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We're getting terrifyingly close to this so let's get this going as and when people start finishing interviews for the season.
Ok, I'll start without listing any program names yet since it's slightly early for that and maybe someone has a fairly similar dilemma on how to rank programs with these pros/cons.
Program A: My possible #1, although my SO is not too happy about it due to location/area. I'll start with the CONS!
Cons: -cold, long winters, heavy snow
-high crime and poverty according to some statistics although nothing crazy (I think), diverse socioeconomic neighborhoods are nothing new to me as I've lived in such an area my entire life
-cheaper homes but high property taxes
-My SO wouldn't want to be here if offered the choice due to bad reviews online about the city regarding crime and people
-overnight call/night float
Pros: +midtier university program
+strong psychotherapy
+fellowship opportunities
+cool residents, I got along with all of them and they all seem like great, down to earth people
+ 3 hours away from family in a neighboring state
+low COL, seems like we can actually afford to buy something as it makes more sense than to rent in our case
Program B: Possible #1 or #2 HELP! SO prefers this to be #1 lol
Cons: -expensive homes!!! will not be able to buy a home in this area until I become an attending, rent seems like the only option unless we decide to live in the nearby city which has high crime rate
-ranked lower on Doximity (lol who cares?) than many other programs I interviewed at which is a surprise? not sure why?
-benefits are alright, no food or anything like that, but higher salary than program A
-in-house overnight shifts
Pros: same as program A (uni program, fellowship, research opportunities, strong faculty),
+ closer to home only 2 hours away
+ beautiful desirable upper-middle-class suburb with amazing schools and family life (I don't have kids and don't plan on having them anytime soon so should I even care about this?)
+almost nonexistent poverty/crime
Ok, I'll start without listing any program names yet since it's slightly early for that and maybe someone has a fairly similar dilemma on how to rank programs with these pros/cons.
Program A: My possible #1, although my SO is not too happy about it due to location/area. I'll start with the CONS!
Cons: -cold, long winters, heavy snow
-high crime and poverty according to some statistics although nothing crazy (I think), diverse socioeconomic neighborhoods are nothing new to me as I've lived in such an area my entire life
-cheaper homes but high property taxes
-My SO wouldn't want to be here if offered the choice due to bad reviews online about the city regarding crime and people
-overnight call/night float
Pros: +midtier university program
+strong psychotherapy
+fellowship opportunities
+cool residents, I got along with all of them and they all seem like great, down to earth people
+ 3 hours away from family in a neighboring state
+low COL, seems like we can actually afford to buy something as it makes more sense than to rent in our case
Program B: Possible #1 or #2 HELP! SO prefers this to be #1 lol
Cons: -expensive homes!!! will not be able to buy a home in this area until I become an attending, rent seems like the only option unless we decide to live in the nearby city which has high crime rate
-ranked lower on Doximity (lol who cares?) than many other programs I interviewed at which is a surprise? not sure why?
-benefits are alright, no food or anything like that, but higher salary than program A
-in-house overnight shifts
Pros: same as program A (uni program, fellowship, research opportunities, strong faculty),
+ closer to home only 2 hours away
+ beautiful desirable upper-middle-class suburb with amazing schools and family life (I don't have kids and don't plan on having them anytime soon so should I even care about this?)
+almost nonexistent poverty/crime
Program C: +/- middle of nowhere
Cons: -all the cons of a new program.... you all know how that is.
-potential workhorse program? maybe not
-HOURS and HOURS and HOURS away from home, difficult to travel to (middle of nowhere!)
-university affiliated
Pros: +My SO loved it here, the city, the people, the area, you name it, SO was sold
+amazing COL, we can live way above the means here as residents
+just a few hours drive to many neighboring cities (weekend trips etc.)
+AMAZING benefits, like I mean... the best of the best, makes me want to rank this place #1 just because of what they offer as it would save us so much money.
+no overnights for the entire 4 years
This is really, really hard as I have a spouse to consider. There are days where I want to take the risk and just rank program C first as I think we would be happy there, but I think I have the potential of becoming a great psychiatrist if I can match at Program A. I'm still not entirely sure if I want to pursue C+A fellowship, and some of my attendings are telling me to keep my options open. Family life and work life balance are important to me, but I don't need to really be that close to my parents. I've lived away from home for 6+ years. Does anyone have a similar pros/cons list? What would you do? I appreciate the help!
