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Frequently Asked Questions

APA/APAF Medical Student Programs provide medical students and future medical students who are interested in serving underserved communities the experiential learning, training, and professional development they need to be leaders in the field of psychiatry.

Future Leaders in Psychiatry Program

All calls, program sessions, and any events will be in Eastern Standard Time (EST). The only exception to this is the Annual Meeting. The location for this event changes every year and can happen anywhere in the country. See planned locations for future Annual Meetings here.

Our goal is to introduce you to the field of psychiatry while providing learning and developmental opportunities. We do this by providing monthly sessions targeted at increasing your professional knowledge concerning medical school and career development. We also provide a funded, 12-month MCAT preparation course, two personal mentors, and attendance to the APA Annual Meeting.

Our session programming runs from April through September, with specific session dates changing every year. During this time, participants will be attending the APA Annual Meeting, usually hosted in May, and will receive programmatic correspondence from the time of acceptance until shortly after program end date to provide information and feedback.

No, you do not need to be an APA member to submit your application. However, if awarded a program, you must become an APA member before the time of matriculation in order to participate in the program. APA membership for medical students is free.

You are not required to attend the Annual Meeting if you have a prior commitment. If you are only able to attend part-time, we are able to accommodate that.

Yes! The main commitment of our program is attending our virtual sessions to learn more about medical school and psychiatry. If you do not plan to attend a majority of these sessions, we recommend you do not participate in the program. There is an asynchronous session option for occasional absences.

For each program session, a project coordinator surveys participants for three potential session times to maximize participants' schedules.

Sessions will not exceed two hours. Sessions may vary slightly in length depending on specific session topic.

We currently offer a 12 month Kaplan course featuring a live and asynchronous option. Once you gain access to the course, you will have 12 months to begin taking the course and 12 months to complete the course.

No, unfortunately we do not offer tutoring at this time, but you will have access to course instructors.

You will receive two mentors during the duration of the program. One mentor will be a current medical student from our Summer Medical Student Program. Another will be a practicing psychiatrist from one of APA's seven APA Minority and Underrepresented (M/UR) Caucuses

Mentorship will include three virtual meetings with each mentor. Our project coordinator is available to participants to provide group and personalized advise on how to conduct oneself with a professional mentor. One of our sessions also teaches about engagement and utilization of professional mentors.

Summer Medical Student Program

All calls, program sessions, and any events will be in Eastern Standard Time (EST). The only exception to this is the Annual Meeting. The location for this event changes every year and can happen anywhere in the country. See planned locations for future Annual Meetings here.

Our goal is to expose you to the different sub-specialties within psychiatry. To this end, we fully pay for you to attend the APA's Annual Meeting, organize 8 guest lectures with different subspecialties, provide a $500 stipend for APA textbooks, and provide access to the APA Learning Center.

Our session programming runs from mid-June through mid-July, with specific dates changing every year. Before this, participants will be attending the APA Annual Meeting, usually hosted in May and will receive programmatic correspondence from the time of acceptance until shortly after program end date to provide information and feedback.

You are not required to attend the Annual Meeting if you have a prior commitment. If you are only able to attend part-time, we are able to accommodate that.

Yes! The main commitment of our program is attending our virtual sessions to learn more about psychiatry. If you do not plan to attend a majority of these sessions, we recommend you do not participate in the program. There is an asynchronous session option for occasional absences.

For each program session, a project coordinator surveys participants for three potential session times to maximize participants' schedules.

Sessions will not exceed two hours. Sessions may vary slightly in length depending on specific session topic.

Medical leadership for mind, brain and body.

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