WAMC Unofficial Psych Residency Thread - 2022

[EmilKraepelin55]

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Because this previous season is winding down, I figured I could get a jumpstart on this thread for incoming 4th year psych hopefuls. I am one of them lol.

So to start off, a little about me:

I have been interested in psychiatry for a long time, but have been teetering between psych and neurology through medical school until now. I just find the subject matter incredibly interesting, and that it seems to fit my future life goals a bit better than neurology (although I do love neuro, which is why I am considering possibly orienting my practice to neuropsychiatry). I, within the past 2 months, have decided finally to take the dive into psych and I am looking to get an idea of my current competitiveness.

Possible Red flags: DO at a newer school? Very little research with no pubs?

Grades: Top quintile of the class, honors in every rotation including psych with the exception of OB and gen surg which were HP’s.

Boards:
COMLEX 1: 598
Step 1: 234
Will be taking CK and CE in June
PE was cancelled obviously

Research: unpublished case series in critical care, one unpublished lit review in neuropsychiatry. Honestly don’t think I should list either of these.

Med school EC’s: Mainly include some volunteering at underserved clinic as well as some music performance related events at nursing homes and my school. I have extensive experience as a musician prior to med school. I have also continued involving myself in an autism related non-profit that extends close to a decade.

Letters: Will get a great letter from my psych mentor as well as a couple of FM docsCurrently looking at obtaining another letter in psych and possibly neurology or neurosurgery.

Currently planning to do 3 or more auditions. About to throw a few applications out to see what sticks, and hopefully get another psych letter. If I can’t, then will be rotating with other psych docs in fourth year at my core site.

My residency goals include gaining a match in the Midwest, and I have specific states in mind. However, I know psych is getting competitive so I will apply as broadly as I can. Hoping to get into a program with more psychotherapy focus, but obviously this isn’t a deal breaker. I just want to be a psychiatrist in the end.

Anyways, thanks for whoever replies!

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

On the negative side is you new DO school and no publications. On the positive side are your scores, your school position, and importantly being interested in the Midwest. There are excellent programs in the Midwest and like everywhere some less excellent places. If you were to somehow able to quantitate the quality of training to competitiveness ratio, I think the Midwest would be the lowest hanging fruit to do the best in. Keep doing well and you should be fine. Just don't underapply or only interview at reach places. Good luck

 

[ayudar]

O cool idea. Here are my stats:

I'm a Caribbean US student who is beginning his fourth year in June. Just wrapped up my third year. Decided on psychiatry late. Was working hard to go for an internal medicine program with hopes of fellowship afterward but I had a really good experience in psychiatry and am in the midst of scheduling fourth year electives for psych now.

My stats are as follow:
Step 1 232
Step 2CK 254
No failed classes/exams
Bottom of class rank in pre-clinicals
4th quartile in clinicals
Honors in all rotations besides my third year surgery and psych rotations and a cardio elective I took in the COVID downtime. I received a Pass in these rotations.

ECs:
2 peer-reviewed publications (not first author) in a non-psych field.
1 poster (I didn't present it and am not first author) in a non-psych field.
2 psych publications that will be published (hopefully) by September in a peer-reviewed journal (I will be first author; both are narrative reviews).
1 leadership role.
1 work experience working in a primary care clinic during COVID time off full time (scribed/scheduling/virtual patient contact).
5+ volunteer opportunities.

Red flags:
A total of 8 months off (5 months to take my Step 1 + 3 months for a research opportunity which didn't result in publication). As an "off-track" medical student, I am looking to space out my rotations long enough so I can be considered a student during the application cycle. This will cause me to have 2 small 2 month gaps in my education (but I will be avoiding taking a documented leave of absence for these 2 month gaps I will be taking).

Only received a pass in my psych rotation. I worked well with 2 of three attendings. The comments of one of those attendings were very good and will be going in my MSPE letter from what my clerkship director said. I have secured LORs from those 2 attendings but believe I can obtain stronger LORs during my electives with the stress of exams gone. The third attending was my clerkship director who I failed to impress which resulted in only a Pass.
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I did post my stats earlier in another thread to get some feedback if I should look to graduate or should i stay in school during application cycle. This time I am just looking for a reality check on my chances so I don't get too comfortable.

My main goal is to just match. If I end up at a 'sweatshop' that is fine, as long as I have my future secured and I can make a career out this field. I will be dual applying into psychiatry and IM. I will be casting a wide net and applying to many programs. I have seen some of my peers who remained 'on-track' successfully match into IMG programs in Florida and elsewhere with lower stats this cycle, so I do have some confidence that I can match into a psych program.

Additionally, anyone have any recommendations on personal statement guides or something? To get into my Caribbean school, it wasn't the most important part of my application and I kind of just wrote whatever. This time I really want to write something proper. Applying for residency is so high-stakes and I don't want to take any chances to not take something like the personal statement seriously. I haven't really done any google searches or searched this website and reddit, but I thought I would ask here first.

 

[EmilKraepelin55]

On the negative side is you new DO school and no publications. On the positive side are your scores, your school position, and importantly being interested in the Midwest. There are excellent programs in the Midwest and like everywhere some less excellent places. If you were to somehow able to quantitate the quality of training to competitiveness ratio, I think the Midwest would be the lowest hanging fruit to do the best in. Keep doing well and you should be fine. Just don't underapply or only interview at reach places. Good luck

Thank you for your input! So by underapply, what do you mean? Should I go ahead and just apply to 70+ programs or would 50 - 60 suffice? At the moment I figure 50 should be a minimum given the current climate.

 

[jbomba]

Thank you for your input! So by underapply, what do you mean? Should I go ahead and just apply to 70+ programs or would 50 - 60 suffice? At the moment I figure 50 should be a minimum given the current climate.

To put it into perspective I over applied and sent in 110 apps when I applied a few years back - ended up having to cancel half a dozen interviews. As you can probably guess, I'm a bit neurotic to be fair. Also DO and my steps were 240/250. Things are probably more competitive now so if I were you, I'd probably shoot for 90ish programs with a fair number of safeties.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

underapply is not just a target number. you can apply to the top 100 most competitive places and not get in, or you can apply to 30 programs with a variety of competitiveness and be fine.

 

[Kyle Broflovski]

WAMC??

50x Comlex. 21x USMLE. Class rank is somewhere around 90 out of 130ish. My CV is very average. Did psychology as my undergrad.

I have done very well on clinical rotations and really thrived in that setting. My evaluations that are going in my Dean's letter say some very nice things. "Top 10% of students I've taught" "very personable and easy to work with" "Staff loved him and want him to come back" etc.

I'm a below average student with below average scores, but I've never failed anything and I have no real "red flags" in my application.

I'm freaking out seeing how many students have struggled to match. The fact that there were no psych spots available in the SOAP was also very telling to me.

How many auditions should I do? How many programs should I apply to? So are you saying there's a chance??!

 

[jbomba]

WAMC??

50x Comlex. 21x USMLE. Class rank is somewhere around 90 out of 130ish. My CV is very average. Did psychology as my undergrad.

I have done very well on clinical rotations and really thrived in that setting. My evaluations that are going in my Dean's letter say some very nice things. "Top 10% of students I've taught" "very personable and easy to work with" "Staff loved him and want him to come back" etc.

I'm a below average student with below average scores, but I've never failed anything and I have no real "red flags" in my application.

I'm freaking out seeing how many students have struggled to match. The fact that there were no psych spots available in the SOAP was also very telling to me.

How many auditions should I do? How many programs should I apply to? So are you saying there's a chance??!

I know the uncertainty of what might happen can be a killer. Truth is no one knows what will happen or what your odds are. I had (normal, well-spoken) friends with 240s match very low down their list and classmates with no step who barely passed comlex and were completely socially awkward match high. It can be a crap shoot. The best advice is apply very broadly, throw in a lot of safety schools, send letters of interest early in the cycle, and remind yourself this isn't ENT or IR.

As far as auditions, I would aim for 2-3. Preferably at places you might actually have a chance to attend (i.e. dont waste an audition at UCSF as an example).

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

"So your telling me there is a chance"

Not a comment on any poster here, but appropriate for the subject.

 

[StilgarMD]

Hypothetical future application - WAMC?

Looking at Psych Research Track residencies in the Northeast (Top picks Penn, Pitt - grew up near Penn)

My Stats: MD-PhD in good program. URM.
Step 1: 250
PhD focused on Social/Visual Neuroscience. No fellowships, posters, presentations (toxic lab). Paper on BioArxiv.
Probably some Psych Research during 4th year (after ERAS is submitted).
Step 2: 260
Clerkships: 1 Pass (Surg), Mostly High Pass, Honors in Medicine and Psych.
ECs: Student Director of Community health program for 4 years.

I feel like my thin PhD CV is going to make things hard for me at certain places, but I don't know if my worries are excessive or what I can do (I'm actually in the last ~9 mo of my PhD) to bolster those weak points. Thoughts?

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Like fellowships, research tracks are much more limited in volume and variable year to year. One year, I'm sure the Penn research track could get two dozen well qualified applicants and the next they might get 2. If you can let go of your geographical desires, I'm sure you will be fine. If you can't, you could be fine if you are willing to give up the research track plan. You are a strong candidate, but you are looking for a very rare position. Only you can decide where you stand with geography vs. position.

 

[StilgarMD]

Like fellowships, research tracks are much more limited in volume and variable year to year. One year, I'm sure the Penn research track could get two dozen well qualified applicants and the next they might get 2. If you can let go of your geographical desires, I'm sure you will be fine. If you can't, you could be fine if you are willing to give up the research track plan. You are a strong candidate, but you are looking for a very rare position. Only you can decide where you stand with geography vs. position.

