Match Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Members don't see this ad.
Mass Effect said:
I saw the phrase. That's why I made my comment. What's your point?
Click to expand...

You were saying (through your obnoxious sarcasm) that people aren’t discussing psych’s competitiveness *this week* because they are fixated on something else (i.e. if/where they matched). I was pointing out that people haven’t been discussing said subject *this year* (not just this week).
 
PsychApp777 said:
You were saying (through your obnoxious sarcasm) that people aren’t discussing psych’s competitiveness *this week* because they are fixated on something else (i.e. if/where they matched). I was pointing out that people haven’t been discussing said subject *this year* (not just this week).
Click to expand...

Uhhh. I'm not sure @Mass Effect was referring to an aspect of the Match as the thing occupying people's attention above all else right at this moment.
 
I matched dead last on my list at my number 11. I wasn’t a strong candidate at all: I had a low Step 1, struggled with third year rotations and mostly ended up with passes and/or meh comments on the dean’s letter, no psych related extracurriculars, no posters/presentations/published research and had to list volunteering/research activities from undergrad just to have something for ERAS. Add on to that I struggle with interviews, I realize I’m very lucky just to have a spot. However I can’t help feeling super down today comparing myself to my classmates after getting some positive feedback from programs higher on my list and knowing my family is pretty disappointed as well.

This did leave me wondering about post-interview communication. I didn’t send anything to any programs other than the one I matched at (I had a question and expressed my continued interest in the program in the same email). My interviews were at lower tier academic places and some new, community programs, most of which did provide individual emails after interviews. I wonder if I could have helped myself in this process by taking the time to express interest in some of the other community programs? Obviously it doesn’t matter now, but I wish I had done more to help myself in this process.
 
Pandy4993 said:
I matched dead last on my list at my number 11. I wasn’t a strong candidate at all: I had a low Step 1, struggled with third year rotations and mostly ended up with passes and/or meh comments on the dean’s letter, no psych related extracurriculars, no posters/presentations/published research and had to list volunteering/research activities from undergrad just to have something for ERAS. Add on to that I struggle with interviews, I realize I’m very lucky just to have a spot. However I can’t help feeling super down today comparing myself to my classmates after getting some positive feedback from programs higher on my list and knowing my family is pretty disappointed as well.

This did leave me wondering about post-interview communication. I didn’t send anything to any programs other than the one I matched at (I had a question and expressed my continued interest in the program in the same email). My interviews were at lower tier academic places and some new, community programs, most of which did provide individual emails after interviews. I wonder if I could have helped myself in this process by taking the time to express interest in some of the other community programs? Obviously it doesn’t matter now, but I wish I had done more to help myself in this process.
Click to expand...

Ranking is free. Expressing interest in lower end places can have utility for getting an interview slot because those are limited and they'd prefer not to give them to someone who has zero interest in actually being there. Once they've interviewed you, though, it negatively affects them not a whit to rank you as high as they please even if you don't rank them.

Sorry for your luck, you have every right to be disappointed.
 
Oedipa Maas said:
This now the second no red flag USMD I have heard of, though in the case I know of they did not have enough interviews (< 10) and slightly below average scores. Kind of disheartening that home programs don't rank their own students higher. They also received two generic/sent to everyone "you're great we would love to have you" letters from PDs so here is everyone's reminder to trust no one!
Click to expand...
PDs don't have any more control than you do. (Less actually.) There were lots of folks in the lower half of our list that were "No red flags, we'd love to have" kind of applicants. We told them that we'd be happy to have them because it was true. There were just people that we preferred a little bit more for various reasons, and they chose to rank us high enough that the Match gods put them with us.
I don't know how else to conduct this process except to be trustworthy and honest. I don't want anyone to match with us under false pretenses, and I really wouldn't want to have an applicant that lied to us to get their spot.
 
OldPsychDoc said:
PDs don't have any more control than you do. (Less actually.) There were lots of folks in the lower half of our list that were "No red flags, we'd love to have" kind of applicants. We told them that we'd be happy to have them because it was true. There were just people that we preferred a little bit more for various reasons, and they chose to rank us high enough that the Match gods put them with us.
I don't know how else to conduct this process except to be trustworthy and honest. I don't want anyone to match with us under false pretenses, and I really wouldn't want to have an applicant that lied to us to get their spot.
Click to expand...

You're right, "trust no one" wasn't the best way of phrasing it. What I guess I meant by that was that every year it seems like applicants put a lot of weight and stock into the communications they get from PDs even if they aren't being promised anything. And then they put stock into NOT receiving communications as well. The entire process feels very Catch 22. All I was trying to say in that post was that the applicant was solid enough to receive "hey we like you" communications and still sadly did not match, probably ultimately because they lost a numbers game with application numbers and interview numbers. I know that there are many applicants in this situation each year, and as a PD you probably see a lot of it. But for us as applicants, it's always a little shocking to see it happen to our friends.

So MS3s - apply broadly and rank everything you get!
 
10 seats. You love 20 applicants. Whichever of those 20 applicants ranks the program 1 is going to fill it first until the program's list is filled, so I'm of the school of thought that if you didn't match it's not because they didn't want or love you it's because others were ranked higher and they can't hire everyone.
 
Lots of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Just do your best and do your rank. Don’t worry about programs and how they rank. And don’t overdose them with your emails of amor. Have appropriate questions, ask them. I feel sending thank you notes is overbearing as well now that I am on the other side. Interviewing and all interactions with a program for that matter matters most along with academic performance.
 
I ranked #7 on my list. Got all those love letters and ended up at my first “safety” program. Was upset until about end of second year. Caused me to be seen as a negative person which is not good. Don’t be like me. Let it go and be happy you matched. You make residency not the other way around.
 
I fell a little on my list, but landed at a nice community program that will have me ready to practice Psychiatry by the time I’m done - can’t really ask for much more.

Any word on how competitive it was this year? I’m hearing a lot of people didn’t match.
 
Based on the 2020 NRMP Match Data released Fri, 65.7% of total applicants matched into psych. So, >1/3 of applicants to psychiatry did Not Match into any psych spot. 86.6% of USMD seniors matched.
I was one of those!

However, I did not match in my top choices -- #4 of #6, with #5 being my home program. I did two Away Rotations in Triple Board, and I only got interviewed at one of them. After ranking the TB #1, I got my comments back and there were some overly critical, non-constructive comments and a few outright falsehoods (needed multiple e-mail reminders to do XYZ <-- not true, emails prove it) -- and I got the vibe that it's one of those 'academic medicine' places that are basically malignant. So I knew I wouldn't match there, and I guessed I wouldn't match at their gen psych spot either.

So yeah, I was lucky/grateful to matched at my #4 which is ranked on doximity much lower than my home program but is still university-based and in a decent sized city, top 30ish metro area. I also had some red flags, and a barely passing Step 2 CK. I would have been happy at my home program as well, but also happy to have the validation that I was 'good enough' for outside programs to like me too.
 
Last edited:
HinduHammer said:
Based on the 2020 NRMP Match Data released Fri, 86.6% of USMD seniors matched.

I was one of those!

However, I did not match in my top choices -- #4 of #6, with #5 being my home program. I did two Away Rotations in Triple Board, and I only got interviewed at one of them. After ranking the TB #1, I got my comments back and there were some overly critical, non-constructive comments and a few outright falsehoods (needed multiple e-mail reminders to do XYZ
So yeah, I was lucky/grateful to matched at my #4 which is ranked on doximity much lower than my home program but is still university-based and in a decent sized city, top 30ish metro area. I also had some red flags, and a barely passing Step 2 CK. I would have been happy at my home program as well, but also happy to have the validation that I was 'good enough' for outside programs to like me too.
Click to expand...
I think I would've been okay anywhere on my list. In the end I ranked largely based on location, for better or for worse. In the back of my head I wonder if I made a mistake doing that, if I should've ranked "better" programs higher in places I liked less than where I ended up.