Ok, I'll start without listing any program names yet since it's slightly early for that and maybe someone has a fairly similar dilemma on how to rank programs with these pros/cons.
Program A: My possible #1, although my SO is not too happy about it due to location/area. I'll start with the CONS!
Cons: -cold, long winters, heavy snow
-high crime and poverty according to some statistics although nothing crazy (I think), diverse socioeconomic neighborhoods are nothing new to me as I've lived in such an area my entire life
-cheaper homes but high property taxes
-My SO wouldn't want to be here if offered the choice due to bad reviews online about the city regarding crime and people
-overnight call/night float
Pros: +midtier university program
+strong psychotherapy
+fellowship opportunities
+cool residents, I got along with all of them and they all seem like great, down to earth people
+ 3 hours away from family in a neighboring state
+low COL, seems like we can actually afford to buy something as it makes more sense than to rent in our case
Program B: Possible #1 or #2 HELP! SO prefers this to be #1 lol
Cons: -expensive homes!!! will not be able to buy a home in this area until I become an attending, rent seems like the only option unless we decide to live in the nearby city which has high crime rate
-ranked lower on Doximity (lol who cares?) than many other programs I interviewed at which is a surprise? not sure why?
-benefits are alright, no food or anything like that, but higher salary than program A
-in-house overnight shifts
Pros: same as program A (uni program, fellowship, research opportunities, strong faculty),
+ closer to home only 2 hours away
+ beautiful desirable upper-middle-class suburb with amazing schools and family life (I don't have kids and don't plan on having them anytime soon so should I even care about this?)
+almost nonexistent poverty/crime
Program C: +/- middle of nowhere
Cons: -all the cons of a new program.... you all know how that is.
-potential workhorse program? maybe not
-HOURS and HOURS and HOURS away from home, difficult to travel to (middle of nowhere!)
-university affiliated
Pros: +My SO loved it here, the city, the people, the area, you name it, SO was sold
+amazing COL, we can live way above the means here as residents
+just a few hours drive to many neighboring cities (weekend trips etc.)
+AMAZING benefits, like I mean... the best of the best, makes me want to rank this place #1 just because of what they offer as it would save us so much money.
+no overnights for the entire 4 years
This is really, really hard as I have a spouse to consider. There are days where I want to take the risk and just rank program C first as I think we would be happy there, but I think I have the potential of becoming a great psychiatrist if I can match at Program A. I'm still not entirely sure if I want to pursue C+A fellowship, and some of my attendings are telling me to keep my options open. Family life and work life balance are important to me, but I don't need to really be that close to my parents. I've lived away from home for 6+ years. Does anyone have a similar pros/cons list? What would you do? I appreciate the help!
I'll get in on this. Really not sure what to prioritize in a program but I think my general list is: Academics > Location > Work Load (prefer lighter) > Positive Environment > Patient Diversity > Facilities
Option 1:
Medium to strong academics (second best in state)
Okay location
Light work load (for an academic program, 40-50hr weeks)
Positive environment
Strong diversity
Old, horribly ugly facilities
Lucrative moonlighting
I did a sub-i here, fit in here really well, bonded with everyone from the attendings to the PD to the residents. Would be an easy #1 pick if the work load was a little higher and the program was a little more renown. Very lucrative moonlighting combined with the low work load becomes a potent combination.
Option 2:
Strong academics (best in state)
Okay location
Medium-high work load
Positive environment but slightly more uptight/straight edge
Not very diverse, more rural but gets shipped a lot of acute patients from surrounding areas
Beautiful facilities
Very low moonlighting pay
I did a sub-i here as well. This program is a little more straight-edge than myself but I still fit in great. Good balance of work load, learning, and free time combined with a solid name and beautiful facilities. Would be an easy #1 pick if there were more diversity in the patient population (it's majority caucasian), higher moonlighting pay, and a slightly better personality fit.
