2017-2018 Psychiatry Interview Reviews / Insight

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UTSW
1. Ease of Communication:
Via email. No problems.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Provided a list of close hotels (within 2 miles). Ended up being cheaper to book without the "special rate", but was only $80 per night. Dinner varies because the group of residents that attend the dinner get to choose, so they're more adventurous Dinner was at a sheek restaurant. Very light breakfast on interview day. Lunch at UTSW hospital on the top floor, which had an amazing view.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
3 interviews, one with the PD. All of the interviews were very informal and conversational. No weird questions. The last part of the day has each applicant with faculty that align with their interests. For community psych, I got a cool car tour of the city in the CEO of Metrocare's car. He told me about all of the opportunities I'd have to work with metrocare, what they offerred patients, and their plan to build a new building to synthesize their services.

4. Program Overview (Unique features)
-incorporates community psych into PGY1 and PGY2 including one month with Homeless services, one month with ACT, one month at a county jail, and inpatient at Parkland
-An elective month PGY2
-1 day/wk electives PGY3 for 8 months.
-10 months of elective time PGY4
-the website is very detailed, so other features on the site.


5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Faculty seem achieved and very open to residents. The PD, Dr. Brenner, is very well-respected by residents and has a reputation of being highly supportive of residents, including removing them from services that aren't education oriented.
6. Location & Lifestyle:
Dallas is a large, low-density city. COL is very low with low state income taxes. It's probably missing many of the cultural entertainment of the NE and large college towns like Chapel Hill.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Large salary relative to COL, 58K PG1. 25 days of PTO (15 vacation, 10 for sick, conferences, exams, etc)

8. Program Strengths:
-Community Psychiatry with options that are actually in the community as well as inpatient at Parkland
-Electives are very flexible. One resident created a student mental health clinic at a local HBCU, another created a Pop Psych class for medical students). Over 60 electives listed. Multiple tracks, but not necessary.
-Research opportunities available-- ranked 25 in terms of NIH money for psych
-Large medical system where UTSW is the only fish in a large pond
-Very resident oriented-- residents recommend changes, serve on residency task forces (LGBT mental health, Diversity, Resident Wellness, Global mental health), organize special events, and have lots of support systems (processing groups, PD with open door policy, psychotherapy available for residents)
-Therapy-- incorporated into addictions (motivational interviewing), inpatient( supportive-inpatient attending is an analyst), 2 therapy patients PGY2, 1/2 day per week of therapy PGY3 and PGY4 as well as option for more.
-Facilities are gorgeous- New Parkland has a ton of light and glass and a few of the inpatient units are on the top floor (17?) with an amazing view.
-Call is really hard to gauge because it depends on what rotation you are on, but the program is front loaded for PGY1 and 2. One of the residents said she probably averaged about 55hr/wk PGY2.
-Residents were friendly
-Large program (15 categorical residents, 1 neuro-psych, 2 IM-psych)

9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Several sites that require traveling to with the VA being 20 minutes outside of Dallas.
-Forensics (this is getting improved though, just started a fellowship in it)
-Dallas doesn't have the most cultural stuff available and has a reputation for being "materialistic."
-Texas is on the lower end of the spectrum for states providing mental health services (though could be a positive for those of us wanting to practice in red states, since we have to navigate these systems)
-Only met 8ish residents maybe.

10. Overall Impression:
One of my favorite programs. This was a sleeper pick for me, but one I was very excited to see. Definitely, was above my expectations. I love the various facets of community/public psych incorporated into the program and the wide variety of electives and elective time. The programs mission is "Healing, Education, Advocacy, and Research (HEAR)" and they incorporated that well into their program.
 
USC Palmetto

1. Ease of Communication:
Via email. Very easy.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Paid for a very nice Hilton hotel close to the interview day. Dinner was from Ruth Chris. Free voucher for Ruth Chris for breakfast. PD baked really intricate pastries. Lunch was catered.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Half the day is touring, the other half of the day is 5*30 minute interviews with faculty and residents. Faculty were very nice and interviews were conversational.

4. Program Overview (Unique Aspects)
-Outpatient is PGY2. Therapy is a major focus (3-5 psychodynamic cases, also supervision in CBT, dynamic DBT, and family and couples therapy)
-PGY3 is 6 months of outpatient and 6 months of community psych. Community psych rotations include forensic evaluations, Dept of Mental Health, telepsych, addictions, and perinatal.
-PGY4 has 5-6 months of electives.
-There is a required research project.
Call is AMAZINGLY light. PGY1 is once a week from 5-11pm for 6-8 weeks while at Bryan Psych Hospital. Medicine rotations have varying call responsibilities, but none seemed terrible. PGY2 is 5-11 once every 2 weeks (I think) and one weekend 5-11pm shift a month. PGY3 is 5-6, 5-11pm weekend shifts, and PGY4 has no call.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
PD is very friendly and bakes intricate things for residents for their Bdays and for applicants interview days. Faculty is approachable. The forensic psychiatry training director is very accomplished.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Columbia, SC is meh, but the hours and COL mean you can travel to better places in the region like Charleston, ATlanta, Charlotte, and Asheville.

7. Salary & Benefits:
PGY starting at 55k. About 15 days of vacation a year. Residents get Step 3 paid for, funding for a tablet or kindle, and $725 for books, membership fees, or educational travel.

8. Program Strengths:
-Focus on work-life balance. One resident told me the worst week she had was 55hrs. The call schedule is incredibly light and the PDs are responsive to residents. Also have a wellness curriculum that includes yoga, tai chi, and meditation.
-Moonlighting starting PGY2: Can work at the state hospital for $55hr (low stress) or the prison for $125/hr. Some residents find jobs in private practice that pay substantially more. There were other options as well. If you moonlit enough to work as many hours as residents at other programs, you could easily make tens of thousands more than them for the same amount of time worked.
-COL is very low.
-Forensics is supposedly exceptional
-Early exposure to child psych
-Therapy training starts early and continues throughout training
-Outpatient and community psych focus

9. Potential Weaknesses:
-The residents/applicants didn't seem very ambitious or overly enthusiastic about psychiatry
-Lack of preparation for the real world? Though residents stated they felt very prepared. With psychiatry it's hard to know what you don't know though, so it's not really something that's easy to gauge.

10. Overall Impression:
This program is a dream for people who want to raise a family or are weary of medicine. Ambitious people could really make this program work for them, if they utilized all of the free time for whatever interests they have. Though the program allows residents to live lives outside of medicine or in medicine, depending on preference and doesn't force residents to do anything major really. My biggest hesitance about coming here would be that residents don't seem to push the envelope in anyway, but I guess that's a product of self-selection to the program and no fault of the program. It's a very tempting program and I wouldn't mind matching here, though it might not be my top choice.
 
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DrSatan said:
Anyone else irked by the top programs that have proclaimed that we (the applicants there that day) are the "cream of the crop" & that we should be feel proud for having been given interviews at their program? I've had this happen at least twice now.
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Yup! Its happened a few times
 
DrSatan said:
Anyone else irked by the top programs that have proclaimed that we (the applicants there that day) are the "cream of the crop" & that we should be feel proud for having been given interviews at their program? I've had this happen at least twice now.
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You'd rather be told "Well, you're just squeaking by, but we decided to invite you anyway"? Or "We could have invited better people, but we figured that you'd show up at least"? "We chose you at random from 800 others with identical Board scores"?
Don't get why you find it irksome. Getting an interview in this cycle is not a trivial thing--there are lots of folks complaining because they're left out.
 
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DrSatan said:
Fair point. You're right. I guess I would prefer they just say congratulations for getting an interview during a competitive year or say they're happy to have us here if they're merely trying to stroke our ego.
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Look at it the other way around. Applicants regularly tell the program “I’m so impressed with this institution and I would love to train here” not “I only added this program to extend my rank list because I’m really afraid of not matching” (even if that’s frequently the case).
 
DrSatan said:
I think I'm just grumpy from a long interview season.

:boom:+pissed+:help:+pity+
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haha I'm also becoming more low key paranoid. Don't ask me where I've been or what I've seen... Programs have ears everywhere and the world of psychiatry is relatively small.

Related to your previous post, I like this variant: programs congratulating applicants on choosing Psychiatry/stating it's an exciting time to be entering the field. Strikes me as one generation passing on the baton to another...also affirmation is nice.
 
University of Illinois (Peoria)
(from anonymous)

1. Ease of Communication:
Interview invitation was sent through ERAS. Option to call, email, or message via ERAS for interview dates. I called back because I thought it would increase my chances of getting the date I wanted. They sent an itinerary a week before the interview. They even sent a reminder text the morning of the email making sure I knew where the hospital was, what time I was meeting, & who I was meeting. Coordinators were very nice.

2. Accommodation & Food:
They offered a hotel room & shuttle to-&-from. You can park at the hospital for free if you drive. There was no breakfast offered, but there was probably breakfast at the hotel (didn’t stay at the hotel). They had a resident take me to (free) lunch at a local restaurant at the end of the interview day.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Day started at 8am & ended around 1pm. I met with the program coordinator at the start to get introduced to the day. I met with the program director (45min), 2 clinical psychologists (30min), & a PGY3 resident (30min). I then had a tour of the hospital with a PGY2. My day ended with a free lunch with a PGY3. There was 1 other student interviewing, but they did their best to make sure we were not together so that we could feel like we were getting our own special interview day. I had no unusual questions asked. They were all very nice & seemed intent on selling the program to me. I think they were very honest about their shortcomings & how they are addressing them in the future. They seemed like they had read my personal statement, as some aspects were mentioned, but they didn’t bring much/if any of my CV up throughout the interviews.

4. Program Overview:
PGY1 year has internal medicine inpatient (3mos) + family medicine (1mo) + neurology & other requirements that seem pretty typical for psychiatry residencies. These are done at the next door hospital. You also start outpatient psychopharmacology management during PGY1. You do inpatient mood floor & psychotic floor during 1st year. PGY2 you continue outpatient psychopharm management + consult + addiction + other things. PGY3 is all outpatient. They do CBT, IPT, psychodynamic, DBT, etc. One of the few places you’ll get DBT training. Sounds like the past residents have really liked learning so many therapies. It is supervised by trained clinicians with a video camera recording the room. PGY4 is electives. Any elective they do not have (which is a good couple), they are willing to help you get involved with somewhere else if you want. Residents reiterated that they were really good about helping you do the electives you want. Lots of residents have travelled out of the country. Wednesday is didactics with protected time all afternoon with board review at the end. A “scholarly” activity is required (research), but most residents do something very basic (surveys, etc).

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
I did not really meet much faculty. But I’ve known them from prior experiences. I think they are pretty good. Kind of hard for me to judge. They have a pretty diverse background, so you’ll get a rounded clinical experience.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Peoria is an okay place to live. It is definitely upcoming, even with Caterpillar likely leaving. They are really building up the downtown right now. Not sure if it will eventually fail, but they are trying. There are a couple good food spots. Some big names make it here occasionally for concerts. It is only a 2.5-3hr drive to Chicago & St. Louis. Rent is cheap. Weather is hot in the summer & mildly cold in winter (significantly better than Chicago). Residents go out together. Attendings have attended happy hours with them as well. Call is only PGY2 & PGY3 & is done at home by phone. Accommodating if there is a family emergency. Annual resident retreat wherever residents want to go that is apparently a ton of fun. Have to work 1 Thanksgiving. Xmas & New Years is split so that half work one & half the other. Everyone seems really, really happy here.

7. Salary & Benefits:
I think $55,000+ per year. Can moonlight PGY3 & up, & from what they say, it’s like ~$1,200-1,500 per weekend for very little work. Free food at the hospital & physician’s lounge (pretty decent food too). Discount/free access to YMCA.

8. Program Strengths:
- Extremely enthusiastic program director that takes resident feedback seriously. He cares more about resident’s lifestyle & well-being than attendings (this is a serious plus). He’s willing to make changes based on resident interests.
- Early outpatient exposure. Supervised CBT, psychodynamic, DBT, etc.
- Residents have matched well in competitive fellowships.
- Lifestyle is great. Minimal scut work. Call was described as “fun” by 2 residents.
- Flexibility with electives.

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Research is very weak (but this seems to be due to resident disinterest).
- Peoria is okay.
- Very small program (4 residents/year). Could be a plus.
- Limited fellowship opportunities at home program.
- Fewer home electives due to need for more faculty (actively recruiting at this time).

10. Overall Impression:
I actually think this program is a gem. It is up & coming. The psychodynamic training is really strong & definitely their biggest strength. No one has failed boards since its creation. It’s DO/IMG friendly. They provide a great lifestyle. Everyone gets along. Residents match fellowships well. They are making changes to get more fellowships & add electives where possible, but are very accommodating to allowing electives at other places. If it weren’t for my location restraint, Peoria would likely be higher up on my rank list. I’m also a narcissist & care about reputation, & Peoria hasn’t yet established itself as a well-known residency (though competitive fellowships are accepting graduates).
 
Coupd'Cat said:
haha I'm also becoming more low key paranoid. Don't ask me where I've been or what I've seen... Programs have ears everywhere and the world of psychiatry is relatively small.
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Does this mean you won't be posting any more reviews? 🙁

Speaking of paranoia, I'm pretty much nonanonymous here; it's just too exhausting for me to try to maintain anonymity. The reason I'm not posting any more interviews (at the moment) is laziness vs business vs perfectionism (as in, I want to write thorough and detailed reviews but don't have time and energy for it)
 
Amygdarya said:
Does this mean you won't be posting any more reviews? 🙁

Speaking of paranoia, I'm pretty much nonanonymous here; it's just too exhausting for me to try to maintain anonymity. The reason I'm not posting any more interviews (at the moment) is laziness vs business vs perfectionism (as in, I want to write thorough and detailed reviews but don't have time and energy for it)
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haha no I will! Hopefully I'm not too easy to ID. In any case, if I write more warmly about a program and they see it, then that correlates w/ how I'll rank them anyway. The opposite is also true...

I'm referring more to real life, where I don't know who in my home program might off-handedly mention which programs I'm leaning toward (incorrectly or correctly) to whomever who then somehow pass it on to our PD, who talks with other PDs, etc. That sort of thing has burned a few people in past years.

Definitely--I can tell your reviews are very thorough! quality > quantity
 
Got another brain dump for Brown in Rhode Island. Please refer to a more complete review on page 2! 🙂

Call schedule very humane; rent is dirt cheap (500-1000); some residents buy houses/condos; 7 hospital sites; need a car to get to sites (10-15 min btwn hospitals); can start moonlighting PGY2 (get paid almost as much as attending; shifts easy to come by) strengths in child (standalone CAP hospital; fast track available (no limited # of positions); child is popular w/ residents; 4 mo exposure with 1 mo being CL during PGY2); psychotherapy with a planned curriculum that builds upon previous years; dating seems a little iffy (residents say you can always date in Boston); about Providence (most restaurants per capita, thriving theater scene, great seafood, not a lot of Chinese tho, great hikes & beaches); facilities aren't that nice; residents seem genuinely happy about program; tons of residents stay as fellows/attendings
 
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Just checking in on this year's thread, I'm surprised there haven't been more California reviews!

And regarding "cream of the crop" type comments, I wouldn't take it as the program commenting about itself. It's more that programs have genuinely been so impressed by the strength of this year's psychiatry applicants, they thought really hard and struggled with decisions about who to interview, and they are stoked to meet you. 🙂
 
scruffy821 said:
Just checking in on this year's thread, I'm surprised there haven't been more California reviews!
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I'm surprised as well especially as it seems there are boatloads of UC and the rest CA med students applying to psych this year.
 
Tufts
(An anonymous submission)

1. Ease of Communication:
Via email. The PC is friendly though I didn't interact with her except to confirm the preinterview dinner.

2. Accommodation & Food:
No accommodation provided. Dinner at a German pub a 10 min walk from the hospital. At dinner, there were tons of applicants and not enough residents to go around. It was also quite noisy and difficult to hear those except right next to you. Breakfast was not provided because I interviewed in the afternoon (11AM-5PM). Lunch was sandwiches, chips, and cookies from Cosi.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Started with a powerpoint presentation from a current PGY4 who was down to earth and approachable. He went over the nuts and bolts of the program, including schedules for all 4 years. The PGY4 mentioned that his graduating class are going into forensics and addictions fellowships while he himself will be opening an outpatient clinic out of state. Then the PD Dr. Schindleheim came in for a 30 min appearance in which he did a Q&A of the most common Q's applicants ask him (very useful). There are various sites, but you supposedly do not need a car to get around to all of them. See here for a comprehensive list of sites: Other Training Sites at Tufts Medical Center. They recently added a new 20-bed site for CAP patients at North Shore Medical.

We had lunch with residents which was fairly well attended. This was followed by a 1 hour case study led by faculty. I had 4 interviews (30 mins) except 1 15 min with the PD. My first interviewer looked at my application, knew I wanted to do research and basically told me to go somewhere else for that, which was a little off putting. When I met with a senior, he asked me if I had ties to Boston (I said my immediate family is here); but he kept asking me if I had other ties (??) as if my family wasn't convincing enough. My meeting with the PD was very brief (like <10 mins) and he didn't have any questions for me. Overall, no one seemed interested in me as a person, didn't ask me any questions about my research or activities. I also got grilled on some random Q's, asked by 2 people what my (Asian) parents think about me going into psych, and overall left a bad taste in my mouth.