Wow wouldn't imagine the applicant count could fluctuate like that. I'm pretty flexible on geography and keen on research tracks. Thanks for the tip.

 

[jdp207]

I'm interested in 5 year child-adolescent fast track integrated programs ideally in the northeast but am also interested in the midwest as wife has ties to the Chicago area. I think my application coming together well and I should be a pretty strong applicant. I'm hoping to target some competitive places as I have some interest in academic medicine and want to keep that door open by building a shiny CV.

Undergrad: Economics, poli sci and philosophy at a good school
School: non-fancy MD State school in the northeast
Step 1: 249
Step 2: Taking in June, I think I can at least match step 1 performance as I've gotten 80-95th percentile on my shelfs so my knowledge base is good
Clinicals: Honors in Psych, Family Med, Pediatrics and Ob-Gyn, High Pass: Neurology and Surgery, Pass: Internal Medicine (honored shelf and clinical evals but the standardized patient exam somehow went poorly... of all things...), good comments all around
Rank: Haven't checked but it's at least top half, maybe top quarter?
Research: two non-psych related abstracts, working on a meta-analysis a super productive well known child psych researcher currently, also have 1st author philosophy of medicine paper ready to submit (might have another before applying)
LORS: 2 strong psych letters, one from the director of my home child psych fellowship and the other the medical director of the in-patient adolescent psych unit, I have an adult psych AI coming up and am hoping to get another from my upcoming neurodevelopmental pediatrics elective
ECS: Nothing besides research in medical school, but have a lot of unique experiences from my prior career before medical school and some strong volunteer experiences as well

My take is that if I can lock down a strong step 2, get those last 2 LORs and build up my research a bit more I should have a fighting chance of being of getting noticed by some very selective programs. I'd appreciate any feedback on how to increase my chances.

 

[NEApplicant]

Oscillating between psych and another specialty, thought I'd gauge chances here while I plan fourth year. Looks like I'll be the first low Step score so far:


US MD school, ~top 50. I'm an MD/MPH student currently on an MPH year.
Step 1: High 210's.
Step 2 CK: 23X (moved up ~20 points from Step 1).
Publications: 5 papers (one as a first author), 2 posters. None of them directly related to psych.
M3 grades: Second quartile in class, no AOA. Straight "honors" in a school where honors is basically a B.

Lots of extracurricular/leadership experiences too including a tiny amount of psych-related work, but not sure how much that's worth for psych.

In retrospect, I spent too much time on extracurricular stuff and too little time on studying, and I realized that a little too late to fix scores.

Programs in the area I'm interested in range from top to mid-tier, I don't really think there's anything there that would be considered "low-tier". So I guess my question is specifically: what are my chances at a mid-tier residency on the East coast (Northeast/Mid-Atlantic)?

And what can I do to strengthen my application?

 

[kopftonmd]

Maybe I'm out of touch with youth culture, but... what is a bunny boot camp?

Is this where the Easter bunny goes to get fit prior to running around dropping eggs yearly?

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

We have been totally hacked.

 

[EmilKraepelin55]

I’m going to residency after I toss applications out of my medical school. Can’t wait to be a resident!

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Really, how hard was it to figure out that Schizo-Easter basket was different from dementia-prebunny?

 

[katy524]

Throwing my hat into the ring. WAMC?

Aiming for basically any psych program that will take a non-US citizen. Would prefer to be on the coasts/cities/suburban near cities. Possibly dual-applying with FM

Undergrad: Neuroscience
School: Reputable DO school. Non-US citizen
Preclinicals: I'm a **** student. No fails but borderline bottom quartile. Grades trended upwards in 2nd year if that matters.
Step 1: 21X
COMLEX 1: 52X
Clinicals: Pass on all clerkships in a F/P/H system. Our school only factors in shelf scores in grading. Generic 1-liner positive eval from my psych preceptor who probably didn't know the significance of evals. Have a couple really nice comments from other specialties, however.
LOR: Will have a very positive one from my psych preceptor. I really need to do an audition or 2 over the summer to get a letter from a preceptor at a residency program but sadly, none scheduled yet.
Research: A few psych-related posters presented at national conferences (mostly during grad school). 1 publication. Psych research assistant prior to med school.
EC: I do a lot of pre-med mentoring. A couple leadership positions at clubs in med school. Nothing long-term in the community during med school but had a ton of clinical volunteering hours in pre-med. Trying to become a Crisis Text Line volunteer but they haven't gotten back to me since I applied in March 🙁
Other: I tend to network well? Have a lot of contacts from being active in psych-related professional organizations. Not sure how much this will help.