Option 3:
Strong academics (with a prestigious name)
Amazing location
High work load (residents seemed tired and stressed, apparently 60+ hr weeks on service, also has weekday overnight calls, basically 24 hr shifts with a 3hr break in between which I am not a fan of)
Neutral environment (some say it was malignant in the past, but I didn't get that vibe)
Strong diversity (most of all the places I've interviewed)
Decent facilities
Very low moonlighting pay
This is the most straight-edge, hierarchal program of the bunch. Not a lot of positives on this list, but it has 2 huge plusses in that it has the strongest academics of the bunch and it's in my favorite city. Did not get a good read on this program during interview. Some residents seemed overworked and tired, some felt happy with their decision. I usually go back and forth switching this option with option #2 since they're fairly similar. Option #3 residents may work slightly harder than option #2 but have a much better name, more diversity, and in a better city to boot. I do know option #2 much more intimately having done a sub-I there.
HELP! Not sure if prestige matters at the end of the day. I think I want to stay in academic medicine after residency but don't know if I will take the pay cut to do so. Not sure if light work load of option #1 is a bad thing, simultaneously not sure if I want to handle a heavy work load like at option #3. Not sure how likely I am to moonlight, so don't even know if the moonlight pay will matter to me. Not sure about anything. lol
Did something change with the whole residency application process this year? I've never seen applicants so paranoid about not naming programs. Hardly any residency reviews left so far on the review thread. And refusing to mention program names when asking about how to rank them!! Feel like I'm missing something that went down that's making applicants scared....
Can't speak for other applicants, but I personally chose not to name any programs bc I feel I would easily be recognized due to the unique combination of locations I applied to. I have no interest in shooting myself in the foot.
I guess I’ll be the first to drop some program names. As a background I’m interested in addiction and neuromodulation and would like to go to an academic program that has robust training in each field. Location is not so important to me; however, I would prefer to live in or near a city, but quality of program trumps this.
Top four in no particular order are Baylor, Harvard south shore, Dartmouth and Mayo.
Any insight as to how you would rank given these choices. Bottom of my list is already set and don’t need much advice with those.
I guess I’ll be the first to drop some program names. As a background I’m interested in addiction and neuromodulation and would like to go to an academic program that has robust training in each field. Location is not so important to me; however, I would prefer to live in or near a city, but quality of program trumps this.
Top four in no particular order are Baylor, Harvard south shore, Dartmouth and Mayo.
Next three are UT Austin, University of Florida, and LSU NOLA. Again no particular order
Any insight as to how you would rank given these choices. Bottom of my list is already set and don’t need much advice with those.
I think when you want a real variety of pathology, you should look for programs that provide experience in a number of different settings, eg. university hospital and clinics, public hospital and clinics, +/- VA, +/- private free standing psych hospitals +/- state psych hospitals +/- children's hospitals etc. Most programs don't have this kind of variety (of the ones I interviewed last year, UW, NYU and Brown were the most impressive in this respect), but these are the things to consider.How do you actually know if a program gets you good experience? I interviewed at a small community program located in a bad part of a major metropolitan city. They stated they are the safety net hospital for surrounding patient population. I'm guessing this means they see a wide variety of pathology..... would it be wrong to assume they see just as much as one of the big University programs I've interviewed with?
I think when you want a real variety of pathology, you should look for programs that provide experience in a number of different settings, eg. university hospital and clinics, public hospital and clinics, +/- VA, +/- private free standing psych hospitals +/- state psych hospitals +/- children's hospitals etc. Most programs don't have this kind of variety (of the ones I interviewed last year, UW, NYU and Brown were the most impressive in this respect), but these are the things to consider.
On the other hand, ever since my medical school application I've never understood why people equated lower SES with "diversity". Having experience with only one side of SES spectrum is, while undeniable still valuable, is not *diverse* by definition. I've heard from some recent graduates from severe pathology-focused primarily public hospital-based residencies that they had difficulty working with higher functioning patients in their private practices, and vice versa. In other words, heavy exposure to severe pathology does not necessarily mean diversity of experience.
I alluded to this during one my tours with a resident on interview day, and they looked at me like I was Satan.
Just because something may be true doesn't mean you should say it.
I guess I’ll be the first to drop some program names. As a background I’m interested in addiction and neuromodulation and would like to go to an academic program that has robust training in each field. Location is not so important to me; however, I would prefer to live in or near a city, but quality of program trumps this.
Top four in no particular order are Baylor, Harvard south shore, Dartmouth and Mayo.