But I guess I'll never know now. What I DO know is a love the city I'll be in, covid be dammed.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
I haven't been around here but figured I'd post for the neurotic ones who will be looking next year like I was.
I matched my number 1, which is a middle of the road midwest academic program. They do have a history of taking 1-2 DO's a year and its close to my home city so I went for it. Just of note, I thought I was out because I sent them a letter of interest in later October, it got ignored. Did an AI there in November, still no interview and had little contact with the PD during this time, but then was given an interview for their last day in January in December. Sent them a letter of intent to no response. But I stuck with it, hoped for the best, and made the match!

Next part will just be a little bit about my situation for those of you who have kind of followed my journey and those of you who've reached out and message me. You're always welcome to ask questions! I'm just saying the same thing over and over again so I thought I'd post publically.

I haven't been shy about my level 1 failure with my retake >500, level 2 1st attempt >500, and passed my PE. I didn't take STEP as I was afraid to fail. I had a family death during my level 1 study time and no one on the interview trail even brought up the failure. I had research from undergrad that I presented at a large national conference so I threw that on my application, otherwise no research, very meaningless EC's. I did a little volunteering with NAMI. Grades in pre clinical years were mediocre, along with early clinical grades (Had to take my first few COMATs while trying to continue to prepare for level 1, they were pretty crappy and pulled me down to pass). Clinical grades drastically improved after Level 1, but I just had a P in my core psych rotation.
I've had multiple people message me asking me about how I faired/what I did to match my number 1. If you're someone with a less than stellar application, the big thing I think that helped was the AI. If you have somewhere you're interested in do an AI and work your butt off. Function as a resident, work as independently as you feel comfortable. Be impressive. Make a connection and follow up on those connections.
Also, don't apply to every program under the sun. It's a damn waste of money. I was panicking during ERAS time and researched every program that had taken DO's, didn't require STEP and didn't explicitly rule out a board failure. I also didn't apply Cali. This left me with 115 programs. I applied to every one of them and it was useless. I ended up with 10 interview invites, only 1 of those was from the shotgun approach. I didn't even go on that interview because it was offered to me at the end of January for the second week of February. I was done at that point and stuck to my 9 as I felt pretty confident in my ability to match at least 1 of them. They were all regional to me and in Florida where my parents own a home. If I would have curated a list of <50 programs the number of interviews I actually went on would have been the same. I'd recommend combing through the places you want to live, the places you have ties to, places that have graduates from your school and going from there. Much easier on the wallet and likely just as effective.

Ok anyway, thats my 4:30 am rant as I sit on hold with Expedia trying to still cancel my Europe trip that is supposed to leave in 2 days and have been trying to get through since midnight. Wish me luck.
 
Oedipa Maas said:
This now the second no red flag USMD I have heard of, though in the case I know of they did not have enough interviews (< 10) and slightly below average scores. Kind of disheartening that home programs don't rank their own students higher. They also received two generic/sent to everyone "you're great we would love to have you" letters from PDs so here is everyone's reminder to trust no one!
Click to expand...

While I understand the sentiment, something to keep in mind is that some programs have a huge number of people from their med school ranking them. My class had ~25 people going for psych, if the "home" program gave them all love and ranked them highly, it might have ended up with a class entirely of their own med students.

Oedipa Maas said:
You're right, "trust no one" wasn't the best way of phrasing it. What I guess I meant by that was that every year it seems like applicants put a lot of weight and stock into the communications they get from PDs even if they aren't being promised anything. And then they put stock into NOT receiving communications as well. The entire process feels very Catch 22. All I was trying to say in that post was that the applicant was solid enough to receive "hey we like you" communications and still sadly did not match, probably ultimately because they lost a numbers game with application numbers and interview numbers. I know that there are many applicants in this situation each year, and as a PD you probably see a lot of it. But for us as applicants, it's always a little shocking to see it happen to our friends.

