CALIFORNIA
Arrowhead Regional
Interview Structure: Two 30 min “panel” interviews (you and 3 interviewers). Met PD casually. Facilities tour with 1 resident. Lunch (sandwiches).
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: No, lunch day of.
Positive Impressions: Large/robust emergency psychiatry training. You are in southern California. DO/IMG friendly for DO/IMG applicants, chairman of Department of Behavioral Health seemed like a nice guy, lots of "It's getting better, lots of changes for the better"
Negative Impressions: Panel interview was slightly overwhelming/difficult compound behavioral questions. Felt as residents had to justify the program, said had matched at last choice though it worked out in the end. Q5 call schedule and grueling inpatient medicine rotation for 4 months (though reports this is great training). Lunch was ****ty coldcut sandwiches. Residents commented "Don't come here if you want an easy residency" "Originally I hated here but grew to love it”.
Other Comments: N/A
EMR: Meditech (ew), but director says he plans on changing to epic idk how soon this will/wont happen.
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: Mediocre
Moonlighting: N/A
CPMC
Interview Structure: Morning overview with PD, campus tours, interview, tour with chief resident, lunch with residents, attend didactic, two more interviews (about 40 min each)
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: No
Positive Impressions: Enthusiastic faculty, seems to have good psychotherapy training and see a diverse range of patients /// I did a subi here and have some good things to say, other than yes the call schedule is heavy. but great didactics, integration with psychology program makes for very psychotherapudically oriented discussions about root causes in patients, sutter is a nice facility with grand rounds and lots of other good training programs, fantastic non-malignant IM program you rotate thru, weekly interesting case conference, great faculty who seem to really care about the residents and about teaching, lots and lots and lots of electives available unque to SF like HIV/AIDS/homlessness/transgender/LGBT/women'sMH and intensive psychotherapy training if you want it.
Negative Impressions: Cost of living, really crazy work schedule, poor teaching, standoff-ish residents at interview day < I thought the residents were quite nice, didn't get the sense they were standoffish at all << same.
Other Comments: Will be ranked last. People from my school interviewed here last year and said similar things and they went to better places in norcal.x4 < what didn't they like about it?
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: Will only be available in 4th year due to Cali law change (this was in email from PD after I directly asked)
Charles R Drew U
Interview Structure: One session writing prompt, one meeting with a resident, one meeting with PD, one-two meetings with faculty
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: No
Positive Impressions: Strong mission to care for underserved communities; no call is nice :|
Negative Impressions: Slightly weird vibes, not necessarily malignant per se but idk...only had 1 resident talk with us too, although he seemed chill < The PD can give off slightly odd looks when interviewing dunno if that was your experience but I kind of experienced that, can't quite place a word to the expression he made not quite sure I'd say condescending but something similar maybe he kept asking is that all? when I would give my answers. < This is a very new program, and I got the sense that my interviewers were not fully knowledgeable about the curriculum or the program's future. Some of them were very new themselves- one wasn't even Psychiatry faculty. // Only 1 resident to talk to, seemed tired like he didn't want to be there. PD was weird, reading off my app in front of me, made weird side-comments/shade about things throughout the day, lunch was half-sandwiches and chips, little to no psychotherapy training.
Other Comments: I thought it was weird that they made us do a writing exercise as a "station". Definitely brought back old memories from med school admission "multiple mini interviews". One of my interviewers made me read a question and write down my thoughts in front of him before answering. Awkward. I didn't feel people had even read my application. x2 same experience when I interviewed. I don't think anyone read my application x3 awkward interview. One had me write down answers, another read and graded my application right in front of me half way through my interview, Writing portion, and group photo at the end was very uncomfortable.
Schedule: No calls, most days are 7-5 and weekends care off. Longer shifts on IM and neuro rotation according to the resident
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: 500/month
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
Kaiser Northern California - Oakland
Interview Structure: Intro from PD, tour of hospital, two 40 min interviews with assistant program directors, 20 min interview with PD, lunch with faculty
Hotel Compensated for: no
Dinner: No, but several events with residents spread throughout the season
Positive Impressions: PD seems very open to feedback and excited abourt the program. Residents seem to have a lot of input and the program is flexible to their interests. Have child psychiatry outpatient during 2nd year for 2 months, no child inpatient unit if that's your thing. Chill schedule, weekend call but no night float or overnight call, PD might be adding overnights but not in the next year // +1 really cool PD, seems to be very receptive to feedback talking to current PGY1s // working on finding residents an inpatient child unit if they want it.