Next three are UT Austin, University of Florida, and LSU NOLA. Again no particular order
Any insight as to how you would rank given these choices. Bottom of my list is already set and don’t need much advice with those.
I'll get in on this. Really not sure what to prioritize in a program but I think my general list is: Academics > Location > Work Load (prefer lighter) > Positive Environment > Patient Diversity > Facilities
Option 1:
Medium to strong academics (second best in state)
Okay location
Light work load (for an academic program, 40-50hr weeks)
Positive environment
Strong diversity
Old, horribly ugly facilities
Lucrative moonlighting
I did a sub-i here, fit in here really well, bonded with everyone from the attendings to the PD to the residents. Would be an easy #1 pick if the work load was a little higher and the program was a little more renown. Very lucrative moonlighting combined with the low work load becomes a potent combination.
Option 2:
Strong academics (best in state)
Okay location
Medium-high work load
Positive environment but slightly more uptight/straight edge
Not very diverse, more rural but gets shipped a lot of acute patients from surrounding areas
Beautiful facilities
Very low moonlighting pay
I did a sub-i here as well. This program is a little more straight-edge than myself but I still fit in great. Good balance of work load, learning, and free time combined with a solid name and beautiful facilities. Would be an easy #1 pick if there were more diversity in the patient population (it's majority caucasian), higher moonlighting pay, and a slightly better personality fit.
Option 3:
Strong academics (with a prestigious name)
Amazing location
High work load (residents seemed tired and stressed, apparently 60+ hr weeks on service, also has weekday overnight calls, basically 24 hr shifts with a 3hr break in between which I am not a fan of)
Neutral environment (some say it was malignant in the past, but I didn't get that vibe)
Strong diversity (most of all the places I've interviewed)
Decent facilities
Very low moonlighting pay
This is the most straight-edge, hierarchal program of the bunch. Not a lot of positives on this list, but it has 2 huge plusses in that it has the strongest academics of the bunch and it's in my favorite city. Did not get a good read on this program during interview. Some residents seemed overworked and tired, some felt happy with their decision. I usually go back and forth switching this option with option #2 since they're fairly similar. Option #3 residents may work slightly harder than option #2 but have a much better name, more diversity, and in a better city to boot. I do know option #2 much more intimately having done a sub-I there.
HELP! Not sure if prestige matters at the end of the day. I think I want to stay in academic medicine after residency but don't know if I will take the pay cut to do so. Not sure if light work load of option #1 is a bad thing, simultaneously not sure if I want to handle a heavy work load like at option #3. Not sure how likely I am to moonlight, so don't even know if the moonlight pay will matter to me. Not sure about anything. lol
It would be pretty tight to have the option to head to a mountain for skiing on a free weekend. Never been to a resort in the Northeast. Many good mountains there?If you enjoying skiing, hiking, nature, cool coffee shops, and don’t need large city amenities, Dartmouth would be great, but it’s also a location that really wouldn’t work for everyone!
Harvard south shore is VERY addictions heavy and they're always trying to do more neuroscience stuff. Also it's Boston
Plenty of goodness in VT, ME, and upstate NY. It's not the West but enough to feel the stoke.It would be pretty tight to have the option to head to a mountain for skiing on a free weekend. Never been to a resort in the Northeast. Many good mountains there?
This is probably my PGY-3 burnout/cynicism talking, but why not go to option #1? Ultimately at the end you'll get your certificate in psychiatry and can basically write your ticket almost anywhere in the country, so why not have a chill and happy 4 years of your life? If you get bored no one is stopping you from going out and exploring new hobbies or finding new things to learn, but whereas if you go to a malignant problem that works you 80+ hours like a slave, you don't have those options.
Thanks for your input. Out of the senior residents that I've talked to, they always say to value lifestyle over prestige.
I'd be interested to get an attending's perspective on how much it matters if you graduate from a top tier academic program vs a mid tier academic program. I have no idea what my post-grad plans are but I like to keep my options open and set myself up for the best opportunities available.
Plenty of goodness in VT, ME, and upstate NY. It's not the West but enough to feel the stoke.
One of the tragedies of the human experience is that at some point you must make choices about what you are going to do and there will be opportunities and directions you will never be able to exploit because of those choices.
Fixed it.......
What do you want to end up doing? Hardcore basic/translational research? Absolutely have to be teaching students and residents? Run a health system? Operate a private practice? Become a therapist who writes prescriptions sometimes? Advocacy and community work? Dedicated SMI/state hospital warrior?
Top-tier v mid-tier academic is important for THE FIRST ONE but noNE OF the others.
No you're absolutely right. I think talking with a friend there the salary is paid mostly by the VA (with a slight contribution from HMS) which means they have a limit on how much they can rotate outside of the VA. Having pgy 3 outpatient exclusively in the VA is a huge training deficit imoYeah I got the vibe that HSS would be great for addictions. I was mainly just a little worried about the amount of VA work that the residency is made up of. Don’t get me wrong I love the veteran population but am hoping to get some exposure to patients with more diverse experiences. It was reassuring to hear that the program has many different affiliated hospitals that the residents rotate through. The Harvard affiliation and rotations through McLean make the program very enticing.
No you're absolutely right. I think talking with a friend there the salary is paid mostly by the VA (with a slight contribution from HMS) which means they have a limit on how much they can rotate outside of the VA. Having pgy 3 outpatient exclusively in the VA is a huge training deficit imo
I would worry about being at a program predominantly or significantly based at the VA. The VA is its own beast with the good and bad that comes along with it, and I agree with the above that having most of your exposure in that system results in a relatively narrow training experience. The ability to work in many different training sites shouldn't be undervalued.
Do you think it would be feasible during PGY4 to schedule enough non-VA rotations in order to have enough diverse experiences?
It seemed like they were very flexible as to where you did your elective rotations. I'm just unsure if this one year is enough time to play catch up and have a well rounded exposure.
The program really looks like a great fit for me, and this is really one of the only drawbacks that I'm seeing.
I guess I’ll be the first to drop some program names. As a background I’m interested in addiction and neuromodulation and would like to go to an academic program that has robust training in each field. Location is not so important to me; however, I would prefer to live in or near a city, but quality of program trumps this.
Top four in no particular order are Baylor, Harvard south shore, Dartmouth and Mayo.
Next three are UT Austin, University of Florida, and LSU NOLA. Again no particular order
Any insight as to how you would rank given these choices. Bottom of my list is already set and don’t need much advice with those.
I'm curious if anyone has any insight into my current top 4. I have been endlessly debating how I am going to rank CHA, Cornell, Brown, and UChicago. All programs seemed great in different respects and I would be happy to end up at any of them, which is a great problem, but I imagine will make actually ranking them difficult.
I am interested in becoming a psychodynamic psychiatrist (maybe pursuing analytic training down the road), and also potentially interested in child and adolescent fellowship. Location wise my partner has a preference for NYC or Chicago, but is flexible (although not thrilled about the potential commute from Providence to Boston matching at Brown would involve) on my end I have a love hate relationship with NYC, and would much rather end up in New England or Chicago.
Brown - While maybe the least psychodynamic of the 4, something about the program just really spoke to me and felt like it could be a really good environment for me. The emphasis on flexibility and early 4 month exposure to child psych seemed like great opportunities to explore my career interests. I felt like the resident culture was a really good fit for me. Butler hospital was beautiful. I really have a soft spot for this program, but the location isn't ideal, and could be a stressor on my relationship with my partner. I really enjoyed my interviews here, and thought the PD seemed amazing, and I would love the opportunity to work with her. Location is a concern with Brown as far as my partners commute to Boston, and I do wonder how I should evaluate gut feel, which was very positive with Brown, versus fit of interests in psychodynamic psychiatry which was greater at other programs.
CHA - I loved the psychodynamic and warm feel of the program plus the flexibility (6 weeks of elective 1st year). I do worry that maybe I haven't cultivated the same depth of social justice involvement as many of the residents, but I would certainly be open to being shaped by an environment that values that type of engagement. The child psych fellowship here seems like it would be perfect for my psychodynamics interests, and desire to learn a lot about play therapy. I was very impressed by the intellectual depth of all of the residents and faculty I met at the program. This program seems like a great fit on many levels for me: location, vibe, intellectual curiosity, and flexibility. Also living in Cambridge would be awesome, and the greater Boston community of psychiatry seems like a great environment to explore my psychoanalytic interest in.
