IMG help

[Sunz81]

Hi everyone,
I'm a 4th year US FMG currently studying in India. I want to come back and specialize in either anesthesiology or radiology. I checked out the rads forum and got most of my questions answered but I dont really see any answers here. What I want to know is...

1) As an FMG, what are my chances of getting into a decent anesthesiology program (preferably in NY)?

2) What can I do to increase my chances of being selected?

3) Because I dont have any clinical experience in the US, I want to do an observership, how hard would it be to get and how long should it be?

4) What kind of USMLE (steps 1 & 2) scores do I need?

Any other advice would be great. Thanks.

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[Skip Intro]

1) As an FMG, what are my chances of getting into a decent anesthesiology program (preferably in NY)?

That depends on you, my friend.

2) What can I do to increase my chances of being selected?

Do a couple of electives at U.S. hospitals. Get two (or more) letters from "known" U.S. doctors, preferably in anesthesiology, to go into your ERAS application.

3) Because I dont have any clinical experience in the US, I want to do an observership, how hard would it be to get and how long should it be?

Don't do an observership. Apply now - and I do mean now - to do an elective rotation where you will be able to do hands-on patient treatment. This is the most important thing you can do to improve your chances. If you have no U.S. clinical experience, it is going to leave a lot more questions in PD's minds come interview time. You should try to do rotations at Brookdale Hospital and Maimonides in Brooklyn. Both offer a lot of pre-match spots, and if you can do a rotation there, impress them, and position yourself to be offered one of those pre-match spots, you're in.

4) What kind of USMLE (steps 1 & 2) scores do I need?

The higher the better. The Ross students I know, although this is not a direct comparison to an Indian grad, who matched this year (myself included) all had above 220/90 on Steps 1 and 2. Having said that, most of the Indian-trained docs I know tend to do very well on the Steps.

-Skip

 

[Sunz81]

Do you know of any gas programs in Illinois that would let me do an elective? I wrote to Rush and they said no.

 

[Skip Intro]

Do you know of any gas programs in Illinois that would let me do an elective? I wrote to Rush and they said no.

No, not in Chicago. But, try Mt. Sinai in New York. You better hurry, though, because the slots there fill-up fast. They may already be full for the rest of 2005, actually. Go to their website and search the visiting students information.

-Skip

 

[Chillio]

You can probably get an rotation at Illinois Masonic in Chicago

 

[VentdependenT]

Have you contacted all the programs in the city by phone? If you are persistant and have a somewhat flexible rotation schedule then one should be accommodating.

Make sure all your paper work is in order ahead of time. Rotation clearance can take weeks to months for all the bureaucratic boxes to be checked and this way you'll have one less step to worry about.

 

[ThinkFast007]

You can probably get an rotation at Illinois Masonic in Chicago

i think i accidentally PMed this response to someone..

to the OP...from what I looked into all the chicago away rotations are full and/or require AMGs. I know this because I checked into most of them for me and then for a friend of mine that's at SGU. The thing that sucks is that students at Rush, UIC, U of C and the like get the first pick at these rotations because it's obviously their school.

Anyways good luck....I think the best bet is to do what Skip told ya....NY.

 

[Sunz81]

I'm not in the country right now, so I haven't contacted anyone by phone yet. I just sent out emails to all the chicago programs. They take FOREVER to respond! So far I haven't gotten any YES replies, but some NO's from Loyola, Rush, UIC and U of I. We'll see what Illinois Masonic says. I'm not looking into doing any this year unless MAYBE I go for December or something. Otherwise it'll probably be next summer. What paperwork do I need?