I am a medical student at a world renowned medical school in the UK. Looking at previous residency match data it is clear that matching into any surgical specialty is of great difficulty for any IMG applicant. However, much of the data is from IMG applicants from medical schools unknown by many US institutions. I was wondering whether being from a well known medical school would give advantage and if so to what extent?
If there is any UK graduates or anyone who knows an individual who has been through the match process I would love to hear your opinion.
Many Thanks.
I would disagree with the bolded above. Programs that have a history of accepting IMGs are familiar with foreign programs; they may not have had a matriculant from "program x" but it would be most unusual to find faculty, especially PDs who have never
heard of "program x". It may not have the name cachet that Oxford has (the program I assume you're affiliated with), but that's about it.
There is likely some benefit to attending a "name brand" program (like Oxford or Harvard), but that only gets you in the door. For IMGs, the benefit is a little more hazy given the factors influencing matching are more difficult to ascertain.
If you are a British national attending school in GB, you will have the advantage over the US citizen studying abroad, as the assumption in the latter is that they were not able to obtain a US education (whether true or not). However, this presumably means you need a visa and as noted above, some programs don't want to deal with it. Those that do often tend to be FMG populated, which may not may not fit your needs. There is a reason why US citizens may be more successful in the match: visa is one of them and familiarity with the US system and US rotations/connections may be another.
US clinical experience *USCE) is key. Observerships are essentially worthless so please do not use valuable clinical time and/or spend money as these do not provide the experience you need. UCSF no longer takes IMGs (although they did back in my day, but then again, I had previously worked for them so they may have a bent the rules for me). However, there are likely many more places that do, or places that will bend the rules for someone who is English speaking, from an English country and has good Step 1 scores. Check here to see if your school has an affiliation with AAMC and what programs you might be eligible for:
visiting-student-learning-opportunities For example, I know Baylor still takes International students for clinical electives.
In regards to what is considered "high" for Step scores, obviously anything above the mean (which as noted is 241 and 249 for non-US IMGs for 2018 General Surgery matched applicants). Means being what they are, the most non-US IMGs who matched into GS had scores between 251 and 260. The data for Integrated Plastics is so sparse as to be unhelpful. Only 1 non-US IMG matched and that individual had a Step 1 score of 228. This would mean to me that this person clearly had other attributes (ie, perhaps working/toiling as a research associate for years?) which made the Step 1 score somewhat irrelevant. This is the answer to your last question: yes, Step 1 will get you in the door (if you weren't already in such as by doing research with the Plastics department for years) but its often the "other stuff" that makes the difference.