4. Program Overview:
-only 6 residents a class
-seem to be very psychodynamically focused
-for PGY1, you do 1 month blocks; off-service months are interspersed with psych months
-1/2 day didactics (protected time) on Wednesdays
-Most of PGY4 is elective, except a 1/2 day of forensics per week for 2 months.
-Call: PGY1: short call 5-8PM 1-2x/week plus 12 hr weekend shifts, PGY2: 24 hr 35x/year, PGY3: 24 hr call 20x/year, PGY4 none, no night float system
-Moonlighting starting PGY3. On website, it says you must report all moonlighting activity to the program and are limited to 3x/month, though residents seem to do more than this. For extra income, you can also teach Tufts medical students physical exam for $150/hr.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
The current chairman, Dr. Summergrad is a former president of the APA. Faculty, per resident report, are extremely accessible. Residents feel comfortable knocking on their door if they're feeling stressed, for instance.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Boston is definitely a fun place for a young person to live with lots to do. COL is outrageous in Boston, especially walking distance from Tufts. A resident told me her 1 bedroom costs $2300/month. Some residents have roommates and some with families commute in from the suburbs.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary starts at 60k. Benefits include health, dental, disability and life insurance.

8. Program Strengths:
-treat both low functioning pts and high functioning (Tufts is close to financial district)
-significant Chinese population, if you're interested
-psychodynamic training
-approchable faculty
-close-knit class where people know each other intimately
-med students do much of the scut while you oversee and supervise their work on most rotations

9. Potential Weaknesses:
-many 24 hour calls during PGY2-3, no night float
-not to start a flame war, but there's a good number of IMGs and DOs; makes me wonder why they couldn't fill with AMGs
-facilities look pretty dark and run down
-small department
-not much research presence
-unpleasant interview experience

10. Overall Impression:
Overall, great for someone who is psychodynamically/psychotherapy focused but not ideal for someone research-oriented. Also not ideal for someone looking for a larger class. Pretty down to earth vibes, but personally wasn't all that impressed with unique offerings of the program (there don't seem to be many).
 
raisinbrain said:
9. Potential Weaknesses:
-many 24 hour calls during PGY2-3, no night float
-not to start a flame war, but there's a good number of IMGs and DOs; makes me wonder why they couldn't fill with AMGs
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Had a pretty similar experience at Tufts as the above review. FWIW however, the residents told me that Tufts has an arrangement with the Saudi government to take their citizens on as residents. Psych apparently takes one Saudi med student on every year as a resident (???) Sounds kind of odd, but would explain one IMG slot per year.
Obviously I have no way of verifying this, but this is what we were told on the tour. We had one (very lovely seeming) applicant from Saudi Arabia, and the resident asked her if she was "applying for the Saudi slot."
 
Hello! Long-time SDN peruser here but I'm a noob as a poster. (clearly, as I just posted only this sentence). Um I'm trying to figure out how to associate a review with the links at the beginning. In the mean time, sorry for the spam.
 
zolofty goals said:
Hello! Long-time SDN peruser here but I'm a noob as a poster. (clearly, as I just posted only this sentence). Um I'm trying to figure out how to associate a review with the links at the beginning. In the mean time, sorry for the spam.
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Welcome!
You don't need to associate your review(s) with links(s) in the opening post. Just post your review, and thread starter @raisinbrain, who has been kindly maintaining this thread, will create a link to your review(s) in her opening post.
 
This is my last review, so I'll probably just lurk until February. Good luck everyone!
Columbia

1. Ease of Communication:
The PC was very responsive. They seem to send invites in batches, so if you don't respond immediately, you get relegated to another available date.

2. Accommodation & Food:
No accommodation provided. Dinner was at a Thai comfort food restaurant, which had a very conversational feel and vibe. Breakfast and lunch provided on interview day.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Columbia has 5 (?) interview days and each day has 20 applicants. The applicants are split into 2 groups of 10. One group interviews in the a.m. and has optional meetings with faculty that match their interests. The other group days the day in the reverse order. The group with afternoon interviews has dinner with residents on the same day, which must be a really tiring day. There were 3 interviews with faculty and 1 with a PD or aPD. All of the interviews were conversational.

4. Program Overview: Unique Aspects
PGY1: 7 months of medicine (2 Neuro, 4 medicine, 1 EM) and 5 months of psych. No Psych call 1st year.
PGY2: General Psych, Emergency psych, CL, CAP, and eating disorders. Call 4 wks nightfloat, about 1 day month weekend shift, there is shortcall, but it wasn't mentioned in any detail
PGY3: 3 days/week in resident clinic, 1 day/ wk community psych x 6 months, 1 day/wk integrated care x 6 months, 1 d/wk in selective (research, psychopharm, psychotherapy--extensive DBT). Call 4 wks nightfloat, about 1 day month weekend shift
PGY4: 1 d/wk resident clinic, 4d/wk electives. Call 3-4 weekends covering CL.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Faculty is incredibly achieved. Drs. Cabaniss (aPD) and Arbuckle (PD) seemed very warm and welcoming. I didn't interact much with Dr. Leonardo (aPD) but he seemed really nice.
6. Location & Lifestyle:
NYC is NYC. Housing is expensive, but hospital housing has 1 bedrooms starting at about 1700.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary was increased recently. PGY1 is 69k, jumps in PGY3 to 80k then 87k by PGY4. Also a 3k annual housing allowance.

8. Program Strengths:
-Research-- faculty are very approachable
-Community Psych-- Washington Heights Community Service Inpatient seems like an amazing way to see how psych could be practiced in a utopian world. Patients don't have to pay, so they stay until they are ready to be discharged without external pressures. Also the OP and inpatient are very tightly connected, so patients don't fall through the cracks. OP community psych 3rd year with option to add more in PGY3 and PGY4. Can pursue Community Psych Fellowship PGY4, but options for community placement are very limited.
-Therapy-- Therapy is free for patients, so no-show rate is low. Therapy is taught only be specialists in the type of therapy you are learning and begins in PGY2 with a psychodynamic case. If you do the PGY3 selective for therapy, you'll learn DBT the time-intensive way it was intended to be utilized.
--Residents-- all seemed very passionate about their diverse interests. They were very down to earth and seemed close. Seemed happy and not overworked. There is a weekly processing group, which allows residents to get to know each other well.
--Name recognition could open interesting doors (one of my interviewers consults for Google and presented to Congress)

9. Potential Weaknesses:
-Medicine rotations could be for some. You are treated like an IM resident and work long hours. Also there is 2 weeks of ICU.
-Could take initiative to find mentors.

10. Overall Impression:
I really liked this program. It has everything and the residents are happy. I didn't intend to like this program as much as I did, but somehow it's pushed its way to the top of my preliminary rankings. There really aren't any drawbacks to this program and a whole lot of advantages.
 
I was also very surprised by how much I liked the Columbia program. The didactics and supervision seemed incredible. The residents work hard, but they came across as some of the happiest and most fulfilled residents I've met on the trail. Now I just have to figure out if NYC is right for me and my family...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Evidence Based said:
Had a pretty similar experience at Tufts as the above review. FWIW however, the residents told me that Tufts has an arrangement with the Saudi government to take their citizens on as residents. Psych apparently takes one Saudi med student on every year as a resident (???) Sounds kind of odd, but would explain one IMG slot per year.
Obviously I have no way of verifying this, but this is what we were told on the tour. We had one (very lovely seeming) applicant from Saudi Arabia, and the resident asked her if she was "applying for the Saudi slot."
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Kind of off topic, but did anyone else get a very strangely worded waitlist/rejection from Tufts? They e-mailed me with the typical "this has been a really competitive year, so we can't offer you an interview at this time, good luck with your career" rejection spiel, then said they'd keep my application on file? Anyone else have experience with Tufts waitlist or any other programs with "vague" rejections?
 
University of Michigan

1. Ease of Communication:
Invite via interview broker. Very responsive. I emailed the coordinator re: a separate matter and she got back to me on a Friday afternoon. Pre-interview dinner coordinated with a PGY-2.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Stayed at a motel near the Upjohn outpatient building. We went to a German-American place in Ann Arbor for dinner the night before. It was pretty well attended by residents from all classes. Some residents seemed a bit tired, but not alarmingly so. Everyone knew each other and it seemed like they got along outside of work. The food was good; apparently Ann Arbor has good restaurants. There was some Panera quiches for breakfast, and lunch was sandwiches and salads. The lunch was a little awkward as residents just trickled in, chatted for a bit, and then left.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Tour via black 15-passenger van in the morning or afternoon, depending. It's led by the program coordinator who is apparently well loved and also had great things to say about Ann Arbor. She'd be a good person to ask about the area. I think there were four interviews with a chief, two faculty, and the program director. I had a lot of specific questions about my application experiences and what my career goals were. The faculty were very proud of the institution and the city. Things ran behind schedule. There is a wrap up with the chair at the end (Incidentally I still haven't figured out what to do/take away from those...). Day ends at 4:30 or so.

4. Program Overview: Unique Aspects
The program features a very nice VA, an inpatient psychiatry unit at U of M hospitals, a free standing psych ED at U of M, and a beautiful outpatient center (Upjohn).

There's a clinical scholars track (medical education education, research, regular mentorship re: professional identity), and a full-blown research track. Both require a project proposal. All 5 ACGME accredited fellowships. I met residents with interests in geriatrics, forensics, consults, child, etc. There seem to be a diverse mix of interests.
PGY-1 is 3 mo inpt at VA, 1 mo inpt at U of M, 1 mo addictions at VA, 1 mo C/L at VA, 3 mo med at VA, 1 mo inpt family medicine at U of M, 1 mo of neuro consults at VA, and 1 mo neuro at U of M. Protected academic half day on Tuesdays while on psychiatry.
PGY-2 is 5-6 months of inpatient psych at VA and U of M, 1 month of PES day float, and 1 month of PES night float. Also sprinkled in are addictions, C/L, child, and geriatrics. Psychodynamic therapy patients appear in the second year. Therapy is not sacrificed here; it appears to be a very balanced program in this respect. Psychoanalytic institute available.
PGY-3 is all outpatient. Rotate through specialty clinics. There is a community mental health longitudinal clinic.
PGY-4 has one month of forensics, a junior attending-ship at the VA, and a lot of elective time.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Per my previous review, I will defer commentary on "faculty achievement." Ostensibly there seem to be good research opportunities in whatever area you would be interested in. I asked a lot about on service teaching, and most respondents said it was very good. I've read some other reviews on the internet that indicate faculty are not approachable and don't do much teaching, so I'm not really sure what to make of this part.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
A small to medium college town in the Midwest. Snowy cold winters. Hot humid summers. All four seasons. Traffic seemed mild to moderate. Area is well educated and very liberal. 45 minutes to Detroit. Close to Cleveland, Chicago, Indianapolis. Michigan as a state is beautiful, especially the western lake shore. The UP is nice too.
Residents say parking is difficult. Apparently to get "good" parking you need to buy a more expensive pass than is really affordable. I couldn't figure out where most residents live.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Great benefits! I want to say stipends start at 57K, and there is an extra 4-5K bonus given each year to encourage saving. The HOA has negotiated bonuses for working on holidays (including one's birthday). I think cell phones may even be subsidized.

8. Program Strengths:
Good therapy training. Solid VA exposure, with all it's pros and cons (you decide which is which; single payer, CPRS, usually motivated population, mostly male, lots of red tape, good PTSD and substance exposure). Facilities at VA and U of M were nice. . Good midwest program if you don't want to be in a huge city. All 5 fellowships. Good research.

9. Potential Weaknesses:
Big department; perhaps it's easy to be lost in the shuffle? Residents did say they worked a lot, so I definitely didn't get the impression that things were cushy. Likely service oriented.

10. Overall Impression:
I felt good here. It wasn't overly warm and fuzzy, but I think there are some great training opportunities here if you like college towns. Will rank very highly.
 
Wounded Healer said:
Just arrived to the US after struggling 10 months of visa problems. Am I eligible now? 😉
Click to expand...
well you can promise to review the programs you interview 😉

also i would suggest you contact programs of interest to let them know you are currently in the US and available for interview should there be any openings. whatever you do don't put anything about being "honored to interview at your esteemed institution" or such nonsense, i don't know where IMGs learn this crap but its an automatic blacklist. also no generic "dearest program director" emails either. address people by their name, and write a brief email explaining why you are interesting in that specific program and what you bring to the table. (e.g. "I have family in x" or "i have previously published in y and would be excited to work with dr. z's research group" or "I am interested in working with marginalized populations and find your program's focus on this particularly attractive" etc.)
 
[/QUOTE](well you can promise to review the programs you interview 😉

also i would suggest you contact programs of interest to let them know you are currently in the US and available for interview should there be any openings. whatever you do don't put anything about being "honored to interview at your esteemed institution" or such nonsense, i don't know where IMGs learn this crap but its an automatic blacklist. also no generic "dearest program director" emails either. address people by their name, and write a brief email explaining why you are interesting in that specific program and what you bring to the table. (e.g. "I have family in x" or "i have previously published in y and would be excited to work with dr. z's research group" or "I am interested in working with marginalized populations and find your program's focus on this particularly attractive" etc.)[/QUOTE]

Thank you, I would have write that kinda' crap' if u didn't warn me. Your post is super helpful🙂

Evidence Based said:
lol that's what I get for being the review police. Glad everything worked out for you!
Click to expand...
Amygdarya said:
Congrats on getting to the US! Best of luck at your interviews!
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your kind wishes, it means a lot!
 
Brown
(from anonymous)

1. Ease of Communication:
Through Thalamus (don’t forget to upload a picture). Very friendly program & research coordinators. Basic interview & dinner information emailed ~1wk before interview day.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Hotel discounts provided on website. Unsure about parking. Dinner before at an Italian restaurant. ~5 residents of all years besides PGY2. 1x drink was free (alcohol included). Food was a subset of the menu & was delicious. Very casual. Residents switched spots at the end of the dinner. Breakfast was pastries, eggs, bacon, potatoes, coffee, juice, & water. Lunch was delicious Indian food. Pen & folder-paper clip provided.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
~7 applicants. Breakfast & overview at 730am. Talks from chair, PD, aPD, psychotherapy head, & research coordinator. 2x separate tours: 1 of Butler & other of Hasbro & Rhode Island. Lunch with residents was well-attended. Then interviews. Most applicants had 4-5x interview (reassured us that it had to be done this way so the PD could meet everyone & that those with 4 weren’t less competitive). 6x interviews for people interested in research (1x research coordinator + 1x research faculty); have 2x special interview days for those interested in R-25 research track. Done by 415pm. Lady at the entrance of the hospital was SUPER nice. Coordinators were both very nice & talked with me during a break.

Interviews were very typical. No crazy questions. Lots of “Why Brown,” “Why psychiatry,” & “Tell me about yourself.” Positives & weaknesses of my resume, conflicts in medical school, challenges in future of psychiatry, etc. Otherwise typical questions about difficult patients or feedback received. Really enjoyed most of my interviews; very friendly & energetic people. PD may or may not have been reading my application while asking me questions. Others had really obviously read through it, even going so far as to quote a line. Interviews with research people were mostly about my interest in research, though had some tough, unexpected questions in one; one told me not to be too hurt if I didn't match there ("off the record") because it's such a competitive year for psychiatry.

4. Program Overview:
Solid overview on their website. 9 residents/yr. Take a transfer in PGY2 to make class 10 residents.

PGY1: 6mos medicine – 4mos internal medicine (3mos general inpatient + 1mo medicine elective: HIV, hospice, etc.) or pediatrics + 2mos neurology (outpatient &/or consult). 6mos inpatient psych – geri, ADI/dual diagnosis, & inpatient psych. 12mos longitudinal medicine or pediatric clinic. Everyone starts with 1mo inpatient psych. Treated as a medicine resident; work 60-70hrs/wk. You do psych call while on neurology.

PGY2: 3mos inpatient psych, 3mos CL (at Women’s & Infants), 1mo psychiatric assessment service, 1mo ED psych, 2mos inpatient CAP, 1mo child CL, & 1mo CAP elective (autism, transgender, etc.). 12mos longitudinal resident’s continuity clinic (2hr therapy + 2hrs med management) & outpatient family therapy. High acuity patients. Excellent CL pathology.

PGY3: 12mos outpatient. 12mos longitudinal resident’s continuity clinic, family therapy, & group therapy.

PGY4: 2mos forensics, community psych (2mo or ½ day for yr), & electives. 1mo as junior attending (or other selectives?). Can do major research elective. 12mos longitudinal resident’s continuity clinic.

Call/night float: PGY1 – supervised short call (5pm-10pm, Mon-Fri) 2-4x/mo; 1st 3 are teaching call. Supervised ED psych call (7am-1pm) 6x shifts/yr. PGY2 – 1x 12hr shift/mo. 2mos (2x 1mo) night float. PGY3 – 1-2x 12hr shifts/mo. 1wk jeopardy/backup call. PGY4 – 3-4x teaching call for interns. 2-3x weekend/yr at Women’s & Infants. Residents find it reasonable.

Pager responsibilities: PGY1 & 2 – cover your inpatients during week + 2 of 4 weekends/mo. PGY2-4 – cover your outpatients during week. PGY3 & 4 – home pager call (phone consultation to ED; 5pm-8am) 3-4wks/yr.

Psychotherapy: psychodynamic, CBT, DBT (elective), brief, supportive/ITP, couples, 1yr group therapy, 2yr family therapy, & psychotherapy-psychopharmacology. Supervision is audio/video recordings & process notes. PGY1 – weekly meeting with supervisor for reviewing supportive psychotherapy + psychotherapy-psychopharmacology. Start receiving pts at end of PGY1 from departing PGY4s or their own inpatients. PGY2 – curricular emphasis on psychodynamic. Real-time supervision through hearing cases & briefly meeting with resident & patient. ½ day/wk at resident continuity clinic (outpatient psychotherapy training clinic) during PGY2-4. PGY3 – ½ yr of weekly supervised CBT, weekly supervised resident-run group therapy, & weekly family therapy supervision with video recordings. Also, seminars in brief, types of psychodynamic, & history of psychoanalysis. PGY4 – advanced psychodynamic with emphasis on self psychology & relational theory. Select psychotherapy supervisor. May receive additional supervision in CAP or group therapy. Opportunity for intensive psychodynamic training at Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute (BPSI; 1 evening per week for an extended period) during PGY3 or 4.