Negative Impressions: New program, this will be their second class; very outpatient heavy (not sure if this is good or bad), maybe won't be as rigorous as some other programs // didn't meet any residents on interview day and unable to attend other events
I thought it was kind of bizarre (red flag?) that we didn't meet any residents, even if there only are a few of them. // I was able to meet a 1st year my interview day, they were on medicine and ran into them on the tour. Sounded like they were spread over the place
Other Comments: Overall, really liked PD and faculty, who were very enthusiastic about the program. Interviews conversational, seemed to have read my app and had questions about why KP, how I deal with certain situations and patients, why psychiatry, etc. One interview with some behavioral questions. Chill schedule.
EMR: Epic
Free food for residents: No
Free Parking: No
Salary: $67K
Benefits: Great; also with housing allowance up to $3500/year, $720 per year for Health and Wellness like gym membership, $1000 for relocation, educational stipend $500.
Moonlighting: Yes during 3rd and 4th year < from what I was told, this will only be 4th year due to the new Cali law <- I'm still not clear on this. There seems to be language in the law that allows moonlighting before PGY-4 "with written permission of program director."
Kaiser Northern California - San Jose
Interview Structure: Intro from PD, three 30 minute interviews, mini-tour, 2 more 30 minute interviews, tour of hospital, lunch.
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: All the faculty seemed very excited about the program // Thought the residents were informative about the program and explained ins and outs of program; great EMR (epic); good facilities; faculty were kind during my interview day; good breakfast/lunch; in a very nice area // Faculty all from prestigious backgrounds, broad electives, amazing benefits (relocation stipend, education stipend, housing allowance).
Negative Impressions: This will be their second class // arguably high work schedule but not bad with 12 on and 2 off / one resident dropped mid year, does anyone know why? < I was told they were already on the fence about applying to residency due to family issues and when they matched here dropped out since there ending up being more call than was originally mentioned which wouldn't work out with family responsibilities // program came off feeling too new and no one was sure about how things would work yet, residents didn't seem close or very happy, incredibly expensive area to live despite higher resident income.
Other Comments: Most of the interviews were pretty conversational. Seemed like everyone thoroughly read my app and had specific questions. Each interviewer had 1 question assigned to them that they were required to ask each applicant. Required research project.
EMR: described as "EPIC on steroids"
Schedule: PD said residents work 12 hrs/day on inpt IM to start, may decrease with efficiency // Call is Q4 home call until midnight, 2 weeks of nightfloat PGY1
Free food for residents: $100/mo stipend
Free Parking: yes
Salary: ~$70K
Benefits: Great; also with housing allowance up to $3500/year, $720 per year for Health and Wellness like gym membership, $1000 for relocation, educational stipend $500.
Moonlighting: yes, depending on how California's new laws work
Kaiser Southern California
Interview Structure: N/A
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: The PD prioritizes and emphasizes wellness. Young residents who get along and enjoy hanging out. // Great location, nice facilities, EPIC, paper charts for inpatient psych at one of the sites which can be both tedious and easy.
Negative Impressions: N/A
Other Comments: chill - asked residents why they ranked this place highly, majority said lifestyle
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
Kaweah Delta Healthcare District (KDHCD)
Interview Structure: 9-5:30. Morning tours, 6x30min afternoon interviews
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: N/A
Negative Impressions: N/A
Other Comments: N/A
Schedule: no nights or 24 hr call
EMR: Cerner
Free food for residents: $1000 annual stipend
Free Parking: Yes
Salary: N/A
Benefits: no monthly premium on health insurance
Moonlighting: Starting 3rd year
LAC + USC
Interview Structure: N/A
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Happy hour
Positive Impressions: N/A
Negative Impressions: N/A
Other Comments: N/A
EMR: Cerner
@county IP + I assume avatar for OP
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
Loma Linda University Health Education Consortium
Interview Structure: N/A
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: Good clinical training because you will put in a lot of hours.
Negative Impressions: Pretty much only considered here if you went to Western or LLU for med school. In need for some diversity and other perspectives.
Other Comments: Got weird vibes from PD and residents, but not an LLU student... so maybe it's an LLU thing.
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
San Mateo County
Interview Structure: 3 interviews, 45 min each, one with PD
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: Passionate, happy residents (many of whom speak a second language), call is considered moonlighting starting PGY2, prioritize resident wellness, psych ED. Must love community psychiatry and the chronically mentally ill/"mission"-based service. Well-funded county so they have no issues with resources for patients. Hospital is tiny so it seemed like medicine there would be easy.
