- Joined
- Nov 30, 2009
- Messages
- 4,300
- Reaction score
- 9,768
Here are some (not necessary but encouraged) ways to enrich your medical school experience and make yourself more competitive for psychiatry residency. Moreover, these experiences can help position you to more successfully carve out your chosen career path. Ultimately however, board scores, medical school of origin, clerkship grades, and letters of recommendation matter above all else.
1. Get a mentor. this could be someone at your medical school or elsewhere. psychiatrists are often very approachable and there would be nothing wrong with emailing someone and asking them to be your mentor especially if they practice in an area you are interested in (for example child, psychoanalysis, addictions, mood disorders etc). The worst they could do is not reply. It is better not to go for someone well know as they are less likely to have time for you. Even having a resident mentor may be helpful. They can guide you through the process and create opportunities for you to get involved in all sorts of projects etc. mentoring does not require you to meet, you can email, talk on the telephone and so on. It does help to have met the person first (say at a conference) but is no means essentially. I have psychiatrist mentors who are all over the country.
2. Consider applying for one of the highly coveted fellowships - Doris Duke
Howard Hughes, Albert Schweitzer
Fogarty etc
3. consider doing one of the summer programs for medstudents, such as Howard, VCU, MUSC, UCSD, AACAP, IU
4. get involved in PsychSIGN particularly in leadership positions. This will give you some administrative, leadership experience, interface with organized psychiatry, create networking opportunities, and develop a platform for further involvement later on in your career.
5. Minority medical students can apply for the APA Minority Medical Student programs, which allow you to attend the APA meeting, IPS meeting, or do an HIV elective or addiction psychiatry elective as an MS4. Some programs such as UW also have scholarships for minority applicants to do away rotations including an additional program of activities
6. get involved with patient/family organizations. at a national level these are often very politicized and heavily influenced by drug companies but the local chapters often do great work and programs. Volunteering is a great thing to do but if you are able to be involved in a more substantial way (such as getting onto the board of directors etc) then that would give you a great experience and look very favorable. NAMI is probably the most well known, but there are many other organizations such as ADAA, DBSA, autism speaks, Alzheimer's association, and so on...
7. ...you could even create your own charity or 501c with a specific remit. beware of duplicating or creating something for the sake of it without having clear drive or mission
8. consider writing letters to the editor or Op-Eds in your local paper. The NYT is probably not interested in what you have to say (though you never know...), WA post is a little easier, but your local rag is more likely to publish your thoughts on a matter, especially if it ties in with something currently in the news.
9. Consider blogging or contributing to online news sites - such as HuffPo, Slate, Vox, Salon
10. for those interested in child, if you go to the following medschools you can apply to the Klingenstein Medical Student Program
11. consider public engagement work such as providing education to specific communities related to mental health topics, or setting up a mental health free clinic staffed by medical students etc. The American Psychiatric Foundation provides funding for med students to get involved in such projects
12. You don't have to be a researcher to publish something. There are some low brow rags like the AJP Resident's journal, or Current Psychiatry. Most articles aren't necessarily original research. A letter to the Editor is a pretty straightforward place to start. You could also write a perspectives piece, a review article, or a brief report type article. Academic Psychiatry is fairly easy to get published in and is interested in issues related to education in the field. Other medical student education journals may also be interested in your viewpoints. For the more ambitious, JAMA and NEJM both publish perspective pieces and will publish medical student written pieces occassionally. Lancet Psychiatry will accept essay pieces, and also things like book, movie, exhibition reviews related to psychiatry. The Journal of Palliative Medicine likes stories of your own experiences caring for a dying patient. The good thing about letters to the editor is they get published quickly! Case reports are also nice straightforward (potentially anyway!) articles to write if you see something interesting on your rotations. It is actually harder to do a psych case report than other types.
For review articles you are better off asking your mentor or faculty if they are looking for someone to write an article with them. Often people will be asked to contribute an invited review or book chapter that they don't have time for and are looking for an eager med student to help them out!
