The importance of Sub-I's

[Dreamin]

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I'm starting to schedule my 4th year electives and I was wondering what everyone's opinions on doing sub-I's in places that I wish to do my residency. Do you feel it is extremely important?

I'm also wondering if I only do one sub-I in one city, will other psych programs think that the program I did my sub-I in must be my top choice and that I'm not as serious about their program/location?

Also does anyone have advice on what other electives would be helpful to a future psych resident?

 

[MDgonnabe]

I'm starting to schedule my 4th year electives and I was wondering what everyone's opinions on doing sub-I's in places that I wish to do my residency. Do you feel it is extremely important?

in a not-so competitive field such a psych, it could help for a program to get to know you over the course of a month, but i don't think it's key. in fact, i did a rotation away and didn't even get an intreview at the institution, though it's not the most competitive program by any means. and i had residents and faculty whom i worked with tell me to expect an interview. imo, programs will choose students whom they believe will "fit in" there regardless of whether or not you rotated through and likewise reject those whom they believe won't "fit in" despite all your schmoozing efforts. my away elective was more for educational purposes, anyway, so it worked out for me. just make sure you don't go somewhere solely for the purpose of thinking you'll be guaranteed an interview.

I'm also wondering if I only do one sub-I in one city, will other psych programs think that the program I did my sub-I in must be my top choice and that I'm not as serious about their program/location?

they could think that, yes. but they don't have to know where you did your away. not sure how your school would handle it, but on my transcript all it said was "away psych elective." come interview time, though, i came clean about where it was and how it wasn't even entirely a psych elective, per se. remember: you're in control.

Also does anyone have advice on what other electives would be helpful to a future psych resident?

any psych you didn't do
any neuro
any medicine, esp. endo.
neuroradiology

 

[watto]

Re: electives, I would recommend doing your psych sub-I, then at some point after doing consult-liason. I went into C-L with a very strong psych base and was able to do better interviews and formulate recommendations more effectively due to the extra experience garnered from my sub-I.

 

[banannie]

i asked my advisory dean a similar question, and his recommendation was to *not* do a sub-I away, since I wouldn't know the system at another school, and compared to the school's own medical students, that could only make me look bad. he recommended instead thinking about a C-L rotation as an away elective.

i have a more general question about sub-I's: should I do a psych sub-I, a medicine sub-I, or both? if I do the medicine sub-I, does it need to be before I submit my app? or is it mainly an educational experience for my own benefit that can be done at any point in the year? thanks!

 

[Anasazi23]

i have a more general question about sub-I's: should I do a psych sub-I, a medicine sub-I, or both? if I do the medicine sub-I, does it need to be before I submit my app? or is it mainly an educational experience for my own benefit that can be done at any point in the year? thanks!

I did both a medicine and psych sub-I.

To be honest, though, I didn't see much of a difference in duties between my core psych rotation and my sub-I. I did my psych sub-I at a place I was somewhat interested in attending, and happened to be within my school's affiliated/approved core hospital group as well.

The medicine sub-I is often required to graduate from many med schools as far as I know. Otherwise, everyone would do much easier sub-I's and skip the medicine sub-I. Just make sure it's ok with your med school to skip the meidicne sub-I compeltely in lieu of a psych sub-I. It doesn't matter when you do the medicine sub-I, but keep in mind that it's not a bad idea to have a medicine letter to show your diversity of profeciency when it comes time for applications. Many recommend 1-2 psych letters and another letter from medicine or another core rotation. The point being that I might not save it for last.

I dont' really see the huge disadvantage in doing a psych sub-I at an away hospital. You pick up the system quickly in most cases, and it gives you a chance to see how other hospital's psych systems operate. They'll quickly pick up on your knowledge base, and your level of psychiatric sophistication regardless if you forget how to check labs on an unfamiliar computer system. The former is much more meaningful to them.

Good luck.

 

[atsai3]

I'm starting to schedule my 4th year electives and I was wondering what everyone's opinions on doing sub-I's in places that I wish to do my residency. Do you feel it is extremely important?

I'm also wondering if I only do one sub-I in one city, will other psych programs think that the program I did my sub-I in must be my top choice and that I'm not as serious about their program/location?

Also does anyone have advice on what other electives would be helpful to a future psych resident?

A few thoughts:

1) By the time you start your interview season, it's quite likely that your sub-I grade will not have made its way on to your transcript. So the psych programs may not even know about your sub-I.

2) I did one away sub-I and was very up front about it in my interviews. I have no idea if the programs I interviewed at were operating under the assumption that the program where I did the sub-I at was my top choice (it would have been a false assumption), but at the very least it conveys the message that you are in some way interested in that program. I found that talking about it at my interviews was actually helpful, because it gave the programs where I was interviewing a chance to compare their strengths and weaknesses to the program where I did my sub-I.

3) The advice banannie's advisory dean offered makes good sense. If you think you look better on paper, then doing an away sub-I can probably only hurt your chances. If you think there is some je ne sais quois about yourself that can't possibly be captured on paper and therefore that you want potential program directors to see you in action, then doing an away sub-I can probably help you. It's a tough call, but you're going to have to decide this for yourself; there are no choices that dominate.

4) Good electives: C/L psych, neuro consult, medicine sub-I. Not all medical schools require a sub-I (and some schools, as I found on the interview trail, require you to do both a medicine and a surgery sub-I -- *shudder*), and you can do well on the interview trail without the benefit of a sub-I. One of my friends last year got interviews at top programs, e.g., MGH, Columbia, and he didn't do any sub-Is at all.

Cheers
-AT.