Negative Impressions: High COL; great program but I do not want to live with 3 roommates and in a shoebox and have a poor lifestyle because I can't afford much. Driving to different sites all four years which significantly decreases the appeal of their hours given the Bay commute. Psych ED did not feel safe (clerks are not protected.) Sat in on didactics which were poor — lecturer had no clear objectives and would skip slides randomly with no explanation. Interviewer admitted level of supervision 2nd year is an issue as you're thrown into managing incredibly complex patients (like on 6+ meds) without adequate supervision. Psychotherapy was touted but is lacking in the program — residents said they have to go to the psychoanalytic institutes if they're truly interested. Poor aging facilities. Their acute unit seemed poorly run — staff were dilly dallying over an agitated patient who was screaming debating whether to call security/get an IM. Made me pay for my own Uber to interview at a different site mid-day even though there was an applicant who was from the area and had a car. Lunch was terrible so I'm guessing they have no food budget. Resident class is only 4 people.
Other Comments: Longitudinal clinic and rotations, community program tied to health dept, mission based.
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
Stanford
Interview Structure: 4 interviews x 30 minutes (two faculty, one aPD, one resident) + 15min with PD
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: Absolutely gorgeous weather and close to great surfing, skiing, etc. Subsidized resident housing that allows pets. 68-71-77-81 base +10k per year in housing and other stipends. Therapy fully covered by health insurance. Brand new Stanford hospital and really nice facilities overall. Loved the aPD who is well known nationally in psych.
Negative Impressions: PD loves long silences. Also had a feedback session with the PD which was a bit awkward (I can’t imagine anyone would seriously give negative feedback.) Lunch and dinner were somewhat sparsely attended — only met 1 intern (sketch) > Not my experience at all, I met a ton of residents at lunch and dinner. PD interview very awkward. Felt like the residents seemed tired and unenthusiastic. Very long interview day. Bay is incredibly expensive. PD has a Jekyll-Hyde moment when he realized I had Bay connections.
Other Comments: The coordinator was not particularly available during the interview day, which made finding where we were supposed to go challenging at times (the outpatient offices are spread across 3 floors and all look the same.).
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
UC Davis
Interview Structure: Intro, 3 20 min interviews, 3 30 min interviews, lunch with residents, facilities tour.
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: Happy residents. Sacramento = lower cost of living than most of Northern California. Community focus. PD is dedicated and education focus.
Negative Impressions: Interview day not well organized (no breaks between interviews, inadequate PO intake provided). Poor, aging facilities. < We had enough food at ours, and breaks.
Other Comments: Required jail rotations. Strong focus on cultural psychiatry and faculty seem very invested.
Schedule: no in house call
EMR: EPIC at UCD, AVATAR at county, something else at VA and Jail
Free food for residents: Yes
Free Parking: No
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
UC Irvine
Interview Structure: 4 30 minute interviews, 20 minute breaks in between
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: Very friendly, happy residents and PD. Excellent turnout at pre/post interview dinner. Diverse patient population. Orange County is beautiful. Subsidized housing option available for all UCIMC employees. Pretty innovative things done by PD to improve schedules for residents.
Negative Impressions: Lack of diversity in residency class. No housing stipend (<<there is a $2,900 living stipend) to offset high COL as other programs in the area (UCLA), though residents say negotiations are taking place. Less research going on here. Lost VA site last year.
Other Comments: Very well organized interview day, good food provided (breakfast and lunch). Two residents walked us through the day so we wouldn't get lost. All-day free parking passes provided. Very sarcastic attitudes but in a nice goofy way.
EMR: Epic
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
UC Riverside
Interview Structure: N/A
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: Low cost of living- actually possible to buy a home during residency which is impossible anywhere else in California. No call for residents. Easy program. Strong community focus. New program which opened to serve the underserved population of Riverside county. Lots of potential for growth and improvement in which residents could play a major role. Residents use their time for research, wellness, and other endeavors (e.g. podcast/radio show on mental health). Recently added Long Beach VA, which is optional but with good teaching. Also made recent changes to didactics, which were not well received before.
Negative Impressions: No call made me wonder if the training is very good here. More of a negative for me. Also research opportunities seemed limited. / Residents gave me weird vibes. One bragged about getting to be lazy because of no call. / San Bernardino is known as the armpit of California. Super hot during the summers. Possible call starting and moonlighting ending because of change with their county.////All UC Riverside residencies were just placed on ACGME probation. <--ACGME website doesn't mention probation. Look slick the institution was changed to warning from ACGME
ACGME - Accreditation Data System (ADS) < UCR was never under probationary status, nor has any residency closed other than Ob/Gyn, stop spreading misinformation and gunning for this site.