13. Posters are really easy to get accepted to meetings. I am convinced that larger meetings (such as the APA) will accept any detritus. Although I don't want to contribute to bad abstracts, you could potentially do a small project. It doesn't have to be original research. It could be showcasing a new educational technique, a review of literature on a topic, a case report, a process piece, for example related to a free clinic etc. There are often grants for med students to present work at conferences too or awards for the best student poster etc. The IPS meeting and APA meeting (both free for med students) or AACAP, AAAP and so on would be good places to start.
14. If you are technologically savvy consider creating mental health related apps, or setting up your own start up. medical students have already created EMRs, CBT apps etc and have gone onto psychiatry residencies where they continue this interest. if you are particularly skilled (at writing code etc) you may carve out a niche in reviewing other people's app or consulting on the development of such projects.
15. if you are interested in education, you can create some useful resources for medical students in psychiatry. these could be podcasts, a website, narrated slides, questions to test knowledge, an app etc etc.
16. those interested in policy could get involved as a policy adviser related to health care reform or mental health working for a senator or even a presidential candidate. this will likely take you out of school, but atul gawande is one example of someone who did this (worked on the ultimately thwarted clinton health reform) and a number of psychiatry residents who matched into top programs did a similar thing as med students or before.
17. taking additional time to do research is only advisable if you are interested in pursuing research. a PhD usually does make people more desirable even if they aren't interested in research (but they still need to be vaguely interpersonally proficient). doing additional degrees such as MPH, MHA, MBA, MPP and so on are unlikely in themselves to make you more competitive, though they make help you develop a skillset that may come in handy later in your career. There are often fellowships/scholarships available that fully fund students to do some of these degrees though they are highly competitive. What you do with that time (for example working on projects that make a difference such as policy, publishing decent research, starting up a social enterprise and so, will obviously reflect more favorably).
psychiatry is still not competitive though there is a minority of highly competitive applicants and i do think it would be good for the field if students upped their game a little.
p.s. i am always looking for students to help me out on any number of projects, so please inquire within 🙂
1. Get a mentor. this could be someone at your medical school or elsewhere. psychiatrists are often very approachable and there would be nothing wrong with emailing someone and asking them to be your mentor especially if they practice in an area you are interested in (for example child, psychoanalysis, addictions, mood disorders etc). The worst they could do is not reply. It is better not to go for someone well know as they are less likely to have time for you. Even having a resident mentor may be helpful. They can guide you through the process and create opportunities for you to get involved in all sorts of projects etc. mentoring does not require you to meet, you can email, talk on the telephone and so on. It does help to have met the person first (say at a conference) but is no means essentially. I have psychiatrist mentors who are all over the country.
2. Consider applying for one of the highly coveted fellowships - Doris Duke
Howard Hughes, Albert Schweitzer
Fogarty etc
3. consider doing one of the summer programs for medstudents, such as Howard, VCU, MUSC, UCSD, AACAP, IU
4. get involved in PsychSIGN particularly in leadership positions. This will give you some administrative, leadership experience, interface with organized psychiatry, create networking opportunities, and develop a platform for further involvement later on in your career.
5. Minority medical students can apply for the APA Minority Medical Student programs, which allow you to attend the APA meeting, IPS meeting, or do an HIV elective or addiction psychiatry elective as an MS4. Some programs such as UW also have scholarships for minority applicants to do away rotations including an additional program of activities
6. get involved with patient/family organizations. at a national level these are often very politicized and heavily influenced by drug companies but the local chapters often do great work and programs. Volunteering is a great thing to do but if you are able to be involved in a more substantial way (such as getting onto the board of directors etc) then that would give you a great experience and look very favorable. NAMI is probably the most well known, but there are many other organizations such as ADAA, DBSA, autism speaks, Alzheimer's association, and so on...
