Hi there;
I'm an MS2 at Upstate interested in psychiatry; I've been bothering various faculty members at the department with my unbridled, nerdy enthusiasm for almost 2 years now, including a summer "fellowship" for med students in consult liaison psychiatry.
I've found the department to be a genuinely warm, kind-hearted group of people who not only care very deeply about the mental health population in Syracuse, but also their students/residents. The attendings I've met are quite friendly--almost without exception--and down to earth, too.
From what I know about the residency program (talking with residents, etc.), they focus a lot of the education of their residents in whatever "track" they want to pursue--psychopharm, psychoanalysis/various therapy modalities, addiction, etc, etc. There are lots of morning lectures/grand rounds and from what I observed in C-L and on the inpatient floors, the lectures really seem to be protected resident time (i.e., the attendings will take over floor duties for you right away and not give it a second thought when you have other resident duties to perform).
So all in all, I know that most of the residents are very happy here in the psych program. Oh--also, excitingly (for ppl in psych), the Dept. of Psychiatry at upstate is the highest funded department in terms of research dollars this year, beating out even the clinical medicine departments (this is probably because of the protracted nature of some of the studies, by design requiring multiple patient visits and lots of staff to analyze data, but still.) 😉 There is a lot of research happening, but at the same time, the faculty wants its residents to want to get involved and be excited about it--they offer a lot of options.
They also offer an MPA degree with the psych training through the Syracuse University "Maxwell School of Citizenship", which is apparently the best school in the US for public administration (to help psych residents prepare for running mental health/social services on a larger scale, or consulting in the admin of such programs).
I guess the downside of the residency would be that Syracuse is a far cry from the Southeast as far as weather. The city is small, and social services are not what they should be (surprise surprise), but practicing here isn't as frustrating as in NYC, I've heard, where the sheer volume of ppl in need of services is extremely overwhelming. In general, there are some great teams of social workers in Syracuse (masters and BA level) who really want to see the down-and-out locals do better. So it can be very rewarding, too, in a lot of ways, to help direct the social services or consult with these teams to do the right thing for the patients.
Hope that's of some help to you.
Oh yeah, BTW--my wife and I are thinking about staying in this area (we're from New England) because the housing market is awesome (lots of house for less money than Boston, NY--not sure how it compares to the South though), and the school systems in the nicer suburbs are pretty great too. It's a nice place for professionals to settle down because the cost of living is fairly low--so you can save more money, do some traveling, etc. There are tons of outdoor activities in the Finger Lakes region or the Adirondack Mnts, too. The downside is.... it SNOWS... A LOT, usually (though the past 2 winters have been mild). And it's far away from major cities and we miss Boston terribly (though you probably wouldn't).
Anyway, hope that helps. Good luck!