So MS3s - apply broadly and rank everything you get!
Click to expand...

There are a lot of times where the numbers just unfortunately don't work out for someone. As OldPsychDoc said, a program may love you and rank you highly but just fill up fast. I wouldn't say to not trust PDs (in most situations), I'd just say to be careful about making inferences from their statements. "I'd love to have you at our program" means just that, not that a person will be "ranked to match". So take what is said at face value, but I wouldn't let a single statement by anyone change a rank list.

samac said:
Next part will just be a little bit about my situation for those of you who have kind of followed my journey and those of you who've reached out and message me. You're always welcome to ask questions! I'm just saying the same thing over and over again so I thought I'd post publically.

I haven't been shy about my level 1 failure with my retake >500, level 2 1st attempt >500, and passed my PE. I didn't take STEP as I was afraid to fail. I had a family death during my level 1 study time and no one on the interview trail even brought up the failure. I had research from undergrad that I presented at a large national conference so I threw that on my application, otherwise no research, very meaningless EC's. I did a little volunteering with NAMI. Grades in pre clinical years were mediocre, along with early clinical grades (Had to take my first few COMATs while trying to continue to prepare for level 1, they were pretty crappy and pulled me down to pass). Clinical grades drastically improved after Level 1, but I just had a P in my core psych rotation.
I've had multiple people message me asking me about how I faired/what I did to match my number 1. If you're someone with a less than stellar application, the big thing I think that helped was the AI. If you have somewhere you're interested in do an AI and work your butt off. Function as a resident, work as independently as you feel comfortable. Be impressive. Make a connection and follow up on those connections.
Also, don't apply to every program under the sun. It's a damn waste of money. I was panicking during ERAS time and researched every program that had taken DO's, didn't require STEP and didn't explicitly rule out a board failure. I also didn't apply Cali. This left me with 115 programs. I applied to every one of them and it was useless. I ended up with 10 interview invites, only 1 of those was from the shotgun approach. I didn't even go on that interview because it was offered to me at the end of January for the second week of February. I was done at that point and stuck to my 9 as I felt pretty confident in my ability to match at least 1 of them. They were all regional to me and in Florida where my parents own a home. If I would have curated a list of <50 programs the number of interviews I actually went on would have been the same. I'd recommend combing through the places you want to live, the places you have ties to, places that have graduates from your school and going from there. Much easier on the wallet and likely just as effective.
Click to expand...

Just to give a different perspective, I did something similar. Was told to apply to 50ish programs and applied to 75. In the extra 25 I applied to were 3 of my top 4 choices. If I hadn't taken a more shotgun approach, I wouldn't have interviewed at most of my favorite places (roughly 1/3 of my interviews). While I don't encourage people to just apply everywhere, I do think that today the bigger problem is not applying broadly enough to get an adequate number of interviews.

I do agree with you about the bolded 100% though. Places that are geographically near one's med school or where an individual has a significant connection (whether that be family or alumni from med school) should be applied to regardless of how competitive one's application is.
 
HinduHammer said:
Based on the 2020 NRMP Match Data released Fri, 65.7% of total applicants matched into psych. So, >1/3 of applicants to psychiatry did Not Match into any psych spot. 86.6% of USMD seniors matched.
I was one of those!

However, I did not match in my top choices -- #4 of #6, with #5 being my home program. I did two Away Rotations in Triple Board, and I only got interviewed at one of them. After ranking the TB #1, I got my comments back and there were some overly critical, non-constructive comments and a few outright falsehoods (needed multiple e-mail reminders to do XYZ <-- not true, emails prove it) -- and I got the vibe that it's one of those 'academic medicine' places that are basically malignant. So I knew I wouldn't match there, and I guessed I wouldn't match at their gen psych spot either.