7. ...you could even create your own charity or 501c with a specific remit. beware of duplicating or creating something for the sake of it without having clear drive or mission
8. consider writing letters to the editor or Op-Eds in your local paper. The NYT is probably not interested in what you have to say (though you never know...), WA post is a little easier, but your local rag is more likely to publish your thoughts on a matter, especially if it ties in with something currently in the news.
9. Consider blogging or contributing to online news sites - such as HuffPo, Slate, Vox, Salon
10. for those interested in child, if you go to the following medschools you can apply to the Klingenstein Medical Student Program
11. consider public engagement work such as providing education to specific communities related to mental health topics, or setting up a mental health free clinic staffed by medical students etc. The American Psychiatric Foundation provides funding for med students to get involved in such projects
12. You don't have to be a researcher to publish something. There are some low brow rags like the AJP Resident's journal, or Current Psychiatry. Most articles aren't necessarily original research. A letter to the Editor is a pretty straightforward place to start. You could also write a perspectives piece, a review article, or a brief report type article. Academic Psychiatry is fairly easy to get published in and is interested in issues related to education in the field. Other medical student education journals may also be interested in your viewpoints. For the more ambitious, JAMA and NEJM both publish perspective pieces and will publish medical student written pieces occassionally. Lancet Psychiatry will accept essay pieces, and also things like book, movie, exhibition reviews related to psychiatry. The Journal of Palliative Medicine likes stories of your own experiences caring for a dying patient. The good thing about letters to the editor is they get published quickly! Case reports are also nice straightforward (potentially anyway!) articles to write if you see something interesting on your rotations. It is actually harder to do a psych case report than other types.
For review articles you are better off asking your mentor or faculty if they are looking for someone to write an article with them. Often people will be asked to contribute an invited review or book chapter that they don't have time for and are looking for an eager med student to help them out!
13. Posters are really easy to get accepted to meetings. I am convinced that larger meetings (such as the APA) will accept any detritus. Although I don't want to contribute to bad abstracts, you could potentially do a small project. It doesn't have to be original research. It could be showcasing a new educational technique, a review of literature on a topic, a case report, a process piece, for example related to a free clinic etc. There are often grants for med students to present work at conferences too or awards for the best student poster etc. The IPS meeting and APA meeting (both free for med students) or AACAP, AAAP and so on would be good places to start.
14. If you are technologically savvy consider creating mental health related apps, or setting up your own start up. medical students have already created EMRs, CBT apps etc and have gone onto psychiatry residencies where they continue this interest. if you are particularly skilled (at writing code etc) you may carve out a niche in reviewing other people's app or consulting on the development of such projects.
15. if you are interested in education, you can create some useful resources for medical students in psychiatry. these could be podcasts, a website, narrated slides, questions to test knowledge, an app etc etc.
16. those interested in policy could get involved as a policy adviser related to health care reform or mental health working for a senator or even a presidential candidate. this will likely take you out of school, but atul gawande is one example of someone who did this (worked on the ultimately thwarted clinton health reform) and a number of psychiatry residents who matched into top programs did a similar thing as med students or before.
17. taking additional time to do research is only advisable if you are interested in pursuing research. a PhD usually does make people more desirable even if they aren't interested in research (but they still need to be vaguely interpersonally proficient). doing additional degrees such as MPH, MHA, MBA, MPP and so on are unlikely in themselves to make you more competitive, though they make help you develop a skillset that may come in handy later in your career. There are often fellowships/scholarships available that fully fund students to do some of these degrees though they are highly competitive. What you do with that time (for example working on projects that make a difference such as policy, publishing decent research, starting up a social enterprise and so, will obviously reflect more favorably).
psychiatry is still not competitive though there is a minority of highly competitive applicants and i do think it would be good for the field if students upped their game a little.
p.s. i am always looking for students to help me out on any number of projects, so please inquire within 🙂
Last edited:
