What should I shoot for to get into a good Psych residency?

[WhiteCoatSyndrome]

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I'm a second year DO student beginning board study and contemplating more about what it is that I want to do when I grow up. I'm an above average student and have been gaining a lot of interest in psychiatry for many reasons. I'm beginning board prep and will be taking both COMLEX and USMLE. I'm wondering what it would take for a DO student to get into a good psychiatry residency. What should I shoot for in terms of Board scores (I've researched them, but more opinions are nice), grades and other things that may be important?

 

[evilbooyaa]

Be willing to do a psych residency. That's really pretty much it, IMO.

 

[Dave89]

Every medical student should shoot for a 290.

 

[Gambler 101]

Try to do the best you can in case you change your mind and fall in love with something third year or a specific program during interviews

 

[bonedrone14]

Try to do the best you can in case you change your mind and fall in love with something third year or a specific program during interviews

This. I had the opposite happen to me. Up until the middle of third year I was sure I was gonna do something like ortho or ent. So I worked like that's what I was going into. Then my interests changed and I fell in love with psych. My scores/stats letters were all good enough for those competitive specialties and as a result it's made matching in psych much easier and really allowed me to think about what I want rather than taking what I can get.

Plus learning things well helps in every field. The farther along in medicine you go the more you realize that every field has overlap and you can't have knowledge of just your own.