So yeah, I was lucky/grateful to matched at my #4 which is ranked on doximity much lower than my home program but is still university-based and in a decent sized city, top 30ish metro area. I also had some red flags, and a barely passing Step 2 CK. I would have been happy at my home program as well, but also happy to have the validation that I was 'good enough' for outside programs to like me too.
Click to expand...

Isn't that more competitive than even the previous years? Kind of wild if true since it was already regarded as becoming pretty competitive.
 
Stagg737 said:
While I understand the sentiment, something to keep in mind is that some programs have a huge number of people from their med school ranking them. My class had ~25 people going for psych, if the "home" program gave them all love and ranked them highly, it might have ended up with a class entirely of their own med students.
Click to expand...

TWENTY FIVE? Wow and I thought Columbia's 16 this year was wild.
 
samac said:
I haven't been around here but figured I'd post for the neurotic ones who will be looking next year like I was.
I matched my number 1, which is a middle of the road midwest academic program. They do have a history of taking 1-2 DO's a year and its close to my home city so I went for it. Just of note, I thought I was out because I sent them a letter of interest in later October, it got ignored. Did an AI there in November, still no interview and had little contact with the PD during this time, but then was given an interview for their last day in January in December. Sent them a letter of intent to no response. But I stuck with it, hoped for the best, and made the match!

Next part will just be a little bit about my situation for those of you who have kind of followed my journey and those of you who've reached out and message me. You're always welcome to ask questions! I'm just saying the same thing over and over again so I thought I'd post publically.

I haven't been shy about my level 1 failure with my retake >500, level 2 1st attempt >500, and passed my PE. I didn't take STEP as I was afraid to fail. I had a family death during my level 1 study time and no one on the interview trail even brought up the failure. I had research from undergrad that I presented at a large national conference so I threw that on my application, otherwise no research, very meaningless EC's. I did a little volunteering with NAMI. Grades in pre clinical years were mediocre, along with early clinical grades (Had to take my first few COMATs while trying to continue to prepare for level 1, they were pretty crappy and pulled me down to pass). Clinical grades drastically improved after Level 1, but I just had a P in my core psych rotation.
I've had multiple people message me asking me about how I faired/what I did to match my number 1. If you're someone with a less than stellar application, the big thing I think that helped was the AI. If you have somewhere you're interested in do an AI and work your butt off. Function as a resident, work as independently as you feel comfortable. Be impressive. Make a connection and follow up on those connections.
Also, don't apply to every program under the sun. It's a damn waste of money. I was panicking during ERAS time and researched every program that had taken DO's, didn't require STEP and didn't explicitly rule out a board failure. I also didn't apply Cali. This left me with 115 programs. I applied to every one of them and it was useless. I ended up with 10 interview invites, only 1 of those was from the shotgun approach. I didn't even go on that interview because it was offered to me at the end of January for the second week of February. I was done at that point and stuck to my 9 as I felt pretty confident in my ability to match at least 1 of them. They were all regional to me and in Florida where my parents own a home. If I would have curated a list of <50 programs the number of interviews I actually went on would have been the same. I'd recommend combing through the places you want to live, the places you have ties to, places that have graduates from your school and going from there. Much easier on the wallet and likely just as effective.

Ok anyway, thats my 4:30 am rant as I sit on hold with Expedia trying to still cancel my Europe trip that is supposed to leave in 2 days and have been trying to get through since midnight. Wish me luck.
Click to expand...

I've been following you a bit here and there and just wanted to say congrats. If it's alright with you I had some questions as I'm on the same boat as you with a lot of what you typed here. I can PM you if that's alright.
 
Robotfishbrain said:
I've been following you a bit here and there and just wanted to say congrats. If it's alright with you I had some questions as I'm on the same boat as you with a lot of what you typed here. I can PM you if that's alright.
Click to expand...
Absolutely no problem. 🙂
 
This is intended for aspiring applicants. Please don´t message me or ask me inappropriately personal questions, as I will not respond.