Research: very strong research department. Research mentors available. Extensive psychosocial & biological research opportunities. Can do basic, translational, or clinical research. Encouraged, but not required. Up to half of residents participate in research, with 2-3 in the research track. NIMH-funded R25 track for selected residents applied for in PGY1. May start research as early as PGY1 (if motivated), with time carved out when on inpatient psych; can do ½ d/wk PGY1 & 2. Recommended to start research project no later than mid-PGY3 so that a meaningful project can be completed; can carve out time during certain rotations. Can do research elective in PGY4. Can attend resident research seminar series. (academic track, how many research post-grad)

Fellowships: CAP, geriatrics, & women’s. Also research fellowships. Most residents remain at Brown after graduation. Many do fellowships (get in basically wherever they want). No specific fellowship residents tend to go into (besides CAP). Have scholarly activities: LEAP – administrative or research project; RAT – residents as teachers teaching M3 psychiatric curriculum.

Clinical sites: Butler – only private adult/adolescent inpatient psychiatric hospital in RI; 117 beds. Bradley – private inpatient CAP; 60 beds; 15min from Brown. Hasbro children’s hospital – general pediatrics; 87 beds. Miriam – CL rotations; 247 beds. Rhode Island – general hospital with 20 bed psychiatric unit; CL rotations; pediatric psych. VA – inpatient, outpatient, CL, substance abuse, & PHP. Women & Infants – OBGYN patients; perinatal psych. All within 10-15min of each other.

Lots of elective opportunities. Neuromodulation (ECT, TMS, maybe DBS; no VNS or ketamine), psycho-oncology, neurology-related, HIV, sleep, perinatal, telepsych, community, clozaril, longitudinal women’s clinic, college counseling, forensic, adult PHP, & Kenya international rotation to name a couple. Can do mini-clinic with specific population during PGY3. Electives have to be in their hospital system (many options). Selectives in forensics, community psych, & junior attending. Sounds like the racial diversity may be limited; there are West African refugees, South Africans, Russians, & Portuguese populations; also Brown has a collection of diverse students & faculty. Socioeconomic diversity should be present. Several EMRs to learn at different sites (Epic, Cerner, Avatar, VA, & maybe more). No specific suboxone training, but it sounds like you’ll see attendings using it.

Some scut work depending on the hospital you are at; also have to do it on nights. Didactics are protected except PGY1 medicine & night float PGY2. PGY1 & 2s have the same ones together to compensate for those missed didactics. Currently making minor changes to their neuroscience curricula for better integration. Trying to integrate social determinants of health & cultural psychiatry into their curricula/training. Have a general advisor starting PGY1, but can switch after; can have multiple advisors. M&M conferences. Changes in program driven by both residents & faculty/administration.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
PD was interesting; very hard to get a read on, but I enjoyed talking to her & it is obvious she cares about the program & residents’ training; other applicants thought she was sorta off-putting, which I understand. aPD was very nice to talk to; very energetic & excited about psychiatry. Other faculty I met were very nice & personable. Tons of faculty involved in clinical training & research.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Providence, Rhode Island. 1hr drive (or train) to Boston. Has an airport. Cost of living is fair. Safe city. Good food options (apparently), but limited fast food (apparently). Great outdoor recreational activities available. Almost everyone has a car; public transportation isn’t great. Lots of younger, highly educated people. Most residents live around east Mt. Hope & a select few actually live in Boston. 2 full-day retreats/yr: 1x around orientation (fun) & other for teambuilding/feedback. Many residents remain at Brown. Weed is legal (totally, brah).

7. Salary & Benefits:
PGY1 $58k --> $65.5k PGY4. 3wks vacation PGY1-3; 4wks vacation PGY4; very flexible in all years, can do as little as 1d with 30-45d notice for vacation. 3mos maternity leave; 6wks paternity leave. Blue Cross/Blue Shield health + dental insurance. Extensive moonlighting PGY2+ (chief resident pulled in $150k last year). Free parking & RI bus passes. Discounts on movies, theme parks, hotels, ski resorts, & sporting events. Access to Brown gym (has indoor pool, tennis, squash, etc.); parking can be a hassle there. On-call meal allowance. Free lab coat. $200 stipend/yr of educational use (books/reference material). $1,550 total for academic conference for all 4yrs. 3d for conference PGY1 & 5d for PGY2+. Paid license renewal fees & paid full license in PGY4. Paid AMA membership (wow!). Access to UpToDate (phew).

8. Program Strengths:
- Research opportunities
- Breadth of psychotherapy training
- PD, aPD, & Faculty
- Multiple training sites
- Zebra pathology
- VA exposure
- Moonlighting
- Elective flexibility
- Providence

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Call in PGY3 & 4; night float
- Inpatient psych PGY2
- Racial & cultural diversity (honestly, maybe not; unsure)
- Social scut work
- Several EMRs
- Providence

10. Overall Impression:
Really great program with very strong psychotherapy training & extensive research opportunities. Elective flexibility that allows residents to develop whatever passion they have. Clinical experience should be superb. Residents make bank moonlighting in a city with fair cost of living. Told the program was laid back & will not hold your hand. Providence is a cute city with enough to do. Some minor weaknesses that do not begin to outweigh the benefits of this program. Eclectic residents; not sure I completely meshed with them; they felt pretty unique compared to most I’d seen on my trail.
 
Last edited:
Northwestern
(from anonymous)

1. Ease of Communication:
Interview options through ERAS. Very general interview information provided ~2wks prior with no more detailed information provided. Dinner information provided in same email.

2. Accommodation & Food:
No accommodation for hotel or parking. Did not provide a pen for day. Interview information provided day of. Food is night before or night of at Pinstripes with residents for bowling, which is a ~5min walk from the residency. Lots of residents & applicants. Alcohol cost applicants money. Did a bunch of flatbread pizzas & a salad. Very casual. Great group of residents; very friendly. Hard to actually ask questions because we were bowling, which was actually pretty annoying; also bowling is dumb. Breakfast was pastries, coffee, & milk. Lunch was yummy pasta.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Breakfast & overview of program started at 8am. Arrived a little early & the program coordinator seemed annoyed at me for it; by far the least enthusiastic coordinator I met. 4x 30min interspersed interviews (PD, aPD, & 2x faculty). Lunch with residents; good amount came & were very friendly. Tour of facilities (which were beautiful) early in day. Day ended at 3pm. No really out there questions. Some interviewers didn’t really read my application. Lots of “why psych,” “why NU,” & “tell me about yourself.” Some other basics about a tough patient, challenges in psych, my strengths/weaknesses, etc. Very casual for the most part. One interviewer asked a lot of the questions you would expect normal interviewers to ask. Was told there were no weaknesses (c’mon). 1x interviewer told me to do a 2nd look. Schedule got behind almost immediately. Felt like an interview I was enjoying got cut short to fix this (though the applicants in front of me got full interview time). 1st interview canceled & then done at way end; had a ton of downtime because of this. Lots of applicants ended up waiting a ton of time. Program coordinator personally thanked an applicant next to me (when it was just us 2) for coming & wished him good luck & all that jazz without saying a word to me; this while I was waiting (at least 1-1.5hr) for my canceled interview. I know another applicant was able to meet with an additional faculty who I was strongly interested in meeting, but I was not given this option though. Left the day feeling like I had a ton of unanswered questions (only experience with this).

4. Program Overview:
Barebones overview on website. 8 residents/yr.

PGY1: all residents start on medicine, so that everyone starts psych together. 6mos medicine – 3mos internal med (can substitute for 2mos peds), 1mo ED, & 2mos neurology. 29-bed inpatient unit. Medicine 55-80hrs/wk with call q6d, neurology is 40-55hrs/wk. 2 residents have to do 3mos straight of medicine, but they get a cushy neurology rotation at the VA as reward. 6mos psych – 2mos inpatient psych, 2mos CL (child &/or adult), & 2mos VA.

PGY2: 2mos inpatient psych, 2mos CL (child &/or adult), 2mos geri, 2mos ED psych, 1.5mo electives, & 1mo VA. 1.5mos night float. Lots of good pathology & zebra pathology, though they only mentioned limbic encephalitis when asked about this. High pt acuity (apparently). Commit a lot of pts.

PGY3: primarily outpatient for 12mos. ½ day/wk each in addiction & women’s at VA. Choose 4 of 8 possible faculty clinic specialty electives (i.e., clinical trials, neuromodulation, neuropsychiatry, women’s etc.).

PGY4: primarily electives. 1mo administrative work or research. 1mo ED psych. Scholarly research project with individual mentors.

Call: no information online; sounded kind of complicated. Mid-PGY1 to mid PGY2 – short call (5-8pm) qweek on psych + 12hr weekend call 3x/mo (so 1x golden weekend/mo). 1.5mos night float in PGY2. From mid-PGY2 to mid-PGY3 – 12hr call ~q2wks. From mid-PGY3 – backup call 1x/mo (?). PGY4 – backup call (rarely called in). Honestly, this **** was confusing & is not documented for you to see. Doesn’t sound great, but residents didn’t seem too upset with it. **SEE COMMENT BELOW FOR FULL DETS**

Psychotherapy: begins halfway through PGY2 with ½ day clinic with live supervision. Fully outpatient in PGY3 + ½ day/wk family & couple’s therapy for 6mos with supervision. In PGY4, 3-4hr formal supervision/wk + onsite “in the moment” feedback. Have psychodynamic, CBT, family therapy training, group, & DBT (elective). 3-4 individual supervisors. Type of supervision is mentor-dependent; can do audio/video recordings or process notes (1 resident said she only did process notes). They feel competent from the training.

Research: top 40 in NIH funding. Active research in mood disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, dementia, mental health services, & childhood trauma; also collaboration with other departments. Scholars day for with buffet lunch, posters, & awards. Almost all residents do significant research on a project they’re interested in. Mandatory QI project that can be done as a group or class.

Fellowships: CAP, addiction, geri, CL, forensic, women’s, neuropsychiatry, & research. All residents have gotten 1st choice in fellowships since PD has been here. ½ to 2/3rd of residents enter fellowship. Tracks: clinical educator, research, & some others, but this was not provided to me nor is on the website.

Electives include women’s, eating disorders, ECT, TMS, sleep disorders, student mental health, & intensive diagnostic evaluation. Can become ECT & TMS certified. Very flexible & accommodating; PD has never turned down an elective. Resident-created electives include impaired professionals (think substance abuse, psychosis) work at Christian mental health center, working with health director of Chicago, & mindfulness resident-run with a retreat. Community psych electives in ACT, intensive case management (go to pt’s homes), & telepsych at VA.

Protected didactics & Grand Rounds all day Wednesday (except off service PGY1); do lightning rounds in AM depending on which rotation you are on. Present Grand Rounds as PGY3. If difficult pt or pt commits suicide, PD & program will speak with you & process it with you; you then present the case to your peers when ready. Diverse patient population as far as race, culture, & economic status (will see many rich people too). Program emphasizes advocacy. Also emphasized that they wanted to create the next generation of academic leaders in psychiatry. Ancillary staff is great; no scut work. Use Epic for EMS.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
PD is very warm & supportive; very motherly & proud of her residents. Interested in trauma & resident wellness. aPD is also very caring. He does collaborative work with PM&R. PD & department are very supportive of residents if there is something serious that happens (fire, miscarriage, pt suicide, etc.). New CAP chief director from Cornell. Poached 2x very good neuropsychiatrists from UIC. Didn't feel like I really gelled with any of the faculty to be honest.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
In a great area of Chicago. Tons of food & things to do. Can basically live anywhere in Chicago & get to the sites. Public transportation options are great (both bus & train). Up to half of residents don’t have a car. Free shuttle to VA (every 30min). PGY1 welcome pizza party at Gino’s East (so the pizza wars begin). Annual program BBQ dinner at PD’s home. Holiday party yearly. Full day resident retreat (past activities – scavenger hunt, whirlyball, art therapy, & karaoke). Residents are worked hard (especially intern year). Sounds like they can have a decent work-life balance anyway, though. Residents live everywhere around Chicago.

7. Salary & Benefits:
PGY1 58k --> $66k in PGY4 (highest in Chicago). Personal iPad provided PGY1. BlueCross/BlueShield health insurance; also dental/vision. Apparently special rates on certain hotels, entertainment, & restaurants (whatever that means). 3wks (15d) PGY1 & 4wks (20d) PGY2+ vacation. 10 paid sick days (may be used for bereavement). Can use 1wk vacation for conference attendance (wow), but do not have to use vacation time if presenting at conference (have 5d); must be in continental US. Family friendly per website; 6wks for birth of a child (sick & short-term disability days, but can use vacation days for full salary); first 2wks considered paid parental leave; half-time training available after December of PGY2. Reduced rates at 2x childcare centers if your combined income <$100,000. $150 educational stipend on any educational purchase. If presenting at conference, can get $1,000 stipend/yr or $250-500 travel fund stipend. 401(k) savings plan. USMLE Savings Program (lol they literally just deduct your salary & put it in a non-interest-bearing account). Discounted gym membership at LA Fitness near the downtown campus or a facility near Evanston ($315/yr). There is a “wellness liaison” that supports psych residents. Apparently, there are updated “napping” rooms. Parking is $102 (+ transponder fee), but you must live far enough away from campus for parking privileges. Moonlighting PGY3+, but not internal.

8. Program Strengths:
- Psychotherapy training
- Research opportunities
- Clinical training
- PD & aPD
- Ancillary staff
- Other treatment modalities (ECT, TMS)
- Elective flexibility
- Inhouse fellowships
- Resident success post-graduation
- Clinical sites close (minus VA)
- Great resident group & camaraderie
- VA exposure
- Facilities

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- None apparently (well, how about that?)
- Inpatient psych PGY2
- Patient acuity (not sure I trust them here; probably don’t see the worst of the worst)
- Socioeconomic diversity (only relative to some other Chicago programs)
- Perks: parking, gym
- Call schedule, night float (though not substantial)
- Other treatment modalities (DBS, VNS, ketamine)
- No internal moonlighting
- Chicago

10. Overall Impression:
Great program with a strong balance of psychotherapy training & biological psychiatry with research opportunities. Supportive faculty. Flexible electives & ability to find a niche. Graduates go on to great practices or fellowships. Chicago is awesome & the hospitals are in a great part of Chicago. Residents seemed very cohesive & friendly; looks like they work hard PGY1 & 2 as well. Felt irked by the program for poor logistics; left feeling disappointed; only program I left with questions unanswered. Believe it's a great program regardless; ranked them #1.

Post-interview communication: Maybe I'm a little bitter, but whatever, I had a long year. Thank you response from PD was a little more intense than I was expecting (honored to meet you, love to have you next year, etc.), though they were tailored back for my letter of intent I send (ugh), so I had no expectation that I'd match there. Just wanted to let you not get your hopes up for a somewhat "glowing" response.

==========

Follow up on call/night schedule:
3 types of call at NU & the VA:
1) Short call (3hrs) - 5-8pm
-- cover ED psych consults, leftover consults from consult service, & acute medical issues or new admissions on the inpatient psych
-- helps bridge the gap between the day team signing out at 5pm & nightfloat coming on at 8pm.

2) Call (12hrs) - 8am-8pm on Saturday or Sunday, or Sat 8pm-Sun 8am overnight
-- over ED psych consults, new consults from medical floors & follow-ups, & acute medical issues on inpatient psych.

3) Nightfloat (12hr shifts) - 8pm-8am
-- Sun night through Thursday or Friday night
-- in 1-2wk blocks
-- basically same responsibilities as call

===========

Separate residents for weekend rounding:
-- come in the mornings on both Saturdays & Sundays
-- round on half the patients (up to 14)
-- lessens load for on-call resident

Lurie & children's rotation:
-- rotation is flux
-- as of now, residents rarely (if ever) get called in because the child psych residents covering call
-- seeing a patient on-call is much more of an educational experience than a clinical need

=======

Call frequency (generally):
PGY1 June - PGY1 Dec:
-- follow call schedule of medicine, neuro, ED, & peds
-- no overnight

PGY1 Jan - PGY2 Dec:
-- ~1x short call/wk with 5-6x training calls at NMH & VA
-- 3/4 weekends you are either weekend rounder or have a call shift (at least 1x golden weekend/mo)

PGY2 Jan - PGY3 Dec:
-- ~1x short call q2mo
-- 2x weekend calls/mo

PGY3 Jan - PGY4 Dec:
-- backup for 1wk q1-2mos

======

Night float:
PGY1 Jan - PGY2 Dec:
-- 1-2wks at VA

PGY2:
-- 6-7wks
 
Last edited:
University of Chicago
(from anonymous)

1. Ease of Communication:
Through ERAS scheduler. Basic interview & pre-interview dinner information provided ~1wk prior. No issues.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Dinner at nice restaurant in Chicago the night before. ~4 residents & ~6 applicants. Very casual. Only PGY2 & 3s present. No interns; had to cancel because they were busy. Alcohol was paid for by applicants; most residents had a drink. Food was delicious; ordered family style with dessert. No hotel accommodation provided. Parking free with voucher. Breakfast was pastries, fruit, water, juice, & coffee. Lunch was lots of Thai food (from a place faculty revealed was one of the worse local places).

