Psychiatry advice

[RockyBalboa 007]

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Hello all,
I recently finished my Psychiatry rotation, and I absolutely loved it.
I had come to medical school hoping to go into anesthesiology or radiology but now I am very very strongly leaning towards Psychiatry.
I have a 250+ on step 1. Which psych programs should I seriously consider? That is, which top-tier allopathic psych programs are open to taking DO's?

 

[DopaDO]

I'm not applying for psychiatry, but with that score you probably have a chance pretty much anywhere. Do you have any research? I know a few psych residents that are in top tier programs. It's known to be very DO friendly

 

[notbobtrustme]

do you have a pulse? then you are pretty much competitive for most psych programs.

 

[Mass Effect]

do you have a pulse? then you are pretty much competitive for most psych programs.

Don't be a jerk.

OP, you're competitive for most top-tier programs. Most psych programs are very DO friendly. There's a thread on the psych forum that discusses the ones most DO friendly/least DO friendly. Check it out there.

 

[Seth Joo]

Hello all,
I recently finished my Psychiatry rotation, and I absolutely loved it.
I had come to medical school hoping to go into anesthesiology or radiology but now I am very very strongly leaning towards Psychiatry.
I have a 250+ on step 1. Which psych programs should I seriously consider? That is, which top-tier allopathic psych programs are open to taking DO's?

Psychiatry is fairly easy to get, there is not a lot of competition for Psychiatry like there is for Orthopedics, Radiology, and Dermatology.

If it makes you happy go for it.

 

[Mad Jack]

Your chances are strong. I think the only psych program I know of off of the top of my head that hasn't really taken DOs is Yale, but I'm sure there's a few others.

I'm betting that, with changes in practice and reimbursement, psychiatry will be a pretty hot specialty in 10-15 years. The lifestyle is great, the money is excellent for what you do, and the jobs are abundant. PAs can't really do psych properly, and NPs are fairly limited when it comes to difficult psych patients.

 

[Seth Joo]

Your chances are strong. I think the only psych program I know of off of the top of my head that hasn't really taken DOs is Yale, but I'm sure there's a few others.

I'm betting that, with changes in practice and reimbursement, psychiatry will be a pretty hot specialty in 10-15 years. The lifestyle is great, the money is excellent for what you do, and the jobs are abundant. PAs can't really do psych properly, and NPs are fairly limited when it comes to difficult psych patients.

Most Psychiatrists I met seem to make good money for the kind of work they do, which is not that much beyond writing RXes for medications.

There was a while for a time that I never really saw Psychiatrists as real physicians. I think though given that there are many people out there who suffer mental illness who require actual drug therapy to function, Psychiatrists are helpful.

 

[PistolPete]

I'm in psychiatry. Top tier is still tough to crack for DO's, programs like McLean, UCSF, Stanford. But in general you will get into a great place.

FYI I also thought about radiology and anesthesiology, and I'm very happy with my choice of psychiatry.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Thank god pete pipped in. People love to throw around their opinion as fact around here.

I'm currently going through the process of psych interviews with the same step 1 and a better step 2 than step 1. I have received plenty of decline to interviews or no responses. Even the in the "easy match" fields the upper tier programs are tough to match.

 

[Back 5]

Really stinks that you can't get interviews at top places with similar stats as MD students. Frustrating.

 

[EMDO2018]

Psychiatry is forgiving, easy for DOs and IMGs to match. ACGME Ortho on the other hand....

 

[Postictal Raiden]

My perspective toward medical specialties has transformed 180 degrees since I started school. When I was a pre-med, I had a surgery-or-bust type of mentality. Now, that I have first-handedly witnessed the value of time, I'm no longer interested. In fact, I find it a little ironic to see a good percentage of the brightest and most driven students gunning for specialties that would most likely condemn them to miserable lifestyles.

 

[Nasrudin]

While it's stupid that you couldn't get a shot anywhere having kicked butt that hard on the step you will still have a shot and will most certainly be very happy with your options--which will likely involve many of the other top programs. So it's just as distorted to be focused on the handful of stupid programs who would look passed your application based on your school as it is for you to be focused on them.

The very top programs can pass on most of us for most any reason.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Hello all,
I recently finished my Psychiatry rotation, and I absolutely loved it.
I had come to medical school hoping to go into anesthesiology or radiology but now I am very very strongly leaning towards Psychiatry.
I have a 250+ on step 1. Which psych programs should I seriously consider? That is, which top-tier allopathic psych programs are open to taking DO's?

UCSF (not Fresno) has taken DOs in the past.

 

[W19]

Psychiatry is fairly easy to get, there is not a lot of competition for Psychiatry like there is for Orthopedics, Radiology, and Dermatology.

If it makes you happy go for it.

Almost 99% match rate for ACGME radiology... I would not call that 'a lot of competition'....

