective time PGY4.

Psychotherapy-focused, but have a focus on research; seems like most residents are just disinterested. Cover psychodynamic, CBT, IPT, DBT (elective), etc. Supervision with recordings & wrap-ups at the end of the day. Flexible with electives. Protected didactics on Wednesday. New clinical educator track that focuses on education & research, which sounds to be increasing in popularity. Also have public health & community tracks available. Can tailor a research track if you really want; research mentors are available. Research is feasible starting PGY2 (possible in PGY1 if you are gung-ho). Accompanied call with attending for first 6 call days. No 24hr call in PGY1. Call all 4 years. Night float in PGY1.

Inhouse fellowships: CAP, geriatrics, addiction, & sleep medicine. Most go into CAP (obviously), but addiction is popular. Work with medical students in PGY1, but will likely work with them outpatient in future (med school curriculum changes). QI project PGY3. Dream club every other Wednesday to discuss staff/attending/resident dreams (sounds cool). Mandatory process group or mindfulness therapy at protected times.

Was told the Madison market is no longer saturated (many places are hiring right now). Most residents (~65%) stay in Madison or Wisconsin. Few enter private practice. Lots of community emphasis here; currently expanding that part of their program. Also working to better their cultural psychiatry, though this is years away likely. Elective flexibility was emphasized in my discussions, though it is not as flexible as other programs I’ve interviewed at (still sounded pretty great). Hospitals looked nice.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Faculty is kind & seems dedicated. PD, aPD, & chairman were all very personable & seemed like they wanted to make residents happy. Sounds like it’s easy to institute change & talk candidly about changes with them. Some good publications & research Looks like there is a lot of research going on. Some on immunology, genetics, imaging, ketamine/psychedelics, etc (it’s on the website). You can get involved however you want.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Madison is a great city to live in; it’s a college town. Lots to do: hiking, bars, food, & sports. Cost of living is good. Not too far from Milwaukee or Chicago. Beer is stupid cheap. Badger football is huge; city gets hectic on home game days. Diversity in areas to live. City felt safe. All my friends who have ever visited Madison have loved it. Residents say they have a good lifestyle; have never felt truly burnt out (minus maybe some days PGY1). Website says “work hard, play hard,” which was reiterated by some faculty. I asked residents specifically about this, & 1 literally said: “I just play hard.” So I suspect they actually are pretty happy. Diverse resident group: mix of families & single peeps. Some years go out a ton, other do not at all. Seem to be cohesive, at least within resident years.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary is on the higher side. Moonlighting starts PGY2 if desired. Gym access through UW for ~$130/yr that is swamped with college kids. Parking is ~$600, but can be split with another resident during PYG2 (it’s free at outpatient). Have meal allowance of $700/yr or something (maybe from call). $400 book fund that can be used for many things (boards, travel, computer, etc). Residency pays for DEA application (~$730).

8. Program Strengths:
- Broad psychotherapy training
- PD, aPD, & chairman
- Happy residents
- Research opportunities
- Elective flexibility
- Family-friendly
- Strong outpatient focus
- Madison

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Other treatment modalities (TMS [though I believe they just acquired TMS], VNS, DBS)
- Call all 4 years (I am bad at judging this)
- Weak inpatient experience
- Doesn’t sound like there is much “zebra” pathology
- Madison

10. Overall Impression:
Very solid program. Strong psychotherapy training with really strong opportunities for research (though not necessary). Supportive staff & faculty. Great salary in a city with a cheap cost of living. Family-friendly program & city. Residents are happy & do not feel overworked.

 

Medical College of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
(from anon)

1. Ease of Communication:
Through ERAS messaging. Could’ve called to set it up. Had to send a message through ERAS & ask for which dates were available. Interview information provided day of interviews. Dinner information provided by resident ~1wk before.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Free hotel at Residence Inn (very nice) the night before. Can shuttle or drive to hospital for interviews. Dinner with residents was good. Ordered random apps, individual entrees, & dessert. Residents were a little late, so the seating arrangement was a little skewed. Made it hard to talk to residents for some people. Residents were very nice & answered questions thoughtfully. Mix of all resident years. Lunch was catered by Potbelly. Residents were present to answer questions again. Pen provided.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Started with breakfast from Panera; pastries, fruit, yogurt, & coffee. Opened with a program overview. Faculty asked us all to introduce ourselves & say why we wanted to go here; I really hate that people do this & hate hearing people’s canned responses. He did make a point to respond to each person, though, which was actually nice. Had 3x 30min interviews with various faculty. 1x 15min interview with the PD. No resident interview. Each interviewer seemed to grab 1-2 things from my application that they found interesting & asked me about it. Had a lot of “tell me about yourself” & “why psychiatry.” Had 1 ask me about a time I failed/underperformed & how I responded. Very casual conversations for the most part. Enjoyed most of my talks, though felt off in my conversation with the PD. Everyone was on time & schedule was kept very well. Faculty seemed honest & open. Lunch was with 3 residents (2x interns, 1x PGY3). Then went on a bus tour to the different facilities. Walked around some of them. Saw resident work space, but didn’t see any call rooms. Most people were exhausted by this point; I saw 3 people fall asleep on the bus, so we cut it a little short (I was happy about this).

4. Program Overview:
Website does a good job showing the program details. Accepts 8 residents/yr. PGY1 is 6mos inpatient psych (3mos VA; 1.5mos psych hospital + 1.5mos ED psych), 1mo child, 4mo primary care (1mo each – ED, IM, FM, & outpatient), & 1mo neuro. PGY2 & PGY3 are “flipped” compared to normal programs; this is what stands out. Each rotation is incorporated throughout the year as a set time per week (as opposed to 1 consecutive month of a rotation, you do 0.5-1+ days/wk of all your rotations. PGY2 starts outpatient/psychotherapy training, PTSD, gero, & adult psych. Can have patients for 3yrs. End PGY2 with “power shifts”: 6pm-10pm in ED psych. PGY3: CL, ED psych, & inpatient (community hospital & VA). Also do PHP, suboxone training, & eating disorders. 3x ½ months of night float. PGY4 is psychotherapy, neuro outpatient, integrative care (family medicine basically), & electives. Learn DBT, CBT, psychodynamic, etc. Psychotherapy is obviously their strength, but many faculty thought their CL experience was also strong.