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8 applicants. Welcome breakfast & residency overview to start. 5x 30min interviews (PD, chairman, faculty, chief resident, & education director) with 3x 30min breaks where I could attend part of didactics (optional). Interviews interspersed throughout entire day; I had 3 in the afternoon. Tour followed by lunch with residents. Wrap up session with pictures of other clinical sites (Ingalls & North Shore) at 3pm & done by 315pm. Anonymous survey done at end. No out there questions. Mostly “tell me about myself” & a surprising amount of “would you be happy in Chicago” & “where do you see yourself in 10yrs?” One asked to talk about a time I disagreed with my attending & what I did. Lunch was with a lot of residents, but there was nowhere for them to sit, so many were wasted standing around & talking to each other, which actually made it hard for us to hear the residents talking to us. Most interviewers knew my application well. aPD (now PD) continually looked at the clock while I was with her & finished our interview early (I saw other people leave her office fairly early as well); almost felt like she was defensive at times when I was asking her questions about the programs.

4. Program Overview:
Good overview on website. 6 residents/yr.

PGY1: 6mos psych – 2mos CL & 4mos inpatient (split at 2 hospitals). 6mos medicine – 2mos general inpatient medicine (or 2mos peds or 1mo adult + 1mo peds), 1mo ED (adult or peds), 1mo CL (or 1mo peds), & 2mos general neurology (or 1x adult + 1x peds). 1x resident said they worked >80hrs 1wk on medicine, other said he never came close.

PGY2: 4mos inpatient psych (split), 2mos inpatient addiction (with suboxone training), 2mos ED psych, 2mos community, & 2mos CL. Also, 6mos chronic care clinic. Rotate through continuing care psychosis clinic. May have ECT patients during inpatient. Supervise medical students. Inpatient psych is at North Shore (Evanston) & Ingalls (30min south from U Chi); there is no inpatient psych unit at U Chicago. High acuity psych patients. Broad disease pathology with “zebras” if you look (anti-NMDA rec encephalitis several times per year). CL is less primary pathology (can’t remember exactly what this means, but I think it means you see “less pure” psychiatric pathology if that makes sense).

PGY3: exclusively outpatient clinics (12mos adults & child). 6mos of geri + general med/psych clinic, transplant, or psycho-oncology. 6mos specialty electives in neuropsychiatry, personality disorders, anxiety, addictions, refractory affective disorders, student counseling, &/or memory clinic. Medical student supervision.

Evaluate & write-up 1x forensic case under faculty supervision as PGY3 or 4.

PGY4: Required – supervision/selectives (chief resident, inpatient chiefs, CL, ED psych, or outpatient); research (required basic or clinical research); & ECT (1-2mos in pre-ECT evals & 3x/wk tx). Electives: ECT (3mo), research (75% of time), student counseling, sleep med, geri med, pain clinic, women’s, & forensic. PGY4 meant to allow for “maximum flexibility” to pursue area of interest.

Call: PGY1 – while on psych, begin with direct supervision from senior residents. PGY2 – call with backup faculty. PGY1 & 2s on call on average 3x/mo. Have 24hr call on Tue with day off Wednesday or 12hr shift on Sundays. PGY3 & 4 – opportunity for inhouse moonlighting call including providing backup for PYG1s.

Fellowships: CL & CAP. Medical education research, innovation, teaching, & scholarship (MERITS) – research in medical education. MacLean center for medical ethics – summer readings, weekly ethics conferences, 1-2mo ethics consult, & research project; lots of residents do this. Many graduates go to fellowships & can get in wherever they want. Lots of CAP residents do not fast track apparently.

Psychotherapy: Start psychotherapy in PGY2 with 3x patients for the year. In PGY3, 8hrs psychotherapy/wk in CBT, psychodynamic, supportive, & group + 2.5hrs supervision. Can do intensive psychotherapy sequence PGY4 (½ resident do) in group, family, psychodynamic, DBT, etc. Supervision includes process notes & audio recordings. Group & family therapy were described as weak, but can get strong training if really desired. Get basic DBT exposure that you can get more training in if you put the effort in to find a good mentor, but won’t likely be certified; it’d be modified DBT. Told their strengths are in “psychodynamic med management,” CBT, & supportive therapies. Some residents go on to use psychodynamic in practice, but will often just use it in conjunction with med management appointments.

Research: Top 40 in NIH funding. Lots of opportunities, particularly in neuroimaging. Easy to find research mentor. Research projects are learned about through a binder containing current projects. Interested residents will start in PGY2 or 3. Research & QI project required; varies depending on resident interest (can be minimal). Lots of research in other departments. Faculty told me they do not do a lot of clinical work, mostly basic & translational, but it doesn’t really sound like that after looking at the program & talking to people. 1/3rd residents do more research than required (increasing over last couple years). Very limited DBS exposure (only done on refractory OCD patients); TMS only for research (though PD has been trying to fund its use for treatment); no ketamine trials.

Describe themselves as the “teacher of teachers.” “Residents as Teachers” curriculum to prepare residents to be educators. Opportunity to teach medical students. Weekly clinical case conferences on “problem” cases. Journal club. Process group meets every other week; open to all residents. Faculty mentor throughout residency. Protected didactics, even when off service in PGY1 (recent resident-driven change).

Electives are flexible, but not crazy flexible (travel to other states); could go international to sister campuses in Beijing or New Delhi potentially if motivated. Services are resident-run; resident always sees the patient first; will accommodate for family emergencies or crises though. Sounds family-friendly. No VA, but can do elective there. No real forensics, but can find a mentor & do extensive work if desired.

New ED opening now (level 1 trauma center) with its own dedicated 4 bed psych pod. Planning on future purchases for clinical sites (Ingalls is new). Small program where faculty knows the residents well. Diverse racial & economic population. Use Epic for most sites, but PowerChart/Cerner at Ingalls. Residents were eclectic in a good way; I really liked them.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
PD subspecialized in neuropsychiatry. Residents said faculty were the biggest strength of the program. Very approachable & warm. Chairman works in community psychiatry; very interested in collaborative/integrative care.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Southside of Chicago; crime is an issue nearby. Hyde Park itself is very nice & diverse, but it’s isolated. Cost of living is good for Chicago. Not many bars. If you go up north to bars you almost may as well spend the night at a friend’s or take a pricey cab/uber/lyft back (probably not particularly safe to train that late). Sounds like residents live all over, though some live in Hyde Park. Commute to other clinical sites (North Shore in particular) is tough. Almost all residents have a car. Only have to travel for ~8mos total over PGY1/2 years. Apparently, Illinois has the lowest spending on behavioral health per capita in the US. No social scut work; ancillary staff are very supportive.

7. Salary & Benefits:
PGY1 $57k --> PGY4 $64k. 4wks paid vacation that sound fairly flexible, even in PGY1/2 years; can take 2d or so at a time & no more than a 2wk period. 5 paid sick days. Individual offices (except during PGY1). 4wk paid maternity leave or other required medical care. 24hr access to UC libraries. Inhouse moonlighting PGY3+, but it doesn’t sound like the pay is as good as most places; can make bank at North Shore; apparently can do tele-psych at some EDs & make good money. Gym at U Chicago for ~$25/mo but other students use it; has a pool, (but no sauna!). Parking for cheap monthly (maybe ~$20-30/mo pre-taxed).

8. Program Strengths:
- Psychotherapy training
- Research opportunities
- Small program
- Resident success post-graduation
- Other treatment modalities (ECT)
- Faculty
- Ancillary staff
- Elective flexibility
- Call schedule, no night float
- Chicago

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Inpatient psych PGY2
- No U Chicago inpatient facility
- Inhouse fellowships
- No VA
- Basic forensic experience (though can have full experience through electives)
- Other treatment modalities (TMS, DBS, VNS, ketamine).
- Small program
- Commute to other sites
- Chicago

10. Overall Impression:
Small program with extensive psychotherapy training & opportunities for research. Tight knit resident groups with very supportive faculty. Excellent pathology, social, & economic diversity. Very flexible with electives to allow for specialization. Call is cushy. Chicago is a great city, but living situation sounds a little difficult with the clinical sites being so spread out & U Chicago being in Hyde Park. Limited inhouse fellowships, but likely can get a fellowship wherever you’d want. Residents were great people; eccentric in a good way. I really enjoyed my interview & was pleasantly surprised. Did not see the malignancy others have posted about in years past.
 
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University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
(from anonymous)

1. Ease of Communication:
Through ERAS for interview date. Can email with specific interests if you want your interview to be tailored to you. Received confirmation email ~3wks prior to interview. Dinner confirmation 2d before dinner. Specific schedule information provided morning of interviews.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Dinner night before at nice Latino restaurant in SW Chicago. BYOB with residents bringing (enough) wine & told us to bring whatever we’d like. ~10 residents & ~8 applicants. Very casual. Residents from all years present (or basically). No hotel accommodation, but there were discounts possible at certain places. Parking free with provided voucher. No pen provided. Breakfast was fruit, yogurt, pastries, coffee, & water by Corner Bakery. Lunch was catered Potbelly’s.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
8-10 applicants. Day started at 8am with small breakfast & overview of program. 4x 30min interviews (PD, faculty, chief resident, & PGY4). 1 resident was sick (would’ve been 5x interviews). Lunch with residents was very casual. Tour until ~2pm of all the close facilities (also casual). Lots of “why psychiatry,” “tell me about yourself,” & “what are your interests?” Once asked about a time I failed. Had some borderline questionable questions (I felt): “tell me a positive & challenging aspect of each parent,” “describe your relationships with your siblings,” & was really pushed about answering “why UIC?” When I say pushed, I mean I was kept being asked to differentiate it from different Chicago campuses that had similar aspects (which also sort of forced me to admit I applied to other specific Chicago residencies, though to be fair I said I wanted to be in Chicago). Felt like I was psychoanalyzed; left feeling uncomfortable & annoyed. Was told by friend who did an away at UIC that this faculty was a *not a good person.* Other interviews were great; residents were very chill & responsive. The interviewer seemed like she was coming from a good place & I think I’d like her if I went here, but I can’t help but feel a little violated (if that makes sense).

4. Program Overview:
Good overview on their website. Take 10 residents/yr.

PGY1: 6mos medicine – 2mos inpatient med, 1mo ambulatory, 1mo ED, 2mos neurology (general & stroke), & 2wk vacation. Treated as inpatient med resident, but can opt to have less responsibility (it sounds like). 6mos psych – 3-4mos inpatient psych (split with VA), 1mo urgent intervention team (CL + ED psych), 1mo psychiatric assessment clinic, 1mo night float, & 2x 1wk vacations + 4 floating holidays. Cheat sheet provided at interview said 5mo inpatient psych + 2mo ED psych. Process group weekly. Most take Step 3 at end of PGY1.

PGY2: 6mos inpatient psych (1x mo at VA), 2mos CL, 2mo CAP, 1mo community, 1mo night float, & 1mo vacation (half prescheduled 2x 1wk blocks, other half flexible) + 4 floating holidays. Process group weekly. Psychodynamic psychotherapy supervision & didactics begin. Weekly ECT while inpatient psych at UIC.

PGY3: lots of outpatient with some PHP & inpatient. Addiction, women’s, neuropsychiatry, & geri rotations. 1mo elective of choice. Psychodynamic psychotherapy & CBT start (3hr/wk + 1hr supervised for both) + child psych or ADHD clinic instead. Night float 1wk. 4wks vacation with flexible scheduling + 4 floating holidays.

PGY4: 3mo selective (inpatient psych, CL, etc). 6mos electives. Continuity clinic with supervision in any modality. Vacation is 4wks flexible scheduling + 4 floating holidays.

Tracks: clinician-educator (takes 2 residents), adult psychiatry/neuroscience research track (need substantial research experience), & integrated adult-child research track (6yrs). Fellowships: addiction, neuropsychiatry, CAP, & women’s health (4th year specialization). Subspecialty training in addiction, CAP, community, ECT, interventional (TMS, ketamine), neuropsychiatry, & women’s. Most residents go into CAP with a mixed bag otherwise. 1/3rd à ½ fellowships, 1/3rd community, & 1/3rd inpatient practices after graduation. CAP > addictions or neuropsychiatry.

Emphasis in neuropsychiatry training/experience, though 2 big attendings just left for NU. Neuro didactics are strong. Sounds like community & treating the underserved is a big emphasis here; the population is largely Hispanic with Medicaid or without insurance (specific data provided on website). Patients acuity is high, especially in inpatient child psych. Those patients are wardens of the state & often stay for months; therapy training is done with them. Zebras are there if you look (easy to miss); had anti-NMDA, voltage-gated K encephalitis, PRESS, etc. Can give IVIG, steroids, plasmapheresis, etc. Lots of training comes from subspecialized psychiatrists.

Call: PGY1 - 14x short call, 14x weekend calls, & 4x wks night float (2x2wks) with 8 training calls before taking call independently; all done during psychiatry rotations (total 220hrs over 6mos). PGY2 - 14x short call, 6x Fri call, 10x weekend call, 1x 24hr holiday call, & 4wks night float (2x2wks) (total 285hrs over 1yr). PGY3 - 10x short call, 2x Fri call, 6x weekend calls, 1x 24hr holiday call, & 1wk night float (total 160hr over 1yr). PGY4 - no call. Call is front heavy. Cover only 1 hospital on call.

Clinical sites: University of IL hospital & Jesse Brown VA (major); neuropsychiatric institute & institute for juvenile research (minor); & several community sites (OP VA, forensic, etc). Major sites are a couple blocks from each other.

Psychotherapy: Starts in PGY2. 2hr/wk doing psychodynamic psychotherapy with weekly meetings with supervisor to discuss cases one-on-one. Plus weekly psychodynamic didactics. Shared offices between residents. PGY3s get their own office. Offices are fine. 3hr psychodynamic + 3hrs CBT + 2hrs child therapy (1hr supervised/wk for each). Didactics on DBT & family therapy. Electives in group, brief, & DBT. Get motivational during certain rotations that use it (i.e., addictions, eating disorders). No ITP (replaced by CBT apparently). Supervision varies by what you want; you can do 1-way mirrors, audio/video recordings, process notes, etc. Several residents described program as psychotherapy heavy. PGY4 therapy track. Said they only teach evidence-based treatment.

Lots of research opportunities while being top 25 NIH funding. Can get a research mentor in PGY2, though most will do research in PGY3 (minority do research, though PD is pushing for residents to do more [not required]). Meetings to detail current research projects, but most research found out via word of mouth. Have a big poster presentation event once per year. Electives didn’t sound very flexible, but they do offer a good range of electives; lots of residents do neurology-related electives. Can do ECT, TMS, ketamine, neuroimaging, EEG, women’s, & telepsych.

Medical students for teaching. Half day protected didactics per week except off service during PGY1. EMS is Cerner or VA. Most changes are resident-driven: used to do social scut work on night float, but changed due to demand. Social workers are great; often win employee of the year. Can get tuition-free MPH, informatics, & some other degrees. Some minor changes occurring in PGY2 & PGY3 year, mostly consisting of how long/short to make certain rotations. Facilities aren’t great. I really liked the majority of the residents I met; very personable & real.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Unsure. Told faculty was very approachable about research. Faculty I met seemed very warm.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
West side of Chicago. Fair bit of crime, especially in Medical District, but residents denied any issues. Residents do bike & use public transport to get to & from work. Right by the United Center (basketball). Most live in Wicker Park. Cost of living sounds reasonable for Chicago. Most drive to work, through sizable minority take public transportation or bike. Half residents single & half married/SOs. Residents are good about switching call days & making it so you can use floating holidays. Night float described as not very busy. Call can be intense. Residents seem to be pretty cohesive within & between years.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary: PGY1 $54k --> PGY4 $60k. 4wk (20 weekdays) of vacation + 4 floating holidays to be used when desired; flexibility with vacation days increases after PGY1. Vacation & sick days roll over. Maternity & paternity leave at 44d (uses vacation & sick days). $750/yr for educational purposes. 3d PGY1 & 5d PGY2+ for educational leave. Provide 2 white coats that are laundered. Gym is a cheap monthly cost (~$30/mo) & facilities are pretty decent (track, squat racks) + access to UIC college facilities (busy). Parking is a monthly fee (untaxed) costing ~$60-100/mo. Food allowance provided for call that is fair & given as lump sum at start of year. Cafeteria was described as bad, though the medical school cafeteria is good & has diverse options. Previously had food trucks outside hospital, but the hospital was petty & forced them out. Still, food truck options & local restaurants are good. Once per year resident-only & resident-faculty retreats; team building exercise for PGY1s. Moonlighting starts in PGY3, but sounds like it’s a complicated process in IL so most residents do it in PGY4. Unsure about insurance, but it is at no additional cost (probably have a co-pay).

8. Program Strengths:
- Supervised psychodynamic psychotherapy & CBT training
- Research opportunities
- VA experience
- PD is great, everyone loves him
- Neurology/biological psychiatry training
- Socioeconomic, racial, cultural, & sexual diversity
- Clinical tracks
- Inhouse fellowships
- Other treatment opportunities (ECT, TMS, ketamine)
- Ancillary support
- Patient acuity
- Zebra pathology
- Chicago

9. Potential Weaknesses:
- Inpatient psych PGY2
- Heavy VA experience
- Call heavy (?) - call & night float in PGY3 (though really unsubstantial; really maybe not that bad at all)
- Breadth of psychotherapy training (ITP, motivational, family/couples)
- No DBS, VNS
- Facilities
- Chicago

10. Overall Impression:
Solid program with psychotherapy emphasis (seemed that way to me) but opportunities for research. Maybe not the entire breadth of psychotherapy modalities, but what is learned is learned well (like many places really). Lots of focus on treating underserved, racially diverse, poor, high acuity patients; also sounds like potential for zebra pathology. Love that psychiatrists can use treatments typically reserved for neurologists (i.e., IVIG, steroids, plasmapheresis). Focus on neuropsychiatry training & biological psychiatry as well. Good resident camaraderie. Not an area of Chicago I’d particularly want to work in. Not digging how heavy call is & how extensive inpatient psychiatry is; call may not actually be that bad, but residents noted that it was a lot. Would be happy to match here & think my clinical experience would be unique & fulfilling.

