You have a few things against you.
1) You went to the Carrib for med school. Huge mistake. I know you can't change that now, but when you say you don't know what went wrong, I feel inclined to point that out. Psych IS competitive and don't believe anyone who tells you it isn't. Carrib grads get spots, sure, but it isn't at all a sure thing. Did you go to one of the big 4? If not, it's even less likely.
2) You graduated in October 2020. Why? What have you been doing since October? The assumption is that if you graduated in October, you stopped doing clinical work in October. Hopefully that isn't true. But why are you off-cycle? Is your school set up that way and if not, why didn't you graduate in May 2020 or May 2021 like most med students?
3) You ranked 7 programs. Did you interview at only 7? Most people are ranking at least 10 for psychiatry these days.
4) Letters are good, but were these from in-person rotations you did at these places? That matters too.
5) Are you a US citizen? That also matters.
6) How do you know your PS is solid?
7) Every single year we hear that it's the most competitive year ever. And it might be true, but it also means that next year will be "the most competitive year ever" so more competitive than this year. Keep that in mind.
8) If you're a US citizen, I would try like hell to use your connections to get some sort of clinical experience throughout this year. Don't stop working. Do medicine and psych rotations. Collect updated letters. Apply to as many programs as you can afford to. I would apply psych and prelim/transitional spots. Show your PS to no less than 10-20 people. Don't take "solid" as feedback. That isn't feedback. Make them tell you what they liked and didn't like. Does it clearly tell them why you like psychiatry and why you'd be a great psychiatrist?
Sorry to hijack your thread OP but I had a question myself.
I'm a Caribbean US student currently. I started medical school off-cycle during a spring semester. Just finished my third year of rotations. I am considered off-track as I took an additional 5 months off to pass my STEP 1. And then in the middle of my third year I found a research opportunity where I took another 3 months off. So I took a total of 8 months off. My plan was to bang out the last couple of months of electives I have left so I can finish school by October.
Do you suggest I stretch out my rotations so I can finish after next March? That would be mean I take the minimum amount of clinical rotations in a semester to stretch out my fourth year. My original plan was to wrap up school by October and then continue working part time with a local psychiatrist by home while also obtaining some clinical research experience.
My stats are as follows:
Step 1 232
Step 2CK 254
No failed classes/exams
Bottom of class rank in pre-clinicals
4th quartile in clinicals
Honors in all rotations besides my third year surgery and psych rotations and a cardio elective I took in the COVID downtime. I received a Pass in these rotations.
ECs:
2 peer-reviewed publications (not first author) in a non-psych field.
1 poster (didn't present) in a non-psych field.
2 psych publications that will be published (hopefully) by September in a peer-reviewed journal.
1 leadership role.
1 work experience and several volunteer opportunities.
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I understand the Pass in my psych rotation is not impressive at all, but I failed to impress one attending but was able to obtain strong letters from the other two attendings I worked with. The game plan was to complete a sub-i, and a CL elective to see if I can obtain stronger letters and show my devotion to the specialty. And then complete a sub-i in internal med afterwards and take the required electives by my school to wrap up my education.
And I know taking 8 months of off time during my medical school career is only a detriment for me. I was not anywhere near passing range for my step 1, even after 6 weeks of dedicated. I needed that time to at least score average there.
Now I'm worried if graduating off-cycle will make me look even worse.
I would greatly appreciate your critique on my plan.