Have a bunch of clinical sites that are somewhat close (minus 1x 30min away). Residents see this as a plus because they get a diverse patient population. Not much research, but they’ve been trying to increase it over the years; it sounds like it’s mostly because of resident disinterest. Didactics are protected on Wednesday mornings. Fellowships in CAP, gero, CL, & forensic. Addiction is in the process of being accredited. I was told they are flexible with their electives based on resident interest; didn’t hear many interesting examples of what residents have done though. Research is weak, but can get involved in clinical work. Big focus on AIDS research, but one faculty is involved in psycho-immunology. Opportunities are there, but require effort on the resident’s part. Can do ECT elective, didn’t sound like there were really any others though; most residents don’t care for ECT. Lots of residents stay in Milwaukee/Wisconsin to practice. Residents emphasized how family-friendly the program was. Mix of older residents with SOs & families. People live in suburbs & closer to downtown. There is a group for SOs where they do things together. Residents seem to be a cohesive group.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Not sure. Some publish in interesting fields. Lots of faculty went to residency here.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Milwaukee is a good city. Family friendly areas around the hospitals. Downtown is close. Everything is like a 15min drive with traffic. Perpetual road construction. Highway system is a total mess, but it works. Most places require highway driving to get to & from. Beautiful stretch lake with parks & beaches. Breweries, great food, bars, hikes, etc. Cold in the winter. Cost of living is cheap I think. Residents were happy & had free time. 8am-5pm sounded typical, besides on neurology & medicine (hours still sounded good here).

7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary is great; start at $59k. Apparently you just get $1.5k bonus for no reason once a year. Moonlighting in PGY2. Supposed to be very easy with good pay (people come from Chicago to moonlight here). Free gym attached; barebones from what I heard. Free parking. No laundry or free food. Insurance is supposedly very good. You pay a small fee for vision & dental. 3 days for conference/education & $300 for books/education per year.

8. Program Strengths:
- Early, long-term psychotherapy; different modalities
- Milwaukee
- Friendly residents & attendings
- Family-friendly
- Cushy lifestyle
- Inhouse fellowships
- Elective opportunities & flexibility (maybe)
- Many clinical sites

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Call & night float in PGY2 & 3
- Neuro & inpatient in PGY3
- Other treatment modalities (TMS, DBS, VNS; though didn’t specifically ask about this)
- Milwaukee
- Research opportunities
- Many clinical sites
- Many residents stay in Wisconsin post-graduation

10. Overall Impression:
I liked the program. I’d be happy here. Faculty were nice & personable. Milwaukee is a great city with things to do, but has some downsides as well. Strong psychotherapy focus with potential to do research, but it’d take effort on the my part. Inhouse fellowships opportunity. Great salary in an affordable city. Happy residents. Family friendly.

 

UMASS

1. Ease of Communication: Interview invite via email. Some minor delays in correspondence, but overall straightforward with no complaints.

2. Accommodation & Food: List of discounted local hotels given. Dinner the night before at a decent Mexican place, nothing exceptional. Program paid for food of a smaller menu, you pay for your own drinks. 4 residents at dinner.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Day begins at 8:30 AM in a room that’s pretty tricky to find, so give yourself plenty of time to look for it. Very meager breakfast spread with instant coffee and functionally no food. (Eat breakfast beforehand! I wish I did) We started the day sitting with the PC going through an info packet with her giving us her take on the program (she’s been there 20+ years). Got a tour from two residents with plenty of chances to ask questions. Then had a sitdown chat with the PD Dr. Benjamin giving an overview of the program interspersed with Worchester psychiatric history. Lunch was interspersed between interviews. Well attended by residents, roughly even with the number of applicants.

Had 5 interviews in the late morning and then afternoon. Matched with interviewers based on interests. Met with two APDs, two faculty, and then the PD at the end of the day. Interviews were very bland. Most of mine were literally “Tell Me About Yourself” with one or two follow-up questions, and then asking me if I had any questions. Very low stress, but it felt so unstructured that I struggled to figure out what I should say or come up with enough questions to fill the time (like sometimes literally 15 minutes worth of “do you have any questions”). Interview with Dr. Benjamin was the only exception- more in depth, and he clearly read my application very thoroughly. Asked some very probing questions and challenged me on a patient I talked about in my PS. Some people might find it intimidating, but I really enjoyed talking to him He’s very good natured and isn’t trying to scare anyone, but definitely enjoys engaging with applicants in a pretty rigorous way. Just be prepared!

4. Program Overview:
UMASS is pretty much the only game in town in Worchester, so the program gets its pick of hospitals to work at. Inpatient work is mainly at UMASS memorial (which has more of a med/psych bent, I saw people walking around the unit on TPN) and downtown, which is more free standing. They also work closely with the new state hospital up the hill which is absolutely gorgeous. Hundreds of beds on a huge recovery campus, and it seems like an amazing example of what public hospitals could be doing to best serve SPMI patients. Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s very quickly become majority forensic patients, and per one of the state hospital docs the way it’s actually worked out is not exactly how it was envisioned.

Even with all this, public sector and community mental health seem like a huge strong point of the program. The program is well integrated into Worchester’s CMHC system, and you can work in the CMHCs, do street outreach, work on ACT teams, etc. Program is also incredibly strong in neuropsychiatry. Dr. Benjamin (the PD) is dual boarded in neurology and psychiatry, and is probably one of the foremost people in the country in this field. Really strong neuroscience grounding in didactics, and lots of clinical exposure to this as well. Probably one of the best places in the country for this if that’s what you’re into, and the program has a dedicated neuropsychiatry track in which I believe you are dual boarded once you graduate.

