Chicago Programs Lifestyle?

[ForeverAndEver88]

How are the Chicago programs in terms of life style? In particular, U Chicago, Rush, UIC, and Loyola? Work hours? Friendliness among residents? Thanks for any help.

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[Merovinge]

All are very doable and give you plenty of time to enjoy the city, there are no Duke's here. Rush has probably the most patient contacts and work hours of the programs you listed (it's only partially academic), then UIC, Loyola, and U of C (known to be ivory towerish) but with a bigger gap between Rush and the other three. As far as friendliness of the residents, it is partially institutional but also varies greatly by class year-to-year. Make sure you can attend the evening before meet/greet with the residents, particularly if there are interns as they will be highly involved in your experience of the residency. Then look at the other people applying the day you are there, thats about 10% of the total applicants and will give you some idea of what your fellow classmates could look like.

Its pretty hard for anyone to give you any more specific information because what you might find friendly or great in a co-resident others could find horrifying.

 

[Seroquel]

I only interviewed at UChicago, but the residents were among my favorite group of people I met on the interview trail. They seemed tight-knit and chill and the type of ppl you could grab a drink with after work. Also, their work schedule looked very reasonable, including call requirements.

 

[cbrons]

I only interviewed at UChicago, but the residents were among my favorite group of people I met on the interview trail. They seemed tight-knit and chill and the type of ppl you could grab a drink with after work. Also, their work schedule looked very reasonable, including call requirements.

There is an SDN member who is a Psych resident at UC. He's worth talking to. I could put you in contact with him if you PM me.

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[Merovinge]

I only interviewed at UChicago, but the residents were among my favorite group of people I met on the interview trail. They seemed tight-knit and chill and the type of ppl you could grab a drink with after work. Also, their work schedule looked very reasonable, including call requirements.

They have a reputation for being a bit more eccentric to academic type, but like I've said elsewhere each individual class will vary greatly. My friends in the program definitely fit that stereotype and were definitely not the grab a beer after work at the local sports bar/pub type. That probably makes a lot of future psychiatrists thrilled, so I can definitely see it being a great fit for a lot of people.

 

[ForeverAndEver88]

Anyone have anything else to add? Still trying to get a clearer background on UChicago's lifestyle.

EDIT: I've loved what I saw from the program, but my concern at this point is the distance between their hospitals that you rotate at (it would be like an 45 min in traffic both ways), and does anyone know what their intern months are like on med and neuro?

 

[GlassRose]

Anyone have anything else to add? Still trying to get a clearer background on UChicago's lifestyle.

EDIT: I've loved what I saw from the program, but my concern at this point is the distance between their hospitals that you rotate at (it would be like an 45 min in traffic both ways), and does anyone know what their intern months are like on med and neuro?

What do you mean by their "lifestyle"? Residents I spoke to were very enthusiastic about the program and cited having a "great work/life balance". They seemed like a very intelligent, cohesive bunch. It sounded like they take a decent amount of call their first two years (and have an interesting pseudo-nightfloat system [which I personally think sounds brutal] when you're on emergency psych rotations -- something along the lines of do a 24 hour shift on, say, Monday then go home Tuesday morning. Come back Tuesday night at 10 and stay until 5pm on Wednesday. Thursday is then a normal work day for you). As for weekend call, I believe as an intern you're going to be covering one weekend day per week, with one weekend being off. I think you also have one 10pm call per week (this might be a little off as I interviewed there a while ago). I can't remember the specifics of call during second year other than the previously mentioned psych ED call. There is no assigned call after second year, instead when you volunteer to take call, you are paid as a moonlighter which is a very nice perk.

Residents cited working very hard on medicine but learning a tremendous amount and feeling very supported. You're seen as the medicine intern and treated as such. I don't remember them saying anything specific about neuro.

That's 45 min withOUT traffic. Not with. Having to fight traffic there/back would be rough (like in the ballpark of >1.5 hours). For example, a resident told me that in order to make your 5pm call start time, you should aim to leave Northshore by 3-3:30 at the latest as traffic really starts to build up around 4. The hours at Northshore are apparently your usual hours of 7:30ish to 4/5 and Lakeshore is 7:30ish to 12/1 (but they're also going to phase Lakeshore out as a rotation site over the next year or so as Ingalls becomes the established site). Didactics are weekly from I think 1ish until 5pm, so you'd be looking at doing that commute once or twice a week depending on your call (commuting in the afternoon wouldn't be terrible). Personally, as a Chicago native, the thought of having to deal with traffic like that every day sucks, but it's not like you're doing it every day for the full 4 years. That said, the program itself seems fantastic with a wonderfully supportive PD and aPD, so you just have to decide if a couple months in gross traffic is worth everything else that the program has to offer. Hope this was helpful!

 

[ForeverAndEver88]

What do you mean by their "lifestyle"? Residents I spoke to were very enthusiastic about the program and cited having a "great work/life balance". They seemed like a very intelligent, cohesive bunch. It sounded like they take a decent amount of call their first two years (and have an interesting pseudo-nightfloat system [which I personally think sounds brutal] when you're on emergency psych rotations -- something along the lines of do a 24 hour shift on, say, Monday then go home Tuesday morning. Come back Tuesday night at 10 and stay until 5pm on Wednesday. Thursday is then a normal work day for you). As for weekend call, I believe as an intern you're going to be covering one weekend day per week, with one weekend being off. I think you also have one 10pm call per week (this might be a little off as I interviewed there a while ago). I can't remember the specifics of call during second year other than the previously mentioned psych ED call. There is no assigned call after second year, instead when you volunteer to take call, you are paid as a moonlighter which is a very nice perk.

Residents cited working very hard on medicine but learning a tremendous amount and feeling very supported. You're seen as the medicine intern and treated as such. I don't remember them saying anything specific about neuro.

