Ye Olde Location vs. Program dilemma: Fellowship/family edition!

[fiatslug]

By the time July 2008 rolls around, I'll have an 18 month old and a 6 week old. I'm applying to child psych. Having a major dilemma as far as what program to choose! Both programs will require a move. Both are in areas that have a lower cost of living than where we are now, and both are roughly comparable in terms of rents.

Program A:
-good program at major university
-absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the town--we could easily see our family living here. We felt completely at home there.
-not a lot of developmental/autism education in the program, which is a real passion of mine.
-small clinical faculty. This is a concern b/c I come from a small program and felt the limited clinical faculty kind of narrowed mentorship options.
-call is q 6 weeks (home call) for a week at a time. Described as generally not bad, of course your own black cloud is a factor.
-good/excellent moonlighting opportunities
-there's concern the program could, someday, fall victim to budget axing. Was assured any applicants they admitted, they would graduate, but who knows what that really means?
-this is the area where we want to live and practice.
-unclear if I could start the program late d/t my little one. Probably, but might be a bigger deal than at B.
-residents are cool & seem happy. Not a huge pressure to load up on intakes.
-impressed w/didactics.
-Did I mention how much we LOVE the area?

Program B:
-good program at major university
-not at ALL enthusiastic about living there (though I suspect it's not AS bad as I think). Would be signing on for 4 months a year of >105 degree temps, which all of us (husband, daughter, furbaby) HATE!
-has two areas I'm really passionate about: amazing autism education/research, and infant sleep research. I'm no researcher, but I'd love to learn more and possibly be involved.
-apparently has a sucky C/L service (staffed by a psychologist who tried to fail 2 fellows!), but they are aware of the problems and there's talk of major changes before my year. But again, nothing to count on. I like C/L, so having a sucky experience would be a bummer.
-residents are cool & seem happy. One (a year ahead of me) is a very close friend from med school
-NO CALL first year, very minimal call second year.
-good/excellent moonlighting opportunities.
-NOT an area where we want to settle down. In fact, if we did go to B, we'd still want to settle near Program A. My great fear is that we would get stuck there!
-they were VERY cool about the possibility of me starting late d/t the little one.
-impressed w/didactics.
-financially, program is very secure.
-huge clinical faculty.

Your thoughts? I'm deliberately not id'ing either program (not even by PM )--both would be good training, neither is malignant, etc. I could definitely be happy in either program. You always hear how it's important to train where you want to live--what if you don't? How portable are you on graduation as a child psychiatrist?

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[Solideliquid]

This is so funny, my residency program closely resembles your option B. I had the same doubts you are having when I placed the program at my #1 on ROL.


Now the heat, not really liking the city, bad bad job market for spouse, has me glancing at the clearinghouse list every other month.


My advice: Option A, just wish I listened to myself a year and a half ago.


EDIT As to your question, from speaking to our departing child fellows, yes you are very portable.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

A.

Happy family trumps all.

 

[sikegeek]

definitely program A
Don't underestimate how much better life is when you are happy to get up in the morning and look out the window.

 

[cleareyedguy]

Probably A, but if the general training and autism experience are significantly better, then I would might well go with B and use the clout of child training to cherry pick a future home.

 

[MBK2003]

Have to agree with OPD's assessment of family happiness. Also one of the major advantages of training in the place you eventually want to work is that as a trainee you can get involved in very cool career opportunities that would be unavailable to you as an attending/private practitioner with productivity expectations.

 

[fiatslug]

A.

Happy family trumps all.

Mrs OPD must be a very happy lady.

I appreciate all the advice--I think I am leaning more toward A, tempting as B might be in some ways. A just feels like home. And we need to be "home," KWIM? I've about had it with deferred gratification!

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Mrs OPD must be a very happy lady.

I appreciate all the advice--I think I am leaning more toward A, tempting as B might be in some ways. A just feels like home. And we need to be "home," KWIM? I've about had it with deferred gratification!

Mrs. OPD & kids have paid their dues through the years. We're trying to make up for it a little bit more now.

 

[fiatslug]

Ah, crap!

I just talked to my friend at program B--there is so much cool stuff going on there that I'm interested in! And he has kids, so he's going to give me the family scoop...

One thing that's nice about B is that you are never, ever there after 5 pm. At A, you kind of have to hang around for supervision on clinical days, which can mean staying til 6 or 7 (which doesn't sound like a big deal until you have 2 under 2 at home waiting for mommy). Sigh...

 

[tennreb]

By the time July 2008 rolls around, I'll have an 18 month old and a 6 week old. I'm applying to child psych. Having a major dilemma as far as what program to choose! Both programs will require a move. Both are in areas that have a lower cost of living than where we are now, and both are roughly comparable in terms of rents.

Program A:
-good program at major university
-absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the town--we could easily see our family living here. We felt completely at home there.
-not a lot of developmental/autism education in the program, which is a real passion of mine.
-small clinical faculty. This is a concern b/c I come from a small program and felt the limited clinical faculty kind of narrowed mentorship options.
-call is q 6 weeks (home call) for a week at a time. Described as generally not bad, of course your own black cloud is a factor.
-good/excellent moonlighting opportunities
-there's concern the program could, someday, fall victim to budget axing. Was assured any applicants they admitted, they would graduate, but who knows what that really means?
-this is the area where we want to live and practice.
-unclear if I could start the program late d/t my little one. Probably, but might be a bigger deal than at B.
-residents are cool & seem happy. Not a huge pressure to load up on intakes.
-impressed w/didactics.
-Did I mention how much we LOVE the area?

Program B:
-good program at major university
-not at ALL enthusiastic about living there (though I suspect it's not AS bad as I think). Would be signing on for 4 months a year of >105 degree temps, which all of us (husband, daughter, furbaby) HATE!
-has two areas I'm really passionate about: amazing autism education/research, and infant sleep research. I'm no researcher, but I'd love to learn more and possibly be involved.
-apparently has a sucky C/L service (staffed by a psychologist who tried to fail 2 fellows!), but they are aware of the problems and there's talk of major changes before my year. But again, nothing to count on. I like C/L, so having a sucky experience would be a bummer.
-residents are cool & seem happy. One (a year ahead of me) is a very close friend from med school
-NO CALL first year, very minimal call second year.
-good/excellent moonlighting opportunities.
-NOT an area where we want to settle down. In fact, if we did go to B, we'd still want to settle near Program A. My great fear is that we would get stuck there!
-they were VERY cool about the possibility of me starting late d/t the little one.
-impressed w/didactics.
-financially, program is very secure.
-huge clinical faculty.

Your thoughts? I'm deliberately not id'ing either program (not even by PM )--both would be good training, neither is malignant, etc. I could definitely be happy in either program. You always hear how it's important to train where you want to live--what if you don't? How portable are you on graduation as a child psychiatrist?

You should decide on all the factors that are important to you, then assign a weight to them. All the individual weights of each factor should total 100. Then assign a rating for each factor for each program. Multiply the weight X rating. Then add up all the totals for each program. Then you have your answer.