Other notes: No inpatient child exposure, which residents said the program wants to change. Therapy training seems to be improving with hiring of new APD for psychotherapy (likely in response to complaints about UMASS being “too biologic” in the past).
Decent addiction exposure- new addiction consult service, opportunities to prescribe and be licensed in buprenorphine.
Call is mostly in PGY-2: 4 weeks night float + 6-9 weekend calls/year
Residents seemed like a nice bunch in general. I didn’t particularly click with them, but that’s probably more of a personality fit thing than any knock on them.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Dr. Benjamin as mentioned above. Research is respectable, but seems limited to ~5-6 research groups.

6. Location & Lifestyle: It’s Worchester. City of ~175K, could be described as “dingy” or “up and coming” depending on whether you’re a glass half full or half empty kind of person. Lots of poverty and high need populations. Pretty decent art scene and some good restaurants. Program spent A TON of time telling us how great Worchester is and how much people liked it, which seems to be a case of protesting a little bit too much. Residents with families seem to like it, but uncoupled ones seemed a little frustrated. Residents seemed very happy and well-balanced, have plenty of time for families and life outside of medicine. Easy access to hiking, skiing, camping, etc.

7. Salary & Benefits:
$58K-66K. Healthcare premiums paid 75% by UMASS. Free tuition at any UMASS school for yourself or family. 3 weeks paid vacation.

8. Program Strengths:
-Probably unparalleled neuropsychiatry exposure. Training with Dr. Benjamin would probably open any door you want if this is an interest.
-Excellent community and public sector opportunities
-Education highly valued, full day of didactics (+/- depending on your preferences, it’s a + for me)
-Addiction education improving in response to opioid crisis and resident advocacy
-Good work life balance, call schedule very humane.
-Program very receptive to resident feedback. We were given a long packet with a list of changes that had been made in response to resident concerns.

9. Potential Weaknesses:
-No inpatient child (doesn’t bother me, but I’m not very interested in C&A)
-Worchester. As someone mentioned in last year’s thread, UMASS is a really good program that has the misfortune of being located in a mediocre city. Program tried really hard to convince us Worchester was a great place, but they probably can’t overcome all this. Still, if you’re married or have a family, this is actually a lovely part of the state with good cost of living and easy outdoors access.
-As I mentioned above I didn’t particularly click with the residents, and the fit felt ok but not amazing.

10. Overall Impression:
Overall, UMASS is a pretty strong program with exceptional neuropsych training, and would be much more competitive if its location was different. If you’re married or have a family, or like living in a more rural area, this could be an excellent fit. If you’re single and looking for a place to meet lots of young professionals, this is probably not the place for you. It will probably end up lower on my rank list for location and vibe reasons, but the training here seems solid.

 

Brown

1. Ease of Communication: Interview scheduled via Thalamus. Program coordinator very responsive and friendly. Some emails are sent directly from her and some via thalamus, so just be careful you don’t miss anything.

2. Accommodation & Food: Stayed with a friend so did not investigate hotel options. Dinner with residents the night before at a gastropub by Brown. Very attended (4-5 residents fro 7 applicants), food was good, and everything was covered by program (including wine and beer).

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Early start at 7:30 at Butler, their free standing psych hospital. Continental breakfast with coffee/tea, bagels, pastries, and breakfast burritos (a first on the trail for me). Day started with a program overview with the chief residents. We then went on a van tour of Providence with the APD to see some of their other hospitals, which was a great chance to see the city and chat with her. She also gave out kettle corn on the van ride back, so extra point for that. Lunch was delicious Indian food with a TON of residents there- we probably had 10-12 come to lunch, and all spoke effusively about the program.

Applicants had 4-5 30 minute interviews in the afternoon, one each with the PD and APD, one with a resident, and the others with faculty. No out of the ordinary questions, and the people I had interviewed with knew my application well. Mostly we talked about past experiences on my CV, why I was interested in Brown and psychiatry, etc.

4. Program Overview:
Brown has tons of different training sites. Main ones are Butler Hospital (free-standing psych) and Rhode Island Hospital (Tertiary care center, has more med/psych beds). Other training sites include Hasbro Children’s, Bradley (free standing child psych, very unique), Women and Infant’s, the VA, two local CMHCs, and the state hospital. Program was described over and over as “very flexible,” and you can pretty much get experience in any setting imaginable. Brown has a ton of research and this is publicized extensively on their website. I asked the residents whether they felt pressured to get involved in research, and they all said no. There are 2-3 research track spots, but everyone else seems to just dabble. Scholarly project required, but sounds very flexible. Program was described as “rigorous but flexible.” Education is prioritized, and inpatient units can be easily run by attendings. ½ day didactics, attendings cover floors during this time.

Program felt very biologic in terms of their research portfolio, but it seems like psychotherapy is reasonably strong as well. Separate therapy training director (PhD psychologist), and you get one hour supervision/week for each modality you’re using. Therapy exposure starts PGY-2, but kicks into high gear PGY-3. Some residents get additional training at local psychoanalytic institute, saw some fliers for this around office. No overarching philosophy, get training in dynamics, CBT, IPT, DBT, Family, and Group.

Since schedule is largely available online, I’ll just point out some unusual/notable elements:
-½ day primary care continuity clinic during PGY-1 in addition to psych continuity clinic
-4 months child/adolescent during PGY-2
-5 months required rotations during PGY-4 (1 month junior attending, 2 months community, 2 months at something else I’m forgetting right now)

Call:
-PGY-1: short call ~q2 weeks. All calls are teaching/buddy call, never alone in hospital.
-PGY-2: 2 months night float (1 month each in pyshc ED at Butler and Rhode Island Hospital) + q2 week overnight call.
-PGY-3: ~q 2 weeks plus some beeper call
-PGY-4: 3 weeks beeper call plus teaching calls

In house moonlighting starting halfway through PGY-2, sounds like it is readily available and easy to get

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Don’t know much about individual faculty. They pulled in $54 million in grant money last year, which they say is third in country. Residents spoke very highly of faculty. All interactions in hospital seemed very pleasant, and our tour guide had some very collegial interactions with attendings we saw in hospital. APD incredibly warm and friendly. PD less gregarious but very approachable, really helped distill what made Brown unique.

