foreign schools and residency

[srose]

Hi,
I am curious if anyone has any information regarding residencies for foreign grads. I am really looking into AUC and SGU, but I have heard that it is a lot more difficult for a foreign grad to get the residency of his/her choice. However, I have also read that as long as you pass the USMLE 1&2, and have great recommendations and interviews, that you are going to be fine. Could anyone enlighten me on this subject?
Thanks

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[Brenda]

IMG's have about a 50% match rate overall. Most of them can usually find a residency in the Scramble, but very frequently in Internal Medicine or Family Practice. I hope this helps.

 

[cbc16]

srose,
while it is harder (and sometimes impossible) for US IMGs to gain competative residencies, less competative residencies such as IM, FP, peds are easily obtainable, as long as you pass your boards. My wife went to SGU, as well as several friends, and they are all in residencies that they wanted, IM, FP, radiology, OB/GYN, surgery, urology, anesthesiology, granted, most of them aren't at major medical centers, but that doesn't mean they aren't getting good training. And they are, after all, doing what they want to do!
If your numbers are good enough, you should consider DO school. You'll be in the States, and be on equal ground with MD's. But if you cant deal with having the letter's DO after your name, established offshore schools are a good choice. But remember there always is a risk going offshore!
Good Luck

 

[srose]

Thanks for the input. In all honesty, the residencies that I am most interested in are family practice, so that is encouraging. I am also looking into a couple Canadian schools. Is anyone aware of the difficulty in obtaining a residency for a school there?
I appreciate all the input.

Thanks, srose

 

[Test Boy]

On average, Canadian schools are harder to get into than American schools.

 

[dr.sof]

srose: I graduated from St.George's and am going into FP. If you are truely interested in family practice I wouldn't worry. Granted, the ideal situation would be to get into a US school. SGU was great, but it was not an easy road. If it is any consolation, my friends and I suffered during school but WE MADE IT! We are all in competitive family practice residencies in the state of NJ. For FP the focus is more on the personality of the person rather than this score or that score. They are looking for "a good fit". In that respect, going to SGU did not hurt our applications to FP programs.

 

[turtleboard]

Test Boy,

Canadian schools are generally tougher to get into than American schools because practically each Canadian school has the following way of evaluating applicants: 1) preference for students from the same Province, 2) preference for students from the other provinces of Canada, and 3) students from anywhere else.

For an American student, there's realistically no chance of getting into a Canadian school.


Tim of New York City.

 

[Sunil Kapur]

I used a web site www.imgi.org, extensively.

IMGI has an online IMG Manual, with 10 easy steps to get into a US residency.

It also talks about which carribean and non-carribean schools are good vs. bad.

It is very helpful to the IMG.

take care

 

[stephew]

FOr SGU placement into residencies 99%+ US citizens get a spot) and 93%pass the step one, check my site at http://travel.to/sgusom or the school site at www.sgu.edu. There is a list of placement. FP will have NO problem whatsoever.
All the best,Steph

 

[SDN-Jim]

 

[stephew]

I got the residency of my choice from sgu-internship at SUNY Upstate and Rt-Onc (start July 2000) and Johns Hopkins. No, I had no connections. See a list of our grads and placement at my site http://travel.to/sgusom. 99+% US citizens get residencies.

 

[John Jadvar]

From another post on this bulletin board, match rate for US graduates of foreign medical schools is about 50%. This number is from ACGME/NRMP.
http://nrmp.aamc.org/nrmp/mainguid/table2.htm

[This message has been edited by John Jadvar (edited 04-03-2000).]

 

[judd_b_2000]

has anyone ever heard of a non-traditional clinical clerkship that you do in a rural or urban practice with a private practice? is anyone out there in UHSA antigua. i've heard nightmare stories about this place, but they said they have a "traditional" clinical placement in some hospitals, but they also have a "non-traditional" (your choose your own rural or urban medical practice) clinical pathway. this of course is part of their FMCP (flexable medical curriculum program) for existing healthcare providers, such as dentists, podiatrists, chiropractors, physicians assistance. any response would help.


thanks

 

[stephew]

Thanks, I pleased with my achievement. Actually 13% US seniors failed to match in Rt Onc in '99. Dont have this years results. And Internal Medicine News, the front page was an article on the increased need for radiotherapists. And the thing is, I love doing it.

I urge you to check out the match for SGU grads (youve clearly read my posts previously so I know you have the links) to see where else folks are going.

 

[Detroit Rock City]

I went to Ross, and know people from both SGU and Ross. I feel that the trend towards FMG's are changing. I went straight through, and matched in ER. I know people who got Ortho, Derm and other top notch resiodencies from Ross, and I can only assume that the guys from SGU did just as well. Good Luck. If you can, stay in the US, but if you cant, just study hard and you can get what you want!

 

[Stephen Ewen]

Originally posted by turtleboard:
Test Boy,

Canadian schools are generally tougher to get into than American schools because practically each Canadian school has the following way of evaluating applicants: 1) preference for students from the same Province, 2) preference for students from the other provinces of Canada, and 3) students from anywhere else.

For an American student, there's realistically no chance of getting into a Canadian school.

Tim of New York City.

This is not categorically tue. The University of Newfoundland accepts a handful of Internationals each year, the majority being Americans. Check their web-site.

 

[Carbon Klein]

I totally agree with the above posters..if you're interested in primary care....IM or FP, then you're looking pretty good. I have a buddy from SGU who matched just this year to an Ivy League IM program (he ranked it #1 on his rank list). His grades are good (about 3.3) and he passed his boards by just a little bit. So those specialties are definitely open for IMGs. But competitive specialties such as Surgery are closed to all but the best of best IMGs and even those programs that accept IMGs are mid tier programs. Top tier competitive programs don't seem to consider IMGs that seriously.



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[Detroit Rock City]

Carbon,
? for u.
what is a top tier surgery residency?

 

[Carbon Klein]

I'm dividing up residency programs into three categories (I'm sure all you guys and gals already know this):

Top Tier: University programs
Second Tier: University Affiliated programs
Third Tier: community hospitals unaffiliated with a university.

In regards to surgery, from personal information by classmates and faculties of hospitals, it seems that IMGs are getting University Affiliated surgery programs although not in "prestigous" programs. For example, IMGs are getting into NYMC AFFILIATED hospitals for General Surgery but not into Cornell or NYU's University hospital's programs nor even into their affiliated hospitals. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the rule seems to be that not many IMGs are not getting into, nor are they getting interviews at places like NYU, Columbia, Stanford University hospitals for General Surgery. They are getting Anesthesiology at places like Cornell, but Anesthesiology is not a competitive residency at this time. They are getting IM at Brown, but again, IM isn't that competitive at this time.

I have met some foreign school students who were nothing short of astounding. They had the grades and the boards scores (90+ percentile). They were so knowledgeable, so compassionate, so competent and so confident that I was constantly in awe in their presences. Yet when time came for the NRMP match for General Surgery, they ended up at some University affiliated small hospital in the middle of suburbia New Jersey rather than a top tier University program with Columbia or NYU. If these people were from NYMC or MCP/Hahnemann and performed the way they did, you can be sure that they will be at some top notch famous hospitals.

I worked with a neurosurgical attending and clinical prof at UCSF General Hospital and he told me flat out that IMGs have no chance with neurosurgery. He also supported me when I expressed an interested in doing AMCAS again. He has not heard of one IMG who got into neurosurgery (results from the 1996 Neurosurg match suggests he's wrong, but who am I to argue?).

An IMG must be better in many respects than the US counterpart just to be seen as an equal. I'm sure I'm not telling you guys and gals anything that you don't already know.