How IMG Friendly Are The Top Peds Programs?

[Killer T Cell]

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Hey everyone, this is my first time posting in the Pediatrics forum. I'm a US-IMG who's currently a final year medical student in the United Kingdom. I am planning to apply in 09/01 and I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not I should even apply to any of the top peds programs.

My board scores were good, not great. Step 1 - 224/96 and Step 2 - 225/98. I also have 2 summers of Peds research at Hopkins, 2 publications and a few months of electives at a good hospital. But I'm not sure how much this IMG status comes into play at the top programs. Having quickly glanced through the match list of SGU and Ross, I couldn't find any matches to the top programs 🙁 I also peeked at the current residents list at some of the well known programs, and it's nearly all AMG!

Doesn't look too promising at all. So I just have a few questions....

1) Which programs are considered to be the top 20/25 in peds. I saw the top 10 honor roll places in US News, but which ones come after that?

2) Would it be an absolute waste of $25 per app to apply to these programs as an IMG?

Please don't get me wrong, I am not concerned with rankings or status. Instead, I am just debating if I should waste money applying to places where I have no chance at all.

I guess my biggest problem is that, I am really not sure how competitive I am as an applicant and how I stack up to my peers.

I currently have 115 schools on my application list and seriously need to do some shortlisting 🙁 !! Please help......

Thanks...

 

[J-Rad]

Hey everyone, this is my first time posting in the Pediatrics forum. I'm a US-IMG who's currently a final year medical student in the United Kingdom. I am planning to apply in 09/01 and I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not I should even apply to any of the top peds programs.

My board scores were good, not great. Step 1 - 224/96 and Step 2 - 225/98. I also have 2 summers of Peds research at Hopkins, 2 publications and a few months of electives at a good hospital. But I'm not sure how much this IMG status comes into play at the top programs. Having quickly glanced through the match list of SGU and Ross, I couldn't find any matches to the top programs 🙁 I also peeked at the current residents list at some of the well known programs, and it's nearly all AMG!

Doesn't look too promising at all. So I just have a few questions....

1) Which programs are considered to be the top 20/25 in peds. I saw the top 10 honor roll places in US News, but which ones come after that?

2) Would it be an absolute waste of $25 per app to apply to these programs as an IMG?

Please don't get me wrong, I am not concerned with rankings or status. Instead, I am just debating if I should waste money applying to places where I have no chance at all.

I guess my biggest problem is that, I am really not sure how competitive I am as an applicant and how I stack up to my peers.

I currently have 115 schools on my application list and seriously need to do some shortlisting 🙁 !! Please help......

Thanks...

Maybe a helpful thread, at least for sifting through some of the "top programs", for whatever that means:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=791105

 

[oldbearprofessor]

With no evidence at all to back up this statement, I suspect some programs might consider a UK graduate differently than a Caribbean one. Perhaps this would depend on why you went to school in the UK.

Overall, those scores and a non US medical school don't bode that well for the top 10, but there could be extenuating circumstances or more background that would appeal even to one of the top 10. Other than that, I recommend the usual mixture of large and small programs, etc based on interest, location, etc.

 

[Killer T Cell]

Thank you so much J-Rad and Oldbearprofessor. That was a really helpful link and I really appreciate your advice. I guess I'm going to apply and see what happens, you never know till you try right? 🙂 Do you think my scores are good enough for mid-tier schools? Thanks

 

[Prop]

Not trying to highjack or anything, but I have a question in relation to OP's.

I'm in a fairly similar situation (same scores on step 1/2, some research, 1 poster, 1 publication (submitted at least), studying in western Europe) - but not US-IMG, just ordinary IMG who needs a visa.

I know the top tier programs would be most of those mentioned in the link. But OP mentions mid-tier programs - what programs do that include??? I'm having a hard time figuring out which programs are considered mid-tier (where I think I should have a chance)...

Anybody want to comment on that? (mostly interested in North-East and maybe Florida and Texas).

 

[michigangirl]

Did you/are you able to get excellent letters of rec from your summers doing peds research at Hopkins?

 

[Killer T Cell]

Did you/are you able to get excellent letters of rec from your summers doing peds research at Hopkins?

Those 2 summers at Hopkins, I worked with the same mentor, and he really likes me. He wrote me an excellent LOR which I've included in my ERAS application. Do you think his letter might help at even one or two of the top programs? 🙂

 

[Killer T Cell]

Not trying to highjack or anything, but I have a question in relation to OP's.

I'm in a fairly similar situation (same scores on step 1/2, some research, 1 poster, 1 publication (submitted at least), studying in western Europe) - but not US-IMG, just ordinary IMG who needs a visa.

I know the top tier programs would be most of those mentioned in the link. But OP mentions mid-tier programs - what programs do that include??? I'm having a hard time figuring out which programs are considered mid-tier (where I think I should have a chance)...

Anybody want to comment on that? (mostly interested in North-East and maybe Florida and Texas).

That was going to be my next question actually, feel free to hijack away 🙂

 

[michigangirl]

I can't speak to other programs but it can only help your chances at Hopkins, as long as your mentor is a pediatrician on the faculty there.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

"Top" tier vs "Mid" tier are very relative. They only really apply if you put faith into the ranking and I think the people that put the most faith into them are the adminstrative people that work at those hospitals (at least that was my experience. It makes for good marketing to say "We're number x, bring your business here"). In my opinion, having worked at 2 top ten programs, and 1 mid tier program, they are all the same as far as residency is concerned. Top programs tend to have niche specialists that specialize in a certain disease with a prevelance of 1 in 100,000 and they also tend to have more NIH funded faculty, which is primarily what drives the ranking. However, the education and experiences one gets as a resident is very similar in general. Now if you know that you wanted to be a heart failure specialist, it might behove you to go to a place that has patients on ventricular assist devices, but then again, you need to learn so much other stuff and your interactions with those patients will be so limited, that it probably won't matter as far as residency goes (that's what fellowship is for). I guess my point of this ramble is the rankings don't really matter, but that didn't answer your question.

Top tier programs are probably top 20 programs by ranking, mid tier programs are below that probably to top 50 (but numbers beyond 30 don't really exist in rankings). Another way to look at it is by class size, in that top programs usually have 20 and 25+ residents per class (more funding for hospital size), mid programs have 10 to 15+, but that is very debatable I suppose. No one really ranks "mid" tier or "low" tier programs because there is no money in it for anyone.