6. Location & Lifestyle: Providence is a smaller New England city, cheaper than Boston and very livable. Of note, there seem to be a lot of faculty who come to Brown to train and then never leave because they love it so much (including both the PD and APD). Residents describe call as very reasonable, feel like they have plenty of time for outside pursuits. Program very family friendly, 9 residents had babies last year (?!). Residents seemed very happy overall.

7. Salary & Benefits: Pretty standard salary, starting high 50s for PGY-1 going up to mid 60s for PGY-4. Junior faculty appointment at Brown with access to all resources on undergrad campus. 3 weeks paid vacation PGY-1-3, 4 weeks PGY-4. Do not have to take it in blocks or decide all at the beginning of the year, which is definitely a plus.

8. Program Strengths:
-Incredibly strong in child psych. Get a ton of exposure without even trying, and sounds like Bradley and Hasbro are huge assets to program
-Great exposure to partial hospital programs, lots of different programs along continuity of care.
-Education prioritized, residents uniformly emphasized how interesting in teaching attendings are as well as the fact that the hospital does not depend on your labor to run
-Lots of research available, but not pushed on residents if you’re not interested
-Very wide variety of sites, and program very flexible and tailored to your needs. No obvious weaknesses, and you’d leave here
-Diverse patient population. Butler sees high income insured patients but also takes Medicaid and uninsured on inpatient floors and at least some outpatient clinics.
-Collegial atmosphere, residents seem fun and enjoy each other’s company. Most struggled to find anything substantive they would change about the program if they had the chance.

9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Providence is not New York or LA. Might be slightly more difficult if someone is totally single when they arrive.
-Particular interests of mine: No community psych exposure until 4th year unless you opt for it, but CMHC system sounds reasonably strong and you can opt to rotate there earlier. Addiction is there if you want it but not totally baked in.
-Therapy training strong but not primary focus, would probably want to look somewhere else if you were dead set on opening a private psychotherapy only practice.

10. Overall Impression:
As you can tell, the weaknesses are all pretty minor and subjective. Brown was a really impressive program, and seems strong in basically every area you can think of across the board. Got a great vibe from this program and think I would be very happy if I matched here.

 

been getting mileage out of this fun fact this weekend--so thank you.

I guess that shows what exciting conversations I've been having.

 

Does anyone else feel like they've generally been doing really well with their actual interviews? It dawned on me today that residency programs may be great at making applicants feel this way so that they're ranked higher, even though they may not rank them highly themselves. It's not every interview obviously, but it really feels like recruiting at times (at least more than I thought it would). I guess that's what this is, but it's making it hard for me to gauge whether programs actually have a strong interest in me or not.

Post-match update: don't believe their lies!!

 

One more reason to rank solely based on how much you liked a program/goodness of fit, and not whether you think the program likes you back or not.
I've certainly gotten my fair share of "you're a very strong applicant," "we're so glad you chose to interview with us," and even "we would love to see you here next year." Trying to not put much/any stock in it.

 

I agree with this. But also be aware of the fact that you will likely find out the deeper or darker politics (if any) in your program after you've signed on the dotted line. There just wasn't a good way to do real digging unless it was obvious on the interview day or I personally knew people in the programs I was interviewing with. As a result I try to be as honest with applicants as I can so that they have a more informed decision than I did.

 

I've wondered the same thing. I think part of the reason programs do it is because the Match favors applicants stongly. I heard a statistic from a PD that 90% of psych applicants get their 1st or 2nd choice. Based on my reading of the algorithm, programs preferences only kick in once their spots are filled based on applicants preferences, so outside of top top programs where chunks of applicants are ranking them number one, it really is a buyers market. Based on that, it seems likely that programs tell most applicants they're amazing because they have no way to gauge how interested apap really are since so many applicants exaggerate how much they like every program. It's a positive feedback loop... OR maybe we really are great applicants...

 

You're great applicants.

 

The algorithm favors applicants in some sense but this blanket statement is incorrect. The Match algorithm is optimal in the following sense only:

For any given applicant-program pair X, there exists no potential program-applicant pair Y such that applicant X would have preferred program Y relative to program X AND program Y would have preferred applicant X relative to applicant Y.

The match is an iterative process, so it is simply not the case that program preferences do not "kick in" until all applicants have had their say. Yes, you cannot be displaced from a preliminary match unless all slots are preliminarily filled, but if the program has, say, five slots and five people who went ahead of you have a preliminary match to that program, you will not be given a preliminary match to it unless the program prefers you to at least one of those five.

What this means for you really is to just rank in order of preference. There is no superior strategy for the single match (couples match is wonkier). Definitely would suggest taking vibe into consideration more than what is written on paper or a website, though.

 

I agree with you 100%. I was simplifying the process, which is why I placed the caveat for "higher tier programs" (it's hard to give full statements on cell phones), but you explain the full algortihm well. Vibes are definitely at the top of my criteria.

 

I'm curious what ppl think about vibe though. I just came from a great program where the faculty seemed education oriented and friendly and the residents were cool and the program was in alignment with my values and goals, but I kept getting a not-so good vibe. It wasn't until the day after that I realized my feelings were probably because the facilities looked much worse than some of my other programs, which might have contributed to my view lessening overtime compounded with a very long interview day and process. Has anyone else had similar thoughts/ issues with vibe?

 

All you can really do is trust your gut. The human brain is cranking out so many subconscious computations while you are going on a tour of a program, so much so that you can barely claim ownership over those thoughts. It's really hard to know why we feel a certain way about a place, despite what we otherwise tell ourselves.

Basically: trust your gut feeling

 

It's definitely tricky, but I feel like vibe/gut instinct is still the best thing to go off. There will be some programs with obviously red flags or things that make them not a good fit for you, but I feel like ~60% of ht places i've been so far have left me feeling like I'd be very happy to train there. I feel like I have three buckets of programs so far:
1) Would love to train here, has almost everything I want (~60% of interviews)
2) Good training, but I don't love it. Still would be a solid option if I fell down my rankles. (~40% of my interviews)
3) Hell no. (0% of my interviews so far, but I'm sure these programs exist).

