Incoming MS1 Interested in Child/Adolescent Psych

[DrRedstone]

Hello all, I am getting ready to start my first year of medical school and I am very interested in psychiatry. I am finishing up my M.S. in Psychology. I started it as a Clinical Psychology program, so I have learned the basics of psychotherapy, intellectual assessment, as well as psychopathology and basic psychopharm. I ended up changing to general psych when I found I was getting into medical school so I could take the degree. What are some things that I can do early on in medical school to make myself a competitive psych applicant?

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[Stagg737]

Hello all, I am getting ready to start my first year of medical school and I am very interested in psychiatry. I am finishing up my M.S. in Psychology. I started it as a Clinical Psychology program, so I have learned the basics of psychotherapy, intellectual assessment, as well as psychopathology and basic psychopharm. I ended up changing to general psych when I found I was getting into medical school so I could take the degree. What are some things that I can do early on in medical school to make myself a competitive psych applicant?

Psych research/volunteering and any involvement in programs that show you're committed to the field will help. First two years you should mainly be focusing on doing well in class and preparing yourself for boards, but showing early commitment to the field won't hurt either. Residents and attendings can give you more specific examples of things they'd look at as major positives.

 

[Blitz2006]

Hello all, I am getting ready to start my first year of medical school and I am very interested in psychiatry. I am finishing up my M.S. in Psychology. I started it as a Clinical Psychology program, so I have learned the basics of psychotherapy, intellectual assessment, as well as psychopathology and basic psychopharm. I ended up changing to general psych when I found I was getting into medical school so I could take the degree. What are some things that I can do early on in medical school to make myself a competitive psych applicant?

Smoke your Step 1.
Aim for Honors on Psych Rotation (MS3)
Smoke your Step 1.
Volunteer with Child Psych Organizations, perhaps help out with autistic children? But general psych volunteer work will help too, since your goal now is to get into a strong general adult psych residency.
Smoke your Step 1.
Get involved with research early on, email Psych attendings/residents in your medical school.
Did I mention to do well on Step 1?

Kudos to thinking about this super early, planning is always a big measure of success. Good luck!

 

[scruffy821]

Agreed with what everyone else said, the only thing I'd add is that if you're very interested in child psych, definitely consider applying for one of AACAP's medical student summer research fellowships. They're awesome, AACAP basically funds you to do summer research and/or clinical work with any child psychiatrist of your choosing, and you get funded to go present your work at the national meeting during your M2 year! Applications are usually due around February, so I'd try finding yourself a child psychiatrist mentor to work with by November of M1.

 

[DrRedstone]

@scruffy821 Thanks for the info, I'll definitely look into that!

 

[hamstergang]

This doesn't directly answer your question but I think it's still useful. You likely won't get any real exposure to child psych in med school, so you'll have to use elective time and free time to work with the C&A department. Also, for me it was valuable spending some time with related fields, such as peds neuro and developmental pediatrics, to make sure I was making the right choice.

 

[ExcaliburPrime1]

Although getting into psychiatry is becoming a little harder, it's still one of the easier residencies to get into. Do decently in your classes, do well in Step 1 (just so you have more choices in where to go, as long as you'll pass you'll get in somewhere most likely), and try to get a little child psych experience in med school, just because not everyone gets that and it can give you a better idea of what kind of psychiatry you may want to do (thought admittedly a couple of weeks doing something as a medical student is not the best indicator.)

Oh, and keep an open mind since you're just about to start medical school. Although I think psychiatry is the best, you may find that you'll like something else, and that's cool too.

 

[milesed]

I got involved in research by doing a developmental peds rotation during the first month of my fourth year of med school. Adding that to my application was very impressive to those I met as I interviewed, gave us something more to discuss besides the regular questions and felt like it gave me a membership to a secret club or researchers. It was kind of strange because the project was just getting started and I never got any actual credit for my very small role.

I think your M.S. in Psychology is huge. Let all psyc attendings you work with know about your interests, ask about any extra exposure you can get while on that rotation- groups at night, co-leading groups on inpatient units, working with NAMI, etc.

 

[Merovinge]

Keep your eye on the prize the first two years. It will likely be a slog but it is very worth it. CAP is a tremendously rewarding field and the people in at are some of the most humble, caring, and "normal" in any area of medicine from my experience. Starting in second year, structure the whole year around step 1. Every organ system should be studied with your school's materials but also step 1 questions banks (USMLE world, Kaplan, etc).

3rd year rotations show up early, stay late, and talk to patients a lot. Help out your residents/attendings whenever possible, their schedule is worse than yours in most cases.

4th year, definitely do the other peds areas as above. Developmental peds and peds neuro are great, one of the best would be peds child abuse. The majority of our patients come from traumatic backgrounds and it is good to see the reality of that first hand.

Reaching out to mentors is also a great way to go, they can provide prospective that can be tough to think about when you are stuck studying all day.

 

[grapefruit17]

also, when you're a third year, give your psych rotation eval to someone who cares, and doesn't just check "pass" without writing anything on the eval. high yield advice

lesson learned lol

 

[postbacpremed87]

also, when you're a third year, give your psych rotation eval to someone who cares, and doesn't just check "pass" without writing anything on the eval. high yield advice

lesson learned lol

Destroyed shelf but this happened to me...such BS. I'm sure wise PD see through this though so I'm not worried.

 

[Candidate2017]

also, when you're a third year, give your psych rotation eval to someone who cares, and doesn't just check "pass" without writing anything on the eval. high yield advice

lesson learned lol

I told my psych evaluator I would appreciate receiving a high pass since I was applying to psychiatry lol.