Cornell - The psychoanalytic bent of the program is a perfect fit for my interests. I felt like the residents I met here were a good match for me personality wise, and I really enjoyed talking to everyone I met. I am not sure if I need to be in NYC, and the added work that most people take on in NYC residencies as the price of the location isn't something I am sure I want, along those lines although embarrassing to admit I also do worry about the NYC workload on the off service medicine months. Cornell seems to be the place to be for exposure to psychoanalytic thinking and I imagine being exposed to so many faculty so invested in my area of interest would be a fantastic opportunity. I just don't love NYC, which is my major reservation with this program, but at the same time I may be overly fixating on location at the cost of a program that I think I could be really happy at in terms of area of expertise and residents/faculty who I really enjoyed meeting.
UChicago - This is the location I ultimately hope to end up in for practice, and I do wonder if there is a benefit to doing residency where you ultimately want to settle. I really liked the psychodynamic feel of the program, and the ability to work with UChicago students in therapy. It would also be really cool to be able to start connecting to the Chicago psychoanalytic institute during residency and maybe even start the first year of analytic training during 4th year of residency. My worries with this program are the small department size, and that I really didn't feel like a great fit with the residents I met although they were certainly lovely people - some of this could have just been my own nerves though as I was really stressed about wanting the program to be a perfect fit due to my desire to make location in Chicago work. I also wonder if the child psych residency here is of the same caliber of the ones attached to some of the other programs I am interested in. The positives with Chicago are location, psychodynamic emphasis, and flexibility of the curriculum.
In my mind I could see myself ranking each one of these programs 1 depending on what I think is most important on a day-to-day basis. I would be curious about the community's opinion on what programs they would prefer with my set of interests and circumstances. Thanks for the help!
I interviewed at Brown and CHA but did not apply to the other two. My two cents is that if psychodynamic psychotherapy is what you see yourself doing in the future, go to CHA. No other program will allow you to take on as many therapy patients, they have a reputation of being one of the strongest if not the strongest place to receive psychotherapy training, the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute is right there. They bleed psychotherapy yet remain a warm and cozy program.
I similarly had strong positive gut reactions about Brown, loved the facilities, etc. so I definitely understand the draw (but the location is not the best for my partner or my clinical interests, which was a huge bummer). No doubt the early child exposure is great but I think you could have similar child exposure early on at CHA with the PGY1 electives. Also, many CHA residents go on to do C&A at Brown nd get the Bradley experience.
Good luck!! It’d a good quandary to be in when you’d be happy with any in your top 4.
I'm curious if anyone has any insight into my current top 4. I have been endlessly debating how I am going to rank CHA, Cornell, Brown, and UChicago. All programs seemed great in different respects and I would be happy to end up at any of them, which is a great problem, but I imagine will make actually ranking them difficult.
I am interested in becoming a psychodynamic psychiatrist (maybe pursuing analytic training down the road), and also potentially interested in child and adolescent fellowship. Location wise my partner has a preference for NYC or Chicago, but is flexible (although not thrilled about the potential commute from Providence to Boston matching at Brown would involve) on my end I have a love hate relationship with NYC, and would much rather end up in New England or Chicago.
Brown - While maybe the least psychodynamic of the 4, something about the program just really spoke to me and felt like it could be a really good environment for me. The emphasis on flexibility and early 4 month exposure to child psych seemed like great opportunities to explore my career interests. I felt like the resident culture was a really good fit for me. Butler hospital was beautiful. I really have a soft spot for this program, but the location isn't ideal, and could be a stressor on my relationship with my partner. I really enjoyed my interviews here, and thought the PD seemed amazing, and I would love the opportunity to work with her. Location is a concern with Brown as far as my partners commute to Boston, and I do wonder how I should evaluate gut feel, which was very positive with Brown, versus fit of interests in psychodynamic psychiatry which was greater at other programs.
CHA - I loved the psychodynamic and warm feel of the program plus the flexibility (6 weeks of elective 1st year). I do worry that maybe I haven't cultivated the same depth of social justice involvement as many of the residents, but I would certainly be open to being shaped by an environment that values that type of engagement. The child psych fellowship here seems like it would be perfect for my psychodynamics interests, and desire to learn a lot about play therapy. I was very impressed by the intellectual depth of all of the residents and faculty I met at the program. This program seems like a great fit on many levels for me: location, vibe, intellectual curiosity, and flexibility. Also living in Cambridge would be awesome, and the greater Boston community of psychiatry seems like a great environment to explore my psychoanalytic interest in.