Sorting programs into buckets is a combo of vibe and objective things about program. Sorting within buckets has been purely based on gut feeling so far, as I don't feel like there are enough objective things separating the programs that would meaningfully impact how happy I would be there.

And these programs are great too!

 

I had that experience at one of the "best" programs I interviewed at. On paper, and even on interview day, they had everything I wanted, but I just can't bring myself to put them at the top of my rank list. The "fit" wasn't there and I have no explanation for it.

I have found that my feel for programs is being somewhat biased by environmental factors. i.e., one interview ended at rush hour and I sat in traffic forever whereas if they had ended at 3 PM I probably would have enjoyed the area. In Boston I was on a tour and it was extremely cold and raining and I didn't really see anything because I was staring at the ground and trying to keep my umbrella from turning inside out. Programs that have short interviews I end up leaving when it's still light out and I still have energy and enthusiasm vs. being exhausted and lost driving around in the dark. I'll take everyone's advice and trust my "gut" but I can't help but notice that my gut enjoys having a good day, nice weather, nice facilities, being well fed, etc.

 

So our gut enjoys being well fed and that makes you surprised?

 

My gut also enjoys any interview that starts after 8:30 haha.

 

my gut likes when i walk in to interview with somebody and they DO NOT start with "so, what questions can I answer for you?"

 

I wish I could like this comment a thousand times.

 

"Nothing that will fill this yawning 30 minute void stretching in front of me while I scream inside."

 

On the whole "gut" topic--I generally agree. Listen to your S.O.s, too! My #1 and eventual Match was made when my wife said "I think I could live here", whereas Wash U unfortunately slipped down the list because while I was having what I thought were the warmest, best set of interviews I'd experienced that year---she & our young (at the time) kids witnessed a mugging at McDonalds and she had to take toddler daughter into the bloodied bathroom for a potty emergency.

So anyway, as a PD, I'm sitting here feeling nervous about you guys and your guts--because I know the subjective nature of things, and I know that as hard as we try, you're likely to end the day emotionally and physically exhausted (I certainly do!) and key in on things that are way beyond all of our control. I like what @doggums points out above about being cognizant of these reactions in yourself. I'd ask you to practice a little bit of reflection and factor these subjective impressions accordingly.

I guess I'm especially concerned about a program being judged too harshly by the physical plant--keep in mind that Psych frequently inhabits the lower levels of the financial food chains, especially in academic health centers, and cosmetics aren't everything. With respect to the people you meet, however--that really is a good place to go with your "gut" sense of how you mesh with the culture of a program, residents, faculty, and other staff.

Good luck--can't wait for this to all be over.

P.S.--Lets get some more actual program reviews up here!

 

This isn't a review but I did have a question about BIDMC which was covered by another review. I am trying to make sense of their PGY1 schedule. It says 1/2 day weekend shifts - what does this entail? 6 hr shifts? 12 hours? I'm very confused... Any help would be great!

From their site:
"PGY-1
Six weeks of night float, plus weekend ½ day call shifts approximately 2-3 per month while on psychiatry and neurology rotations. Once BIDMC-HPRTP has PGY3 residents, PGY1s will no longer take call on weekends."

 

During my interview it sounded like you worked a full day (anywhere from 6-12 hours based on what needed to get done) either Saturday or Sunday three times a month and had one "golden weekend" per month. That said, I could be totally wrong. Their call schedule was hard to grasp from the residents given that it'll change every year for the next 2-3 years.

 

We would be the second class of residents, right? So still weekend call PGY1?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

Thanks for everyone's comments on vibe. It definitely helps to put things into perspective and helped me process how I feel about this review. Coupd'Cat has a great and through review, so I'll focus on strengths, weaknesses, and impressions.

Cambridge Health Alliance
Strengths
--Amazing flexibility with elective time. Anything you can tie to psychiatry (like learning meditation in India) is fair game. 4 year has as much elective time as you could want depending on how many therapy patients you keep.
--Community Psych/ Advocacy focus is folded into their mission and is really at the forefront of their program.
--Faculty are very impressive and really humble. I hit it off with all of my interviewers and one of them in particular shared many of my reasons and feelings about pursuing psychiatry and offered to take me under her wing.
--Residents seemed very relaxed. It's hard to really gauge their cohesion because I never interacted with residents in the same year. I also wish I could sit down with some of them one-on-one to really get a sense for how advocacy and social justice inform their approached to psychiatry.
--Therapy is clearly a strong focus here and is very impressive. Seeing therapy patients starts with 1-3 in the 2nd year and expands to 8-10 in the 3rd year. 4th year you can choose your patient panel and see as many or as few as you want.
--Great benefits-

Weaknesses
--COST OF LIVING: This is my largest hesitancy. Coming from the South, I'd take a huge drop to my living standards and potential to get out of debt fast. The residents were very open about their struggles with securing housing, which prompted the hospital to begin guaranteeing security when leasing up to $6500. This the case across most Northeastern and Western programs, so not a fault of CHA really.
--Call PGY2 and PGY3 is 24 hours q2 weeks.
--Cold (expected)
--Facilities aren't the prettiest

Impressions
This is a great program that I could see myself in. It will end up being a tough decision for me though. Prior to my interview, this was one of my most anticipated interviews and I ranked it preliminarily as my 2nd favorite program. It satisfies my desire for a strong community focus and has a ton of flexibility, but I think the COL might lead me to rank other programs above it.

 

BIDMC

1. Ease of Communication: Interview scheduled via email. Coordinator approachable, no problems with communication.

2. Accommodation & Food: List of hotels with discount sent along with interview day confirmation. Dinner the night before at a VERY nice Italian restaurant, with some of the best food I’ve had on the trail. Program paid for food of a reduced menu and wine for the table. 7 interviewees, 4 residents at dinner (3 from the Longwood program, one PGY-1 from the newly separated BI program)

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): We were told to arrive at 8:45 for a light breakfast, which as advertised is very light with a couple of forlorn pastries and coffee. Definitely eat before you come. The day officially started at 9 with the PD and one aPD giving a very thorough overview of the program. They walked through each year in detail to talk about rotations, and answered questions we had along the way. Then the chair came in for about 15 minutes to talk about the program, and what made it unique. Not quite as uncomfortable as the previous poster reported, but definitely a few longer than expected pauses. It was helpful to hear him talk about the BI/BWH split, and hear his perspective on what distinguished the two programs.

