US applicants up 12%

[Salpingo]

Saw OPD post this in another thread. I didn't want to hijack, but looks like psychiatry had a 12% in increase in US applicants. Eyeballing the other specialties, that's seems to be the largest increase (not sure how the transition year specialties are reported):

http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ADT2015_final.pdf

Speaking personally, the candidates this year were great, reinforcing whats already been said on the board that psychiatry is becoming increasingly appealing. Like I've said before, I don't think we're replacing ortho or derm, but becoming a more attractive alternative to internal medicine, neurology, peds, etc.

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[Dharma]

My first thought is how much of the increase can be attributed to legitimate interest vs a general fear of not matching w a subsequent increase in "back-up" applications. That said I've talked to a good number of fellow 3rd year students w psych on their radars.

Game on!

 

[notdeadyet]

The more telling figure is what % of people applying through the match end up in psychiatry. In 2011, it was 4.1%. In 2015, it was 4.6%. It's an increase, but not huge. Psychiatry residency slots as a whole are still only 57% U.S. Seniors. It's still one of the least competitive specialties out there. The bump in applications is partially from what Dharma describes and also an increase in raw applicants.

What we are seeing is a more accomplished and professional applicant pool as a reflection of an increase in enrollments without a corresponding increase in residency slots. Allopathic grads without big red flags will not have trouble finding a good home if they apply broadly/early. Osteopaths might start feeling more of a pinch now and IMGs certainly will. This trend will likely continue.

I do think there is a real shift in the research folks entering psych. We are poaching a lot of MD/PhDs that might have gone into neurology were it not for Insel's RDoC work. The increased efforts in researchers will really help the field. Which is great, because it ain't coming from me....

 

[Salpingo]

My first thought is how much of the increase can be attributed to legitimate interest vs a general fear of not matching w a subsequent increase in "back-up" applications. That said I've talked to a good number of fellow 3rd year students w psych on their radars.

Sorry, misleading title. The numbers I'm referring to are matched medical students, not students who applied.

The more telling figure is what % of people applying through the match end up in psychiatry. In 2011, it was 4.1%. In 2015, it was 4.6%. It's an increase, but not huge. Psychiatry residency slots as a whole are still only 57% U.S. Seniors. It's still one of the least competitive specialties out there. The bump in applications is partially from what Dharma describes and also an increase in raw applicants.

While that's true, the % is still the biggest increase out of any of the other specialties. Part of that may be that psych still has relatively few applicants compared to say IM, so any change in absolute number will likely be more significant. However, if it was just a matter of a increased raw applicants in general, you would expect to see a relatively equal uptick across the board, with the exception of the specialties that already "capped out" years ago (e.g. unless plastics, derm, neurosurg, etc. add spots, any change in their numbers are going to just be a reflections of the spots available).

This data doesn't account for US students who would have taken a spot outside of the match back in 2011, although my sense is that would be uncommon for US allo students. Regardless, this is a trend I hope continues.

 

[DPYN]

Psychiatry did well this year. According to NRMP stats, 57% of slots filled by AMG seniors is much better than IM or FM and, surprisingly, equal to Diagnostic Radiology.

 

[DD214_DOC]

They know ...