Cornell - The psychoanalytic bent of the program is a perfect fit for my interests. I felt like the residents I met here were a good match for me personality wise, and I really enjoyed talking to everyone I met. I am not sure if I need to be in NYC, and the added work that most people take on in NYC residencies as the price of the location isn't something I am sure I want, along those lines although embarrassing to admit I also do worry about the NYC workload on the off service medicine months. Cornell seems to be the place to be for exposure to psychoanalytic thinking and I imagine being exposed to so many faculty so invested in my area of interest would be a fantastic opportunity. I just don't love NYC, which is my major reservation with this program, but at the same time I may be overly fixating on location at the cost of a program that I think I could be really happy at in terms of area of expertise and residents/faculty who I really enjoyed meeting.
UChicago - This is the location I ultimately hope to end up in for practice, and I do wonder if there is a benefit to doing residency where you ultimately want to settle. I really liked the psychodynamic feel of the program, and the ability to work with UChicago students in therapy. It would also be really cool to be able to start connecting to the Chicago psychoanalytic institute during residency and maybe even start the first year of analytic training during 4th year of residency. My worries with this program are the small department size, and that I really didn't feel like a great fit with the residents I met although they were certainly lovely people - some of this could have just been my own nerves though as I was really stressed about wanting the program to be a perfect fit due to my desire to make location in Chicago work. I also wonder if the child psych residency here is of the same caliber of the ones attached to some of the other programs I am interested in. The positives with Chicago are location, psychodynamic emphasis, and flexibility of the curriculum.
In my mind I could see myself ranking each one of these programs 1 depending on what I think is most important on a day-to-day basis. I would be curious about the community's opinion on what programs they would prefer with my set of interests and circumstances. Thanks for the help!
Looking for general insight - my top 6 are essentially (order TBD):
1) MGH/McLean
2) Yale
3) U Washington
4) OHSU
5) USC/LAC
6) Dartmouth
I have family on both the West coast and the East coast. I would prefer to live in a larger city but I have lived in a rural setting before and really liked it. I am mostly interested in Community and Cultural Psych with a few niche interests (women’s mental health, LGBT mental health.) I am unsure how much therapy I will want to practice in the future but I really want a strong general foundation as well as good exposure to DBT, family, and couples. I am not wild about the high COL for most of these places but am unsure how to factor that into my decision making since they are all likely to be more expansive then where I currently am (Midwest.)
All thoughts welcome!
I'm curious if anyone has any insight into my current top 4. I have been endlessly debating how I am going to rank CHA, Cornell, Brown, and UChicago. All programs seemed great in different respects and I would be happy to end up at any of them, which is a great problem, but I imagine will make actually ranking them difficult.
I am interested in becoming a psychodynamic psychiatrist (maybe pursuing analytic training down the road), and also potentially interested in child and adolescent fellowship. Location wise my partner has a preference for NYC or Chicago, but is flexible (although not thrilled about the potential commute from Providence to Boston matching at Brown would involve) on my end I have a love hate relationship with NYC, and would much rather end up in New England or Chicago.
Brown - While maybe the least psychodynamic of the 4, something about the program just really spoke to me and felt like it could be a really good environment for me. The emphasis on flexibility and early 4 month exposure to child psych seemed like great opportunities to explore my career interests. I felt like the resident culture was a really good fit for me. Butler hospital was beautiful. I really have a soft spot for this program, but the location isn't ideal, and could be a stressor on my relationship with my partner. I really enjoyed my interviews here, and thought the PD seemed amazing, and I would love the opportunity to work with her. Location is a concern with Brown as far as my partners commute to Boston, and I do wonder how I should evaluate gut feel, which was very positive with Brown, versus fit of interests in psychodynamic psychiatry which was greater at other programs.