4 interviews total: one with the PD, one with the aPD, one with an attending at Mass Mental (public Dpt of Mental Health day/partial hospital program), one resident. All the interviewers hd read my application, and most questions were just asking me to discuss experiences I had, reasons for choosing psychiatry/this program, etc. A few deeper questions in one interview (“How do you handle anxiety? Anger? What do you expect to get in the way of becoming a good psychiatrist?”), but nothing that made me uncomfortable.

4. Program Overview: As mentioned previously, this is the first year this program has existed separately from BWH. I’ll give a rundown of what the Longwood residents and BIDMC faculty saw as the differences between the two programs below. Notably, call schedule is likely to get lighter now that each program has more residents, but not sure how this is borne out in numbers right now.

PGY-1: Generally standard schedule. 4 months of medicine at a community hospital, now at Mount Auburn or Newton Wellesley which are mmuch more T accessible than MetroWest this year (this change due to resident feedback). 4-6 weeks night float covering inpatient unit, 6 weeks ED days. New addiction rotation at the VA that residents seem to love. 3 moths inpatient psych, 1 month neuro consults. Call is a little ambiguous as noted above. From our info sheets, "weekends and holidays are covered by the entire group or residents who are not on Medicine." If ~1/3 of residents are on medicine at any given time, this would leave 6-7 residents to cover weekend shifts. Would likely end up covering one weekend shift 2-3 x/month.

PGY-2: 3 more months inpatient psych. 2 months C&A at Boston Children’s. 3 months intensive partial hospital program at Mass Mental Health Cnter (MMHC), which seems like an awesome experience for people interested in community/public psych. Opportunity to do CBT (mostly SPMI/psychosis) or DBT (personality disorders) programs. Faculty at MMHC are incredibly strong, residents love the experience. Outpatient starts for 3-5 hours a week, carry 1-2 therapy cases. Call is q10-14 overnights and weekends covering the BIDMC ED, which is apparently super intense. Residents seem to like it, but say they do feel overwhelmed at times. Program is going to add a PGY-3 on call with the 2s to lighten the load some, which I think will help.

PGY-3: all outpatient. ½ time resident clinic, ¼ at MMHC in one of several programs (1st episode psychosis, adolescents at high risk for psychosis, homeless outreach, etc), ¼ time selectives. ½ day scholarly project. Call is q15 for evening shifts (6-11 in ED) and nights/weelends.

PGY-4: more outpatient and electives. Continue scholarly project. Backup home call q10, do have to come in on occasion.

Special sauce (especially when compared to Brigham):
-Strong psychodynamics. BIDMC was the place to come to get good therapy training in the Longwood program
-ED/night float CRAZY busy. Residents say they learn a ton, occasionally overwhelmed. Multiple 3s and 4s say PGY-2 nights “made them into psychiatrists.”
-Mass Mental seems amazing. BI does share it with BWH and CHA PGY-2s though so it’s not exclusive to them.
-Just hired a new addiction psychiatrist who is bringing a ton of new programs, including inpatient consults, suboxone bridge clinics, and outpatient suboxone clinic that the hospital was weak in before (much of the addictions training was through the Brigham)
-BIDMC is “Harvard with a heart”

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: PD has been involved in leadership since 2002. Was PD of Longwood program from 2011 until now, will continue to be in charge as program phases out.

6. Location & Lifestyle: It’s Boston. Plenty of ink has been spilled on this elsewhere. It’s an awesome but expensive city. Residents said they were busy (especially during PGY-1 and 2), but had a good work life balance. Classes seem pretty cohesive, hang out at least once a week per the intern we talked to.

7. Salary & Benefits: $61,537-$72,288 PGY 1-4. Some limited moonlighting later in PGY-3, more in 4. Program pays 80% of health insurance premiums.

8. Program Strengths:
-Strong psychodynamic backbone, shapes how you formulate patients throughout your time here
-Residents love their outpatient clinic. Get lots of good therapy supervision, patients are carefully screened to make sure they're good learning cases.
-Strong community psych at Mass Mental, ore coming online at local community health centers in next couple of years
-Really steep improvement in addiction exposure, seems like the program is really heading in the right direction.
-Program is definitely rigorous, but still have a somewhat warm/fuzzy side to it to balance that out. Residents feel well supported even when they’re busy
-Strong interventional services (ECT and TMS), residents get lots of exposure
-Strong research, protected time for scholarly work
-Apparently get good eating disorders exposure on consult service, as BI is known for treating medically complex pts with anorexia on inpatient medicine floors

9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Fewer super sub-specialized clinics than BWH
-Call is on the heavier side, seems to be very intense when you do it (however, residents say they appreciate it. Could be Stockholm Syndrome)
-Some uncertainty about program’s direction given recent split
-Fewer moonlighting opportunities, partially because of how busy call is
-Boston is more expensive than almost everywhere besides NYC and SF. But you knew that already

10. Overall Impression: Overall an excellent program. From my limited impression, BIDMC has gotten more of the psychotherapy, psych ED, and community psych experiences in the divorce from BWH. The Brigham allegedly has more of a biologic bent, but BI has very strong interventional exposure. Will likely end up in my top 3.

 

Tufts

1. Ease of Communication: Interview offered and scheduled through email. No issues. Their interview day is oddly scheduled so that they do two at once- they have a group that starts at 8 and interviews in the morning, and a group that starts at 11 and interviews in the afternoon. You overlap for a couple of hours in the middle of the day to hear presentations etc. We were given a choice of dates and start times.

