Is a psych elective even necessary + can I schedule Med Sub I Spring of MS-IV?

[Zipper530]

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Hello,

I am considering applying into Psych next year and am trying to plan my 4th year schedule.

2 questions:
1. I heard that in order to apply into Psych it is not necessary to do even one Psychiatry elective or sub-I as a 4th year. Is this true? Is this looked down upon? I have to fit a lot into 4th year (a deferred clerkship, research, and electives that I won't get exposure to in Psych residency) and it would make my planning much easier.

2. In regards to a Medicine-Sub I. Should I do the Sub I before I apply for residency, or can I do it in the Spring of my 4th year? Do the residency's care when? ie. do they want to see your grade?

Thank you very much for your time/wisdom!

 

[britelite]

You might want to consider doing at least one Psych elective in 4th year. I had more than one person ask me during an interview what Psych electives I had taken so far. Granted, I didn't do a formal Psych sub-I. I took a Child and Adolescent elective and a CL one. I also think they will give you more exposure and help to solidify your interest in the field. I don't think it's a necessity to have completed your Medicine sub-I. I started mine halfway through the interview season and it was never brought up as an issue. Hope this helps! 🙂

 

[masterofmonkeys]

I didn't do one and I don't think it hurt me. I am interested in c/l and c&A (and c/l within c&a), so my rationale was that I basically had one year to experience formally what being a member of a primary team in the issues i'm interested in was like. So I focused on the areas of my interest within c/l, with cardiac critical care, peds hem/onc, neurorads, and other stuff. I did do some psych electives, including research, forensics, and neuropsychology, though.

Interviewers seemed to understand my logic, and it probably helped that I became interested in psych long before my third year of medical school. That said, I have no idea if it hurt me or not.

 

[2tall]

1. I heard that in order to apply into Psych it is not necessary to do even one Psychiatry elective or sub-I as a 4th year. Is this true? Is this looked down upon? I have to fit a lot into 4th year (a deferred clerkship, research, and electives that I won't get exposure to in Psych residency) and it would make my planning much easier.

Yes, it's true. Your schedule is really up to you. Your interest in psych is important. As long as you're able to adequately get that across, I don't think anyone would look down upon it. Remember interview season starts in September...

Initially, I had intended to do electives in everything other than psych. I wanted to see other aspects of medicine. As this year progressed though I started to get "homesick." There's nothing like being where you want to be; there's a reason you make this choice. It's hard to be enthusiastic for a whole month in a radiology reading room. In the end, my schedule includes 2 mos of psych.

Again, it's up to you. It won't make or break your application/interview --> told to me by program directors.

2. In regards to a Medicine-Sub I. Should I do the Sub I before I apply for residency, or can I do it in the Spring of my 4th year? Do the residency's care when? ie. do they want to see your grade?

Thank you very much for your time/wisdom!

No one sees your fourth-year grades, just basic sciences and third-year. You might want to do the Sub-I prior to taking CK if you think it'll help you prepare.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

If you do your sub-I early enough, you can choose to send a later version of your transcript that includes fourth year grades to that point. This is done more commonly for highly competitive fields or programs.

If you want to 'erase' a bad medicine grade, or whatever, schedule your sub-I in july or august, and you can probably get it included in the transcript ERAS gets. If you do it by the end of december, you can still update your transcript in time for residency selection committees to see.

 

[CaMD]

When scheduling your medicine sub-I, also remember that by the spring of 4th year you may have zero motivation and be happy to sit around in a radiology reading room all day. 😉

Not that I speak from experience...

 

[chameleonknight]

I did a psych elective early in 4th year for two reasons:

1) I wasn't 100% decided

2) I didn't have any letters from psych attendings.



And of course, if there's some place you really want to go, doing an away elective there might be a good idea.

 

[dianamd]

I wanted exposure to psych and so did 2.5 months of psych in my fourth year -- all at the beginning -- one month inpatient, 1.5 month inpatient/outpatient mixed.

It was helpful to have more to talk about when we were on the subject of psych, but the interviews are all over the place, and I don't think it made any difference in terms of whether people would rank me high or not.

I am all for a late sub-i -- I am doing mine in March and it never came up. Wish I had it out of the way, though...