Post-interview communication: Had very positive response from PD post-interview (after a thank you email from me), talking about how I'd be a good fit & how the residents & faculty viewed me very positively. Didn't match, so take it with a grain of salt.
 
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Cleveland Clinic

1. Ease of Communication:
Communication through the coordinator via email; RSVP'd for pre-interview dinner the week before.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Ate at a fancy restaurant in a hotel embedded in the Cleveland Clinic. Booze was covered. The rooms were really nice, and were pro-rated by the clinic. Met residents in the lobby on the morning of the interview, which was convenient. Lunch was catered and pretty good (salad and baked chicken).

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
The interview day was good overall, but definitely had some "what the..." moments sprinkled throughout. It was colorful! We were picked up by the chiefs who took us through a labyrinthine series of halls and atriums. The group ended up in the outpatient psychiatry building where a breakfast was laid out. The PD came in and gave a presentation on the program. She was very excited about the city of Cleveland and the Cleveland Clinic. Then a resident talked about Cleveland for awhile; this was perhaps overkill. Finally, the PD prepared to ask each one of us about our hobbies. But instead of letting us describe them, she went around the table and recited word for word what we had written in our application. Odd, but impressive. The chair came in, and sat with us for awhile. He's the president of a nearby hospital, and seems like a down to earth friendly Midwestern guy.

We took a waking and bus tour of the Cleveland Clinic, downtown Cleveland, and a hospital on the west side of town where inpatient psychiatry is housed. The Clinic is, to put it mildly, wealthy. A previous reviewer really encapsulated the aesthetic when he or she wrote about lots of glass, indoor fountains, modern art, and gleaming metal. Cleveland seems like it gets a bad rap, because from what we saw there seemed to be new construction, lots of bars and restaurants, young people, and other indicators of a local economy.

Lunch was well attended by residents. They all seemed really happy.

Interviews were very disjointed, as each one varied in length between 10, 15, and 20 minutes. Some seemed to end abruptly. There were maybe 6 or 7 of them; certainly more than other places. Most interviewers were laid back and conversational, but I got it a few times with some real curveballs ("What do you think 'humility' means" and "How is your research applicable to patients"). Had some difficulty making it to each room, and I was continually running late as each interview went over time. There was a wrap up at the end with a survey. The director handed out bags of candy and a branded notebook.

4. Program Overview:
PGY-1 is 2 mo medicine, 1 mo outpatient medicine, and 1 mo emergency. Psychiatry consists of 5 mo inpatient, 1 mo substance, and 1 mo med-psych clinic (neuro-psych stuff as well as outpatient consults). *Med-psych, outpatient and inpatient consults, and the medicine psychiatry interface is HUGE here* There is also 1 mo inpt neuro and 1 mo neuro consults. Fairview hospital (where medicine occurs) is 15-20 minutes away from downtown. Call is six to eight 12-hour shifts yearly.

PGY-2 has 4 mo C/L (damn), 2 mo CAP, and a smattering of therapy, ECT, and specialty units all 1 month each. An outpatient continuity clinic begins, and psychotherapy supervision begins. Call q5-7 days, much more frequent than PGY-1. Weekend calls are 12 hour shifts.

PGY-3 is all outpatient, with therapy, community clinics, longitudinal OR monthly electives, and what looks to be a partial hospitalization program (didn't ask much about this).

PGY-4 has a required junior attendingship, 2 mo neuropsychiatry, and more electives.

There is a research track.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Heavy neuropsychiatry and consult-liason emphasis. Heavy telepsychiatry emphasis. Therapy didn't appear to be sacrificed, if not a strength.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
Cleveland has a downtown and some outlying neighborhoods where most residents live. There are good park systems throughout the city and surrounding suburbs. Good schools, but area dependant according to some residents. Good orchestra, sports teams (sans Browns), zoo, etc. Residents lived in different neighborhoods, and it sounded like there is a 10-15 minute commute everywhere. No one looked overworked.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Salary starts at 54K, I think. 3 weeks vacation. Meals are subsidized when on call. The Clinic is well endowed with good childcare, gym facilities, social events.

8. Program Strengths:
Strong neuropsychiatry and C/L exposure (the established medical/neuro infrastructure and "zebra clinics" make this place one of the best I've seen in these two areas, at least on paper).
Happy, smiling, talkative residents who all seemed really interested in psychiatry
Major medical center and all its peripheral resources
Balanced biological focus with early therapy exposure
Really friendly program director who sounds responsive to resident feedback
Lots of elective time

9. Potential Weaknesses:
Cleveland may not be for everyone (long gray winters).
Commuting wasn't a big deal, but everything isn't exactly centralized
Call sounded heavy in PGY-2
Not sure about CAP exposure
I got the "no weaknesses" vibe from some residents and faculty

10. Overall Impression:
Should be a contender if you are interested in neuropsychiatry and C/L. Therapy not sacrificed. Genuinely nice residents and faculty. The Clinic is massive and undoubtedly bureaucratic. Appears to be "up and coming."
 
I'd like to take a second to congratulate us for being on a roll with reviews :claps:Thanks for the time you put into writing them in airports, on buses, bleary-eyed and with a tension headache, etc. Happy holidays.
 
DrSatan said:
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
(from anonymous)

10. Overall Impression:
Solid program with psychotherapy emphasis (seemed that way to me) but opportunities for research. Maybe not the entire breadth of psychotherapy modalities, but what is learned is learned well (like many places really). Lots of focus on treating underserved, racially diverse, poor, high acuity patients; also sounds like potential for zebra pathology. Love that psychiatrists can use treatments typically reserved for neurologists (i.e., IVIG, steroids, plasmapheresis) . Focus on neuropsychiatry training & biological psychiatry as well. Good resident camaraderie. Not an area of Chicago I’d particularly want to work in, but should be perfectly fine. Not digging how heavy call is & how extensive inpatient psychiatry is; call may not actually be that bad, but residents noted that it was a lot. Would be happy to match here & think my clinical experience would be unique & fulfilling.
Click to expand...

These reviews are generally great, but I can absolutely tell you that the Illinois Medical District is not a bad area to work. There is certainly some crime in the neighboring areas, but between security from UIC, Rush, Cook, and Jesse Brown VA along with police, it is very reasonable from a safety perspective. It's also quite close to downtown and great neighborhoods like Wicker Park and the West Loop.
 
Duke

1. Ease of Communication: Invitation through email. Sign up via signupgenius. Lots of reminders and fast communication through the program coordinator. Phone numbers of residents provided in email. Also post-interview communication was easy as all interviewers' email addresses were provided.

2. Accommodation & Food: No hotel provided, but there are several hotels close to Duke undergraduate and medical campus. Dinner was at a small plates place in downtown Durham. Well attended by residents, who seemed excited about the program. Interns, second years, and third years were all present. I thought the residents looked tired, but not excessively so. Light pastry breakfast provided in AM, with a Mediterranean lunch that was well-attended by residents on interview day.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): We met in a conference room and listened to the chair describe the overview of Duke Medicine and the psychiatry department. She came from Columbia less than one year ago and seems like a personable but driven woman. It was one of the better "chair discussions" I've participated in on the trail. Then the PD came in, and gave an overview of the curriculum and program. She is a long-time "Dukie" and had worked in medical student education in the internal medicine department previously. She seems to be a big asset to the program per residents and alumni. Half the group had interview in the AM, followed by tour in the PM and vice versa.

The interviews were with the chief, two faculty, and the PD. I thought they mostly focused on the program and not my application (following the initial why psych, what are your areas of interest, and why Duke). Everyone was nice, maybe a bit reserved.

Facilities were nice: a good VA comparable to most others that I've seen, and very well-maintained Duke hospital where you would work in the ED (this was a smallish corner of the ED that seemed crowded), the med psych floor, and the inpatient psychiatry unit. CRH is the state hospital ~20 minutes away, where a large part of the PGY-2 year takes place. We did not visit. There is also a DRH where medicine occurs in PGY-1, we also didn't visit this site.

4. Program Overview: My impression about the program is that it's a hard-working place in terms of clinical volume. This seems to have been reported by past reviewers, and multiple faculty, residents, and previous residents confirmed the story. It's also a place where autonomy is highly valued–there would not be mauch hand-holding here. The medicine months would be difficult I'm sure, as the institution's medicine and surgery departments are legendary workhorses. Although there is a large research infrastructure, it was hardly mentioned while I was there. Many of the residents I spoke with said that they were not involved in research at all (or only peripherally) and planned on having outpatient practices. I did speak with two residents who planned on staying in academia. So it doesn't seem as if research involvement is expected, but I wonder if some just cannot find the time to do it? Has child and geriatric fellowships.

Family therapy involves a weekly seminar, one-on-one supervision via teleprompter, debriefing, case discussion, etc. the therapy takes place in front of a one way mirror. Also work behind the one way mirror evaluating and learning from your peers. This appears to be a major asset to the program, and one would be trained very well in therapy for couples, families, and singles.

Residents are very diverse, with about 1/4 of the classes made up of IMGs.

PGY-1: Four mo of medicine (1 mo "bread and butter" at DRH and 1 mo of nights there!) with one mo VA outpatient clinic and one mo med-psych at Duke. Four mo inpatient psych split between Duke and VA (these are 6 day work weeks). Two mo outpatient psych at VA. One mo emergency psychiatry at the Duke ED, this is night float. So PGY-1 has 2 months total of night float.

PGY-2: Six mo inpatient psychiatry at CRH, with one of these months as night float. One mo at VA outpatient clinic. Two mo emergency psychiatry at Duke ED, also night float but it's 3 nights on, 4 whole days off. Finally there are three mo C/L which are six day work weeks (and one mo of these is at VA).

PGY-3: All longitudinal rotations that vary each day of the week. Outpatient clinics at Duke and VA. Family studies/therapy. One day of longitudinal neurology clinic. Women's health and community psychiatry. Weekends are usually free but some will take short call occasionally from 7pm to midnight at the Duke ED (still, there is no overnight call).

PGY-4: Same as third year with Addiction psychiatry as one of the half days. The rest is elective time.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Research funding seems extremely large. There seems to be a lot of collaboration available with other medical departments, other graduate schools of Duke University, and the undergraduate institution. Faculty seemed young and interested in teaching (residents said that didactics were usually of good quality).

6. Location & Lifestyle: Durham is a smaller Southern city. Has some trendy restaurants. Downtown was medium-sized. Felt a little more spread out than Chapel Hill. Traffic isn't bad, but it depends on the time of day. Rush hour could be gridlocked. Most residents lived either in Durham, Chapel Hill, or another town nearby called Hillsborough.

7. Salary & Benefits: The Duke GME page says something like 53K for PGY-1 salary. Benefits are not bad; I think vision and dental are included. Salary would seem to go a long way, especially in Durham (vs Chapel Hill or Raleigh). 3 weeks of one week block vacation.

8. Program Strengths:
Heavy clinical volume
Family therapy, and therapy in general
Strong medical overlap (emphasis on BIOpsychosocial model) given the med-psych program and its strength
Neuropsychiatry
C/L psychiatry
Geriatric psychiatry
VA exposure
Diverse group of residents
Lots of autonomy
Durham isn't huge

9. Potential Weaknesses:
Intense work schedule, with lots of nights and six-day work weeks. Residents didn't look totally wiped out, but they looked more fatigued than some cohorts I've seen.
Call can occur in 3rd and 4th year
Lots of autonomy
Durham isn't huge

10. Overall Impression:
I liked this place and how traditional it seemed in terms of residency training. There aren't any gimmicks or fluff, which I appreciate. The family therapy training would seem to balance out the time in the hospital dealing with medical problems. Research is well-endowed. But as a previous reviewer said, "is it worth the work?" And will things continue to get easier?
 
Cincinnati Children’s / University of Cincinnati
Triple Board
(anonymous)

Ease of Communication
Easy, no issues. Responsive over email.

Accommodation & Food
They put up all the applicants in an excellent hotel in downtown Cinci (to the point where I felt a bit silly and underdressed when I showed up in my casual attire from the drive in). Keep in mind that city/garage parking is not included in their hotel fee, and I had forgotten how pricy downtown parking could be. All meals provided were good (including dinner with residents the night before). We were given coupons for the hotel snack shop for breakfast (not extensive), and had second breakfast with the residents on peds day.

Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Day 1 was with Peds. Every morning residents go to morning report in a big classroom-style room, and in the back was a wall length table with bagels, coffee, oatmeal, etc. All the applicants introduced ourselves. Next we had a meeting with the department Chair, who asked questions in group interview thing; that was a bit awkward, but we realized she was asking us each one pointed question about our resume so that she could tie in her answer to a particular talking point about the program. We met as a group with the PD and associate PD for peds; both seemed great and chill (they actually apologized for having someone from the institution talking about hospital rankings and endowments during morning report). Next were various interviews (30 min x 2 faculty and 1 with a chief resident). No unusual questions – pretty relaxed and trying to gauge fit and learn about the program and the city. A tour of the children’s hospital was mixed in here, too. Lunch with residents, but we skipped the noon didactics. Day ended early.

Day 2 was for the psychiatry and child psychiatry aspect of triple board. The day was not combined with a categorical psychiatry interview day, so I cannot speak to the specifics of that day. The day started with a shuttle from the hotel to campus, and the coordinator (who is amazingly helpful and sweet) brought us to each of our group meetings and individual interviews. The first meeting was with the division director for child psychiatry; it was a somewhat interview-esque meeting as well, but much more laid back than the peds version, and it actually made the rest of the meeting much more relevant to the particular interests of us as applicants. We had 4 x 30 minute interviews with the psychiatry and triple board staff (TB PD, CAP PD, psych PD, and TB co-director) followed by a tour, and lunch with many of the TB residents. We ended with a trip to College Hill, the child psych hospital, which is beautiful and new - something to do with the large fundraising capabilities from Cincinnati Children’s. There we met with another TB co-assistant training director. Again the day ended early, leaving us plenty of time to explore the city and have time for afternoon travel.

Program Overview:
Got more overview of the combined training, but I’ll try to talk more to the categorical psychiatry training. The psychiatry PD (Dr. Evans) seemed very down to earth and supportive of his residents. Also a strong supporter of child psych, since he pointed out that a lot of places don’t have good exposure to normal and abnormal development, which is often hugely helpful to know even for our adult patients.

Psychiatry:
PGY1: psych months: 3 months inpatient, 1 month addiction (VA), 3 months CL. Off service: 2 months internal medicine (can trade 1 for pediatrics), 1 month family med, 1 month neurology, 1 month emergency med.

PGY2: all psych months: 4 months inpatient, 2.5 months psych emergency, 2.5 months CL, 1 month geripsych, 9 months integrated insight-oriented outpatient psychotherapy 1-2hrs/week gradually (1-2 patients by the spring, in the Resident Psychotherapy Clinic – self pay, private practice model).

PGY3: lots of outpatient work. Sites include Central Clinic (middle of main campus, older building), VA, and UC student services. Residents have an office during their outpatient psychiatry year; decorate as you wish. Also includes a weekly process group.

PGY4: Requirements include a short forensics experience, but I believe the remainder is all electives. Seemed flexible as long as the experience would be valuable and educational.

Psychotherapy – starts earlier than some, with 9 months of long term insight-oriented psychotherapy starting in PGY2. The formal therapy training is mostly in psychodynamic psychotherapy and CBT, with some parent-child interaction therapy. You can get extra supervision in other areas, with a smattering of other things found in didactics. I forgot to ask about DBT, but I didn’t see it mentioned. The city also has a psychoanalytic institute.

Triple board specific: 3 residents/year. Starts with full immersion in pediatrics, then bounces back and forth more in the later years. All very friendly. Spend a lot of time with their peds or psych co residents. Skip psych PGY1 lectures, but join up as PGY2 with specific things, and follow through outpatient year.

PGY1: 11 months peds (5 months wards, 1 each of NICU, nursery, outpatient neuro, ED, outpatient peds, and advocacy). 1 month inpatient child psych for exposure (choose from child/latency, neurodevelopmental disorders, or adolescent). ½ day per week of peds continuity clinic

PGY2: Start with 7 months adult inpatient psychiatry (3 inpatient general, 2 adult psych emergency, 1 addiction, 1 adult CL), 1 month of child CL. Finish with 4 more months of pediatrics (NICU, outpatient adolescent med, 1 month inpatient (GI or Heme/Onc), and peds ED. Again ½ day per week peds continuity clinic.

PGY3: 11 months adult psychiatry – including 9 months adult outpatient psych clinic. 1 month adult inpatient, 1 adult neuro. I was a bit confused by this schedule, but the 9 months is of normal clinics. Residents also have a minimum of 12 months of continuity with their own patients in adult outpatient psychotherapy with supervision – some residents carried these patients on going into PGY4 as well, but this was not common after going back to peds. Outpatient offices are at Central Clinic. Continue ½ day per week peds continuity clinic..

