IMG for surgical residency advice

[deleted690749]

I'm an IMG , graduated year 2013 , USMLE step 1 252 , step 2 ck 256 , step 2 cs (results pending) , I've 10 months of surgical experience at a big center back home in my country Jordan , currently doing 8 weeks externship with an american bariatric surgeon with hands on experince here in the US , and will have his LOR , + an LOR from an american graduated surgeon who I worked with during the past 10 months and was my program director + 2 other LORs from my years in med school (one is from an american board certified surgeron) .

what is my best approach ( apply prelim + cat , prelim alone , categorical alone ) ? , what are my options after I get prelim , I can do Internal medicine , but I really love surgery , are my chances good for a university program in internal medicine ?

any advice is appreciated ...
Thx

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[shapoopie]

I can't really speak about the IM part. But if you really want to do surgery, I would apply for surgery. Apply for categorical, with prelim as a back up (although from what I have seen, it is not difficult to SOAP into a prelim surgery spot) . That being said, even though your board scores are good, the impression I have gotten from academic surgery programs is that they don't often take FMGs. I matched into surgery this year, interviewed at mid-tier to top tier programs (kind of a subjective statement, I know), and did not see a single IMG/FMG on any of my interviews. Maybe there are more FMGs at community programs? But that doesn't mean it can't be done. I would apply very broadly if I were you.

 

[deleted690749]

Thank u for the reply ...
I know if I wanted surgery I would have to contend with community programs , so I'm not picky.
I'm gonna apply broadly indeed , but what are my chances of getting a categorical position at a low level program ? , bcz of wt I've been reading I don't have a chance at all .
And if I get prelim , wt are my chances of converting categorical next year ?