So, even if you have an impeccable ERAS application, you have to still do the Pathways via ECFMG. These guys only report Step 1, Step 2 and OET scores to ERAS for a fee of $925 so I think anyone can see they are no more than an opportunistic "scam" company. They originally had a deadline of January 31, 2024 then they changed it to December 31 2023. That's right--they moved it BACK. They did not announce this until late November 2023 and the decision was not consensual. The change was supposed to coincide with the implementation of the Myint health website platform which actually failed. But they did not properly announce this decision which affected so many IMGs. So now hundreds of IMGs are going to have to abandon their 2023 applications because ECFMG needed to shift the deadline for business reasons, with no consideration of the IMGs' applications. There is a change.org petition circulating to open up the Pathways for at least a week more. Shame on ECFMG, they put business interests in front of facilitating the careers of their customers, as you can clearly see in this notice from them: To facilitate the transition to the new MyIntealth™ environment, the deadline for submitting applications to the Pathways for ECFMG Certification for the 2024 Match has changed. Let us not forget that their raison d'etre is to facilitate the application process of IMGs, not to get in the way of the process, or shut down people's careers. And the cost for all those ERAS applications was generally in the thousands of dollars for applicants. Do we all get a refund?
www.change.org
UPDATE : On the morning of February 2 I was notified that the Pathways application was changed from December 31 to February 15. So let's back up here and do a timeline. Early in the cycle the application deadline was Jan 31, 2024. Then ECFMG decided to make a change to Dec 31, 2023, based
on a website platform shift RIGHT IN THE CRITICAL PART of the Match cycle (Jan and Febrary.) They did not send out proper noticification of this change. A change.org petition began to circulate. Then perhaps due to public pressure they reopened the deadline to February 15. I believe this type of herky-jerky behavior is the result of hyper-bureaucracy associated with the Byzantine application process. People are literally struggling with 6 different websites: ERAS, ECFMG/Pathways, OASIS, OET, their medical school website, and NRMP. We have added way too many layers of bureaucracy to this process--I talk to doctors who got their MDs in the 1980s and they can barely believe what I am telling them--the Medical Bureaucracy is swallowing Medicine. I think we all just saw an example of that--let's simplify and streamline the whole process and try to make sure this type of thing doesn't ever happen again.
Sign the Petition
Demand ECFMG to Reopen 2024 Pathways Application for IMG Physicians
www.change.org
UPDATE : On the morning of February 2 I was notified that the Pathways application was changed from December 31 to February 15. So let's back up here and do a timeline. Early in the cycle the application deadline was Jan 31, 2024. Then ECFMG decided to make a change to Dec 31, 2023, based
on a website platform shift RIGHT IN THE CRITICAL PART of the Match cycle (Jan and Febrary.) They did not send out proper noticification of this change. A change.org petition began to circulate. Then perhaps due to public pressure they reopened the deadline to February 15. I believe this type of herky-jerky behavior is the result of hyper-bureaucracy associated with the Byzantine application process. People are literally struggling with 6 different websites: ERAS, ECFMG/Pathways, OASIS, OET, their medical school website, and NRMP. We have added way too many layers of bureaucracy to this process--I talk to doctors who got their MDs in the 1980s and they can barely believe what I am telling them--the Medical Bureaucracy is swallowing Medicine. I think we all just saw an example of that--let's simplify and streamline the whole process and try to make sure this type of thing doesn't ever happen again.
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