Iowa has an excellent program. They are very strong in schizophrenia and eating disorders. Nancy Andreasen is there. They do a fair amount of decent brain imaging research. The residents have it fairly easy, doing their medicine requirements primarily on a med-psych unit. This is one of the programs where psych interns are given significantly less responsibility than medicine interns. There are a few IMGs there, but mostly American grads. The PD is very nice - sort of a crunchy-granola type. Iowa City is a wonderful place to live. It combines a small-town feel with a lot of the benefits of a city. The people are really nice there and the politics are very progressive, while at the same time it's a Big Ten college town with lots of hot coeds and fratboys who like to drink heavily and yell at people throwing balls at each other. If that's not your thing, there's also a vibrant art and culture scene, with excellent grad programs in Writing, English, Film, Visual Arts and their attendant grad students who you can hang out with. In fact, many people who go off to train in Iowa City fretting about how they will ever survive in the midst of all that corn find that they never want leave. The major drawback in my mind is that you will learn zero psychotherapy there. They are a very biologically oriented program. Overall a very strong program in a really great town.