 

[Stagg737]

Thank you for your input! So by underapply, what do you mean? Should I go ahead and just apply to 70+ programs or would 50 - 60 suffice? At the moment I figure 50 should be a minimum given the current climate.

To give you an idea, I applied to the 2018 match and had stats worse than below. Applied to 75 programs with most being mid-low tier academic programs and about 10 reaches. Got 9 ii's, went to 8, matched at my first choice. When I applied, there was a huge geographical component (7/9 ii's were within an 8 hour drive). Got no invites to my reach programs, but did get a couple I did not expect.

Throwing my hat into the ring. WAMC?

Aiming for basically any psych program that will take a non-US citizen. Would prefer to be on the coasts/cities/suburban near cities. Possibly dual-applying with FM

Undergrad: Neuroscience
School: Reputable DO school. Non-US citizen
Preclinicals: I'm a **** student. No fails but borderline bottom quartile. Grades trended upwards in 2nd year if that matters.
Step 1: 21X
COMLEX 1: 52X
Clinicals: Pass on all clerkships in a F/P/H system. Our school only factors in shelf scores in grading. Generic 1-liner positive eval from my psych preceptor who probably didn't know the significance of evals. Have a couple really nice comments from other specialties, however.
LOR: Will have a very positive one from my psych preceptor. I really need to do an audition or 2 over the summer to get a letter from a preceptor at a residency program but sadly, none scheduled yet.
Research: A few psych-related posters presented at national conferences (mostly during grad school). 1 publication. Psych research assistant prior to med school.
EC: I do a lot of pre-med mentoring. A couple leadership positions at clubs in med school. Nothing long-term in the community during med school but had a ton of clinical volunteering hours in pre-med. Trying to become a Crisis Text Line volunteer but they haven't gotten back to me since I applied in March 🙁
Other: I tend to network well? Have a lot of contacts from being active in psych-related professional organizations. Not sure how much this will help.

This sounds very much like my med school. You can search my hx and feel free to PM me if you want. You're in a bit better place than I was and I didn't have problems. It's a bit of a crap-shoot though, and I agree with the previously mentioned advice.

 

[mtglover1991]

WAMC, specifically with my preliminary school list.

Undergrad: Psychology
School: Reputable MD school, but not looking to stay in my school's region
Preclinicals: Likely in the middle of the class, likely 2/3rd quartile.
Step 1: 23x
Step 2: 23x (2 points above step 1 - practice tests predicted higher score, but hoping scores won't hurt me though I don't think they'll necessarily help me)
Clinicals: F/P/HP/H system, 2 P, 2 HP, 2 H, 1 pending (HP/H). Shelfs were without exception the limiting factor in clerkship grades, eval comments were 50/50 split of generically positive or very positive (esp. psych evals).
LOR: 1 from H clerkship (OB), 1 from HP clerkship (FM), 1 from H clerkship (Psych), 1 from research PI (details about project below, will be a strong letter), 1 from psych AI.
Research: 1 experience from undergrad and only one from medical school. Started the med school project with PI towards end of MS1 from ground up (gathered assessments, did lit review, learned redcap, digitized assessments, exported data and worked with statistician for analysis, did huge chunk of writing on manuscript, wrote abstract, submitting paper). 3 poster presentations (with another required before graduation - should I count this?), 2 national conference oral presentations, no publications (submitting manuscript within the next month). Research is in specific area, aligned with most of my EC activities/leadership. Will graduate with research-focused designation.
EC: I'm a leadership/mentorship-oriented person, with 5 leadership positions and 5 good volunteering experiences, most experiences related to same patient population my research focuses on.
Other: Grew up/educated in western US, looking to end up in NE or PNW - family ties in PNW and some in NE with family historically moving in and out of the region (spending a lot of time visiting them is how I'm familiar with the region). Had worked in psych-specific jobs for multiple years before medical school with long-standing interest in mental health.

Important aspects of residency to me are lifestyle, region, access to research, and strong psychotherapy training. Here is the school list (in rough preference order):
Yale
Oregon Health and Science
MGH Mclean-Harvard
Cambridge-Harvard
Stanford
Boston VA Healthcare System-Harvard
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center-Harvard
Brigham’s Women Hospital-Harvard
Butler Hospital/Brown
Einstein (Philly)
Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Zucker Hillside
Icahn Mount Sinai, St Luke
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
University of Vermont
UCSF
George Washington University (DC)
Hartford
Dartmouth
University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt
Johns Hopkins
Cornell (NYC)
Icahn Mt Sinai Beth Israel
University of Pittsburgh
Tufts Medical Center (Boston)
Boston University (Boston)
Howard (DC)
University of Washington (Seattle)
University of Washington (Seattle) - Montana Track
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center
Maine
University of Massachusetts
University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School

WAMC? Does the school list include too many reach schools? Am I applying to enough programs?

 

[mtglover1991]

WAMC, specifically with my preliminary school list.