Psychiatry has become palpably competitive even from last year, and it appears light years away from even three years ago. While I absolutely see the positives in Psychiatry, I still cannot fathom the sudden exponential increase in popularity from just a few years ago. At my school, there were double the number of applicants from a year ago and triple from three years ago. A few years ago, someone at my school matched at UCLA Semel, and in this environment, I don´t see that happening for quite some time. Just look at this year´s match list thread. A lot of top 20 schools sending many graduates to community psychiatry programs. Schools with well known psych departments also sending many graduates to community psych programs.

In Psychiatry, there are just a handful of truly elite programs, and many more solid programs, and an absurdly large number of community programs. So in a lot of ways, it´s like matching into internal medicine except it is more competitive because there are relatively fewer spots. Fortunately, going to an elite program in psychiatry does not extend the same magnitude of benefits as one in IM.

First, you need to be honest with yourself about your competitiveness. If your family medicine competitive, the deck is stacked against you in psych.

If you are competitive, then you do not need to apply to all programs. That is simply a waste of time and money. If you choose the right programs, then applying to 30 is likely sufficient. What are the right programs? Talk to your school´s psychiatry faculty adviser. Where you go to school is likely to affect where you apply competitively and geographically. If you have a good adviser, they can tell you whether program X has even interviewed anybody from your school.... ever. If you are competitive for psych, a good dose of humility is in order if you end up at a ¨low-tier" university program or community program in the Midwest or Southeast.

If you are a solidly competitive applicant who is aiming for an elite program or somewhere across the country, we have likely entered the era where doing an away there is necessary to be considered. Of course, this is a double-edged sword which in psychiatry is likely to feel like a 100-edged sword. But it is what it is.
 
Last edited:
Stagg737 said:
There were 26 that I know of. 23 matches, 1 went unmatched, and 2 matched/SOAPed into other fields. There may have been more, but I’m not sure. Psych was very popular in my class second only to IM.
Click to expand...
Psych was uptrending at my school over the past five years, from like 2 in 2015 to 9 in 2019. This year it leveled off though, surgery was really really popular as was ob/gyn for some reason (IM as usual was the most popular, peds was kinda big too).

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
MrFlyGuy said:
Isn't that more competitive than even the previous years? Kind of wild if true since it was already regarded as becoming pretty competitive.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think so. And additionally, that 86.6% of matching US MD seniors only accounts for people who got a psych interview. So if a USMD senior applied psych and got zero pysch interviews, they would not be counted in this 86.6%. I know for awhile there before I sent out LOIs my only psych interview was from my home program.

Anecdotally speaking, I was working with various coordinators at institutions across the country to set up away rotations, and many of them honestly told me that it would be pointless to do away rotations there because my academics would preclude me from an interview. Multiple of them told me how crazy the difference is in the amount and quality of applicants they were getting in the matter of a few short years. Two of them told me "psych was the new derm" was a slogan in their departments; some of my seniors in med school who I was asking to put in good words for me were saying they were seeing plenty of 260+ step applications and that I shouldn't get my hopes up.

I also wonder if there were people this year who maybe chose not even to apply psych (really poorly performing USMD/DOs, FMG/IMGs who have heard it was geting more competitive). Overall I think the numbers are about equal or slightly worse this year vs. 2019 (and that the last few years have all seen record number of apps and competitiveness); and the type of applicant who applies is different as well. Less safety specialties. My intern class is all MDs; which I was very surprised to see.
 
solitarius said:
This is intended for aspiring applicants. Please don´t message me or ask me inappropriately personal questions, as I will not respond.

Psychiatry has become palpably competitive even from last year, and it appears light years away from even three years ago. While I absolutely see the positives in Psychiatry, I still cannot fathom the sudden exponential increase in popularity from just a few years ago. At my school, there were double the number of applicants from a year ago and triple from three years ago. A few years ago, someone at my school matched at UCLA Semel, and in this environment, I don´t see that happening for quite some time. Just look at this year´s match list thread. A lot of top 20 schools sending many graduates to community psychiatry programs. Schools with well known psych departments also sending many graduates to community psych programs.

