One more queswtion. Any suggestions on fourth year elective scheduling for someone planning to do a med/psych residency?

It's been 3 years since I finished residency, and unfortunately, I have not kept in as close of touch with people from other programs to gauge their strength / weakness.

As the programs usually have only a few faculty dedicated specifically to the med-psych program, having two faculty leave a specific program can change the program dramatically.

As there are still only a handful of med-psych programs, I'd keep an open mind about all of them. It generally doesn't hurt to apply to as many as may be interesting, and then limit things when you plan for your interviews. While it is not always true, you can often get a sense for the type of administrative support a program has based on the application process. While a bad application process is probably more the norm (slow with responses, scheduling interviews, etc), a very good experience may signal a program with some good secretaries / coordinators. Don't underestimate the value of this! Also, you may get a much more personalized response to your application at one program vs another, and that can say a lot about the type of attention you'll get as a resident.

I do think it is very important to find a program that is fairly well balanced between the two departments, or has a reputation of having a strong med-psych program. This is very important as you will want to be respected in both departments. I found this to be very true at University of Iowa - I believe the med-psych residents have generally performed very well in both departments there, and the people graduating were well trained in both fields. While there have been a few great med-psych docs leave there in the past 10 years, they have also attracted some very good new ones.

Based on my experiences, I'd also guess that Rush's program in Chicago is now pretty strong. They have filled every year, have some staff who are dual trained, and they have decent programs in both fields.

I'm sure that several of the other programs are probably strong, but I'm not as familiar with them.

Finally, as for fourth year elective scheduling I'd consider the following: if you are considering to do an externship, do it in either a med-psych rotation, in a rotation you think the program will be strong in where you can also impress them, or ask the program director what rotation they would recommend to get a good experience. When doing an externship, you are actually being evaluated as much as you are evaluating the program, if not more so. If you are not doing an externship, you'd want to make sure you do whatever rotations you need for a good evaluation in the early summer of 4th year. I'd suggest doing electives in fields that are interesting to you, are strong at your medical school, or are areas you may not get exposed to in residency.

[ Edited by Admin on 2004/5/3 19:38 ]