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Matching To Psych


Heisencat

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Hey guys,

 

I'm in second year of preclerkship and am seriously starting to consider psych for residency. I know that historically psych hasn't been a very competitive field to match into, but I was wondering how I could increase my chances of getting accepted anyway. I obviously plan on doing electives and such in psych in 4th year.

 

 

If anyone in psych (or particularly McGill psych) could share their experiences and how they made themselves competitive for a psych residency, that would be great! Any input is appreciated! 

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I’d recommend going to the post-match talk for psych (at your own school/McGill) almost all medical student interest groups will have these soon after match results come out.

It’ll be a great opportunity to get feedback from students that have just gone through the process on how to make your application stronger and you can ask them about their experiences with various preceptors/residents, possible mentors, etc

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I would suggest you participate in the Psyc Summer Institute, if you're a UofT student you will get an email about it. It's only for 1 week in the summer and you get to see various types of psyc practices and the lectures are quite interesting!

It's too bad they don't cover housing or offer any funding for OOP students.   Similar programs elsewhere offer funding/scholarships for students to attend. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to bring this up again:

 

I am also just finishing up my second year and have decided I want Psych. With all of the unmatched people this year in CaRMS how unreasonable would it be to get into UofT Psych? My husband lives in Toronto and we have been doing long distance for the past two years and it SUCKS. 

 

Up to this point I had been gunning for a different competitive specialty. Lots of pubs, presentations and conferences in that. I also have won several big awards as a medical student in leadership, etc. 

 

Due to my elective scheduling I can't do the UofT week as Im doing an International Elective all summer.

 

I have a particular interest in Forensic Psychiatry. Would it be stupid to do a lot of work/research in that area rather than just general Psych?

 

Looking for all of your opinions, sorry if I seem naive with my post!!!

 

ALSO: my school doesn't have a post match talk. 

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The end of your second year is a perfectly fine time to decide on psychiatry.  Psych-specific stuff early in medical school I feel is more of a "nice to have" for psychiatry, but what really makes the application is references and electives and your personal letters. 

 

U of T in particular stresses that it wants people who will make excellent psychiatrists, no matter when they decided on psychiatry or even if they're applying to multiple specialties.  I think you can likely use the work that you've already done to speak to your strengths and characteristics that would make you an excellent resident, and have it come off really positively.

 

U of T psych is competitive but it's also a HUGE program with a lot of spots.  So it's definitely viable.

 

I think it's reasonable to do work in forensics and to do electives in it, though I think it would be nice to make some effort to do a few electives in other areas and get a broad exposure to psychiatry in general, so that you can speak to multiple aspects of the specialty in your letters/interviews.  Forensics is a small area that in many ways is quite different from general psychiatric practice.  I also came to psychiatry with a really clear idea of my specific areas of interest/practice plans, but it really is important to show that you have had exposure to and are good at general psychiatry, because that is what most of your residency will entail.

 

For people planning electives, I highly recommend electives in emergency psychiatry.  I think that for a clerk, it offers an amazing opportunity to do lots of new assessments, see a breadth of presentations, hang out with residents, and get observed interviews and feedback.  I did a 4 week elective at TWH that I highly recommend.

 

For a sense of my elective spread, I did...let me see if I can remember - four weeks of emergency psychiatry, two of general inpatient, two of something that was kind of a mixed bag (at McMaster) but mostly psychosis, two weeks of trauma (psychiatric trauma), and two of child psychiatry.

 

Also, the U of T week is fun, but they won't care if you did or didn't do it.  It came up exactly zero times in my CaRMS process.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

Word on the street is that Toronto psych was competitive this year. Wait until the statistics to come out to validate the rumour.

Hmm I find the word "competitive" to be tricky when it comes to CaRMS. Because the CaRMS algorithm is a relatively complex process, it's hard to even define what "competitive" means. I know one person who ranked Toronto psych around #5 or so (below other psych programs), and matched to Toronto... which would make it seem not very competitive. In my class, of the people I know well, there were 4 of us who ranked Toronto first. 3/4 of us matched to Toronto, and the one who didn't match to Toronto unfortunately didn't match at all. Meanwhile, I know a few people from other schools who ranked Toronto #1 and didn't get it. One of these people actually matched to a school that *she* ranked as #5... which is the school that the aforementioned applicant who ranked Toronto #5 actually ranked as #1. Soooo: it's hard to say, especially because people can be inconsistent with interviews and Toronto does have so many spots.

 

I would say that overall psychiatry seemed more competitive than in the past. Anecdotally, there were far more applicants than in the past. Ottawa had 12 serious psych gunners, whereas normally there are 3-6 or so. Speaking from people from other schools, they also had about double the applicants. But there were still some spots left over (in the prairies - where most people didn't apply - as well as NOSM and Ottawa), so it's hard to say.

 

***

 

Also, elective-planning advice: I'd agree that psych emerg electives are a good idea. I did a bunch of inpatient electives, and I was very happy with them. I got to do a lot and worked closely with staff, and I believe I ended up with good letters as a result. I'd probably try to stay away from any outpatient electives where you'd probably just be observing - at least pre-CaRMS. (Child psychiatry clinic comes to mind.)

 

I hope this helps!

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Hmm I find the word "competitive" to be tricky when it comes to CaRMS. Because the CaRMS algorithm is a relatively complex process, it's hard to even define what "competitive" means. I know one person who ranked Toronto psych around #5 or so (below other psych programs), and matched to Toronto... which would make it seem not very competitive. In my class, of the people I know well, there were 4 of us who ranked Toronto first. 3/4 of us matched to Toronto, and the one who didn't match to Toronto unfortunately didn't match at all. Meanwhile, I know a few people from other schools who ranked Toronto #1 and didn't get it. One of these people actually matched to a school that *she* ranked as #5... which is the school that the aforementioned applicant who ranked Toronto #5 actually ranked as #1. Soooo: it's hard to say, especially because people can be inconsistent with interviews and Toronto does have so many spots.

 

True. Having said that I wonder how many people ranked it #1 actually got it. I would guesstimate about 50%? 

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I'd say that the fact that U of T has by far the most spots, and still consistently fills in the first round every year, speaks to some degree of competitiveness.  Really I guess you'd need to know what % of people who ranked it first got it, as well as how far down their rank list they had to go to fill the program.

 

In my year we had I think 5 people who ranked U of T first, and 4 got it.

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  • 4 years later...

Huge bump, but I think this post is worth revisiting.

As seen above Psych was already getting competitive in 2017, there have been many unmatched psych-only gunners since 2019, 
so be aware that if applying to psych you should consider your plans for backing up vs doing a 5th year, there is lots of anxiety/depression/psychotherapy
you can do as a GP, not to mention the 2 vs 5 year residency, similar portability, although having to re-rotate through IM Surg OB etc as a FM resident.

OP may have matched by now but Psych hopefuls need to be realistic with the chances and realities of the match.

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