M3 discovering interest in psych

[OGLoc23]

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Hey all,

I recently completed my psychiatry rotation and had a great experience - I now want to pursue it in residency. However, I don't have anything in the way of activities related to psych - no EC's, volunteering, research, or otherwise. I suppose I have around 5 months before ERAS in the fall; should I make an effort to get involved in all these activities before then?

I do plan on getting more involved in psychiatry through my coursework. For M4 electives I plan on taking a psych sub-I, inpatient C&A psych, and addiction. Should I take more electives? I also haven't taken neuro - should I try to squeeze this in before ERAS?

For some insight - I'm at an American MD school. Honored the psych rotation, rest of the core rotations are all HP except 2 P's. I took step 1 recently, don't yet have my score.

 

[psychacad]

Performance in medical school, particularly clinical rotations and psychiatry clerkship, is more important than any "activity".

Many of us figured out we wanted psych only after doing actual clinical work. So chill, do what you enjoy. You can add some resume-padding stuff if you want, but they won't make or break your application.

 

[rjs2131]

Hey all,

I recently completed my psychiatry rotation and had a great experience - I now want to pursue it in residency. However, I don't have anything in the way of activities related to psych - no EC's, volunteering, research, or otherwise. I suppose I have around 5 months before ERAS in the fall; should I make an effort to get involved in all these activities before then?

I do plan on getting more involved in psychiatry through my coursework. For M4 electives I plan on taking a psych sub-I, inpatient C&A psych, and addiction. Should I take more electives? I also haven't taken neuro - should I try to squeeze this in before ERAS?

For some insight - I'm at an American MD school. Honored the psych rotation, rest of the core rotations are all HP except 2 P's. I took step 1 recently, don't yet have my score.

I was in a similar situation - didn't decide on psych until mid-late MS3. I actually had planned on PM&R and done some research related to this earlier in med school.

I wouldn't go overboard on adding a bunch of new psych-related activities in the next 5 months, but if there are 1-2 that are you genuinely interested in that's great. When you apply/interview, most places just want to see that you're genuinely interested in psychiatry and in my experience, speaking to how you came to that decision (even if it was relatively recently) can go a long way.

Being a US MD with decent grades/scores will help you - seems like psychiatry has gotten more competitive in the last 5-10 years but I still think with the info you've provided, you've got a solid shot of matching at a good program without having long-term psych-related activities/research.

Good luck!

 

[Stagg737]

Hey all,

I recently completed my psychiatry rotation and had a great experience - I now want to pursue it in residency. However, I don't have anything in the way of activities related to psych - no EC's, volunteering, research, or otherwise. I suppose I have around 5 months before ERAS in the fall; should I make an effort to get involved in all these activities before then?

I do plan on getting more involved in psychiatry through my coursework. For M4 electives I plan on taking a psych sub-I, inpatient C&A psych, and addiction. Should I take more electives? I also haven't taken neuro - should I try to squeeze this in before ERAS?

For some insight - I'm at an American MD school. Honored the psych rotation, rest of the core rotations are all HP except 2 P's. I took step 1 recently, don't yet have my score.

I had a similar path as rjs above. Entered med school 99% sure I'd never do psych. Interest started with ortho --> Sports Med (PM&R or EM) --> Psych. Didn't fully decide on psych until Feb/March of M3. I'm a DO with worse stats than you and no Step scores and I had no problems getting interviews 3-4 years ago (competitiveness hasn't change that much since then). Keep doing well with rotations and try and gain strong LORs and that will likely go farther than most activities started now.

3 electives in psych sounds good if they're earlier in the year. I'd also do at least 1 neuro elective as there's a fair amount of crossover and I had a head start in some areas in residency because of my rotations (particularly with treating sleep issues). Keep in mind though, that this is really your last time to do rotations outside of psych that you find interesting. I did PM&R and ID rotations during my 4th year which I really enjoyed. 4th year can be rough enough with the match process, make sure to take some time to enjoy your education and get interesting and unique experiences while the opportunities are there.

 

[Freddie Mercury]

I have the same story as everyone above! Wasn't thinking about psych until my clerkship in MS3, which was in the latter half of the year. Enjoyed it quite a bit, went back and forth for a few months, and finally committed to psych near the end of MS3. I only did one Psych elective in MS4. It was in the beginning of the year. I did not have any psych extracurriculars, clubs, research, etc. Your electives lined up so far seem great. Definitely don't need neuro before applying. I don't think I ever noticed that when I reviewed applications.

I agree with all of the above replies. Try to get some strong letters of rec, including at least one from a non psych specialty. Also, as you go through your other non-psych clinical electives at the end of MS3 and starting MS4, try to think about the psychiatric issues the patients are going through, which will provide useful material for your personal statement and especially interview season. If you're interested in a geographic area, try to do some Sub-Is (either psych or non-psych) in that area which may help prove your ties, but this is less important than the above IMO. Good luck!

 

[OGLoc23]

I got my step 1 score back - it's in the 210-220 range. I'm happy with it, not looking for any program that's too competitive - I'm hoping to stay in the Midwest. Should I take step 2 this summer before submitting ERAS? I'm told that my step 1 score is fine, but to consider taking step 2 earlier if I can do better.

 

[kopftonmd]

I think the key is determining if you're likely to do better (or at least the same) on 2CK. If you can and you won't have an organizational crisis, why not get it done before ERAS goes out?

That said, it seems like people don't often know with much predictive power until they're deep into dedicated... then it's too late.