how competitive are psych residencies anyway?

[silas2642]

I know that some residencies are crazy competitive like derm and opthamology, but I wanted to know how hard it is to obtain a good psych residency?

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[deuist]

How good is "good?" I imagine that places like Mt. Sinai might be very difficult, but overall, psych is a pretty easy specialty to match into---like peds and internal med.

 

[atsai3]

I know that some residencies are crazy competitive like derm and opthamology, but I wanted to know how hard it is to obtain a good psych residency?

At the moment, it's pretty much a buyer's market, i.e., few competitive applicants relative to the supply of residency positions. I think another poster on this board said it best -- if you've got stable vital signs and no felony convictions, you will do just fine in the match.

OTOH, I have been hearing that it has become a little more competitive in recent years, especially with the dramatic expansion of interest in child psych and more people noticing that psych can be a pretty decent specialty lifestyle-wise. So in another few years, who knows. Policymakers do an extremely poor job of predicting interest in the different specialties (for manpower forecasting and what not), and students are just about as bad, because of the huge lag time. Remember, it was just a few years ago when nobody was going into anesthesia, and now it's just crazy.

-AT.

 

[certified]

I believe the odds are generally good, because many physicians are scared of mentally ill patients. Being cursed out with the possibility of violence by your schizoid and manic inpatients, and not take it personal, is an acquired talent.

 

[Poety]

I can also add that it does go in waves - so there may be a lag in some specialties for a while, and then BOOM, and then another lag - and another boom, this has been going on for a while if you look back at the numbers of applicants for specialties over the past 40 years.

I definitely have seen some really competitive applicants this year - and I've seen a move away from "any score is ok."

I'm sure you'll be fine though, and if you pick the right residency - I'm sure the whole "vital signs" comment would definitely hold true

 

[mosche]

I would add that, from what I've seen thus far, Psych. programs tend to emphasize interpersonal skill more than numbers. While top numbers may get you an interview at the uber-universities, an inability to communicate will be a death blow! On the other hand, someone with mediocre numbers can land a top residency because the have an intrinsic ability to communicate.

 

[ARealist2]

I'm a MS 3, and I just found out that I failed my IM clinical rotation. I'm still not really sure what happened...why I failed? But I'm interested in doing psych, is there still a chance that I can match into psych next year with a failure on my transcript? I'm a U.S. student and I have a good step I score. Thanks ahead of time for any input.

 

[Anasazi23]

You must have some idea why you failed the rotation.

Nobody gave any negative feedback at all?

 

[ARealist2]

You must have some idea why you failed the rotation.

Nobody gave any negative feedback at all?

I was told that I didn't do well on the shelf exam....got below a 65. I asked if I could see the exam or the questions I got wrong and the dep. director said no. I aksed if I could appeal my grade, and he said I could appeal but no one has ever been successful at that, and that there really isn't an avenue for appeal, because I didn't bubble in enough correct answers.