And my chances are...?

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Psilocyba

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Hey,
there has already been some similar posts like this one, but still I am bit lost, my situation is just a bit different since I never was an eager student knowing from my fetus times that I want to end up in emergency and working in the US, so my CV is not very outstanding and I would really appreciate some advice and your opinion....
I am an IMG from Europe, with one year+ of experience in ED (working independently in the ER and outside in the field-yes we can do that here in Europe), and one very good LOR. But on the other hand I have no research experience, no publications and have a quite bad grade average from the first years. The big problem in my CV is going to be a really big gap from medicine, when I will finish with my USMLE step 1, I will be out of medicine for almost 3 years. Of course I am planning to find one or two observerships if I can and get some US LORs, but still I am bit skeptical about getting a EM residency in US.
Does anyone have a good advice how to get that extra points to get into residency(except scoring high on USMLE and get some more LORs)? I am moving back to US in October and then planning to start studying for USMLE, find and do the observerships if I can and then when I finish with everything necessary apply to EM programs. Is there even a chance (being an IMG with no publications/research) of getting and EM residency?
Is there anything I could do, before I finish with USMLE, that would help me later with getting an observership, matching...?
Thanks for your help!

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Hey,
there has already been some similar posts like this one, but still I am bit lost, my situation is just a bit different since I never was an eager student knowing from my fetus times that I want to end up in emergency and working in the US, so my CV is not very outstanding and I would really appreciate some advice and your opinion....
I am an IMG from Europe, with one year+ of experience in ED (working independently in the ER and outside in the field-yes we can do that here in Europe), and one very good LOR. But on the other hand I have no research experience, no publications and have a quite bad grade average from the first years. The big problem in my CV is going to be a really big gap from medicine, when I will finish with my USMLE step 1, I will be out of medicine for almost 3 years. Of course I am planning to find one or two observerships if I can and get some US LORs, but still I am bit skeptical about getting a EM residency in US.
Does anyone have a good advice how to get that extra points to get into residency(except scoring high on USMLE and get some more LORs)? I am moving back to US in October and then planning to start studying for USMLE, find and do the observerships if I can and then when I finish with everything necessary apply to EM programs. Is there even a chance (being an IMG with no publications/research) of getting and EM residency?
Is there anything I could do, before I finish with USMLE, that would help me later with getting an observership, matching...?
Thanks for your help!

Publications and research aren't prerequisites for getting into EM. Being a marginal IMG with gaps on your CV is going to make it extremely difficult (perhaps impossible) to find a spot in an EM residency in the US.
 
Thank you Arcan for your answer, I am afraid you are right, with being almost impossible, but EM is my only passion and I will give it a try... Even with acing USMLE and having some experience in EM you think it will still be impossible? Do you have any advice what to do to to make it more realistic? Would a year of voulnteering help? Are there any EM programs that nobody really wants to apply to (maybe because of unappealing surroundings or something)?
I know it is a lot of questions but I really appreciate your answers, I am totally lost and don't know what to do with all this... Thanks!
 
Even with acing USMLE and having some experience in EM you think it will still be impossible?
Yes. All of your competition has also done very well on the USMLE and has experience in the department. But they don't have your drawbacks.

Would a year of voulnteering help?
It won't help much, and the additional time off may hurt you even more.

Are there any EM programs that nobody really wants to apply to (maybe because of unappealing surroundings or something)?
Not really. EM as a whole has not had issues with filling all of their spots in the past few years. And people are willing to overlook less than desirable location in order to get their training (and then move on to where they really want to go).
 
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