Freaking out about not getting II's

[c137]

Hello all. Sorry to add another "how competitive am I"-style post to the pile, but I'm freaking out rn.

I am a non-US IMG, graduated 2018 and have been working as an ER doc non-stop since then.

My step 1 is a flat 230 and CK flat 220 (I know... didn't study that hard).

I have 4 LORs, all from US 2 of which are from neuro attendings.

1 non-neuro peer-reviewed publication in 2018, 1 neuro peer-reviewed case report in 2020 (Cureus journal). Top 10% of my class of 55 students.

The last LOR took forever to upload and I didn't wanna send it to programs later, so I waited until it was ready and ended up sending my 65 apps on Oct 30th.
So far I haven't received any II's and am freaking out. I know my step scores are LOW but I'm overthinking that not having gotten II's yet could be 2/2 having sent the apps late and not my low scores. But then again there's no way to tell.
If somebody here honestly thinks I could still get some II's in the coming weeks that would really put me at ease. TBH I hadn't planned on a plan B but I'm now starting to think about what to do in 2021 case I don't match...

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[Euxox]

I'm an IM resident, and a bit late, but I figured I'd post since you still haven't gotten any responses.

Your step scores are fine. A 220 on CK isn't ideal considering that you are an IMG, but it's still not a deal breaker.

The problem is that you submitted extremely late. A lot of IM programs are already done with interview invites by October 30th, and I assume it's similar for neuro. The right move would've been to submit as soon as ERAS opened - Let the programs that don't care about the missing letter review your app right away, and let the programs that do care about the letter continue to wait until you upload it. (PDs generally don't reject your app for being incomplete. They just mark it incomplete and they'll catch if it's complete the next time they download apps from ERAS.)

Obviously there's not much that you can do to fix this now, and I'm sorry that you're in this position. There are some programs that hold on to a decent number of interview invites until late in the process. Hopefully you will hear from some of them.

 

[c137]

Thank you for your reply. I received the same comment from one other person. Looking forward to SOAP at this point...

 

[neuroeditor]

Hello all. Sorry to add another "how competitive am I"-style post to the pile, but I'm freaking out rn.

I am a non-US IMG, graduated 2018 and have been working as an ER doc non-stop since then.

My step 1 is a flat 230 and CK flat 220 (I know... didn't study that hard).

I have 4 LORs, all from US 2 of which are from neuro attendings.

1 non-neuro peer-reviewed publication in 2018, 1 neuro peer-reviewed case report in 2020 (Cureus journal). Top 10% of my class of 55 students.

The last LOR took forever to upload and I didn't wanna send it to programs later, so I waited until it was ready and ended up sending my 65 apps on Oct 30th.
So far I haven't received any II's and am freaking out. I know my step scores are LOW but I'm overthinking that not having gotten II's yet could be 2/2 having sent the apps late and not my low scores. But then again there's no way to tell.
If somebody here honestly thinks I could still get some II's in the coming weeks that would really put me at ease. TBH I hadn't planned on a plan B but I'm now starting to think about what to do in 2021 case I don't match...

Hi,
I am a neurologist and associate editor for Neurology Today, the American Academy of Neurology publication. I am currently writing a story on the challenges which IMGs seeking neurology residencies are facing. If you are looking for neurology spots, and are willing to be interviewed please leave me a message on my website: dravitzur.com. Thank you!

 

[DrStephenStrange]

I'm an IM resident, and a bit late, but I figured I'd post since you still haven't gotten any responses.

Your step scores are fine. A 220 on CK isn't ideal considering that you are an IMG, but it's still not a deal breaker.

The problem is that you submitted extremely late. A lot of IM programs are already done with interview invites by October 30th, and I assume it's similar for neuro. The right move would've been to submit as soon as ERAS opened - Let the programs that don't care about the missing letter review your app right away, and let the programs that do care about the letter continue to wait until you upload it. (PDs generally don't reject your app for being incomplete. They just mark it incomplete and they'll catch if it's complete the next time they download apps from ERAS.)

Obviously there's not much that you can do to fix this now, and I'm sorry that you're in this position. There are some programs that hold on to a decent number of interview invites until late in the process. Hopefully you will hear from some of them.

But ERAS opened to residency programs on October 21st this year. No way this was too late. I'm imagining the fact that OP graduated in 2018 and the decrease from step 1 to step 2 might have hurt him, not the submission date.