Undergrad: Psychology
School: Reputable MD school, but not looking to stay in my school's region
Preclinicals: Likely in the middle of the class, likely 2/3rd quartile.
Step 1: 234
Step 2: 236 (practice tests predicted higher score, but hoping scores won't hurt me though I don't think they'll necessarily help me)
Clinicals: F/P/HP/H system, 2 P, 2 HP, 2 H, 1 pending (HP/H). Shelfs were without exception the limiting factor in clerkship grades, eval comments were 50/50 split of generically positive or very positive (esp. psych evals).
LOR: 1 from H clerkship (OB), 1 from HP clerkship (FM), 1 from H clerkship (Psych), 1 from research PI (details about project below, will be a strong letter), 1 from psych AI.
Research: 1 experience from undergrad and only one from medical school. Started the med school project with PI towards end of MS1 from ground up (gathered assessments, did lit review, learned redcap, digitized assessments, exported data and worked with statistician for analysis, did huge chunk of writing on manuscript, wrote abstract, submitting paper). 3 poster presentations (with another required before graduation - should I count this?), 2 national conference oral presentations, no publications (submitting manuscript within the next month). Research is in specific area, aligned with most of my EC activities/leadership. Will graduate with research-focused designation.
EC: I'm a leadership/mentorship-oriented person, with 5 leadership positions and 5 good volunteering experiences, most experiences related to same patient population my research focuses on.
Other: Grew up/educated in western US, looking to end up in NE or PNW - family ties in PNW and some in NE with family historically moving in and out of the region (spending a lot of time visiting them is how I'm familiar with the region). Had worked in psych-specific jobs for multiple years before medical school with long-standing interest in mental health.

Important aspects of residency to me are lifestyle, region, access to research, and strong psychotherapy training. Here is the school list (in rough preference order):
Yale
Oregon Health and Science
MGH Mclean-Harvard
Cambridge-Harvard
Stanford
Boston VA Healthcare System-Harvard
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center-Harvard
Brigham’s Women Hospital-Harvard
Butler Hospital/Brown
Einstein (Philly)
Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Zucker Hillside
Icahn Mount Sinai, St Luke
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
University of Vermont
UCSF
George Washington University (DC)
Hartford
Dartmouth
University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt
John’s Hopkins
Cornell (NYC)
Icahn Mt Sinai Beth Israel
University of Pittsburgh
Tufts Medical Center (Boston)
Boston University (Boston)
Howard (DC)
University of Washington (Seattle)
University of Washington (Seattle) - Montana Trackb
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center
Maine
University of Massachusetts
University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School

WAMC? Does the school list include too many reach schools? Am I applying to enough programs?

bump

 

[kopftonmd]

Hello everyone!

I always enjoy getting to read these and the residency interview reviews every year, so now it's my turn to ask the hive mind for wisdom. I'm less concerned about matching somewhere somehow, and more about overall competitiveness - my advisors are telling me to shoot for the stars but I wonder if they're being a bit too positive and I should refocus my list away from top tier places. Will be applying to probably ~40 places with a mix of tiers, NE and midwest primarily given that's where I'm from and went to school.

Undergrad: Music!
School: Northeast MD state school
Step 1: 24x
Step 2: 25x

Clinicals: H in psych, neuro, medicine. HP surgery. P OB, peds, FM. My school is scaled such that ~65% of the class gets a P in each clerkship. Strong clinical comments per dean, and likely 2nd quartile.

Research: Currently 18 pubs of various kinds (posters, oral presentations, papers) across a variety of fields: addiction, psychiatry, med ed, medical humanities (literature and psychoanalysis especially), bioethics/med ethics. Won some awards. A few more papers in the works so the number might go up. Primarily these are independent projects with only a couple of repeats (ie journal took presesntation from a conference and published it), so very little filler/fluff.

LORS: Currently looking like 4 letters: 2 psych (writers said they would be "great"), 1 IM either from subI or clerkship, and 1 from my medical humanities research mentor, who writes very, very good comments/letters from things he's written for me in the past.

ECS: Involved in leadership of a bunch of IGs over the years, strong mental health focus. Leadership on a couple of school committees (discipline, academic standing) with faculty/deans. Formal and informal mentoring for lower grade med students. TAed a couple of classes incl. anatomy. Recently took over as the practice manager for the nascent telepsych program for our student free clinic.

Non-clinical ECs: Sing opera with the grad students at the university, perform regularly in public. Sing/accompany for various churches nearby. In addition to MD, getting an MA in medical humanities. Put out a couple of albums over the course of med school.

I'm anticipating that the most significant hurdle my application will face is the clinical grades. Can't do much about those now so the goal is to rock my electives (some have five tier grading and all provide comments) and my sub-I between now and ERAS time.

Any wisdom is appreciated.

 

[ArdorAyurveda]

Hello everyone!

