IMG FMG DO General Surgery residency 2012 Interview thread

[Magginoodles]

I thought a thread for IMG FMG and DO candidates applying for the 2013 match will be helpful to future candidates. Please state your status ( IMG FMG DO ) and interviews that you have received. Also if it was for a prelim or categorical spot. Anything you would like to share about the programs would be great too.
Thank you.

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[Dissected]

You go first

 

[Magginoodles]

You go first

I would love to. But I am not applying till next year. I'll be applying for the 2014 match. I am interested in General Surgery and wanted to create a thread so it'll help people like me out there.

 

[Dissected]

Ah. You'll probably get more responses after the match..it's a precarious time to be sharing too much on SDN at this point in the cycle.

Set up some aways at places you want to go and work hard until then. Good luck.

 

[Magginoodles]

Ah. You'll probably get more responses after the match..it's a precarious time to be sharing too much on SDN at this point in the cycle.

Set up some aways at places you want to go and work hard until then. Good luck.

Thank you. I know that people might not come forward. But I just wanted to start one anyway just to encourage a few responses. Hopefully they might come forward once their interviews are over.

 

[greatsaphenousv]

US Citizen studying in last year at University of Manchester Medical School (UK). So IMG

Step 1: 257
Step 2: 253
Publications: a couple with the surgery department here

Interviews till now:
GS Categorical:
Vanderbilt
Yale
University of Chicago
Baylor

VS integrated:
MUSC
Mayo
USC

From what I have learned, as long as you are not an IMG from the Carribean, and you go a respectable international medical school (http://www.topuniversities.com/univ...ct-rankings/life-science-biomedicine/medicine), have good step scores, letters of recommendations, and research experience (with hopefully at least one publication), you will get plenty of interviews. I know that people will argue that DO is preferred over any IMG, but I vehemently disagree, and think that if you graduate from one of the medical schools listed in the QS bank and back it up with a good academic record, and IMG will actually be preferred over a DO applicant when it comes to surgery programs.

Good luck everybody

 

[Magginoodles]

Great stats and good luck on your interviews. Please let us know how they go once you are done.

 

[Buzz Me]

I know that people will argue that DO is preferred over any IMG, but I vehemently disagree, and think that if you graduate from one of the medical schools listed in the QS bank and back it up with a good academic record, and IMG will actually be preferred over a DO applicant when it comes to surgery programs.

Depends on the individual program. There may be a few old school programs that still look down upon the DO degree, but for the most part, the IMG/FMG stigma is a big one and tough to shrug off.

 

[SLUser11]

From what I have learned, as long as you are not an IMG from the Carribean, and you go a respectable international medical school (http://www.topuniversities.com/univ...ct-rankings/life-science-biomedicine/medicine), have good step scores, letters of recommendations, and research experience (with hopefully at least one publication), you will get plenty of interviews. I know that people will argue that DO is preferred over any IMG, but I vehemently disagree, and think that if you graduate from one of the medical schools listed in the QS bank and back it up with a good academic record, and IMG will actually be preferred over a DO applicant when it comes to surgery programs.

Good luck everybody

Certainly Caribbean FMGs have an uphill battle, but so does every other category of IMGs. Since I'm involved in the process, I can promise you that there's not a list of international schools that PDs keep around and deem exempt from traditional IMG status. All the applications go in the same pile with the other hundreds of IMG applications. The really good PDs are smart enough to read through them, but plenty just discard them.

US Citizen IMG is a double-edged status....while on the one hand, it eliminates visa issues, most people in the states assume there's a reason why someone would study abroad...i.e. they couldn't get into school here, or they were taking some sort of shortcut. Of course, I've met plenty of these from Ireland, England, Pakistan, etc, and they all have some sort of unique reason why the international school was right for them even though they could have "easily gotten into school in the US."

As for DOs, they are often given more consideration than FMGs or IMGs, but they still have a difficult battle ahead, regardless of scores, LORs, and research.

Whether or not the process is fair, it is unlikely to become more DO or IMG-friendly in the near future. So, for those unique snowflakes that have the ability to become US-allopathic students, but are contemplating another approach, they should just go to the US allopathic school, no exceptions.

 

[greatsaphenousv]

Certainly Caribbean FMGs have an uphill battle, but so does every other category of IMGs. Since I'm involved in the process, I can promise you that there's not a list of international schools that PDs keep around and deem exempt from traditional IMG status. All the applications go in the same pile with the other hundreds of IMG applications. The really good PDs are smart enough to read through them, but plenty just discard them.

US Citizen IMG is a double-edged status....while on the one hand, it eliminates visa issues, most people in the states assume there's a reason why someone would study abroad...i.e. they couldn't get into school here, or they were taking some sort of shortcut. Of course, I've met plenty of these from Ireland, England, Pakistan, etc, and they all have some sort of unique reason why the international school was right for them even though they could have "easily gotten into school in the US."

As for DOs, they are often given more consideration than FMGs or IMGs, but they still have a difficult battle ahead, regardless of scores, LORs, and research.

Whether or not the process is fair, it is unlikely to become more DO or IMG-friendly in the near future. So, for those unique snowflakes that have the ability to become US-allopathic students, but are contemplating another approach, they should just go to the US allopathic school, no exceptions.

I went from a hs in South Carolina to Manchester for a 6 year medical program. I spent 7 years there however, as I did one year of research. I have no regrets in this decision I made, as there were many people (including family members who are physicians) who told me to go the traditional 4 year college route and then apply for US medical schools, as it is very hard to get US residency being a IMG. But I simply at that time could not believe an applicant from a reputed medical school in the UK would not be regarded at the same level as a US medical student, and I also wanted to study in the UK as I was born in France and was an dual US EU resident and based on the interviews I have gotten to me its pretty clear that medical school graduates from certain countries are given priority (the QS rankings are my guess, but if PD's dont know these rankings that well, I'm guessing medical schools under the royal college membership are looked upon highly.. aka specifically UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa. Pakistan, India, Eastern Europe, and the carribean which I'm guessing have the highest representation of IMG's applying to US residencies are not part of the Royal College system). While I have been rejected from the elite elite surgery programs (I'm sure you can guess which ones they are), the chances of an American med grad landing that kind of interview is slim as well. Overall, I do not regret my decision at all.

The admission standards are also very high for getting into medical schools under the royal college, and its comparable to US allopathic schools admission standards. If trying for graduate entry after university, an MCAT score is needed for international students and the latest average I have heard was a 32. If applying from high school, a very high SAT score along with 3 SAT II's are needed requiring 700+, and an AP exam of a score of 4 or 5 in one of the science subjects (Biology, chemistry, or physics). The only difference is that grades are not looked upon very highly, and low GPA's (3.3+) can be potentially accepted if they have the test scores needed, as at least in the UK standardized exams are given much more importance than grades in school.

There is another student in my batch at Manchester currently in the midst of interviewing for Urology programs in the US, and while, I will admit, he did not get the same caliber of interviews as me, he did get plenty of urology interview offers.