That's 45 min withOUT traffic. Not with. Having to fight traffic there/back would be rough (like in the ballpark of >1.5 hours). For example, a resident told me that in order to make your 5pm call start time, you should aim to leave Northshore by 3-3:30 at the latest as traffic really starts to build up around 4. The hours at Northshore are apparently your usual hours of 7:30ish to 4/5 and Lakeshore is 7:30ish to 12/1 (but they're also going to phase Lakeshore out as a rotation site over the next year or so as Ingalls becomes the established site). Didactics are weekly from I think 1ish until 5pm, so you'd be looking at doing that commute once or twice a week depending on your call (commuting in the afternoon wouldn't be terrible). Personally, as a Chicago native, the thought of having to deal with traffic like that every day sucks, but it's not like you're doing it every day for the full 4 years. That said, the program itself seems fantastic with a wonderfully supportive PD and aPD, so you just have to decide if a couple months in gross traffic is worth everything else that the program has to offer. Hope this was helpful!

Thanks for your help. Any idea of the differences between their lifestyle and say Rush or UIC? And yes, I'm essentially referring to a work/life balance.

 

[Merovinge]

Thanks for your help. Any idea of the differences between their lifestyle and say Rush or UIC? And yes, I'm essentially referring to a work/life balance.

In no universe is UofC going to be worse than those two programs so if your concern is working too hard, I'm not sure what else can be said to you. The commute will suck quite a bit if you live somewhere nice, but raw hours working will be very supportive of your balance.

 

[ForeverAndEver88]

In no universe is UofC going to be worse than those two programs so if your concern is working too hard, I'm not sure what else can be said to you. The commute will suck quite a bit if you live somewhere nice, but raw hours working will be very supportive of your balance.

Sorry, some of the questions I'm asking aren't necessarily just for me, but for friends of mine, as well. One friend really liked her interview at UofC, but she has kids and is trying to find the best balance for life. Ingalls is an unknown right now, and she's wondering what life will be like there. I told her that it likely can't be worse than Evanston (8 to 4 or 5 pm), but I can understand her wanting to get plenty of feedback. Obviously, it won't be as light as Lakeshore was, but still. For inpatient residency years, that's not too bad.

 

[Merovinge]

Sorry, some of the questions I'm asking aren't necessarily just for me, but for friends of mine, as well. One friend really liked her interview at UofC, but she has kids and is trying to find the best balance for life. Ingalls is an unknown right now, and she's wondering what life will be like there. I told her that it likely can't be worse than Evanston (8 to 4 or 5 pm), but I can understand her wanting to get plenty of feedback. Obviously, it won't be as light as Lakeshore was, but still. For inpatient residency years, that's not too bad.

Well no one knows the answer to that, its the price you pay for going to a program that could not sustain their own inpatient unit. They have good leadership and are working to stabilize the ship, but its been an embattled history for psychiatry at UofC. Regardless, UofC prides itself on education for its residents, you simply won't get run into the ground there if that's the fear. They haven't wavered on that through all the unsteady waters so if she liked the program the most and wants to be in Chicago she should rank it #1 and be secure in that.

 

[ForeverAndEver88]

Well no one knows the answer to that, its the price you pay for going to a program that could not sustain their own inpatient unit. They have good leadership and are working to stabilize the ship, but its been an embattled history for psychiatry at UofC. Regardless, UofC prides itself on education for its residents, you simply won't get run into the ground there if that's the fear. They haven't wavered on that through all the unsteady waters so if she liked the program the most and wants to be in Chicago she should rank it #1 and be secure in that.

Let me ask, how do the programs compare in terms of intern months when you're on medicine and E-med and such?

 

[GlassRose]

Let me ask, how do the programs compare in terms of intern months when you're on medicine and E-med and such?

Medicine is medicine anywhere you go. If you don't like medicine, doing inpatient medicine will be rough no matter what. There are slight differences in each program in terms of how they break down their 4 months of medicine, though. For example,UChicago has you do 2 months inpatient medicine at the main hospital, one month of consult medicine, and one month emergency medicine (you can sub two months of inpatient peds for these months, although I've heard it's intense). I believe residents said they enjoyed their ED month and that consult medicine is very chill. For what it's worth, I'd say many of the UChicago residents seemed more "Type A"/intellectual/driven (whatever you want to call it) than other programs I've been to, so they did not shy away from wanting to work very hard on their off-service months. Medicine at UChicago is highly regarded and you will certainly see and learn a lot.

As I said to you before, don't pick your psych residency based on off-service rotations. Anyone can survive 4 crappy months of medicine and 2 of neuro as long as you know that it will be made up for once your back with your people on psych. Pick the psych program you like best and you will figure out how to make it through the 6 off-service months. Best of luck!

*Edit: I believe UChicago also has protected didactics for when you are off-service too. So you will still go to psych didactics when you are on medicine and neuro.

 

[Merovinge]

Medicine is medicine anywhere you go. If you don't like medicine, doing inpatient medicine will be rough no matter what. There are slight differences in each program in terms of how they break down their 4 months of medicine, though. For example,UChicago has you do 2 months inpatient medicine at the main hospital, one month of consult medicine, and one month emergency medicine (you can sub two months of inpatient peds for these months, although I've heard it's intense). I believe residents said they enjoyed their ED month and that consult medicine is very chill. For what it's worth, I'd say many of the UChicago residents seemed more "Type A"/intellectual/driven (whatever you want to call it) than other programs I've been to, so they did not shy away from wanting to work very hard on their off-service months. Medicine at UChicago is highly regarded and you will certainly see and learn a lot..

That's basically exactly the same as UIC. 2 inpatient, 1 ED, 1 outpatient is the UIC breakdown, it's pretty standard really.