PGY4: 4 months of child psychiatry – 2 months are inpatient (fill in gaps of either child/latency, neurodevelopmental, or adolescent from PGY1 year), 1 partial hospital, 1 of ED/adolescent chemical dependency split rotation. Then back to 8 months of pediatrics, with 1 PICU, 1 month as a senior on child acute care, 2 months senioring on wards, and 4 months subspecialty electives/selectives. Roughest transition of the residency is from outpatient psych 8 months to the PICU and then 3 more months of peds, but they do this to get you re-acquainted with peds before taking boards. Clinics change somewhat – main peds continuity clinic ½ day every other week, and a subspecialty clinic ½ day every other week. In the spring, start outpatient child psychotherapy – offices transition to the College Hill campus for PGY4-5 while on child psych. Again, decorate as you wish. In addition, four ½ days of outpatient bipolar disorder clinic.

PGY5: continue fully with outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry. Comprised of psychopharm clinics, outpatient psychotherapy patients, a psychotherapy consultation clinic, and rotations on child forensics and school consultation. Additional electives, create as you desire. Psychotherapy patients here are now indirectly supervised. Additional clinics include ½ day every other week of pediatrics continuity, and ½ day every other week of subspecialty pediatrics. Currently have 1 chief resident, but current 4’s want to split the chief year. CAP didactics seem to be plenty – Tuesdays noon-3, and Fri 10-1pm, with grand rounds monthly.

Pediatrics comments:
1 month of developmental and behavioral pediatrics clinic. Plenty of NICU experience (they highlighted their acute care and ED training a lot during the tour), 1 month newborn nursery. 1 month private practice pediatrics. Have a goal of decreasing length of inpatient hospital stays (resulting in only the super sick kids getting and staying admitted). Interns said they usually average around 60 hrs/week, though sometimes more.

Call: where are my notes on this?! I recall it seemed reasonable.
For peds: senior electives have 4-5 jeopardies and random shifts per month. Senior selectives (GI and heme/onc) still have q4-5 call. PICU also has q4-5 call, and a fellow is always in house. Everything else is shift work.

Facilities:
Cincinnati Children’s is amazing. All pediatrics work rooms in the hospital had windows, and the lounge has windows and couches, and is shared with a work room attached. I presume psych CL offices are similar. The hospital has a 2 minute call-back rule for pages, and even well renowned attendings will be responsive and friendly. Lots of awesome attendings who are supportive but will push you to come up with a plan. Plenty of fellows, but they’ll let residents get involved in procedures and things, too. Hospital planning to build a new critical care tower on campus. #3 in peds NIH funding, 92,000+ ED visits/yr.

Central Clinic – on campus, PGY3-4 have individual offices, furnished by the residents. Older building, but has individual rooms for support staff as well.

College Hill – pediatric psychiatry campus, with both inpatient and outpatient facilities. Plenty of space and staff for programming. Fairly new, gorgeous campus. They’re planning to renovate to expand the number of rooms to increase the percentage of single rooms (but not increase the total number of beds). After they do this, they plan to move the only remaining child psych floor out of the main medical hospital (where the more medically sick kids were, so they’re not entirely sure yet how they’re going to handle this change in flow, since it seems to silo the practices a bit more).

VA: typical VA.

Location & Lifestyle:
Cincinnati. Children’s hospital and UC right in the middle of the city, in Avondale, one of the lower/lowest income zip codes in the city. Provides good access to care. Don’t have to be too far from the hospitals in order to live decently. Lots of peds and psych residents live on the East Side of town where it’s a bit more gentrified but hip and up and coming, around Hyde Park or Oakley. Others life on the west side of town, where you get more space for your dollar. Plenty of residents have dogs. A reasonable number of residents had children, at least to the point where it didn’t seem to be a big deal, but plenty were single as well. I’ll say that the PL1 residents in particular were a very tight and very active bunch. They have a group text and do things like trivia twice per week, and some other recurring activities. Obviously not everyone attends every event, but it was really clear they enjoyed their time together both during and after work.

Salary & Benefits:
Time off: 20 days vacation per year – usually taken in 1-2 week blocks (particularly while on peds). At least for the pediatrics residency, this includes holidays (no extra days after the 4 weeks). Most residents have gotten the requested days off, and often do a week over the holidays without a problem. Seemed more flexible on the psychiatry side. On PGY2 during night float weeks (4 total? I believe this is the emergency psych rotation), work 5 days on, 5 days off – so many people use that as extra vacation. Maternity leave / medical leave up to 12 weeks. The paid part of paternity leave is 4 days, though I believe you could use vacation time for more. Their psych/UCMC contract better outlines that FMLA provides up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for things including birth or adoption of a child.

Other:
- Salary just a hair below median, but awesome cost of living in the city. 52,585? -62,225 (for peds/TB, but it looks like psych my start at 55k since it’s through UCMC).
- shared insurance cost
- parking not an issue, but costs $10/pay period while on peds. Psych has free parking.
- Cab vouchers for post call.
- other benefits around the city (tickets, etc)
- call nights $5 meal allowance.
- EAP
- For pediatrics, weekdays the residents are fed an awesome breakfast for morning report (bagels, oatmeal, coffee, etc) and a hot lunch (great) every week day. Breakfast extras stay in the resident lounge all day (for night call people, etc).
- Moonlighting can start PGY2/PL2
- Educational fund exists, amount depending on filling out evals ($200-1200+/yr)

Program Strengths:
Amazing amount of research infrastructure and projects going on at Children’s
Exposure to complex and rare conditions while maintaining exposure to ‘bread and butter’ pathology and training
Inpatient child and partial hospitalization programs
Extensive child psychiatry electives (strengths in school consultation, child forensics, etc)
Cost of living
Great amount of mental health resources embedded within local school districts
Fellowships: CAP, addiction psych, addiction med, forensics, geriatrics

Potential Weaknesses:
Interesting transition with PICU senior month immediately following outpatient adult psych
+/- big city resources
No early exposure to integrated mental health clinics (for TB folks)

Overall Impression:
The triple board program in particular has many strengths, one of which is that it didn’t feel weak in any core components. Since Cinci Children’s has so many combined programs (TB, family/psych, med/peds, peds/neuro), everyone stressed that the combined residents fit in well and are treated exactly the same. More lingering pediatrics in PGY4 than I’ve seen at other places, but it leads to perhaps delayed time spent as a senior on peds rotations, but it’s nice that it’s right before taking peds boards. The PGY5 curriculum seemed great, not just generic CAP. Good exposure to partial hospitalization programs. Definitely a strong pediatrics program with amazing resources, clinicians. Really, really loved this program – feels like home. A good amount of diversity in the city. Plus, the parks are true parks, with trees, hiking trails, plenty of green space.
 
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Indiana Triple Board
w/ Riley Children’s
(anonymous)

Ease of Communication
Communication was via email, no hassles whatsoever. Coordinator very easy to get along with (as was everyone else).

Accommodation & Food
We were put up in a hotel downtown. Note that while the hotel was paid for, the parking is not (I found $22/night nearby). On the other hand, continental breakfast is included at the restaurant off the hotel lobby. Technically you can upgrade to the hot meal (omelet station, etc) for ~$7. But oatmeal, fruit, pastries, etc are all in the continental section. Lunch was with the residents. Dinner the night before had decent resident turnout; private area of a local restaurant, dessert included.

Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Can’t speak as much for the categorical psychiatry interview day, but here is what I do know:

Day 1: pediatrics, ~16(?) peds applicants, with essentially no psychiatry interactions. Day started by arriving at 7:15 at Riley hospital. Had an introductions to the Chair of Pediatric Education, the Peds Program Director (Jerry Rushton), and then a tour of the hospital. Then we had about 2 hours in a conference room talking with some residents coming in and out, interspersed with two very brief interviews (15 min?), one with an aPD or PD, and one with another peds faculty member. The aPD was very calm, brief, and conversational. My faculty interview was a bit awkward as she read prepared questions from an ipad and didn’t really respond to my answers. Less conversational. Lunch was with the peds residents as a part of their case conference (salad bar). The day ended by 1 with a wrap up, and the several TB applicants met as a group with the peds PD again, as he clarified how he thought mental health integration was important. He seems like a great guy.

Day 2: specific to triple board applicants; no categorical psychiatry residents around. Interview day in their neuropsychiatry institute (shared with psychiatry, neurology, and PM&R, maybe some neurosurg and things as well). Started off with a presentation / conversational overview from the TB training director, and the department chair also stopped by We each had 5 x 30 minute interviews with the same set of faculty members, including the TB PD, psych PD, a TB chief, and two additional faculty. No unusual questions from any of them; just a pleasant conversation about fit, why psychiatry, why TB, etc.

Program Overview:
Psychiatry:
PGY1: 3 blocks internal medicine at Eskenazi or VA (PD currently undecided if he would approve CAP-bound residents a chance to substitute pediatrics for some of this); 1 EM, 2 neurology, 1 child inpatient, and 6 total blocks inpatient psych (3 different hospitals). Didactics on general PGY1 topics and CBT.

PGY2: includes 6 months of outpatient time, split between addictions 1 ½ days, geripsych 1 day, forensics 1 day, and emergency psych 1 day. Last 6 months is separated by month blocks: 1 month child inpatient, 1 child CL, 3 adult CL, and 1 rural psych/geripsych, with continuing addictions outpatient ½ day per week. CBT didactics continues, and start with supervision weekly.

PGY3: more longitudinal experiences, including 12 months psychopharm clinic (4 days/week), psychodynamic psychotherapy (1/2 day per week), didactics (1/2 day per week I believe all 4 years btw), and an elective up to 1 day/week.

PGY4: electives all year, mostly longitudinal stuff, continuing psychodynamic psychotherapy, and time for a QI or patient safety project (1/2 day per week)

Psychotherapy: perhaps not a huge strength. Some of the TB residents really didn’t have much to say about didactics at all, and claimed that the didactics and curriculum scheduling, monthly make up really has no impact on the training (?). Also very adamant that their training is fully a 50-50 split between pediatrics and psychiatry, and thought other programs were not, but wouldn’t comment further. I seem to get the same response at every residency, so, make of that what you’d like. Nobody that I know of specifically does DBT, but one faculty member does schema therapy for BPD instead. The CBT didactics lecturer recently left, so it’s in a bit of a flux currently. Dr. Adams does some work with trauma focused CBT.

Program thoughts: do “reasonably well” on boards. Psychiatry chair has been around for 5 years, plan to stay for 5+ more; he likes integration, and would consider increasing the number of TB slots. Good collaboration between psychiatry, neurology, neuroscience research. Working on integration of psychiatry within PCP clinics. ECT exposure somewhere in there. Didactics a bit scattered, mostly protected, and includes a resident meeting. Residents didn’t fully love didactics, but found it better than clinic work.

Triple Board: take 3 residents/year
PGY1: 10 months peds including NICU and ED, and ‘community’ (child advocacy and public health block, residents really liked the exposure to community resources), 2 months child psych (CL and inpatient). Start peds continuity clinic (can usually request a location, rural vs urban, private vs public, etc) ½ day per week. Short call roughly weekly.

PGY2: 3 +3 blocks psych, plus 7 blocks peds (more wards, subspecialty teams, NICU, PICU, etc). ½ day peds continuity clinic. Call ~weekly in addition to home call.

PGY3: 2 months of peds, then 10 months outpatient psychiatry clinic, but continuing with ½ day peds continuity clinic. Home call for emergencies, residents didn’t have much to comment on this; variable.

PGY4: 6 months more of peds, mostly electives and ED, probably 2nd PICU block. Then 6 months more psychiatry. ½ day per week peds continuity clinic. Start child outpatient clinic ½ day per week in the spring.

PGY5: mostly outpatient child psychiatry, keep pediatrics continuity clinic ½ day per week as well as child outpatient clinic ½ day per week (assume this is continuity, maybe therapy?). Heard that half of the time in PGY5 is for elective or individual curriculum or research.

Other: must have a total of 5+ months in a supervisory role for peds/psych combined; want 3+ of these to be in pediatrics, 2 of which on wards.
Tracks: research and educator tracks within psych. Peds has a Morris Green research track, and a global health pathway.

Peds: clinical start date is June 24th, with a week of orientation before that (ex-interns get 1 week off between years). One of the wards teams is called ‘complex care’ and has a lot of patients with special needs. Peds didactics is daily combined case conference plus lecture from noon-1:15 (with lunch). This is instead of morning report. Interns give pagers to seniors for protected learning. Most teams have a dedicated social worker or case manager.

Training sites:
- IU Health Neuroscience center – outpatient psych cinic, integrated research place. Looks big, fancy and new-ish.
- Riley Hospital for Children – currently has two treatment teams in their behavioral health inpatient unit (autism, and neurodevelopmental disorders). Inpatient child CL. Specific clinics for autism, OCD/Tourette’s/Anxiety Disorders, and ADHD/disruptive behavior disorders. Level 1 peds trauma, Level IV NICU. ~40,000 ED visits. ~10,000 admissions. Peds work rooms were large, but no windows. Hospital seems pretty fresh. The psych floor was really empty (we were told because they’re having trouble staffing it); no divisions in patients by age or pathology. Had 6 inpatients, 4 partial patients that day. Psych outpatient facilities has a resident workroom with everyone together in cubicles, and shared clinical spaces.
- Methodist Hospital – large emergency dept, including emergency psych. Also has adult inpatient, partial hospitalization, and ECT.
- Eskenazi Health – the local safety net hospital. Has Midtown Community Health center, for inpatient and outpatient as well as addictions. Huge. Most beautiful county hospital I’ve seen. Psych ED is in the basement, though.
- VA – typical. Inpatient and CL. Day treatment and addiction. Has a Dom. Most of psych is on the 5th floor.

Call:
Psych: see above. Mostly in PGY1-2, some PGY3.
Peds: All are 4 week blocks (13/year). PL1 has 5 months of short call (q4-5 only until 9pm), 2 night shift/float blocks, 1 variable/swing, 2 ED (odd hours), 1 w/o call. PL2 has 4mo overnight ward call q5-6, 3 overnight ICU call q4-5 or float, 2 jeopardy/swing shifts, 2 ED, and 2 without call. PL3 has 4 months ward with overnight call q5-6, several ICU call q4-5, 1 ED, 3 variable/jeopardy months, and 2 without call.

Location & Lifestyle:
Indianapolis – plenty of places to live in the area. A reasonable number of residents have dogs and/or kids, and do well with the schedule. A lot of residents highlighted the vast number of microbreweries. There are bike and walking paths/trails within the city, can use for commuting. People mover on campus is handy. The psych residents in particular seemed to have plenty of time on their hands; didn’t seem overworked at all.

Salary & Benefits:
- Salary starting at PGY1 55,200 to PGY5 62,000
- Vacation: 3 weeks PGY1-2, and 4 weeks PGY3+ (at least for peds). Upper years can take single days off, interns maybe not.
- Peds pays for AAP dues, PALS course (not BLS); some coverage for CME travel or board review prep.
- Paid time off: 3-5 education days (meetings, seminars, etc) depending on year
- Health insurance for resident and family fully paid
- 6 weeks paid FMLA/leave (minus used vacation time), and 6 weeks unpaid. A resident told be she believed men can also take this for paternity leave. I’d be surprised (but pleased) if this were true and could also be paid, but even if it’s unpaid, that’d be great compared to the 1-5 days I’ve seen elsewhere.
- Meal money during call nights
- Access to gym facilities at IUPUI at reduced cost.
- Free parking on campus
- Tuition reduction for resident and family

Program Strengths:
- Addictions, autism, and development
- Variety of hospital settings, patient populations, one of the largest mental health facilities in the country
- Physician scientist training pathway/program (unclear if it could actually be combined with the TB program) mostly for pediatrics residents
- Friendly attitude of residents and faculty
- 5 years of continuity clinic
- Liveable city, either downtown or in surrounding areas can be affordable. Some northern suburbs have bigger houses, yards, good schools, etc.
- Flexibility in training opportunities
- Variety of clinical/psychpathology for child psych (really nowhere else in state for these kids to go)
- Faculty research is available

Potential Weaknesses:
- Psych residents just didn’t seem super motivated or passionate. Now, could be selection bias of the table I was sitting at for lunch?
- Not as much variety in pathology for adult psych
- Location not great for real outdoor activities
- Patient diversity, aside from SES at different sites
- A bit of bouncing back and forth between peds and psych (+ or -)
- Psychotherapy training not particularly strong unless you seek out additional supervision

Overall Impression:
I actually really liked the children’s/Riley experience, and the residents seemed super chill. One intern was a bit over the top on trying to sell the experience, but the upper levels had expected levels of excitement. Liked the clinical exposure (biggest/only dedicated children’s hospital in the (state?). Didn’t get to know as much about the psychiatry experience. A bit bummed to see that a lot of the residents I spoke with didn’t seem all that motivated or passionate in their work, and it left me feeling a bit empty. Psych PD seemed open to making the program a good experience for his residents. I felt a lack of any particular strengths in psych, aside from work life balance. That said, it seems like it would provide a strong general training, and can be tailored to particular interests.
 
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Mount Sinai - Icahn
First post ever, hopefully it’s mildly to moderately helpful!

Pre-interview communications: We were offered our choice of Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in November through January. This was nice, but there was a 10-day delay in confirming the interview date (I did get my first choice of date).

Accommodation & Food: Pre-interview mix & mingle at a resident’s apartment with tasty food (pad thai, sushi, etc), lots of baked good desserts, and wine. Breakfast was bagels, fruit, pastries, and I think some hot options too? Also the lunch was a catered buffet lunch in the courtyard of the hospital and was also delicious. Some of the best food overall of the interview trail. We were on our own for accommodations.

Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Went from 8:30 to 3:10. Starts with 10 applicants in the breakfast room. PD Dr. New and APD Dr. Simon come in and talk (1 hour 10 minutes) about their career paths to let us get to know the people we would be working with—this was a unique touch, but maybe went on a little long. Dr. New has a neuroscience research background, while Dr. Simon is more interested in the philosophy of psychiatry, psychotherapy, etc. Three 30-minute interviews in the morning (with one 30-minute break). All my interviews were conversational with no weird questions. Dr. New seemed genuinely interested in getting to know me (in a laid-back way), which I appreciated. I heard another applicant say that Dr. Simon got a little too psychoanalytical and was an intense interview.

Afternoon was lunch (lots of residents showed up, mostly PGY3s and PGY4s), afternoon discussion (about some of the details of the program. Was a long 1 hour 10 minutes), and facility tour (50 minutes).

Dr. New was around and interactive with applicants for a good part of the day. Linda, the recruitment chief, was also hanging out with applicants most of the day. She was hilarious, and I also appreciated that she was upfront about her spot on the admissions committee.

Program Overview: Main theme was flexibility and being able to subspecialize by “choosing a major.” Honestly their elective time isn’t significantly more than other programs’, but they do have clinical pathways and a wide range of electives. Pathways are Academic Clinician Educator in Psychiatry (with subspecialty majors), Administrative Psychiatry, Child, Global Mental Health, and Research Tracks. Curriculum focuses more than others on outpatient, as PGY2 is 6 months of full-time outpatient VA work. A decent amount of exposure to collaborative care models. Strong clinically, relatively strong in research (per PD’s vision).

Due to location at border of the Upper East Side and Harlem, seems to have a more diverse patient population than Cornell but less diverse than NYU.

PGY1: 2 months med inpt, 1 month ER, 1 month med outpt, 1 month neuro consult, 1 month neuro input. 1 month inpt psych forensic, 1 mont inpt adult, 1 month inpt geri, 1 month inpt VA, 1 month inpt child
PGY2: 6 months outpatient VA, 3 months, few months inpt adult, few months CL, few weeks ER, few weeks PHP, few weeks inpt VA
PGY3: 30% elective time. Continuity clinic. Integrated psychiatric care clinics (internal med, HIV, transplant, ob-gyn, etc). Psychotherapy supervision seemed relatively standard.
PGY4: 1 month CL, 20% outpatient practice, PHP, mostly elective time. Option to serve as junior teaching attending.

A couple of didactic hours in PGY1, 5-6 hours PGY2-4.

Call schedule is quite chill. Call 1 day every other week: alternating short call (5-10pm) and weekend call (12h PGY1, 24h PGY2 and also PGY3 I think). No call PGY4

Location & Lifestyle:
Border of Upper East Side and Harlem, next to Central Park. Upper East Side was boring to me compared to other areas of the city (seems like most residents live here?), and East Harlem is still not the greatest place to wander into (though per an SDN post last year some residents do live here). Relatively easy access to other areas of the city. IMO NYC is the most exciting city in the world due to availability of activities and diversity, but you do have to sacrifice quality of life (i.e., tiny apartments, general grime, cramming yourself onto the subway). Though housing is subsidized, Upper East Side is still expensive.

Salary & Benefits:
$61,933 -> $64,290 -> $68,798 -> $71,543
- Subsidized housing (~$800 less than market value per the chief)
- An educational supplement (the sheet doesn’t specify how much)

Program Strengths:
  • Strong clinically, relatively strong in research
  • Wide availability of clinical pathways and electives
  • Relative diversity of patient population
  • Forward-thinking: the only program with a trans mental health fellowship
  • Relatively chill hours - residents seemed well-balanced and happy
  • Supportive PD
  • Subsidized housing
  • NYC is exciting
Potential Weaknesses:
  • Didn’t get a handle on whether they had a particular strength within psychiatry (they seem to tout their flexibility as their major strength)
  • Not super handholdy, may have to seek your own mentorship (+/-)
  • “Smallish” faculty -> fewer research opps than other NYC places potentially
  • Not as strong of a community focus as other programs
  • Quality of life is not fantastic in NYC
Overall Impression:
Strong, forward-thinking clinical program with many elective options. I clicked well with residents and faculty. Hours are better than most other NYC programs. I’ll be ranking them relatively highly.
 
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Alemo said:
University of Michigan

1. Ease of Communication:
Invite via interview broker. Very responsive. I emailed the coordinator re: a separate matter and she got back to me on a Friday afternoon. Pre-interview dinner coordinated with a PGY-2.

2. Accommodation & Food:
Stayed at a motel near the Upjohn outpatient building. We went to a German-American place in Ann Arbor for dinner the night before. It was pretty well attended by residents from all classes. Some residents seemed a bit tired, but not alarmingly so. Everyone knew each other and it seemed like they got along outside of work. The food was good; apparently Ann Arbor has good restaurants. There was some Panera quiches for breakfast, and lunch was sandwiches and salads. The lunch was a little awkward as residents just trickled in, chatted for a bit, and then left.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Tour via black 15-passenger van in the morning or afternoon, depending. It's led by the program coordinator who is apparently well loved and also had great things to say about Ann Arbor. She'd be a good person to ask about the area. I think there were four interviews with a chief, two faculty, and the program director. I had a lot of specific questions about my application experiences and what my career goals were. The faculty were very proud of the institution and the city. Things ran behind schedule. There is a wrap up with the chair at the end (Incidentally I still haven't figured out what to do/take away from those...). Day ends at 4:30 or so.

4. Program Overview: Unique Aspects
The program features a very nice VA, an inpatient psychiatry unit at U of M hospitals, a free standing psych ED at U of M, and a beautiful outpatient center (Upjohn).

There's a clinical scholars track (medical education education, research, regular mentorship re: professional identity), and a full-blown research track. Both require a project proposal. All 5 ACGME accredited fellowships. I met residents with interests in geriatrics, forensics, consults, child, etc. There seem to be a diverse mix of interests.
PGY-1 is 3 mo inpt at VA, 1 mo inpt at U of M, 1 mo addictions at VA, 1 mo C/L at VA, 3 mo med at VA, 1 mo inpt family medicine at U of M, 1 mo of neuro consults at VA, and 1 mo neuro at U of M. Protected academic half day on Tuesdays while on psychiatry.
PGY-2 is 5-6 months of inpatient psych at VA and U of M, 1 month of PES day float, and 1 month of PES night float. Also sprinkled in are addictions, C/L, child, and geriatrics. Psychodynamic therapy patients appear in the second year. Therapy is not sacrificed here; it appears to be a very balanced program in this respect. Psychoanalytic institute available.
PGY-3 is all outpatient. Rotate through specialty clinics. There is a community mental health longitudinal clinic.
PGY-4 has one month of forensics, a junior attending-ship at the VA, and a lot of elective time.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Per my previous review, I will defer commentary on "faculty achievement." Ostensibly there seem to be good research opportunities in whatever area you would be interested in. I asked a lot about on service teaching, and most respondents said it was very good. I've read some other reviews on the internet that indicate faculty are not approachable and don't do much teaching, so I'm not really sure what to make of this part.

6. Location & Lifestyle:
A small to medium college town in the Midwest. Snowy cold winters. Hot humid summers. All four seasons. Traffic seemed mild to moderate. Area is well educated and very liberal. 45 minutes to Detroit. Close to Cleveland, Chicago, Indianapolis. Michigan as a state is beautiful, especially the western lake shore. The UP is nice too.
Residents say parking is difficult. Apparently to get "good" parking you need to buy a more expensive pass than is really affordable. I couldn't figure out where most residents live.

7. Salary & Benefits:
Great benefits! I want to say stipends start at 57K, and there is an extra 4-5K bonus given each year to encourage saving. The HOA has negotiated bonuses for working on holidays (including one's birthday). I think cell phones may even be subsidized.

8. Program Strengths:
Good therapy training. Solid VA exposure, with all it's pros and cons (you decide which is which; single payer, CPRS, usually motivated population, mostly male, lots of red tape, good PTSD and substance exposure). Facilities at VA and U of M were nice. . Good midwest program if you don't want to be in a huge city. All 5 fellowships. Good research.

9. Potential Weaknesses:
Big department; perhaps it's easy to be lost in the shuffle? Residents did say they worked a lot, so I definitely didn't get the impression that things were cushy. Likely service oriented.

10. Overall Impression:
I felt good here. It wasn't overly warm and fuzzy, but I think there are some great training opportunities here if you like college towns. Will rank very highly.
Click to expand...

Spot on. Also, very call heavy program and the residents point blank tell you two things: (1) if you are looking for a Cush program don’t come here and (2) this program is resident run and they are dependent upon you. If you can deal with that, it seems like a great training opportunity
 
My write-ups of programs have declined precipitously since the start of interview season, I'm probably going to focus on posting some reviews of programs that haven't gotten a lot of attention here yet. Here's my thoughts on Emory.


Emory

1. Ease of Communication: No problems. Interview invite asked you to call to schedule the interview, but was sent on a weekend so I left a VM and got a call back confirming my date the following monday. All necessary information about the interview day sent by email including a full schedule a few days before. Coordinators were very nice.

2. Accommodation & Food: No accommodation provided. There is a courtyard Marriott literally across the street from the interview site that was reasonably priced. Food at the dinner was buffet style and drinks were paid for. It was in a room of a hipster sandwich/bar place. I would have preferred something a little more sit down but there was plenty of mingling. Bagels, fruit, and pastries for breakfast and sandwiches & salad for lunch (including things like chicken and salmon, not just lunch meat). Cookies to close out the day. Dinner and lunch were well attended by residents but mostly PGY1s and PGY3s. This appeared to be a function of location (lunch was at Grady, see below about program structure) and the fact that pgy2 is a pretty heavy year.

3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Intro in the morning by the PD and a brief talk by the Chair of the Department who has been there about 6 years and was recruited post Nemeroff scandal. Seems to have a lot of ideas about things he wants to do. 4 30 min interviews, all in the morning, some break time. Lunch at Grady followed by a tour, then to their private hospital

4. Program Overview: PGY1 is almost entirely at Grady. 6 months of psych and 6 months of medicine/neuro divided up into blocks of 3 months at a time. Iirc 1 month of night float total in two two week blocks. Interns are capped at 6 inpatients on psych. PGY2 is split between VA and Wesley Woods (Emory private facility). q6-7 call covering the inpatient units, admissions, urgent consults. There are some caps/protections to call that I don’t remember the specifics of but apparently it has improved the workload somewhat. Residents start with two therapy patients PGY2. PGY3 is all outpatient, PGY4 electives. Research and psychotherapy tracks available.

5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Emory is a major research institution and the CDC is next door. They highlighted many research centers during the program presentation. I would assume if you want to do research, you should be able to find something in your area of interest in everything spanning from basic science to clinical.

6. Location & Lifestyle: Atlanta is affordable compared to most big cities. Residents can afford to live by themselves if they want (rent for 1-bedrooms was cited as $1100-1200) and there seems to be a lot going on in Atlanta in terms of cultural events as well as availability of outdoor recreational activities. Direct flights to just about anywhere due to the size of the airport.

7. Salary & Benefits: PGY1 salary is $56,970. Moonlighting available PGY3 and 4 which can increase salary substantially. 12 days of sick leave and 15 calender days of vacation.

8. Program Strengths: Diverse and severe pathology (see comments below about diversity). If you can handle psych triage at Grady you should be able to hand it anywhere. Access to Grady, private hospitals, and VA as part of core training. All fellowships available. Residents seem very motivated and invested in psychiatry and in their own training. Abundant research opportunities including a research track (separate match as well as the chance to switch in)

9. Potential Weaknesses: Does not try and hide that their workload is high, although there do seem to be reasonable caps in place for the interns. Multiple sites so some amount of commuting is inevitable. Whether or not you consider the patient population diverse seems to be deeply relative. Some residents from more cosmopolitan cities commented that overall the patient population (considering the whole program) is African American and white without large numbers of other ethnicities. However it’s definitely more diverse than you’re going to get at a program with a predominantly white patient base. YMMV. Also seems to have relatively limited access to child; child experience PGY2 is on consults, and there is no default inpatient child experience during the general residency. Apparently none of the main hospitals has a child inpatient unit at all. Georgia’s safety net is poor. A few people mentioned that it can actually be easier to get care for the truly indigent/uninsured than for patients even with Medicaid etc.

10. Overall impression Liked this program a lot more than I expected to. Definitely falls into the higher workload programs for PGY1 and PGY2 but I did not get a sense that residents feel their workload is unfair or malignant. Feels like I typed a lot of weaknesses compared to strengths but despite that I just got a good vibe and will probably end up ranking them high.
 
Hi friends - anyone know of any current Northwestern psych residents on the message boards? Would like to get an anonymous opinion from one if possible. Thanks!
 
First review. Will be posting more.

University of Chicago

1. Ease of Communication
Through ERAS. I actually had to reschedule my interview, and their coordinator was prompt and accommodating.

2. Accommodation & Food
The night before, we went to a great restaurant in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Chicago. Food was ordered for the whole table, big variety and tasted great. PGY1/2/3's were there. Very friendly bunch. Honestly, probably one of, if not, the happiest group of residents I've encountered yet, judging by their attitudes. Really engaging group. Laid back. Easy to talk to.

3. Interview Day
Usual breakfast in the morning. Parking was easy (voucher provided and garage was across the street from building). Opportunity to attend didactics. Didactics are small group (they're broken down by class year, so mainly 6 people to a lecture). Seemed more discussion style, with interesting teaching. Residents really emphasized how good the lectures are. Interviews were pretty laid back, 30 min in length. Most questions dealt with personal goals and life experiences, etc. No unusual questions. PD came across as very likable and caring. Lunch was really nice (mediterranean). Good number of residents attended. Most were engaging, some talked amongst themselves, but lots of laughs and fun discussion. Tour was before lunch. Really nice hospital, mostly new. Huge. Tour of new ED. Also big with a lot of amenities. Has dedicated psych portion. Afterwards were pictures of their inpatient sites (North Shore-Evanston and UChicago Med-Ingalls). Applicants were invited to schedule follow up visits at the sites, if they liked. Also, given a list of recent graduates (like past 3-4 years), and what they're up to. Very impressive list. Lots of fellowships at big name places.

4. Program Overview
6 residents to a year

PGY1: 6 months off psych (2 mo inpatient med, 1 mo medicine consults, 1 mo ED, 2 months neuro, and can do Peds substitutes for adult rotations, if you'd like). Neuro hours are about 50-60. Medicine hours are 60-70. ED month is 16 shifts for the whole month. 6 months psych is made up of 2 months IP at North Shore-Evanston (private hospital w/ apparently a strong emphasis on academia), UChicago Med-Ingalls (U of C's community hospital, 25-30 minute drive from U of C, even in rush hour), and 2 mo C/L at U of C's main campus. Always work with U of C full time faculty, no matter the site. Residents described the facilities as being very nice (pictures seem to corroborate this), with good pathology, diverse patient population, and manageable workload w/ good amount of teaching. Didactics are protected, no matter the service (on or off psych) on Thursday afternoons. Described as strength, really close knit teaching. You also get a faculty advisor (they try to match you up based on interests) that you keep all 4 years. Call starts off as PGY2 supervised for like the first 6-7 weeks. 3x/month. Twice on Sundays (12 hour shifts, 8am-8pm), one 24 call on Tuesday (with Wed off) once a month. Calls can be variable in intensity, but generally able to sleep some hours if on overnight. 4 weeks vacation.

PGY2: 2 mo IP at North Shore-Evanston, 2 mo IP at UChicago Med-Ingalls, 2 mo C/L, 2 mo Addictions, 2 mo Community (one month can be substituted for Child Psych rotation), 2 mo Psych ED. 6 mo of weekly afternoon clinic, along with 3 psychotherapy patients that you take on with supervision. Didactics are now Tuesday afternoons, still protected, of course. Call is still generally 3x/month. 2 Saturdays plus one Thursday (with Friday off) a month. A few months, you're on call weekly either Wed or Friday, but you're guaranteed weekends off during those months (and also Thursdays off, if you're on call Wed).

PGY3: No required call (if you choose to do call, it's considered moonlighting). All OP. Lots of different clinics (general, child, addictions, geri, refractive affective, student counseling, ECT, etc.). Residents talked about how great the autonomy is, with the right balance of supervision.

PGY4: Plenty of time for electives. Can work with program to create own elective, lots of time for research (research project is required, can spend up to 75% of time on it). Lots of research labs, big focus on neuroimaging, addictions, genetics, etc.

Residents also do process group (sounds like group therapy sessions), every other week with lunch provided. Lots of opportunities for teaching.

5. Faculty Achievement & Involvement
Well accomplished faculty. Some big names. Residents all emphasized how approachable and down to earth the faculty are. Open door policy and place resident education at a high level.

6. Location & Lifestyle
Main campus is located in Hyde Park. Really nice neighborhood, but surrounded by seedy areas (apparently getting better with the Obama Center opening up close by). Some residents lived there, but most lived in the South Loop in downtown. Call is more minimal than many programs (none required in 3rd and 4th year). Residents describe having a good life balance. Main issue with the program is having to travel to the sites (75-80% of your four years is on the main campus, but the drive up to Evanston can be lengthy, but that's 4 months out of 4 years, so whatever).

7. Salary & Benefits
57K to 64K PGY1 to PGY4. You get access to the U of C campus, its libraries, etc. 4 weeks vacation each year plus sick days and education days.