I always enjoy getting to read these and the residency interview reviews every year, so now it's my turn to ask the hive mind for wisdom. I'm less concerned about matching somewhere somehow, and more about overall competitiveness - my advisors are telling me to shoot for the stars but I wonder if they're being a bit too positive and I should refocus my list away from top tier places. Will be applying to probably ~40 places with a mix of tiers, NE and midwest primarily given that's where I'm from and went to school.

Undergrad: Music!
School: Northeast MD state school
Step 1: 24x
Step 2: 25x

Clinicals: H in psych, neuro, medicine. HP surgery. P OB, peds, FM. My school is scaled such that ~65% of the class gets a P in each clerkship. Strong clinical comments per dean, and likely 2nd quartile.

Research: Currently 18 pubs of various kinds (posters, oral presentations, papers) across a variety of fields: addiction, psychiatry, med ed, medical humanities (literature and psychoanalysis especially), bioethics/med ethics. Won some awards. A few more papers in the works so the number might go up. Primarily these are independent projects with only a couple of repeats (ie journal took presesntation from a conference and published it), so very little filler/fluff.

LORS: Currently looking like 4 letters: 2 psych (writers said they would be "great"), 1 IM either from subI or clerkship, and 1 from my medical humanities research mentor, who writes very, very good comments/letters from things he's written for me in the past.

ECS: Involved in leadership of a bunch of IGs over the years, strong mental health focus. Leadership on a couple of school committees (discipline, academic standing) with faculty/deans. Formal and informal mentoring for lower grade med students. TAed a couple of classes incl. anatomy. Recently took over as the practice manager for the nascent telepsych program for our student free clinic.

Non-clinical ECs: Sing opera with the grad students at the university, perform regularly in public. Sing/accompany for various churches nearby. In addition to MD, getting an MA in medical humanities. Put out a couple of albums over the course of med school.

I'm anticipating that the most significant hurdle my application will face is the clinical grades. Can't do much about those now so the goal is to rock my electives (some have five tier grading and all provide comments) and my sub-I between now and ERAS time.

Any wisdom is appreciated.

My crystal ball says there's a 97% chance that you'll match somewhere as long as you don't have a glaring personality defect and your evals aren't terrible. Neither of those seem true for you, at least over the internet.

You said yourself that you're applying to a mix of places, so use those "lower tier" places to hedge your bets against the uber competitive NE residencies that you're applying to.

Congratulations on all your achievements, by the way. You seem like a very humble yet accomplished person, and that trait will carry you far no matter what residency you match into.

 

[kirklandstretchtite]

WAMC, specifically with my preliminary school list.

Undergrad: Psychology
School: Reputable MD school, but not looking to stay in my school's region
Preclinicals: Likely in the middle of the class, likely 2/3rd quartile.
Step 1: 234
Step 2: 236 (practice tests predicted higher score, but hoping scores won't hurt me though I don't think they'll necessarily help me)
Clinicals: F/P/HP/H system, 2 P, 2 HP, 2 H, 1 pending (HP/H). Shelfs were without exception the limiting factor in clerkship grades, eval comments were 50/50 split of generically positive or very positive (esp. psych evals).
LOR: 1 from H clerkship (OB), 1 from HP clerkship (FM), 1 from H clerkship (Psych), 1 from research PI (details about project below, will be a strong letter), 1 from psych AI.
Research: 1 experience from undergrad and only one from medical school. Started the med school project with PI towards end of MS1 from ground up (gathered assessments, did lit review, learned redcap, digitized assessments, exported data and worked with statistician for analysis, did huge chunk of writing on manuscript, wrote abstract, submitting paper). 3 poster presentations (with another required before graduation - should I count this?), 2 national conference oral presentations, no publications (submitting manuscript within the next month). Research is in specific area, aligned with most of my EC activities/leadership. Will graduate with research-focused designation.
EC: I'm a leadership/mentorship-oriented person, with 5 leadership positions and 5 good volunteering experiences, most experiences related to same patient population my research focuses on.
Other: Grew up/educated in western US, looking to end up in NE or PNW - family ties in PNW and some in NE with family historically moving in and out of the region (spending a lot of time visiting them is how I'm familiar with the region). Had worked in psych-specific jobs for multiple years before medical school with long-standing interest in mental health.

Important aspects of residency to me are lifestyle, region, access to research, and strong psychotherapy training. Here is the school list (in rough preference order):
Yale
Oregon Health and Science
MGH Mclean-Harvard
Cambridge-Harvard
Stanford
Boston VA Healthcare System-Harvard
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center-Harvard
Brigham’s Women Hospital-Harvard
Butler Hospital/Brown
Einstein (Philly)
Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Zucker Hillside
Icahn Mount Sinai, St Luke
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
University of Vermont
UCSF
George Washington University (DC)
Hartford
Dartmouth
University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt
John’s Hopkins
Cornell (NYC)
Icahn Mt Sinai Beth Israel
University of Pittsburgh
Tufts Medical Center (Boston)
Boston University (Boston)
Howard (DC)
University of Washington (Seattle)
University of Washington (Seattle) - Montana Track
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center
Maine
University of Massachusetts
University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School

WAMC? Does the school list include too many reach schools? Am I applying to enough programs?