 

[Seth Joo]

Almost 99% match rate for ACGME radiology... I would not call that 'a lot of competition'....

Orthopedics is tough for DOs, most DOs I know who match in Orthopedics are in AOA programs.

 

[W19]

Orthopedics is tough for DOs, most DOs I know who match in Orthopedics are in AOA programs.

I know it might be quasi impossible for a DO to match into ACGME ortho since there are plenty of qualified M.D. applicants for these spots... I was just talking about ACGME rad whose competitiveness is like FM/Psych... I know step1 for rad is high, but if you look at the 2014 charting outcomes closely, you will see applicants with step 1 between 210-220 have almost an equal chance to match just like applicants with 240+ step1 score... Almost 99% match rate does not sound competitive to me!

 

[hallowmann]

I know it might be quasi impossible for a DO to match into ACGME ortho since there are plenty of qualified M.D. applicants for these spots... I was just talking about ACGME rad whose competitiveness is like FM/Psych... I know step1 for rad is high, but if you look at the 2014 charting outcomes closely, you will see applicants with step 1 between 210-220 have almost an equal chance to match just like applicants with 240+ step1 score... Almost 99% match rate does not sound competitive to me!

To be fair, this is likely due to the large number of Rads residencies, including newer ones (haven't graduated a batch yet), that have trouble filling combined with a fear of saturation that has left interest stagnant or on the decline. The high score probably implies that many of the programs are competitive or on the high end. That all said, I wouldn't call rads particularly competitive, but I also wouldn't say its on the level of FM. Its probably somewhere in the moderate competitiveness level with Gas.

 

[W19]

To be fair, this is likely due to the large number of Rads residencies, including newer ones (haven't graduated a batch yet), that have trouble filling combined with a fear of saturation that has left interest stagnant or on the decline. The high score probably implies that many of the programs are competitive or on the high end. That all said, I wouldn't call rads particularly competitive, but I also wouldn't say its on the level of FM. Its probably somewhere in the moderate competitiveness level with Gas.

From a purely statistical standpoint, it is just like FM to me...

 

[hallowmann]

From a pure statistical standpoint, it is just like FM to me...

Percent match is not a good metric. All it really means is that the people who apply to it are well matched/selected for the field (i.e. those who apply are competitive enough for the specialty/program, and those who aren't don't apply). Its meaningless to compare them.

99% US senior match rate is actually larger than the FM US senior match rate (97%). Does that somehow mean that FM is "more competitive" than Rads? Psych is 96%, it must also be "more competitive" than Rads. You need to look at more than just match percent. Someone who would be competitive for FM won't necessarily be competitive for Rads. That's what's being talked about. An individual's chances based on their stats.

The 25-75% range of Step 1 scores for DR is ~231-251 for US seniors, with the median on the upper side. For FM its ~205-230. They are not the same.

 

[67552931811]

UCSF (not Fresno) has taken DOs in the past.

Currently they have DO residents..

 

[W19]

Percent match is not a good metric. All it really means is that the people who apply to it are well matched/selected for the field (i.e. those who apply are competitive enough for the specialty/program, and those who aren't don't apply). Its meaningless to compare them.

99% US senior match rate is actually larger than the FM US senior match rate (97%). Does that somehow mean that FM is "more competitive" than Rads? Psych is 96%, it must also be "more competitive" than Rads. You need to look at more than just match percent. Someone who would be competitive for FM won't necessarily be competitive for Rads. That's what's being talked about. An individual's chances based on their stats.

The 25-75% range of Step 1 scores for DR is ~231-251 for US seniors, with the median on the upper side. For FM its ~205-230. They are not the same.

I guess we are looking at it differently... These rad spots got to be filled, so if the # of applicants does not exceed the number of spots, some of these low tier programs will take anyone because they will be loosing money... But I understand where you coming from...

 

[hallowmann]

I guess we are looking at it differently... These rad spots got to be filled, so if the # of applicants does not exceed the number of spots, some of these low tier programs will take anyone because they will be loosing money... But I understand where you coming from...

That's completely true. Its probably why ACGME Rads and ACGME Anesthesia are relatively DO friendly despite the higher board scores. They still have some standards though, and because of the high variability in programs (a bunch at the high end and then some spread out at the lower end), to get a good program you still should try to be as competitive as possible, but I guess that's true with everything.

 

[a runner]

I guess we are looking at it differently... These rad spots got to be filled, so if the # of applicants does not exceed the number of spots, some of these low tier programs will take anyone because they will be loosing money... But I understand where you coming from...

Even though the US MD match rate is 99%, we are not US MD applicants.

Our ACGME match rate over the past few years in rads has probably risen to ~80% now, based on my analysis of NRMP data. Which is pretty good, but still somewhat competitive for DO's, especially compared to fields like peds, FM, and psych.