Hi I have PGY-1 year of preliminary surgery under my belt, and am contemplating appyling for a psych residency, but my only experiene is my third year rotation from my (US) medical school. For those who have switched from other specialities, do you require letters of recommendation from psychiatrists to apply (or will any specialty do), and how did you end up crafting your personal statement?
For those who switched into psych
- Thread starter otobrit
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You should get a letter from a psychiatrist. I called up the attending on my third year rotation and he was happy to write me a letter. I thought that if I couldn't get him to do it, the person in charge of the clerkship at my medschool probably could have done it too. I think I used letters from my original application which my school had on file and then the letter from my internship (in ob/gyn). As for the personal statement, I just talked about why I was switching into psych. Pretty straightforward. And sort of easier than during med school because you have a better idea of what medical practice might actually be like.
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You should get a letter from a psychiatrist from your medical school days. You will also need to have a letter from your surgery PD. Your PD should address how you are doing currently and why you are leaving the program. Your personal statement should address how you came to a decision about switching into psych. Most likely you would enter as a PGY1 for psych since you probably would not have had 4 months of internal medicine, peds, family medicine. You can check out the specifics on the ACGME website.