2. Accommodation & Food: List of discounted hotels given. Interview dinner the night before at a German beer hall, which was an odd choice. Dinner was huge (15-20 applicants), with about 5 residents. Place was loud so it was hard getting questions answered, and high ratio of applicants/residents made it difficult as well.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): I had the later start. Got there at 10:45 for coffee and pastry offerings, day started at 11. Chief resident gave a disorganized and informal (in a bad way) overview of the program. Rushed through it in about 20 minutes, and I feel like I didn’t really get a good sense of the program from her. Some odd comments about faculty and patients (“Oh yeah that guy’s a real ’68 radical if you know what I mean.” …No not really) PD came in at 11:30 and basically did an FAQ session, which was helpful (but would have been more helpful if we had gotten a real overview before this). Lunch from 12-1 with a decent resident turnout, although again it was a little tough give size of interview group. There were 5-6 residents there which is like 25% of the class so it’s no knock on them, but the size of the applicant pool made it difficult. Had a case conference from 1-2, which was interesting if difficult right after lunch. Tour afterwards, also disorganized. Led by a PGY-3 with lots of comments like “haha I don’t know what I’m doing” and “oops didn’t realize I was making you late for your interview!”

3 interviews total, none longer than 25 minutes. Had a checkin with the PD that was purely to answer my questions., probably lasted 8 minutes. One interview with a chief resident, one with faculty. Both very conversational, helped fill in some of the gaps from earlier. Standard questions. Faculty didn't have much administrative connection to program so couldn't answer many questions about i. Can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish they were long so I could have figured out more about the program.

4. Program Overview: Their website has basically nothing on it, which made it difficult to prep for the interview . I’ll try to be as thorough as possible here, but I feel like the disorganization of the tour and info session means I still don’t have a great grasp on the program.

PGY-1: 4 months medicine: 2 months at Tufts (1 month floors, 1 month med consult), 1 month med ED, 1 month at Shattuck (a public hospital serving a largely forensic population). Can swap 2 months for peds. 2 months neuro consult. Rest of the time is split between inpatient psych at Tufts and psych ED.

PGY-2: 6 moths inpatient psych: 3 at Tufts, 2 at Tewksbury (state hospital, need car), 1 at a forensic state program. No prior inpatient child, may be adding some at North Shore Hospital but was a little unclear. 1 months Geri, 1 month ED. 10 hours/month outpatient.

PGY-3: All outpatient. Can choose among Tufts, CMHC in South Boston, court clinics, SPMI at Shattuck or the Fuller (forensic and SPMI).

PGY-4: 2 months ED, otherwise outpatient and elective time

Call
PGY-1: q4 short call (5-8 on weekdays, 8-8 on weekends).
PGY-2: 3x/month
PGY-3: 2x/month
PGY-4: none

“Special sauce”
-Tertiary care center, but less pretentious
-Small class size (6 residents), people know each other and faculty very well
-lots of chances to teach med students
-big emphasis on dynamics, PD is analytically trained. Dynamic formulations inform everything they do
-large variety of patients: tons of public sector exposure, but also get rich bankers from the financial district

Other notes: no addiction psychiatrist on faculty, which seems like a big hole. Chief told me they were trying to recruit one. No internal moonlighting.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Didn’t get a good sense of this. Some research, but not a ton. PD has been around for a long time, really seems invested in the program. Chair was past president of APA 2014-15.

6.Location & Lifestyle: Boston, much ink has been spilled. Residents seemed a little overwhelmed about workload in PGY-1 and 2.

7. Salary & Benefits: $60,170-$68,455. 4 weeks paid vacation in 2 week blocks

8. Program Strengths:
-Good breadth of exposure from public/community to wealthier downtown patients
-Good dynamic training, residents seem happy with therapy exposure
-Seems like you get pretty good forensic exposure if that’s something you’re interested in
-Residency small and homey (+/-)

9. Potential Weaknesses:
-No addiction psychiatrist on Tufts faculty (seems crazy)
-Parts of interview day felt disorganized, definitely soured my view on the program somewhat
-No internal moonlighting

10. Overall Impression: Definitely a solid program where you can get good breadth of training. Nothing exceptional in either direction about it. If you really want to be in Boston and want a small program, this would be a good fit. Disorganized interview day, not sure how this reflects on program overall. Still frankly feel like I don't have a good handle on the program due to how the interview day went. Will probably end up on the bottom 1/2 of my rank list

 

Harvard/Brigham & Women’s
(from anon)

1. Ease of Communication:
Through Thalamus. Fair amount of spots available when I was contacted. Heard that spots on waitlist will open up. Survey provided at later time for interests, dinner/restrictions/guest, & optional tour after interview day. General interview information provided on website & in email ~3wks prior. Specific interview information provided day of interviews.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Hotel discount provided (though I used air bnb). Resident dinner at swanky place the night before. ~6 applicants & ~3 residents (2 canceled). Food was delicious; came with salad & dessert + choice of entree; red or white wine (kept coming too). Very casual. Residents were nice. Parking voucher provided if driving. Breakfast was fruit, pastries, coffee, & water. Lunch was gyros, which were okay. No pen provided. Mug with M&Ms (with B&W insignia) for goodie bag.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
6 applicants. Can store luggage at office. Begins at 8am with breakfast & overview with PD, aPD, & chief resident. 6x 30min interviews (1x PD, 1x aPD, 1x chairman, 1x faculty, & 1x resident); 1 applicant had only 5 interviews. No breaks. Everything was on time. Had to do a phone interview with someone because she couldn't be present; thought this was weird but at least they didn't cancel that interview. Questions were mainly “Why psych,” “Why Boston/BW,” & “Tell me about yourself.” Had someone ask what my dream job was & one person ask me to say what inspired me about psychiatry. Didn’t gel with every interviewer, though did with others & residents. Every interviewer read my application & had things they wanted to ask me about. Tour of inpatient facilities after lunch. A couple residents were at lunch for questions. Option of touring Faulkner inpatient or CAP unit after day concludes (~215pm). Tour ends ~4pm with tour. I didn't like my interview with the aPD; not sure why, but it felt kind of awkward & almost like she didn't like me from the start. PD ended my interview early because a resident knocked & thought he had a meeting with him at that time, so I lost out on a good 5 minutes of talking to him, which was pretty annoying; also had me just stand awkwardly while the resident & he talked before bringing me back to the main room. Really liked the chairman; he's amazing. Lots of residents couldn't really answer specific questions because the program separated so they didn't know the answers.