Other Comments: I think this program has a lot of potential- it would become great if they were able to select and retain residents who are self-starters and interested in medical education. Weird vibes, PD couldn't answer questions about rotations/// Losing county moonlighting and might have to cover shifts as call. Ranked 189/200 Doximity, residents spend hours commuting from Riverside to Long Beach and chair said they will have to go to palm springs too. New PD doesn't like working with chair or associates, place seems unstable. // Disappointed. new pd seems uninterested and not open to feedback. Constantly writing notes and asks weird questions. Didn’t seem genuine. Said if not enough pick VA (Orange County) then not optional. Unsure where to live with rotations so spread out. bizarre that only 5 faculty are UCR and rest are VA and county volunteers. Most faculty left last year. interviewed in administrative building with security and felt was a show, child fellow at dinner was nasty and caddy, not what I expected, thumbs down.
Schedule: No call
EMR: tons of different EMR
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: County moonlighting starting 2nd year, however there is a new county residency program opening next year, and the UCR residents are concerned they might lose moonlighting shift opportunities < what is the new residency program opening next year? The county affiliate is opening their own residency program. Does not allow external moonlighting.
UCLA David Geffen
Interview Structure: 3x30 min interviews (PD/aPD, faculty, resident)
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Happy hour
Positive Impressions: Good strong training, nice approachable faculty, good facilities, / great lectures and supervisors.
Negative Impressions: N/A
Other Comments: N/A
EMR: Epic
Free food for residents: Yes, at the cafeteria at David Geffen, and then at the VA you can use an institutional Ubereats account.
Free Parking: Free parking at the VA, at UCLA you need to pay.
Salary: N/A.
Benefits: 1k/month housing stipend starting next year
Moonlighting: Yes, starting in 3rd year < even with the law change? < they have internal moonlighting which is not effected.
UCLA - Kern: No reviews
UCLA - Los Angeles County Harbor
Interview Structure: Only two interviewees per day, 4 interviews total, 45 mins each, one is both interviewees together with the chair
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes (not always on interview day, just Thursdays throughout season)
Positive Impressions: Residents seem pretty happy, all 3 meals free every day, free parking, call schedule doesn't seem horrible, but they also didn't write it out for us on interview day, so I'm not 100% clear on it. Think it was something like 1 call day per week. They have a child psych ED. On site TMS (but it's in a van so kind of weird).
Negative Impressions: Not much carved out didactic time, 1.5 hours per week of didactic and 1 hr of interview training. Chair said not a good program for people who historically like to study independently. Outpatient facilities are pretty old, but it is county so they really struggle with money.
Other Comments: Different curriculum where they start outpatient clinic during second year for 1/2 days per week and mornings at inpatient. Intern said a lot of his class is much older (~30s).
EMR: Epic << nah, they're on Cerner (did a sub-I there).
Free food for residents: 3 meals everyday, even if you aren't working.
Free Parking: yes, access to doctor's lot.
Salary: low, but there's a $4,000 housing stipend and COL is lower in south bay.
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: Starting 2nd year, in-house. PGY4 can do external as well with new Cali law I believe.
UCLA - Olive View
Interview Structure: 4 interviews, 30 minutes each, one with PD
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Happy hour (enough for dinner)
Positive Impressions: Awesome residents, benign program, sweet moonlighting opportunities, new PD seems like a major asset; the faculty at this program are AMAZING and so supportive of residents, they are all so happy, incredible program.
Negative Impressions: Location is pretty far in north LA (the valley), call is a bit heavier for weekends than other cali programs.
Other Comments: No problems with accreditation- they were even greenlighted for expedited accreditation.
Schedule: Call on weekends only (none on weekdays), 3 weekend call shifts/month intern year, 2 in PGY-2, 1 in PGY-3, with some 24 hour shifts
EMR: Cerner
Free food for residents: $70 per week
Free Parking: everywhere except main UCLA
Salary: N/A
Benefits: The residents in the UCLA Olive View residency and fellowship programs are unionized under CIR/SEIU and are currently negotiating with UCLA for a contract WHILE opposing the transfer vehemently. The union is dealing with UCLA and LA County directly. < FYI for all applying to Olive View. Currently benefits are administered by UCLA (paid for by LA county) and are superb. However LA County is currently trying to change this to administer the benefits themselves moving forward. This would worsen benefits substantially. It’s still in the works and not finalized yet but something to keep in mind and worth asking program administration about if you are concerned.< Feb updates from program came through confirming benefits will continue to be under UCLA in 2020.
