meharry psychiatry....question

[anesthesiarocks]

What is the racial makeup like of psych residents(or residents in general) there? I ask because I really want to be(for a lot of reasons) in nasville for residency and vandy is the only other program near nashville. If I'm a white guy from north carolina do I have a shot to get an interview at meharry, or do they only select urm's? And if I did go there, would I be the only non-urm there? Thanks...

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[whopper]

I can't give you an answer on this because its going to highly vary depending on where you are. Top tier residencies tend to not have IMGs. Middle & 3rd tier programs have more IMGs.

Urban programs tend to get more minorities.

So I think a better & more specific question you should ask is what is the racial makeup of a program that you want to get into? And why should that racial makeup matter to you? (What is an URM?)

 

[anesthesiarocks]

I can't give you an answer on this because its going to highly vary depending on where you are. Top tier residencies tend to not have IMGs. Middle & 3rd tier programs have more IMGs.

Urban programs tend to get more minorities.

So I think a better & more specific question you should ask is what is the racial makeup of a program that you want to get into? And why should that racial makeup matter to you? (What is an URM?)

1) I was unaware that middle and 3rd tier psych programs have a lot of img's. I assumed that there were plenty of 250+/aoa candidates from penn, harvard, and hopkins trying to break into psych at 3rd tier programs.

2) Why should the makeup matter to me? Ummm, because if they don't take non-urm candidates like the medical school(or very rarely do), I'd rather not waste the time/money to apply and interview there.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Under Represented Minority? (I googled it)

 

[anesthesiarocks]

so does anyone actually have any decent insight into the question? I just went to their website, but they dont list the names or pics of their residents.

 

[Doc Samson]

1) I was unaware that middle and 3rd tier psych programs have a lot of img's. I assumed that there were plenty of 250+/aoa candidates from penn, harvard, and hopkins trying to break into psych at 3rd tier programs.

No, there aren't. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the rank of the medical school and the number of students applying for psychiatry. Probably something to do with perceived prestige.

 

[2tall]

why not just apply and see? obviously you have little control over the matter...particularly since your options are limited.

if you really wanted to know...just have one of your friends call the program and ask, "is your program friendly to whites?"

 

[Heathcliff]

I graduated from Meharry Medical College in May 2008 and I am currently a psychiatry intern at Meharry, and yes, I am African-American. If you will be graduating from a U.S. medical school, Meharry will be happy to have you. The program director is making a passionate effort to recruit more American graduates to the program (whether you are white, black, blue, or whatever). There are a total of 18 residents in the psychiatry residency program. Out of 18 residents, only 4 are graduates of U.S. medical schools.

The 14 foreign medical graduates (from schools in India, Africa, Ukraine, Iran, and Pakistan to name a few) are friendly and hard-working, but learning the American system of writing a SOAP note for example, or using CPRS (the VA’s computerized patient record system) is a significant adjustment for many of them. And although all are fluent in English, understanding the Tennessee “country” accent that many of the patients have is a big adjustment for them as well.

Don’t worry; you won’t stand out at Meharry just because you are white. Many of the attendings in various specialties at Meharry’s main teaching hospital (Metro General) are white, and at both Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute and the VA (where you will be doing most of your rotations as a psychiatry resident), almost all of the patients are white.

I encourage you to contact Dr. William “Lee” Johnson for his perspective of the program. Out of 18 residents, Dr. Johnson is the only Caucasian male resident in the program (there is also a Caucasian female resident, originally from Ukraine). He is a PGY-4 and Chief Resident this year. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] (probably the best method of contact) or by telephone at (615) 225-3753.

Good luck in the Match!

 

[2tall]

aint SDN grand! exactly the type of response you want in just 36 hours!

 

[wolfvgang22]

I graduated from Meharry Medical College in May 2008 and I am currently a psychiatry intern at Meharry, and yes, I am African-American. If you will be graduating from a U.S. medical school, Meharry will be happy to have you. The program director is making a passionate effort to recruit more American graduates to the program (whether you are white, black, blue, or whatever). There are a total of 18 residents in the psychiatry residency program. Out of 18 residents, only 4 are graduates of U.S. medical schools.

The 14 foreign medical graduates (from schools in India, Africa, Ukraine, Iran, and Pakistan to name a few) are friendly and hard-working, but learning the American system of writing a SOAP note for example, or using CPRS (the VA’s computerized patient record system) is a significant adjustment for many of them. And although all are fluent in English, understanding the Tennessee “country” accent that many of the patients have is a big adjustment for them as well.

Don’t worry; you won’t stand out at Meharry just because you are white. Many of the attendings in various specialties at Meharry’s main teaching hospital (Metro General) are white, and at both Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute and the VA (where you will be doing most of your rotations as a psychiatry resident), almost all of the patients are white.

I encourage you to contact Dr. William “Lee” Johnson for his perspective of the program. Out of 18 residents, Dr. Johnson is the only Caucasian male resident in the program (there is also a Caucasian female resident, originally from Ukraine). He is a PGY-4 and Chief Resident this year. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] (probably the best method of contact) or by telephone at (615) 225-3753.

Good luck in the Match!

Thank you, I was wondering this very thing, already applied. I'm a USMIG.

 

[billypilgrim37]

No, there aren't. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the rank of the medical school and the number of students applying for psychiatry. Probably something to do with perceived prestige.

And there's something to say that, because high-ranked med schools choose their students based on an imperfect proxy (MCAT), and proxies that are particularly bad at predicting who good psychiatry candidates are going to be (relatively speaking, of course), high-ranked med schools select against students who are more likely to go into psychiatry. Average step 1 at my med school was like 234. No surprise only 2-3 ppl on average go into psych every year. We had 18 ppl match into ophthalmology, though.

If I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon, no interviewer would have cared about how much time I spent reading books in medical school that weren't going to raise my Step 1 score. But in psychiatry, I spent half of one of my interviews at Longwood having an absolutely fabulous conversation with a professor who'd written essays on Roth and psychoanalysis.

 

[Doc Samson]

I spent half of one of my interviews at Longwood having an absolutely fabulous conversation with a professor who'd written essays on Roth and psychoanalysis.

And that doesn't even narrow the field down enough for me to know for sure who you're talking about (although knowing is it was Philip Roth or Eli Roth would help).

 

[TaiMD]

Hello,
I received an interview from Meharry Medical College Psychiatry Residency Program. Wanted to know some insight about the program, what should i expect during the interview, how is the faculty and other residents.
Thanks

 

[classof2011]

Comments like these make my love for Psychiatry SOOOO strong.......My (home) program director didn't lie when he mentioned that one of the best things about [going into] psychiatry will be your colleagues...