Your case appears to be the same thing I mention from time to time. Several medstudents come onto this forum and ask "I'm interested in psychiatry, but my friends don't want me to do it"
Medical school is medicine-centric. Think about it, most of the professors are either Ph.D.s in a non-psychiatric biological/physiological area and the majority of rotations are in areas where IM is more heaviliy needed.
Their prejudices shouldn't turn you away from what really is a life defining decision. In most cases, the doctors that tried to deter people away (unless it was their own field) did so based on egocentric and prejudicial reasons.
In fact I hardly know anyone who really has kept in good contact with their friends in medschool. Residency--and doing crazy hours just has a thing where it prevents you from talking to people from previous stages in your life. You don't got the time to keep contact, and the mutual outlooks start to differ.
As for being in psychiatry, if you do your job right, other doctors in other fields will respect you, and the work you do. In any university hospital, you will be working with several different medical disciplines. Several times I've seen doctors from any field respected or disliked for what they did, not which field they were in. Several of the highest respected doctors were psychiatrists.
I think it's a little too early in the year to expect programs to know if they're going to have open PGY-2 slots for July...the interns just started 2 months ago.
I don't know. From what I've seen, open PGY-2 spots are hard to come by, and yes, while its less likely to happen now, when they happen, some programs usually don't inform the general public. They usually just try to get a PGY-2 using their own little grapevine.
One of my former PDs put it this way. If he were to announce to the world that they had an open PGY-2 spot, his program coordinator would've been flooded with calls from very anxious people who will call 10x and berate the coordinator. If he uses the grapevine, he'll get about 10 people for consideration, all of whom already have some connection with the program.
IMHO, since PGY-2 spots are hard to come by, I would be very pro-active on trying to find one, even now. The very fact that its early in the year could mean a spot is open because a PGY-1 didn't show up (and I've seen that happen. One guy didn't pass USMLE Step 1-got his results just days before the program started, the other guy got so homesick he was out within 2 weeks). That spot can be filled by a PGY-2.
I would call up any program in the area you want to be in, and humbly ask if any spots were open, and to leave your contact info. If you called more than once, I would leave some very comfortable space in between calls because calling too frequently can tick the coordinator off. I would not berate, impose or push the coordinator who answers your call. If you push these things too much--guess what? That coordinator is just as likely to toss your data in the trash, or tell the PD that you come off as a jerk and to not consider you. The coordinator in case you didn't know usually doubles as the department secretary.
A lawyer buddy of mine told me to always remember, the secretary is the gatekeeper. Impress him/her and you're halfway to getting what you need from his/her boss. While I was chief, there were a few applicants who seemed "off" to me. E.g. the person the entire interview had a flat affect, showed no interest in psychiatry, etc. The first person I'd ask for more info on the person was the coordinator, and her input was very important. She already been through the person's file a few times, and interacted with that person a few times over the phone. She told me of a few times where some of the applicants berated her in a very rude manner. Of course I'm going to factor that in when I know so little about the candidate.