4. Program Overview:
Good overview on website. 10 residents/yr (8x general & 2x research). Schedule is almost all blocked as opposed to specific days for different subspecialties. PGY1: 4mos medicine (cardio, ICU, ambulatory, & inpatient; pediatrics if in CAP track) & 2mos neurology (consults & outpatient; can do peds); 1mo addiction (detox, inpatient, & outpatient), 1.5mos geri, 1mo ED psych, 2.5mos inpatient psych, & 0.5mos elective. Treated as a true IM resident when on service. Twilight call for cardio (admissions until 1230am). PGY2: 3.5mos inpatient psych, 3mos community psych, 2mos CL, 2mos inpatient child, 1.5mos night float, & 1mo elective. Inpatient psych is typically 9am-5pm with weekends off (minus call). PGY3: 9mos outpatient, 1mo PHP, 1.5mos night float, & 1.5mo selective/elective. PGY4: 1.5mos supervision role for each CL & inpatient & 9mos electives. Longitudinal: 10% outpatient in PYG2 & PGY4, forensic in PGY3, & 0.5d/wk to scholarly pursuits, concentrations, or tracks.

Call/night float: PGY1 6x “teaching call” shifts; PGY2 1.5mos night float + 1x 0.5d weekend shift qmonth; PGY3 1.5mos night float + 1x 0.5d weekend shift qmonth; PGY4 backup call. Call is “rigorous.” Weekend call explanation was convoluted, so I can't comment.

Psychotherapy begins PGY2 (1-2pts) & continues through PGY4. Psychotherapy concentration available. Have a supervisor/mentor. Opportunity to work with Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. Supervision is mostly recorded audio & process notes/transcriptions; video recording for CBT. Said to be a strong part of the program. Opportunities in other psychotherapies (CBT, DBT, IPT). Didn’t have an interviewer I could get good information from about supervision (asked a PGY4 at lunch who helped a lot, but for all I know it’s different now with the new program).

Research & child tracks. Tons of research opportunities. Emphasis on neuroscience. Most residents involved in research in some regard. Mentors are provided & chairman actively seeks out opportunities for projects/mentors early on (you can be passive & still get involved). Projects can be straight forward (surveys) or more basic. Focus is neuroscience & biggest strength within that is neuroimaging.

Concentrations in neuropsych, education, medical psych, medical tech/brain stim, global mental health, women’s, geri, psychotherapy, collaborative, psycho-oncology, addiction, critical care psych, emergency psych, community mental health, health policy/public mental health, & quality improvement. Can combine concentrations into tailored experience. Chairman is in neuropsych field. Fellowships: CL, neuropsych, women’s, geri, addiction, CAP, & research. Starting a forensic fellowship. Scholarly project: PGY1 10% time for 6mos & 2wks elective; PGY2 10% time for 1yr & 4wks elective; PGY3 10% time for 1yr & 6wks elective; PGY4 10% time for 1yr % 5mos elective. Provided a senior psychiatrist mentor throughout residency. Diverse opportunities for research (basic, translational, & clinical). Electives are flexible & you get elective experience starting in PGY1; someone did sports psychiatry out in Colorado, other looked at social media & suicidality. They really emphasize elective flexibility/opportunity here. Can do ECT, TMS, DBS, & others (not required).

Weekly grand rounds. Monthly journal club led by resident & faculty. Didactics are protected on Thursday AM with protected scholarly project time usually that afternoon. Parking costs a monthly fee. Recently split program, so you’ll still rotate with some Longwood residents until 2020. Sounds like the program may have changes coming. Processing for poor outcomes & tough patients. Monthly they have a formal process on this. Have access to other professionals for therapeutic help (not who you work with). M&M conferences. PD & aPD could not provide weaknesses to the program (I mean, c’mon!). Moonlighting PGY3.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Obviously very achieved. Lots of research. Seem very friendly & approachable. Chairman is a hoot & will really help guide you into research projects or other areas you may be interested.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Boston is expensive; hard to live downtown. Residents live all over Boston. Lease Guarantee program to help offset cost of entering new lease. Almost all residents drive (though some don’t). Call was described as “rigorous.” PGY3 is when life gets easier. Faulkner hospital & McLean are 30min drives (can take a shuttle to Faulkner). Residents are mixture of singles & married/LTRs. Alternating years of groups that are social (ala go out) & more asocial. Have events with resident groups every couple months. Didn’t sound as cohesive as other programs I’d talked to, but they also just had a split ~2yrs ago. You can get time off for emergencies. Lots of residents enter fellowships & remain in Boston. Can be a hassle to drive to some sites (30min drive to 2-3 sites); shuttle/public transportation available. Parking & traffic are a nightmare in Boston. Sports fans are crazy here.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Starts at ~$61k. $500/yr for education. 4wks vacation that is taken in week blocks ranked at the beginning of the year (get about half specific weeks asked for). Paternity leave for ~1mo (may be paid). Maternity leave. Health insurance is pretty great from what I heard (blue cross blue shield). Gym access somewhere for some price. Difficult to get a lot of questions because so few residents actually in this new program. Meal card for night float that is fairly substantial.

8. Program Strengths:
- Psychotherapy training
- Research opportunities
- Other treatment modalities (ECT, TMS, DBS, etc)
- Reputation
- Attendings
- Support staff
- Inhouse fellowships
- Diverse electives, concentrations, & tracks
- Excellent, diverse pathology
- Dedicated time for scholarly project
- Boston

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Socioeconomic & racial diversity
- No weaknesses (apparently!)
- Pseudo-new program
- Residents work hard
- Call/night float
- Inpatient psych PGY2
- No VA exposure
- Boston

10. Overall Impression:
Obviously an amazing program. Would be lucky to match here. Very supportive staff, attendings, PD, & chairman that will help you find a niche if you want. Psychotherapy, psychopharm, & research are excellent. Residents work hard & call is difficult ("work hard, play hard"). Excellent pathology & many world-renowned experts within several miles of campus. Still early in its split as Longwood, which could cause some problems (though likely not). Not as many “minor” benefits as other schools I’ve interviewed at.