8. Program Strength
-Strong psychotherapy
-Close knit resident class
-Good autonomy mixed with supervision
-Life/work balance
-Renowned faculty
-Residents seem to do very well post-graduation

9. Program Weakness
-Travel to different sites
-No current Geri inpatient experience, only outpatient

10. Overall Impression
Program really surprised me. In a good way. The residents struck me as being a really happy, diverse group that were confident in their training. Program takes a lot of pride in being academically driven and giving their residents the time to pursue research and academics. Faculty that I interviewed with seemed really cool, and well accomplished. Residents do really well in terms of fellowships and such. Main issue has to do with the travel to different sites, but that's for a few months out of the 4 years. Program seems to have really strengthened in recent years, and is poised to continue to do so. Not sure where I'll rank them, but it'll be high.
 
Mayo Clinic

Ease of Communication
Via email – very easy. PC very nice and accommodating when I had to reschedule.

Accommodation & Food
The program pays for 1-2 nights at a hotel across the street from the clinic. Some minor communication issues with the hotel, but none that couldn’t be solved. The hotel stay includes complimentary continental breakfast (FYI from 6-7am only). Lunch is with various psychiatry residents. On most days, applicants are taken to one of the cafeterias on campus (they took us through to see what’s inside, nothing fancy, but not bad for hospital food it seems), though on certain days like Fridays it’s a catered meal with the psychiatry department with a lunchtime seminar. Dinner is the night of the interview, but was reasonably well attended and at a nice local restaurant.

Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
The interview day was on the long side, starting with an overview at 7:30 and wrapping up around 3:30-5 depending on timing of the day, but also having dinner from 6-8ish afterwards. We all went on morning rounds with one of the inpatient teams, and were given the options of acute adult, child and adolescent, and one other option (sorry I’m butchering this part, maybe the mood disorders unit?). Next a couple of the senior residents brought us on a fairly lengthy tour of both campuses (Generose and Saint Mary’s). All interviews were in the afternoon; 30 minutes x 4 interviews, including one with the PD (Dr. Swintak) and associate PD (Dr. Sommers). Most interviews were quite conversational, and only one was quite unidirectional, where I was asked absolutely no questions. The interviewer simply would answer my question in 1-2 minutes, and then wait in silence. The remainder of my interviews were very conversational, with interjections about how my interests could be dovetailed with ongoing projects on campus.

I didn’t know if it was a test or something odd, so I just kept asking questions the entire time. I even asked if there was anything he wanted to know about me, so I essentially stepped into him asking me ‘so what should I be asking about you?’

Program Overview:
9 residents per year, though much smaller PGY4 class (3/yr child fellowship). 75% go on to fellowships.

PGY1: 2 months medicine, 1 month emergency medicine; 1 month family med (inpatient and outpatient), 2 months neurology (1 each in/outpt). 6 months of inpatient psychiatry on different services. Option to have some time on pediatrics or pediatric neurology. Inpatient services have ~5-7 patients per resident.

PGY2: Lots of different psych rotations, including child, addictions, acute adult, 3-4 mo C/L, emergency psychiatry, mood disorders, and 2-3 mo medical/geriatric psychiatry.

PGY3: Outpatient year, with integrated longitudinal experiences for 12 months. Includes things like community psych, consultation psych, emergency psych, and elective options in forensic, research, or geriatric psychiatry. Rotate through emergency psych consult, on average of one week in seven. Attendings/consultants still available for backup (but I believe not in house all the time anymore?).

PGY4: Spend 3 months serving as the senior ‘resident associate’ on a requested service. Other requirements include 1 month of partial hospital program and 1 month ECT service. The remaining 6 months are elective time.

Child psych options: now have an integrated child track, but it doesn’t lock you in to CAP if you change your mind.

Facilities/hospitals/services: Two independent hospital campuses: Generose and Saint Mary’s. The two hospitals <10 minutes apart, separated by commuter shuttle. Inpatient hospital also now has non-teaching services in order to make the resident/teaching services more manageable. Moderate size department, not tiny but also not remarkably large. 40 physicians and 20 PhD’s. 82 bed psych facility, including child. I was surprised to hear that they even get inpatient referrals from the twin cities, not because of particular expertise, but just because they had more open beds than the twin cities. has a med psych unit – actually two now, which is cool. One is on a psychiatry floor and has 7 beds for psychiatric patients with some sort of medical problem ongoing, and the floor is shared with 7 geriatric psychiatry beds. Less medical acuity here. Another floor just opened in October of this year, with 10 beds total, and is co-staffed with a Internal Medicine and Psychiatry consultants, with (some?) other staff also trained in mental health (meaning I’m not sure if it’s all psych RNs, or just some scattered in the unit). More ability for medically complex patients here, or patients admitted with initial dual requirements like serious drug intoxication or delirium, etc.

Didactics are consolidated to one ½ day per week. Some hours have all years combined, but for the most part they are separated for PGY1s, and then PGY2-4 are together, but they try to vary it a little bit each year. Journal club every other week. Monthly psych cinema night.

Psychotherapy: part of didactics. Can take an advanced psychotherapy course that meets at one of the faculty’s houses, next to the fireplace, etc. it sounded super cozy and amazing. Each year PGY2-4 get paired with a different psychotherapy supervisor to get some variety. Therapy usually starts early in PGY2 year. PGY3-4 have a weekly psychotherapy seminar with a presentation or video and discussion with consultants from several schools of thought of psychotherapy.

Call:
PGY1-2, while on inpatient psych: supervision from phone call PGY4 until 8pm, and by the overnight PGY3 until midnight. If on a weekend, this is 8am-midnight. and Their handout from interview day (printed 2016) says its 6-8 weeks total distributed over the first two years, and evening shifts occur in runs of 6 days per week. (I should have written notes, because their website says it’s ~weekly call, but I think that is their old schedule). Weekends on psych inpatient units are ~3 weekend days per month (8am-2pm for PGY1s, or long call for PGY2s from 8am-midnight). ED call shifts are from 8am-8pm or noon-midnight. Rotations with no call even for PGY1-2: emergency psych, C/L, outpatient rotations

PGY3: provide overnight call for 3-4 nights in a row, 8am-9am. There are no daytime responsibilities during those days (so it’s like a brief night float), but you are in the midst of outpatient rotations and have to get someone to cover your patient’s calls, etc. This happens about one block per 8 weeks.

Float resident as a PGY2, serving as jeopardy resident to cover anyone else’s leaves.

Faculty Achievements & Involvement: More along the lines of C/L, TMS, and clinical trials. The hospital and clinics have a lot of specialty clinics (headache clinic, a whole inpatient/outpatient program for kids with functional symptoms like abdominal pain), so plenty of opportunities to work with specialized populations for research projects. Other researchers working on addictions or on sleep medicine.

Location & Lifestyle:
Rochester. There’s a ‘downtown’ with some decent restaurants and bars, and more banks thank you could imagine. Some crazy percent like 30% of the city is employed by Mayo in some respect. The city is putting a ton of money into local development and trying to grow the size of the city in the coming years. But the good news is that the traffic is minimal, and you can live in decent areas and still have a ridiculously short commute. Residents live as close to 1-2 blocks from the hospital, and others have several acres of land and drive to work in <10 minutes. Plenty of safe neighborhoods with great schools.

Salary & Benefits:
Salary PGY1-PGY4 at 54,602-61,611. Vacation is 15 days per year. Paid parental leave 5 days. Pretty typical insurance, dental, life insurance, etc. Includes adoption reimbursement. Free parking. Meal money while on call only.

Pretty awesome benefits for conference presentations, professional travel expenses, etc. Yearly attendance at a conference (without presentation) or could be used for board review courses. They also allow for up to 5 presentation trips per year, but some people have been approved for more. All are reimbursed.

Program Strengths:
- The fellowships that they have seem strong. Fellowships available in child and adolescent, psychosomatic/CL, addiction, and geriatric psychiatry. Also have a non-accredited mood disorders fellowship.
- Integration with psychologists and psychology trainees
- Early exposure to child psychiatry for general residents
- Academic medicine and psychiatry
- Exposure to sub-subspecialty populations and specialists
- Broad clinical research opportunities
- Low cost of living, safe areas, good schools
- No windows in the resident shared office spaces

Potential Weaknesses:
- No forensics fellowship
- Formality of the culture, including dress code
- Small city
- Little exposure to urban populations
- Relatively homogenous patient population, particularly in outpatient year
- Odd call schedule (not a fan of the frequent rotating shift work in PGY3)

Overall Impression:
Strong, academically focused program in a fairly unique environment of small city dominated by the huge medical centers. Very friendly residents who seemed to get along well with consultants. Family-friendly program and city, with various outdoor activities and low cost of living but fewer opportunities for the single individuals who like a typical night life. Good for people who want a strong academic program in addictions, psychosomatics, functional conditions, or child psych. Surprisingly large geriatric population (plenty of healthcare providers bringing their parents in to care for them) and thereby a good geriatric psych program. Sounds like there would be some possibility of combining the child and adolescent track with the research track, but not guaranteed.
 
U PENN PSYCHIATRY

Ease of Communication
Early communication was through ERAS, no concerns. Later all via email, PC very responsive. Got a call from Dr. Campbell the week of the interview asking if I had any questions prior to the visit, which was an unexpected touch.

Accommodation & Food
No accommodation provided, though they did send the names of a couple nearby hotels. Many people opted to go with airbnb as well. Dinner the night before was at a fun Greek place – probably a good show of residents but only one at my table so I’m not sure how many others were there.

Interview Day (Schedule, Type of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences):
Before the dinner, there was an optional tour of Pennsylvania Hospital (the oldest hospital in the country), which was neat. On the morning of the interview, we met at the outpatient building. The day started with an overview of the program from Dr. Campbell, the PD who has lots of energy.

It was a fairly large applicant group – this year they’ve been doing groups of 20 and had ~6 interview days. We also had overviews of the psychotherapy training, research programs, and met with the department chair, Dr. Oquendo. We each had 5 x 25-30 minute interviews all in the same floor of the outpatient building. With so many people it was a little bit of a struggle to get everyone to their interviews on time, but low stress regardless. One chief resident interview included. We walked to lunch with several residents at a restaurant a block or two away. The day ended with a long tour of the entire medical campus, including a peek in the front door of CHOP. No unusual questions throughout the day, and all of my interviews were very conversational and friendly. Interviewers had definitely read my application.

Program Overview:
PGY1: 4 mo medicine (1.5 at HUP, 1 mo and Pennsylvania hospital, 1 at Penn Presbyterian (community hospital), and 2 weeks of emergency med at HUP), 1 mo neurology consults at HUP. Psychiatry rotations include inpatient sites, VA consults, and evenings at two different emergency psych locations (Pennsylvania hospital and HUP, rotating every night). The incoming class is split so half start on service, half start off service. The didactics are then repeated in the fall and spring so nobody missing anything important. Most inpatient psych teams have a PGY1 or PGY2, attending, and med students. Most floors have two teams per floor, and they try to have a PGY2 team and a PGY1 team (shared work space) to have some informal assistance.

PGY2: 1 mo neurology, and the remainder on service. Includes HUP consults, geriatrics, addictions, psychosis, mood and personality disorder units. Have two weeks of integrated care and forensics selectives. Consults is very busy, but the attendings hold the pager. The team usually has 2x PGY2, 2 attendings, 3 med students, and some psychology interns.

PGY3: outpatient year. Building up therapy cases in the resident psychotherapy practice clinic, with a minimum of 3-5 patients at a time, but many residents have more. Med management clinics are 1:1 staffed with attendings. Also have exposure to child outpatient psychiatry, including a child therapy patient unless you’re child track in which this is deferred, community and addictions, and 1 ½ days per week of elective or research time. PGY3’s and 4’s have nice individual offices at 3535 Market street.

PGY4 Some required time as junior attending, but also plenty of elective time. Continue with psychotherapy and general resident clinic. >50% elective time. Lots of elective opportunities, or build your own.

Random findings: Separate directors for psychotherapy and for research/neuroscience. Plenty of moonlighting opportunities. Chair particularly interested in putting money into research (some new areas of interest to her include molecular psychiatry, interactions between a person’s microbiome and behavior (collaborations with veterinary medicine, GI, and microbiology), and neurocircuits. Tobacco free hiring policy. Free suboxone training. EDs staffed with RNs and crisis counselors to decrease SW activities.

Specialty tracks: psychotherapy, child and adolescent, clinical research scholars, public psychiatry, quality improvement, or ethics track. Research track is undergoing some recent changes (apply PGY2, but this program is also changing and in theory growing). It includes an increasing percentage of protected research time per year, ending in up to 80% during PGY4. Those interested in child can do more integrated/early child exposure, including trading a month of medicine for a month of ‘adolescent medicine’ at CHOP (includes a lot of comorbid medical and psych concerns, like eating disorders); a month of pediatric neurology, peds for ED, and a month of child psych consults at CHOP, I believe. This does not commit residents to fast-tracking or doing a child fellowship. Rural psych (Maine or Pennsylvania) or global health (Botswana).

Call:
PGY1 have short call from 6-10pm about 3x/mo while on psychiatry rotations (at Crisis Response Center). Also while on psych, have weekend call 15x/year, supervised by senior residents. No overnight call PGY1.

PGY2: 6 weeks total of night float, split into 3x2 week blocks working 5 days/week. Alternates nights at two different sites. Weekends of emergency psych covered by moonlighters. Not very much overnight call in PGY2. Weekend call shifts 15x/year (1-2/mo) with attendings by phone.

PGY3: 2 weeks of night float. 6-7 weekend call shifts per year.

PGY4: no call.

Psychotherapy: residents start picking up therapy patients at least by the spring of PGY2, but can happen as early as all of the medicine rotations have been completed, so late intern year is also a possibility. In later years, most residents have 1-3 psychotherapy supervisors, and some have 4 if they want additional supervision in another modality (e.g. DBT). Seems like a really solid psychotherapy training. Blocks of didactic topics are taught by people identified by the program to be both experts in the area and good at teaching. Probably more importantly, even the bigger names in psychotherapy (or at least their ‘acolytes’) may still serve as therapy supervisors. There’s also a psychotherapy track available, which includes an extra hour of didactics each Friday, and another therapy supervisor – more available if desired, some may have 4 supervisors). There’s also a DBT elective (individual and group work). Therapy didactics start PGY1, and in later years have a case conceptualization group where the other residents watch via one way mirror. PGY4 get to watch an expert doing therapy in real time.

Facilities: some rotations at HUP, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania – filled with very, very specialized medicine and a highly academic environment. Rotate here for medicine, neurology, and psychiatry (consults). A lot of psych (inpatient and emergency) is at Pennsylvania Hospital (old, community feel to this hospital). Some exposure to CHOP (peds, ED, psych consults; has eating disorders specialists). The VA is relatively nice for psychiatry here. All hospitals use Epic except for the VA (CPRS as per usual). Emergency psych is both at HUP and Pennsylvania hospital Crisis Response Center (which is very busy, but they recently added a Night Float resident, still has the intern on short call, an NP, and a moonlighter).

Faculty Achievements & Involvement:
Faculty achievement seems almost silly to write for these guys; it’s all over. PD Dr. Cabrina Cambell is great, and all the other faculty I met seemed quite accomplished. Some applicants interviewed with Raquel Gur (schizophrenia guru along with partner Ruben Gur, both are still going strong). Edna Foa is big in the anxiety and OCD worlds (developed prolonged exposure therapy and exposure and response prevention therapy). Aaron and Judith Beck, Neill Epperson, etc. The list goes on.

Location & Lifestyle:
Philadelphia – big city but not quite as bustling as NYC and the like. Residents said almost all of them are happy there, except the few that miss NYC. Vast majority of residents live relatively close to campus, within several miles. Most commute via public transportation, some bike. Only a couple drive in from the further suburbs; one lived in Jersey. Many no longer have cars. All endorsed having a really great restaurant scene, and plenty to do; concerts, art scene, etc. Fewer outdoor activities nearby; one resident could name a park to the west for hiking. Another mentioned the Adirondack’s are not far.

Salary & Benefits:
Most recent salary started at 57,969. Vacation starts at 3 weeks per year (15 days) and increases to 4 (20 days). Maternity leave (2 weeks sick, 2 weeks paid maternity, and 4 weeks vacation; but can take up to 12 weeks total) and paternity leave (10 days/2 weeks sick, 4 weeks vacation). PGY2+ can take leave of absence (is this typical to restrict this?). Residents said the insurance coverage is excellent, free preventive visits and $20 copay for everything else including therapy. One resident had enough time for twice a week therapy and another was doing his own analysis, so 4 times per week. Conference attendance days: 3 in PGY2, 5 in PGY3-4.

Program Strengths:
Research powerhouse
Strong track record for psychotherapy
Strong associated medical and pediatric facilities
Variety in training sites (academic, community, VA)
Plenty of fellowships available
Philadelphia (culture, nightlife, diversity)
Diversity and LGBT friendly
Enough ECT exposure to get licensed
Physical proximity of resources on general Penn campus

Potential Weaknesses:
For CAP, the fellowship is completely run by CHOP so there seems to be less continuity even for those wishing to fast track.
Philadelphia (cost of living dependent on ideals, population density)
Not much group therapy exposure (one supervision opportunity that residents could identify was with an LGBT group, or the DBT skills clinic elective if you count that).
Research track not supremely organized (yet?)

Overall Impression:
Penn is clearly a very strong program with strengths in research, psychotherapy, and pretty much any mainstream niche of psychiatry. You can find an excellent mentor in pretty much any subspecialty or technique that you’d like. Residents are surprisingly chill and down to earth, and clearly bright, though not exactly warm. Most seemed driven and passionate about what they do. Residents said they have sufficient supervision. I'd be confident in the skills of residents coming out of this program, and I'd probably be happy here.
 
Did anyone happen to catch the call schedule for pediatrics in the MGH combined program intern year? Overnights vs night float? Thanks!


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