Here's an example of how you can review a program that you interview at

Here’s an example of how you can review a program that you interview at. This will help you at the end when you start preparing a Rank Order List. This is a 2017 IV season review of Case Western University UHCMC Psychiatry Residency Program as an example!

Case Western/UHCMC

  1. Ease of Communication: No issues

  2. Accommodation/Food: Provide a list of hotels with discounts, but they were all a bit expensive and I don’t think they were very close to the interview site. I used AirBnB and stayed 10 minutes to interview site for less money. Dinner the night before was at a local restaurant - there were 4 applicants and 4 residents present, which was a really nice number - not too big, not too small.

  3. Interview Day: Started at 9am with a light breakfast and overview by the PD, who I think is relatively new to the PD position but did her residency at Case and was APD for awhile after that. She seems VERY down-to-earth. After the overview, we each had 4x30 minute interviews. Mine were nicely tailored to my area of interest. No unusual questions, all my interviews were very pleasant.

  4. Program Overview: The website provides a reasonable overview, so I’ll just mention some things that stood out to me.

One thing that residents mentioned multiple times is that the faculty are not overly instructive, i.e. they let you try different things and really want you to establish your own professional identity. They don’t make you do things “their way”. Also, the program was described as “hands on”.

The call schedule is reasonable, although the structure might change if duty hour restrictions are lifted and allow interns to do 24-hour shifts. The current PGY-1 call is 6 weeks of NF (3, 2-week blocks). It might change to more traditional q9-ish, 24-hour shifts depending on resident input, etc. The residents seemed to prefer NF.

There is 6 weeks of elective time in PGY-2. The didactic schedule was just re-vamped, which the PD was very excited about. Didactics are 1/2 day for PGY-1 and PGY-2 and a full day (two half days) for PGY-3.

They have all the accredited fellowships plus four non-accredited fellowships including Community (they really like this a lot!), Women’s Mental Health, College Mental Health, and Research.

The program is growing (incoming class will be 9, previous was 8), UHCMC is buying up smaller hospitals.

The goodie bag at the end of interview day contained a hand-written, personalized note from one of the residents who was at dinner, which I thought was a nice touch. There was also a mug, which I feel like I will have to actively get rid of if I don’t match there, otherwise it will haunt me from the dark recesses of my mug cabinet forever, lol.

  1. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Seem to have well-known faculty in several areas (obviously especially forensics). I thought everyone I met was great, and the residents had nothing but good things to say about the faculty.

  2. Location/Lifestyle: I personally liked Cleveland. Cost of living is low, several residents mentioned buying houses. They don’t all live in one specific area. There’s plenty of stuff to do in Cleveland (sports, cultural events, etc). It snows and gets cold in the winter. You have to have a car (sites can be up to a 30-ish minute drive, maybe farther depending on where you live). Also, the hospital/psych department building are not downtown - that might matter for people who absolutely must live downtown in order to be happy.

  3. Salary/Benefits: http://www.uhhospitals.org/…/incoming…/stipends-and-benefits

  4. Program Strengths:
    Solid academic program that has every fellowship + four extra ones
    Flexible with lots of opportunities…I feel like this program could start you off on any career you could possibly want
    Cleveland has a low cost of living
    Very DO-friendly (the vast majority of current interns are DOs, and they don’t make you take USMLE)

  5. Program Weaknesses:
    Cleveland is not for everyone
    Maybe not the strongest psychotherapy? But there’s a psychoanalytic institute and a psychotherapy chief position, so the opportunities certainly exist, but they might not be as built into the curriculum as some other places

  6. Overall Impression: Solid top Midwestern program with a reasonable work-life balance and relatively high degree of flexibility.

Hope this helps!!