Any late psychiatry residency programs out there?

[throwaway11111]

Hello drs I am a ms4 who was dual applying but I didn't prioritize my psych applications and only sent out a few here and there and instead focused on my other specialty. Now that the application season is winding down and I am spending time with my family a lot more doing light elective rotations I am realizing how much nicer the quality of life is to do this and it just makes so much more sense than my original primary specialty goals for my career. At this point I have zero psych interviews and I suspect it is because I applied later. Now I am left in this quandary. If there are still any residencies that accept late applications and/or have late interview cycles I am willing to go through the motions and call them and explain my situation if need be. However, I suspect that the door has closed on this application cycle as rankings are due in 25 days. So now I am at this point trying to figure out whether I should not rank anything and try to soap into psychiatry? Or if I should just apply for my original specialty choice and hope I don't hate it that much in the long term or maybe try to transfer from my specialty into the many open spots next year in psychiatry?

Thanks,
Lost M4

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[splik]

do not plan on SOAPing into psychiatry. Nowadays there are usually very few such positions with no guarantee you will get them. They often aren't at good programs (though occasionally there are spots at very good programs that go unfilled). Assuming you don't hate whatever specialty you applied for, just match into that and apply for PGY-2 psychiatry spots. You could also apply for PGY-1 spots as well. There are some very good programs with PGY-2 spots and they often want people from other specialties. So you might actually do quite well for yourself. Also many of those spots are outside the match which can be nice if you are a competitive applicant.

 

[Celexa]

Psychiatry has grown increasingly competitive the last several years. You cannot throw out a few late applications and expect anything.

You cannot count on SOAPing into psych as there have been very very few positions available the last several years.

Your best bet is to rank the other specialty and try and transfer to psych later, as mentioned above.

Talk of how competitive psych has gotten can easily get overblown but one thing there is broad agreement on is we are not a backup specialty anymore. If you were told otherwise you got very bad advice.

 

[throwaway11111]

Thank you both very much for your insight. I had no intentions of using psychiatry as a backup. I simply couldn't decide until the end and now I regret my other choice very much after spending the past few months working normal hours in normal specialties that are very much unlike my intended specialty that I applied for. With your advice in mind I will be continuing with my primary residency application then and trying after my first year or maybe during my first year to switch although I have heard that this can be a rather cumbersome and difficult process. Who knows maybe I will get lucky and love my original specialty so much that I decide to stick out in there and I'm not miserable with the lifestyle I signed up for. Once again thanks for your help doctors. I appreciate this forum a lot for how active it is and how willing you psychiatrists and residents are to help out anyone who asks for it.