You have probably have no difficulty in matching in psychiatry but I think your list contains too many reach programs. You should still apply to all of them but make sure to add more mid/low-tier programs. Also it's Johns Hopkins lol (don't make a bad first impression!)
Congratulations on your achievements outside of school!
Good luck, and I wish you all the best!

 

[kirklandstretchtite]

Hello everyone!

I always enjoy getting to read these and the residency interview reviews every year, so now it's my turn to ask the hive mind for wisdom. I'm less concerned about matching somewhere somehow, and more about overall competitiveness - my advisors are telling me to shoot for the stars but I wonder if they're being a bit too positive and I should refocus my list away from top tier places. Will be applying to probably ~40 places with a mix of tiers, NE and midwest primarily given that's where I'm from and went to school.

Undergrad: Music!
School: Northeast MD state school
Step 1: 24x
Step 2: 25x

Clinicals: H in psych, neuro, medicine. HP surgery. P OB, peds, FM. My school is scaled such that ~65% of the class gets a P in each clerkship. Strong clinical comments per dean, and likely 2nd quartile.

Research: Currently 18 pubs of various kinds (posters, oral presentations, papers) across a variety of fields: addiction, psychiatry, med ed, medical humanities (literature and psychoanalysis especially), bioethics/med ethics. Won some awards. A few more papers in the works so the number might go up. Primarily these are independent projects with only a couple of repeats (ie journal took presesntation from a conference and published it), so very little filler/fluff.

LORS: Currently looking like 4 letters: 2 psych (writers said they would be "great"), 1 IM either from subI or clerkship, and 1 from my medical humanities research mentor, who writes very, very good comments/letters from things he's written for me in the past.

ECS: Involved in leadership of a bunch of IGs over the years, strong mental health focus. Leadership on a couple of school committees (discipline, academic standing) with faculty/deans. Formal and informal mentoring for lower grade med students. TAed a couple of classes incl. anatomy. Recently took over as the practice manager for the nascent telepsych program for our student free clinic.

Non-clinical ECs: Sing opera with the grad students at the university, perform regularly in public. Sing/accompany for various churches nearby. In addition to MD, getting an MA in medical humanities. Put out a couple of albums over the course of med school.

I'm anticipating that the most significant hurdle my application will face is the clinical grades. Can't do much about those now so the goal is to rock my electives (some have five tier grading and all provide comments) and my sub-I between now and ERAS time.

Any wisdom is appreciated.

Congratulations on all of your great achievements! As @ArdorAyurveda stated, you will certainly match and will have no problem getting interviews from some of the top programs. You have a unique background that stands out, and your achievements are quite spectacular. You don't need to worry about your clinical grades as much as you already have H in psychiatry and demonstrated interests in the field through research and ECs. I have no doubt that you will do well on your psychiatry electives so I would advise you to start preparing for the interviews as they matter more during the ranking process.

Just keep doing you, and I hope you end up at your top program!

 

[SquibDell]

Red flags: FMG from English-speaking country, graduated 2019 but have been working full time as doctor since with rotations in psych
Undergrad: Sports Science
School: Top school in home country, possibly some name recognition in the US due to large number of US IMGs who study there
Preclinicals: about average for school, maybe slightly above, nil failures/repeats
Step 1: mid 240s
Step 2: high 250s
Step 3: Hoping to sit in December if able to leave home country
Clinicals: About average, nil failures/repeats
LORs: Likely generic letter from non-reputable US hospital (only one that would take me for a psych rotation in med school), can get 1-2 decent psych letters and 1 internal medicine letter from home country but these are unlikely to be up to the standard of US letters (i.e. as effusive)
Research: Approx 10 posters and articles (nil first author) from prior to med, some related to psych
EC: Nothing super noteworthy. A bit of involvement in various sports. I have an interest in effective altruism so give a decent percentage of my salary to charity but I'm not actively involved in the community as yet
Other: Masters degree in psych-related field prior to med, Master of Public Health to be completed this year.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether remote/zoom interviews are likely to happen this year? There are currently some pretty stringent restrictions on travel to/from my home country.

I'd also rather stay in my home country than do a residency I'm unlikely to enjoy in a city that's unpleasant to live, so I'm planning to be a bit picky with my application. If anyone has recommendations on good programs I might have a shot at, I'd be very appreciative!