In Psychiatry, there are just a handful of truly elite programs, and many more solid programs, and an absurdly large number of community programs. So in a lot of ways, it´s like matching into internal medicine except it is more competitive because there are relatively fewer spots. Fortunately, going to an elite program in psychiatry does not extend the same magnitude of benefits as one in IM.

First, you need to be honest with yourself about your competitiveness. If your family medicine competitive, the deck is stacked against you in psych.

If you are competitive, then you do not need to apply to all programs. That is simply a waste of time and money. If you choose the right programs, then applying to 30 is likely sufficient. What are the right programs? Talk to your school´s psychiatry faculty adviser. Where you go to school is likely to affect where you apply competitively and geographically. If you have a good adviser, they can tell you whether program X has even interviewed anybody from your school.... ever. If you are competitive for psych, a good dose of humility is in order if you end up at a ¨low-tier" university program or community program in the Midwest or Southeast.

If you are a solidly competitive applicant who is aiming for an elite program or somewhere across the country, we have likely entered the era where doing an away there is necessary to be considered. Of course, this is a double-edged sword which in psychiatry is likely to feel like a 100-edged sword. But it is what it is.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree that 30 programs is enough applications. Based on my experience and that of others more competitive than me, I believe we have entered an era where one has to apply very widely and broadly to have enough interviews to match psych. Further, I knew of very few people who decided not to go any of their interviews whereas I know plenty of people in IM who declined some of their interviews. I do heartily agree that aways are a 100% edged sword.
 
Last edited:
I just want to provide a counter perspective for prospective applicants reading this thread. In terms of academics I was definitely a low tier applicant. US-IMG, Both steps below 220, mostly pass with very few honors or high pass throughout third year, no research. Due to how competitive even getting away rotations is for IMGs(I didnt go to a caribbean school so i didnt have the benefit of their affiliations) these days only 2 of them were at places with residency programs and they were both top tier programs where I had no shot and they were also both after eras opened so I didnt bother for a LOR. I didn't get a ton of interviews. I think charting outcomes had my chances of matching at around 30%. In the end I matched to my number 1, a program I love in my hometown. I think the good thing about psych is that a lot of programs truly are willing to look past academics and take fit into account. I think the factors that helped me were my ties to the area(its not a big city so they probably want people who they think will stick around), my personal statement(PD commented on it during my interview), LORs(PD also commented on one of them). I would say the interview was important and I am sure it was but from what I saw pretty much all of the interviews in psych were so laid back I don't see how they would be able to differentiate based off of that. Regardless all I wanted to say is that its definitely still possible to get psych even if you aren't a traditionally stellar candidate. I almost didn't apply because I heard how competitive it has become in recent years and I am so glad I changed my mind. Remember you can always dual apply with a backup specialty.
 
I just wanted to say you can officially see the programs that soaped and I don’t know if y’all were on the spreadsheet. Largo had a bad reputation (rightfully so) and soaped all but one spot. Knowledge is power!
 
samac said:
I just wanted to say you can officially see the programs that soaped and I don’t know if y’all were on the spreadsheet. Largo had a bad reputation (rightfully so) and soaped all but one spot. Knowledge is power!
Click to expand...
Who else?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

calvinhobbes
Match 2025
Replies
17
Views
3K
MedMan80
MedMan80
Trieb
Forensic psychiatry switches to the match
Replies
1
Views
1K
comp1
C
Crayola227
Science of Mind Thread
Replies
8
Views
1K
smalltownpsych
smalltownpsych
C
Match week
Replies
33
Views
3K
ObsequiousAplomb
O
H
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Application Thread 2025-2026
2
Replies
51
Views
10K
abilifall
A
Top