Chances for an IM residency?

[Ludacris]

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Hey all,

I'm a Canadian and just finished my first year of basic sciences at a Caribbean med school (SGU). I didn't do as well as I wanted but I improved in the second semester compared to the first. I got some C's (In Anatomy, Histo, and Neuroscience) (we have a A, B, C, F grading system) and missed a B by a few points in those courses 🙁. I'm working on trying to reduce those dumb mistakes on tests that end up reducing my mark to a whole new letter. The rest of my grades are a mixture of A's and B's.

My GPA as of now is pretty bad at around a 2.6/4.

If I do very well next year and pull up my GPA to at least a 3 by the end of basic sciences, get good grades on clinical rotations, and do good on the USMLE Step 1, do I still stand a chance for a IM residency at a decent program (not top-tier but an okay program that will lead to a good career)?

I don't have any research (other than a few projects in undergrad that didn't lead to a publication).

What else can I do to better my chances of matching in IM?

Thanks a lot for any advice.

 

[jiy76]

Do well on the boards and on your clinical rotations.get good letters of recs. You will be fine.No one cares about the other stuff coming from a carib school unless something drastic happened like failing several classes.

 

[yankeescard]

Do well on the boards and on your clinical rotations.get good letters of recs. You will be fine.No one cares about the other stuff coming from a carib school unless something drastic happened like failing several classes.

just focus on your step 1 and your third year clinical grades (especially your clerkship in IM)...you should be fine matching into a decent program...good luck! 🙂

 

[dragonfly99]

I can't speak specifically to issues related to being from a Caribbean school (which just makes everything harder for you in the ERAS match process, as you know) and being a Canadian, but I can echo what the others said about matching. Your preclinical grades (even if you were from a US school) tend not to matter as much as your Step 1 score and 3rd year grades, simply because there is so much grading variability among different schools. Yes, if you had a 4.0 that would stand out, but honestly there is so much variability among schools (in other words, a B at one school could be as easy to get as a C at some other school) that people hardly know what to do when looking at these preclinical grades anyhow.

The important things are don't fail any preclinical classes (of course, try to do as well as you can, but mainly just don't screw up big), get as good grades as you can during 3rd year (and take IM later in the year 3rd year as you'll probably have a better chance to get a high grade), and try to score well on Step 1. For IM it also doesn't hurt to have some sort of extracurriculars...don't go crazy but try to get either some clinical experience or other volunteer stuff...IM and peds and fp are really all about patient interaction and about being a "do-gooder", to some extent. You can try and pick up some sort of research experience perhaps during 4th year, though would need to block out at least 2-3 months to really do much, and may have to set it up yourself which could be a challenge if your school doesn't offer much research.

 

[Ludacris]

Thanks for the advice!

I've been really down with myself for missing a B in Neuroscience by making really dumb mistakes on the final exam and not reviewing a few more things that would made a difference. I feel like I threw away some potential residency possibilities 🙁 ... but I know I can't do anything about that course now. I'm going to try my best to get as many A's and B's as possible in the 2nd year of basic sciences (and not fail anything of course).

I'm going to join the IM club at my school and try to volunteer/shadow an IM doctor next summer before my last semester of basic sciences.

Research could be hard for me to do. Most of the research positions in Toronto (where I'm from) are filled already with students from their own medical schools or people with connections (e.g. a parent who's a doctor). But I'll try and get something...