 

[TurtleyReady4Med]

@SquibDell When you sign in to ERAS there is a joint statement saying that interviews will be virtual this year. Here is a link: https://www.admsep.org/aadprtadmsepjointstatement2021-6.pdf

 

[TheaterOfTheme]

Hello everyone!

I always enjoy getting to read these and the residency interview reviews every year, so now it's my turn to ask the hive mind for wisdom. I'm less concerned about matching somewhere somehow, and more about overall competitiveness - my advisors are telling me to shoot for the stars but I wonder if they're being a bit too positive and I should refocus my list away from top tier places. Will be applying to probably ~40 places with a mix of tiers, NE and midwest primarily given that's where I'm from and went to school.

Undergrad: Music!
School: Northeast MD state school
Step 1: 24x
Step 2: 25x

Clinicals: H in psych, neuro, medicine. HP surgery. P OB, peds, FM. My school is scaled such that ~65% of the class gets a P in each clerkship. Strong clinical comments per dean, and likely 2nd quartile.

Research: Currently 18 pubs of various kinds (posters, oral presentations, papers) across a variety of fields: addiction, psychiatry, med ed, medical humanities (literature and psychoanalysis especially), bioethics/med ethics. Won some awards. A few more papers in the works so the number might go up. Primarily these are independent projects with only a couple of repeats (ie journal took presesntation from a conference and published it), so very little filler/fluff.

LORS: Currently looking like 4 letters: 2 psych (writers said they would be "great"), 1 IM either from subI or clerkship, and 1 from my medical humanities research mentor, who writes very, very good comments/letters from things he's written for me in the past.

ECS: Involved in leadership of a bunch of IGs over the years, strong mental health focus. Leadership on a couple of school committees (discipline, academic standing) with faculty/deans. Formal and informal mentoring for lower grade med students. TAed a couple of classes incl. anatomy. Recently took over as the practice manager for the nascent telepsych program for our student free clinic.

Non-clinical ECs: Sing opera with the grad students at the university, perform regularly in public. Sing/accompany for various churches nearby. In addition to MD, getting an MA in medical humanities. Put out a couple of albums over the course of med school.

I'm anticipating that the most significant hurdle my application will face is the clinical grades. Can't do much about those now so the goal is to rock my electives (some have five tier grading and all provide comments) and my sub-I between now and ERAS time.

Any wisdom is appreciated.

I doubt clinical grades will matter--even at top programs. Put a ton of time into the personal statement. Your story sounds great, and the music stuff will be very well received (music certainly was big part of my application as well). Also put a ton of time into making sure your ERAS app fleshes out all of these amazing experiences! At this point, its just painting it all in a clear and concise way. Good luck!

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

A lot of things matter, and clinical grades are one of them. Probably more than preclinical (assuming no failures). Without step I anymore, everything else will get a little more attention. I do agree with the criticism about the rotation graders having little inter rater reliability.

 

[swigswag96]

Low tier US MD

Red Flags: 3 shelf exam failures on the first try during 3rd year. I retook all three of them successfully on the 2nd attempt

Clinical: Ps across the board. The 3 clerkships that I had to retake the shelf will show that I needed to remediate

STEP 1: 220

STEP 2: Will be taking next month

LORs: I should be able to get 2 in psych and 1 in Medicine.

ECs: Pretty minimal. I held one event for my school. I did do some volunteering but that was a part of the school's curriculum

Non-Clinical ECs: Nothing much from medical school. I did do a lot of teaching in undergrad as a TA, peer tutor, and as a GED tutor for adults that I am pretty passionate about, but I wasn't able to do teaching related activities in medical school.

I know that my red flag is pretty big and I am having trouble addressing it as part of my MSPE. I sincerely felt that I struggled with the shelf exams during third year because covid cut our rotation time down, which also cut our time to study for shelf exams since we had to take the shelf exams at the end of the block. I feel that isn't good enough of a reason because other people from my school didn't struggle as much as I did.

The only strengths that I feel that I have is that I feel that I have to my application is that I feel like I am able to answer why psych well and am able to talk about my interests/hobbies passionately. I've also tried networking a bit so I've had some interactions with programs at virtual open house type events.

 

[Boola Boy]

MD Applicant

Red Flags: None

Step 1: 221

Step 2: 232

Clinical: Straight Ps baby!

LORs: 2 Psych, 1 FM, 1 IM

Publications: 2 unrelated to Psych from undergraduate college (not from medical school). I was a lab monkey. I'm like fourth or fifth author on both papers. Currently working on a research project unrelated to psych. Might be published in a niche non-Psych journal but that's about it.

Interested in Midwest and the South mostly. Mid tier US MD school. How many programs should I apply to? Interested in forensics, eating disorders, psychedelics research, and psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Long-term goal is private-practice, but I wouldn't mind have vacatio--i mean, research weeks during residency. Have pretty strong ECs, so I'm confident I can talk about "Why Psych".