For the IMGs

[killabee]

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I am a 3rd yr student at a foreign school. I will be applying for the match later this year for next year's match. I am interested in cardiology fellowship after residency. I was wondering if IMGs on this board can post there stats (usmle scores, research, etc.) and where they got interivews. This will give me an idea of which programs I should apply to.
Thanks 🙂

 

[germanIMG]

the main factors defining your competiveness are in no particular order:

inside connection/recommendations from doctors that are either known in the US or know someone at the particular program you are applying to

Visa status/issues

graduation date

US experience, preferable clinically, if not research

research activities in general, i.e publications and/or post-doc

US Letters of recommendation

scores above 90 an you should be fine

my creds: 95/89 3 year residency back home, 3 years post-doc in US, 12 pubs

interviews:

Cornell
Mt. Sinai
U PITT
BU
Montefiore
Georgetown
Thomas Jefferson
Temple
Penn State
UMDNJ Newark and RWJ
JHU-Bayview

and some community programs


hope that helps

good luck

 

[drswam]

the main factors defining your competiveness are in no particular order:

inside connection/recommendations from doctors that are either known in the US or know someone at the particular program you are applying to

Visa status/issues

graduation date

US experience, preferable clinically, if not research

research activities in general, i.e publications and/or post-doc

US Letters of recommendation

scores above 90 an you should be fine

my creds: 95/89 3 year residency back home, 3 years post-doc in US, 12 pubs

interviews:

Cornell
Mt. Sinai
U PITT
BU
Montefiore
Georgetown
Thomas Jefferson
Temple
Penn State
UMDNJ Newark and RWJ
JHU-Bayview

and some community programs


hope that helps

good luck

hey german IMG.....pretty impressive wiht the set of interviews....was curious to know if you had any clinical experience in the US.....so you have a phd as well.....and finally do you need a visa.......am tyring to apply for the next match......did apply this year but then wasnt impressed wiht the interviews that i received......hoping to improve my chances next year....so your suggestions and details of your profile will kind of give me some guidance....hope you match in your top school.....

 

[germanIMG]

hey german IMG.....pretty impressive wiht the set of interviews....was curious to know if you had any clinical experience in the US.....so you have a phd as well.....and finally do you need a visa.......am tyring to apply for the next match......did apply this year but then wasnt impressed wiht the interviews that i received......hoping to improve my chances next year....so your suggestions and details of your profile will kind of give me some guidance....hope you match in your top school.....

hye drswam, think I know you from the usmleforum;-) to answer your questions...

I had some US clinical experience, but way back in 1995/96 at Columbia and Stanford.
I managed to get a LOR from one prof at Columbia who now happens to be at Cornell.
I was born in US, so I also have a US passport, that made it easier...
in terms of improving your porfile, if you already know what you would want to do in the future academically...and only then does it matter where you are doing you residency... I would suggest to look up some
research guys in your field of interest and try to work in their lab. Make sure, that the PI is a MD or at least extremly well connected in the medical world.
Usually, labs are happy to have another two hands, that said, it all depends whether you have visa issues or not.


good luck

 

[hemoglobin]

I am a 3rd yr student at a foreign school. I will be applying for the match later this year for next year's match. I am interested in cardiology fellowship after residency. I was wondering if IMGs on this board can post there stats (usmle scores, research, etc.) and where they got interivews. This will give me an idea of which programs I should apply to.
Thanks 🙂

Hi killabee. Like you, I am a FMG and I am also interested in cardiology. Regarding my stats, I just graduated in December 2004 (thus, I was still a medstudent when I applied for residency). I did research during 5 and 1/2 of the 6 years of medical school. My scores were 243/98 (step 1 ) and 273/99 (step 2 CK). I took step 2 CS in november 2004 (after applying for residency in september), thus I am still waiting for my results. I have 1 month of US clinical experience in Mayo Clinic, where I got a letter of recommendation.

I got interviews at: Cleveland Clinic Florida, Jackson Memorial Hosp./ Univ. of Miami, Rush University, Henry Ford Hospital, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Baylor College of Medicine (Houston), Baylor University (Dallas), Cleveland Clinic Ohio, Boston University, Johns Hopkins Bayview, Temple Univ.

Was rejected by: Mayo in Jacksonsville, NYU, BWH, UTSW, JHU.

Never heard back from: Emory and Univ of Florida.

Hope this helps! 👍

Hb 🙂

 

[killabee]

Superb scores hemoglobin. I have 233/94 on step 1. What was your strategy for Step 2? I'm taking it in July.

 

[hemoglobin]

Superb scores hemoglobin. I have 233/94 on step 1. What was your strategy for Step 2? I'm taking it in July.

Hey again buddy. First off, congrats on your step 1 score!!! 👍 Well, I didn't have much time to study for step 2, as I was pretty busy with medical school. I was confident about my background knowledge so I decided to just do questions for step 2. Reading makes me sleepy (LOL), so I just did questions questions questions. The only book I read was Crush Step 2 (helpful some times but not essential). In terms of questions, I did the Kaplan Qbank, Usmleworld Qbank, NMS Qbook, Mock Qbook (stay away from it, waaaay too easy!), and the NBME online tests. I did it in about 2,5 months and took the test.

Each person is different, what worked for me may not work for you. I get bored with reading, some people get bored with questions. You have to find out what works better for yourself and go for it.

Best of luck and let me know if you have any more questions! 😉

Hb

 

[pretzel]

I am not an IMG, but I think it's great that you are applying to programs in the States. I think all American programs could benefit from some IMGs.

I think this is the trick to matching into strong American residencies. Letters from clinical rotations at strong schools in the States help, and support from research faculty at strong schools in the States help. There are some superb matches of IMGs in the States at the top-ranked residencies, not only in medicine, but in specialty fields, but most of these people have done research for people in these programs for a year or two, so they are known entities, and they have support of professors with known names in the field.

This is probably not much help now, but in case you are delaying your match for a residency that you love, I hope you realize that there are opportunities for foreign grads in even the top-ranked programs in the States. Brigham, MGH, UCSF, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Beth Israel-Deaconess -- all of them are willing to consider foreign grads if they have support from internal professors.

It takes a bit more effort, but if you want to stay in the States or even if you don't, there are opportunities for foreign grads at the top programs here. There will always be favoritism for American grads, even though a lot of us are not as good as you are, but that will probably always apply to each country (we would also struggle if we were applying out of country).

Best of luck to you.