Moonlighting: in house only
UCLA VA - Greater Los Angeles (formerly SFV)
Interview Structure: 5 interviews, 30 min each
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Happy hour
Positive Impressions: PGY-1 no overnight call, 3x/month. PGY-2 3x/mo. overnight, with post-call day except Sat. High attendance at happy hour and they self-rotated to make sure we talked to different people.
Negative Impressions: VA program so comes with the VA population, 80% VA, 20% UCLA. Small food stipend. Still a newish program. High COL, Westwood is as high as the Bay, horrible LA traffic.
Other Comments: A lot of the main faculty (PD, APD, etc) are child psychiatrists and say you do see children in VA, but it still seems like they are only seen in specific family clinics (by nature since it is still the VA), and residents say the population in the inpatient unit is half people in first break in their late 20s, early 30s and half old vets with really chronic mental illness. Very new/young faculty since many left to Olive View during the split. I'm not convinced that the pathology seen at the VA is transferrable to other systems. any thoughts on this? <<yeh... I mean.... lol the lack of variety scares me.
Schedule: q10 first year with no overnight, and q10-14 second year with 24 call
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: only on call
Free Parking: yes
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
UCSD
Interview Structure: 2x 30 minute interviews with faculty, 2x15 minute interviews, with PD and APD.
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: San Diego is super nice. ~6k housing stipend. PS to the negative vibes over there, there are TONS of gunners who want to be at UCSD for location and are now making stuff up about the program. They did the same thing to UCLA and UCR so please do not believe the hype here. <<<< lol, not a gunner, and not ranking UCSD. I understand your paranoia, but sorry, you're wrong, it was terrible x2 When the rank is done I will gladly name myself < lol the Riverside /San Bernardino is literally one of the worst areas in California if not the US.
Negative Impressions: high cost of living in SD; to the people spreading lies about UCSD to get into the program and make other applicant rank it lower, I (resident) am quite disappointed in the type of people we have now going into psychiatry. UCSD is collegial, friendly, and wonderful staff. That is why many residents here become faculty. << To the resident that deleted the prior comments, am glad you are having a positive experience at UCSD, but please do not try to censor negative impressions of your program. I can confirm that I have heard the same concerns echoed about UCSD from current students and residents as previously posted. RESTORED: "Weaker psychotherapy training. Also heard from current residents on interview day and med students that this place is toxic af. << +2 can confirm heard this too. One of the heaviest call schedules in Cali, only one weekend off per month during entire PGY-1 + PGY-2 [per powerpoint presented by PD: "1 Golden Weekend per month" for PGY1 + PGY2]. Hard night float (1 month per year during first 3 years), heard from residents that they frequently went over 80 hr/week on night float. Notoriously toxic consult/liaison rotation at county hospital. Apparently teaching from UCSD main hospital inpatient attendings is lackluster. Heavy VA training. Residents frequently brought up concerns regarding poor supervision and therapy training <<< Apparently the school had to bring in a 3rd party to mediate between toxic attendings and residents." The residents looked very tired. Some residents at dinner seemed less mature.
Other Comments: Let us never forget that in 2018-2019, UCSD sent emails saying applicants were ranked to match 5 hours before rank-lists were due. Only later did applicants realize they sent that email to those who were extended interviews but didn't attend, or those who were waitlisted for interviews (You can see last year's thread for more details).
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: PGY4 year only, external only. Currently can moonlight externally PGY 3-4, but laws are changing. I asked about whether they have considered opening up internal slots, residents said that they have lobbied for it but has been denied by higher ups so no.
UCSF
Interview Structure: 1x 30m interview with resident, 2x 30m interview with faculty, 1x 15m interview with PD. Afternoon spent touring VA and ZSFG. PD spends final hour fielding questions from applicants.
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: Yes
Positive Impressions: Great program leadership, diverse sites. very strong academics.
Negative Impressions: Stupid high COL. One resident cited a rent of $3100 for a 1bedroom, no parking to give you an idea.
Other Comments: Very heavy outpatient focus, could be good or bad depending. 6 months during PGY2.
EMR: Epic
Free food for residents: Get money to spend at cafeteria when on call at ZSfg.
Free Parking: No
Salary: N/A
Benefits: $1000/month housing stipend
Moonlighting: Yes, starting pgy-2
UCSF-Fresno
Interview Structure: Welcome breakfast, intro to program with PD, four 20 minute interviews with 2 breaks (one of which with PD), lunch with residents, tour of sites and Fresno with coordinator
Hotel Compensated for: No
Dinner: No
Positive Impressions: N/A
Negative Impressions: N/A
Other Comments: N/A
EMR: N/A
Free food for residents: N/A
Free Parking: N/A
Salary: N/A
Benefits: N/A
Moonlighting: N/A
