Chances at Residency

[medstu77]

Hi everyone,

I started at one of the big 3 Caribbean med schools right after high school. I'm not American but I did intend on applying to MATCH. Its too late to rectify some of the choices I made but long story short I basically had to repeat all of M2 (terms 4 and 5) because of failing pathology and pathophysiology. My school allows for a 1 year timeline extension if necessary, so it was all possible and I did much better the second time around. After completing my time on the island and finishing basic sciences, I took 4 months to review for STEP 1 and got a 238. I am currently 2 rotations down in clinicals and have so far been passing shelf exams with honours.

I absolutely recognize that having to repeat M2 is something that's going to bite me hard but I wanted to know, realistically, what are my chances at matching into primary care if I apply broadly (90+ programs) and continue to fare well in clinicals/step 2? I started med school when I was 19, because I did the 1 year premed program my school offered and frankly just wasn't ready to face the hurdles that come along with studying in med school. I was immature and didn't know how to handle the stress. After my years down there I can now say that I'm finally in a good place when it comes to studying and keeping up the work of rotations. Are there residency program in the states (peds/fam med/IM/pathology) that would give someone like me a second chance?

Kind regards to everyone and thank you in advance for your help!

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[deleted979844]

Things are changing pretty quickly but I can speak a little to my experience having gone through this last match as an IMG. My classmates who had to repeat semesters were still able to secure plenty of interviews and the worse thing that happened is they were asked about those repeats on the interviews. They did not get as many interviews as others without red flags though, but it seems like most of them matched. Your status as a non-citizen from a Caribbean medical school is a FAR bigger factor than the repeated year (although both factors are obviously working against you). You are going to have to apply to way more than 90 programs, excel on your rotations, ace step 2 and make sure your building connections with the right people from right now. In my personal opinion based on anecdotes, as long as you really stand out from here on out the repeated year is not a death sentence at all.

 

[deleted1041468]

Things are changing pretty quickly but I can speak a little to my experience having gone through this last match as an IMG. My classmates who had to repeat semesters were still able to secure plenty of interviews and the worse thing that happened is they were asked about those repeats on the interviews. They did not get as many interviews as others without red flags though, but it seems like most of them matched. Your status as a non-citizen from a Caribbean medical school is a FAR bigger factor than the repeated year (although both factors are obviously working against you). You are going to have to apply to way more than 90 programs, excel on your rotations, ace step 2 and make sure your building connections with the right people from right now. In my personal opinion based on anecdotes, as long as you really stand out from here on out the repeated year is not a death sentence at all.

You will need to apply to a plethora of places. I’d say 200 FM and IM all community and ones that generally accept IMG. No matter what people say it’s getting incredibly hard for IMGs to match and that’s only getting worse with all the new US schools opening. Kill step 2 and good luck with it.

 

[Balo]

You will need to apply to a plethora of places. I’d say 200 FM and IM all community and ones that generally accept IMG. No matter what people say it’s getting incredibly hard for IMGs to match and that’s only getting worse with all the new US schools opening. Kill step 2 and good luck with it.

It's not as hard as you're making it out to be regarding IMGs this year. It doesn't help that there is a red flag in addition to IMG status (IMGs still not surprisingly have the lowest match in the U.S. compared to both U.S. M.D. and D.O. applicants), but this year's match was wonderful for IMGs based on the stats released: "The number of non-U.S. citizen IMGs who participated in the Match increased slightly, breaking a three-year trend of decline. In 2020, 6,907 IMGs submitted program choices, up 38 from 2019. Furthermore, 4,222 IMGs (61.1%) matched to first-year positions, which is 2.5 percentage points higher than 2019 and the highest match rate since 1990. " New! Press Release: Thousands of Medical Students and Graduates Celebrate NRMP Match Results - The Match, National Resident Matching Program
You're right that they still have to apply to a lot of places to guarantee enough interviews, but it's not all doom and gloom, and is even improving for IMGs.

 

[deleted1041468]

It's not as hard as you're making it out to be regarding IMGs this year. It doesn't help that there is a red flag in addition to IMG status (IMGs still not surprisingly have the lowest match in the U.S. compared to both U.S. M.D. and D.O. applicants), but this year's match was wonderful for IMGs based on the stats released: "The number of non-U.S. citizen IMGs who participated in the Match increased slightly, breaking a three-year trend of decline. In 2020, 6,907 IMGs submitted program choices, up 38 from 2019. Furthermore, 4,222 IMGs (61.1%) matched to first-year positions, which is 2.5 percentage points higher than 2019 and the highest match rate since 1990. " New! Press Release: Thousands of Medical Students and Graduates Celebrate NRMP Match Results - The Match, National Resident Matching Program
You're right that they still have to apply to a lot of places to guarantee enough interviews, but it's not all doom and gloom, and is even improving for IMGs.

Yeah you are right it was okay this year for them since the DO slots merging gave them more options but that will decline rapidly. If you were informed you would know a lot more DO schools are opening in the next two years and with step one being pass fail it’s going to kill IMGs chances the most. If this OP doesn’t get it together quick they are done for. For a lot of residencies being an IMG is a red flag heck even being a DO at some is a red flag. I’ll bet in five years that IMG match rate is below 30 percent.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Your nice score on S1 will alleviate most fears about your poor performance in M2. As mentioned, the need for a visa will limit your options but you should still have options. Not having a bachelor's degree is usually not an issue.

 

[Balo]

Yeah you are right it was okay this year for them since the DO slots merging gave them more options but that will decline rapidly. If you were informed you would know a lot more DO schools are opening in the next two years and with step one being pass fail it’s going to kill IMGs chances the most. If this OP doesn’t get it together quick they are done for. For a lot of residencies being an IMG is a red flag heck even being a DO at some is a red flag. I’ll bet in five years that IMG match rate is below 30 percent.

I think you're jumping to conclusions. This person is an M3 and won't be affected by pass-fail IF they decide to apply before 2022 (so next year basically). As long as this person does the things mentioned previously (apply to a lot of spots, make sure they don't have any more red flags), they will probably have a chance.

Yes, every year, there are new medical schools opened. A lot of schools opened up last year too, but the DO match (90%+) was also good despite the merger, which also eliminated some spots since not every residency program wanted to comply with new standards. Compare that with this summarizing 2019's DO match: DO Match Rate 2019 . That means neither of these commonly disparaged groups (IMG and DO) suffered significantly from changes such as more competition this year.

To say the IMG match in 5 years would be so low would be a huge extrapolation. People were doom and gloom about the merger, but they were thankfully wrong. It's unknown what will happen with pass fail right now (I know people like you are saying that it will kill the chances of DOs, lower-ranked MDs, and IMGs completely, and some people are saying Step 2 is where the emphasis will be), but, again, that is down the road and not something that will affect this person if they apply for match earlier than that implementation date.