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Did anyone apply to this new program ? Did you receive an interview invite? thoughts?
New psychiatry residency program at UTRGV
- Thread starter moliat
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Did not apply but probably would have if it was an option when I was applying although more for family reasons that anything else. A quick perusal of their website (http://www.utrgv.edu/som/psychiatry-residency/index.htm) shows that they have what seems to be an unusual / innovative schedule for pgy 1 and 2 years for example:
"This rotation in primary care has several part time components. There are 2 afternoons/ a week clinics for 12 months (general primary care and primary care for chronically mentally ill) and a block rotation of 50% time (mornings) for 3 months in one of the following: family medicine or pediatrics."
As far as the Rio Grande Valley goes, It's pretty geographically and culturally distinct from the rest of the country, and even Texas. This could make moving there from elsewhere difficult if you don't have a particular tie to the region but like anywhere there is fun to be had. You are about ~2 hours of scrub/ranchland away from other urban areas and about 4 hours from San Antonio so you are definitely out there. Rapidly growing region with low cost of living that is very much underserved in healthcare across the board.
"This rotation in primary care has several part time components. There are 2 afternoons/ a week clinics for 12 months (general primary care and primary care for chronically mentally ill) and a block rotation of 50% time (mornings) for 3 months in one of the following: family medicine or pediatrics."
As far as the Rio Grande Valley goes, It's pretty geographically and culturally distinct from the rest of the country, and even Texas. This could make moving there from elsewhere difficult if you don't have a particular tie to the region but like anywhere there is fun to be had. You are about ~2 hours of scrub/ranchland away from other urban areas and about 4 hours from San Antonio so you are definitely out there. Rapidly growing region with low cost of living that is very much underserved in healthcare across the board.
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I know! the designation of activities throughout the day is one of the things that I like the most, it makes it attractive because of the constant changing settings. Even though UTRGV is a new program I think that they made an extraordinary didactic planning. I currently live in TX actually but I haven't heard back from them after sending a secondary application. Anybody else in the same situation?!
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I got an interview there, will let you know how it goes 
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I received an interview about 1.5 weeks after the secondary. Has anyone gone to an interview here yet? how was it?
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Got an interview here! But having trouble booking my flight out. Their email says to plan for the interview day to go until 5pm, but there are very limited to no flights out of the local area after 5. What have others here planned for their interview day or seen others at the interview do?
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Hey what I did was add a connection in Houston. that resulted in my flight out of RGV being at like 7 something in the evening
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Kdog83,
What did you think of UTRGV? Thanks!
What did you think of UTRGV? Thanks!
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sorry fam i've been out of town for thanksgiving, still in food coma territory lol. ok so the utrgv interview
As far as communicating with us, i think the program had difficulty with using the interview scheduler so after using it they still emailed us to verify what dates we wanted.
They didnt pay for hotels but they did provide a list of hotels in the area. I had already reserved a room in a hotel that ended up being on their list, but still helpful i guess.
Pre-interview Dinner:
So this was at an italian restaurant. Since its a brand new program at a brand new med school, there were no residents present. A couple of faculty showed up plus the program coordinator. I think they were trying not to answer questions that would just be answered by the orientation the next day so we spent a bunch of time talking sports.
Interview Day:
It wasn't a super early start. There were 6 applicants and there were 3 interviews during the day. The day started with an orientation presentation by the program director and the coordinator. This really went till lunchtime. A couple more faculty came in during lunch and hung out for the free food. After lunch we split into two groups. 1 group would go on tours while the other group would go on the interviews and then halfway through they would switch it. The three faculty were the program director, the chair of the psychiatry department, and the dean of the med school. Those were specialists in CAP, in neuropsych, and in psychosomatic medicine.
Program Overview:
So they're recruiting for 6 spots. There are currently no fellowships but I think they're setting up a CAP fellowship shortly. The plan according to the PD was to set up most of the normal fellowships except probably forensic cause theres no real need for it in the Rio Grande Valley. The daily schedule for residents is pretty unique too. From what i understand, most days residents will spend their mornings in a different facility than their afternoons. I think there's five main places the residents go to so you definitely travel around. They are listed on the website if you're interested. I'm pretty sure each place has its own EMR so keep that in mind.