CHA - I loved the psychodynamic and warm feel of the program plus the flexibility (6 weeks of elective 1st year). I do worry that maybe I haven't cultivated the same depth of social justice involvement as many of the residents, but I would certainly be open to being shaped by an environment that values that type of engagement. The child psych fellowship here seems like it would be perfect for my psychodynamics interests, and desire to learn a lot about play therapy. I was very impressed by the intellectual depth of all of the residents and faculty I met at the program. This program seems like a great fit on many levels for me: location, vibe, intellectual curiosity, and flexibility. Also living in Cambridge would be awesome, and the greater Boston community of psychiatry seems like a great environment to explore my psychoanalytic interest in.
Cornell - The psychoanalytic bent of the program is a perfect fit for my interests. I felt like the residents I met here were a good match for me personality wise, and I really enjoyed talking to everyone I met. I am not sure if I need to be in NYC, and the added work that most people take on in NYC residencies as the price of the location isn't something I am sure I want, along those lines although embarrassing to admit I also do worry about the NYC workload on the off service medicine months. Cornell seems to be the place to be for exposure to psychoanalytic thinking and I imagine being exposed to so many faculty so invested in my area of interest would be a fantastic opportunity. I just don't love NYC, which is my major reservation with this program, but at the same time I may be overly fixating on location at the cost of a program that I think I could be really happy at in terms of area of expertise and residents/faculty who I really enjoyed meeting.
UChicago - This is the location I ultimately hope to end up in for practice, and I do wonder if there is a benefit to doing residency where you ultimately want to settle. I really liked the psychodynamic feel of the program, and the ability to work with UChicago students in therapy. It would also be really cool to be able to start connecting to the Chicago psychoanalytic institute during residency and maybe even start the first year of analytic training during 4th year of residency. My worries with this program are the small department size, and that I really didn't feel like a great fit with the residents I met although they were certainly lovely people - some of this could have just been my own nerves though as I was really stressed about wanting the program to be a perfect fit due to my desire to make location in Chicago work. I also wonder if the child psych residency here is of the same caliber of the ones attached to some of the other programs I am interested in. The positives with Chicago are location, psychodynamic emphasis, and flexibility of the curriculum.
In my mind I could see myself ranking each one of these programs 1 depending on what I think is most important on a day-to-day basis. I would be curious about the community's opinion on what programs they would prefer with my set of interests and circumstances. Thanks for the help!
Looking for general insight - my top 6 are essentially (order TBD):
1) MGH/McLean
2) Yale
3) U Washington
4) OHSU
5) USC/LAC
6) Dartmouth
I have family on both the West coast and the East coast. I would prefer to live in a larger city but I have lived in a rural setting before and really liked it. I am mostly interested in Community and Cultural Psych with a few niche interests (women’s mental health, LGBT mental health.) I am unsure how much therapy I will want to practice in the future but I really want a strong general foundation as well as good exposure to DBT, family, and couples. I am not wild about the high COL for most of these places but am unsure how to factor that into my decision making since they are all likely to be more expansive then where I currently am (Midwest.)
All thoughts welcome!
Looking for general insight - my top 6 are essentially (order TBD):
1) MGH/McLean
2) Yale
3) U Washington
4) OHSU
5) USC/LAC
6) Dartmouth
I have family on both the West coast and the East coast. I would prefer to live in a larger city but I have lived in a rural setting before and really liked it. I am mostly interested in Community and Cultural Psych with a few niche interests (women’s mental health, LGBT mental health.) I am unsure how much therapy I will want to practice in the future but I really want a strong general foundation as well as good exposure to DBT, family, and couples. I am not wild about the high COL for most of these places but am unsure how to factor that into my decision making since they are all likely to be more expansive then where I currently am (Midwest.)
All thoughts welcome!
Why? BWH and BIDMC are huge academic institutions with excellent individual training programs and were combined as part of Longwood psych which was also great. CHA has been well covered above.I'm actually kinda surprised that the 'other' Harvard programs have a good reputation... I didn't even bother applying to them lol.
Why? BWH and BIDMC are huge academic institutions with excellent individual training programs and were combined as part of Longwood psych which was also great. CHA has been well covered above.
Those are clearly not the ones I'm talking about. Please see the post I was responding to for context. It was in reference to Harvard South Shore and anything else that's an offshoot like that. You didn't mention HSS so...
I did research and worked in Beantown for a long time... I know those other spots quite well.
So by "other Harvard programs" you were only referring to HSS