Hey folks,
US IMG here from a small low-tier Caribbean school. Thanked my lucky stars to have gotten 5 IVs this season, 2 of which are from programs in my home state of residence. Geography is an important factor, and ideally, I would like to remain in my home state (spouse's job, house-- the whole shebang). Thus, logically, my inclination is to rank these two programs ahead of the others.
My issue is that my state has vague guidelines with regard to license eligibility for IMGs. Upon making repeated phone calls to the state medical board and trying to find answers elsewhere, there still appears to be a lot of gray area in terms of granting licensure to IMGs, and it is primarily granted on a case-by-case basis.
Specifically, the state does not grant licensure to graduates of schools on the California Disapproved Schools. However, nothing is clearly stated about the California Approved Schools list as a prerequisite. Now unfortunately, my medical school is not California approved Thus, it is not on the Approved schools list; however, it is not on the Disapproved Schools list either. What I deduce from this situation is that if I were to hypothetically begin residency in this state, when it came time to apply for licensure, my application would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, but with great scrutiny.
Upon reviewing the track record of where students from my medical school have ended up, nobody has ever matched in my home state, which is very unsettling, as I have little point of reference. However, the 3 other states where I have interviewed are all states where I am sure students from my school have completed residency and obtained a license, and they're known to be more IMG friendly states in general anyway.
Should I go ahead and rank programs based on geographical preference (as I had initially intended)? If I were to match at one of the two programs in my state, I feel like the process of applying for licensure 3 years down the road will be a rocky and uncertain one, and it is clearly giving me anxiety now, even before the Match. My school administration has been useless in providing guidance (a gross understatement), the state medical board can't give me a clear answer, and program directors of the places I've interviewed are clearly uninformed about this specific scenario (I'm sure this never crossed their minds when they invited me to interview, as I did away rotations at both of these programs, so they are really more like automatic 'courtesy' interviews).
How to rank??
US IMG here from a small low-tier Caribbean school. Thanked my lucky stars to have gotten 5 IVs this season, 2 of which are from programs in my home state of residence. Geography is an important factor, and ideally, I would like to remain in my home state (spouse's job, house-- the whole shebang). Thus, logically, my inclination is to rank these two programs ahead of the others.
My issue is that my state has vague guidelines with regard to license eligibility for IMGs. Upon making repeated phone calls to the state medical board and trying to find answers elsewhere, there still appears to be a lot of gray area in terms of granting licensure to IMGs, and it is primarily granted on a case-by-case basis.
Specifically, the state does not grant licensure to graduates of schools on the California Disapproved Schools. However, nothing is clearly stated about the California Approved Schools list as a prerequisite. Now unfortunately, my medical school is not California approved Thus, it is not on the Approved schools list; however, it is not on the Disapproved Schools list either. What I deduce from this situation is that if I were to hypothetically begin residency in this state, when it came time to apply for licensure, my application would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, but with great scrutiny.
Upon reviewing the track record of where students from my medical school have ended up, nobody has ever matched in my home state, which is very unsettling, as I have little point of reference. However, the 3 other states where I have interviewed are all states where I am sure students from my school have completed residency and obtained a license, and they're known to be more IMG friendly states in general anyway.
Should I go ahead and rank programs based on geographical preference (as I had initially intended)? If I were to match at one of the two programs in my state, I feel like the process of applying for licensure 3 years down the road will be a rocky and uncertain one, and it is clearly giving me anxiety now, even before the Match. My school administration has been useless in providing guidance (a gross understatement), the state medical board can't give me a clear answer, and program directors of the places I've interviewed are clearly uninformed about this specific scenario (I'm sure this never crossed their minds when they invited me to interview, as I did away rotations at both of these programs, so they are really more like automatic 'courtesy' interviews).
How to rank??