Faculty Achievements & Involvement
Hmm well like I said previously we only met three of the professors in the psychiatry department so there wasn't too much said about this. I know that the chair of the department mentioned his involvement in possible research regarding Space Adaptation Syndrome so that was kind of cool.
Location & Lifestyle
The program is set in the Rio Grande Valley and if you have a burning desire to live and work in a city, this probably isnt the program for you. The PD actually made a point to mention it to me to make sure I was ok with it. I believe the closest major city is San Antonio at 4 hours away. As far as lifestyle is concerned, they did mention that there won't be any night call so that seems cool. Again, there are no residents to get their take on the program.
Salary & Benefits
Well this is pretty typical of most programs. I do know that the valley has a pretty low cost of living so your salary would probably go further here than a lot of places.
Program Strengths & Weaknesses
The PD pointed that its going to be an outpatient dominant residency, so its up to you if thats a strength. As far as the patient population, its definitely underserved so if thats a plus for you it can definitely be what you are looking for.
Overall Impression
Seems like it could be a solid community program. This all depends on a couple of things. Are you cool with living in the rio grande valley? Are you cool with matching at a brand new program? Is this the patient population you are looking for? It did seem like a very chill interview day which was nice. The unique residency schedule with multiple facilities really isn't too bad because a bunch of them are on the med school campus.
As far as communicating with us, i think the program had difficulty with using the interview scheduler so after using it they still emailed us to verify what dates we wanted.
They didnt pay for hotels but they did provide a list of hotels in the area. I had already reserved a room in a hotel that ended up being on their list, but still helpful i guess.
Pre-interview Dinner:
So this was at an italian restaurant. Since its a brand new program at a brand new med school, there were no residents present. A couple of faculty showed up plus the program coordinator. I think they were trying not to answer questions that would just be answered by the orientation the next day so we spent a bunch of time talking sports.
Interview Day:
It wasn't a super early start. There were 6 applicants and there were 3 interviews during the day. The day started with an orientation presentation by the program director and the coordinator. This really went till lunchtime. A couple more faculty came in during lunch and hung out for the free food. After lunch we split into two groups. 1 group would go on tours while the other group would go on the interviews and then halfway through they would switch it. The three faculty were the program director, the chair of the psychiatry department, and the dean of the med school. Those were specialists in CAP, in neuropsych, and in psychosomatic medicine.
Program Overview:
So they're recruiting for 6 spots. There are currently no fellowships but I think they're setting up a CAP fellowship shortly. The plan according to the PD was to set up most of the normal fellowships except probably forensic cause theres no real need for it in the Rio Grande Valley. The daily schedule for residents is pretty unique too. From what i understand, most days residents will spend their mornings in a different facility than their afternoons. I think there's five main places the residents go to so you definitely travel around. They are listed on the website if you're interested. I'm pretty sure each place has its own EMR so keep that in mind.
Faculty Achievements & Involvement
Hmm well like I said previously we only met three of the professors in the psychiatry department so there wasn't too much said about this. I know that the chair of the department mentioned his involvement in possible research regarding Space Adaptation Syndrome so that was kind of cool.
Location & Lifestyle
The program is set in the Rio Grande Valley and if you have a burning desire to live and work in a city, this probably isnt the program for you. The PD actually made a point to mention it to me to make sure I was ok with it. I believe the closest major city is San Antonio at 4 hours away. As far as lifestyle is concerned, they did mention that there won't be any night call so that seems cool. Again, there are no residents to get their take on the program.
Salary & Benefits
Well this is pretty typical of most programs. I do know that the valley has a pretty low cost of living so your salary would probably go further here than a lot of places.
Program Strengths & Weaknesses
The PD pointed that its going to be an outpatient dominant residency, so its up to you if thats a strength. As far as the patient population, its definitely underserved so if thats a plus for you it can definitely be what you are looking for.
Overall Impression
Seems like it could be a solid community program. This all depends on a couple of things. Are you cool with living in the rio grande valley? Are you cool with matching at a brand new program? Is this the patient population you are looking for? It did seem like a very chill interview day which was nice. The unique residency schedule with multiple facilities really isn't too bad because a bunch of them are on the med school campus.
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Anyone else have further thoughts? It's so unique to compare it to any other place. pros and cons?