Hi,
I've been a long time lurker in the forums, but I haven't posted much. I've been considering doing my residency in the US, and I have a few questions. First, I will summarize my questions, then I will explain the background and try to provide relevant information.
Basically, my questions are:
1. My competitiveness for programs I'm mainly looking at, which are (residency) general internal medicine, general pediatrics, im-em, or peds-em and (fellowship) cardiology or pediatric cardiology.
2. A US residents lifestyle.
3. Visa issues and the future, after completing residency/fellowship.
As a general introduction, I am currently a 5th year medical student in a 6 year program in my home country, Iceland.
For no. 1, I realize I don't have the big factors in yet, i.e. USMLE scores and LORs. What I'm interested in right now, however, is how much my general background will help/hurt me.
I am an FMG, from a US perspective, and I am not a US citizen, nor do I have a green card or a visa of any kind. My medical school is a western European university, it is quite competitive (it admits 48 students per year, from an application pool of about 250-300).
I am by most standards, a non-traditional medical student. I realized at 21 that I wanted to become a doctor, after taking an EMT course and wilderness EMT course in the US. So I attended nightschool for two years to complete what was left of college. After that, I didn't apply for medical school here in Iceland, rather I went to DOTE in Hungary. After two years there, I decided I wanted to come home. I took the Icelandic medical school admission test, scored in ca. the 95th percentile. After being admitted to the first year, I presented my studies from Hungary to each professor in the first two academic years. To make a long story short, I was allowed to start in the third year, so I didn't lose any time by transferring.
I have 12 years experience of volunteering in search and rescue, of those, I have been a paid instructor in ICE-SAR's rescue school for seven years.
Basically, I want to be a cardiologist. With or without a board certification in emergency medicine. I have not decided whether I want to deal with children or adults, so I'm deciding between pediatric cardiology and general cardiology. Hence, my residency would be internal medicine or pediatrics (with or without emergency medicine), and my fellowship would be cardiology (adult or pediatric, depending on which residency I end up in).
No 2. I know I can get a residency in Scandinavia. They're longer in years, but there, residents work only 40 hours per week, get paid better than US residents, and have more benefits, eg. 3-9 months paid maternity/paternity leaves, etc. US residencies are famous for providing the best education, however. Also, US board certification works everywhere, scandinavian works pretty much anywhere except in the US. Maybe, someday, I will want to work in the US, it would be nice to have that possibility.
So, bottomline, how to residents in the US live? What can they afford? Apartments? Houses? Cars? Whose lifestyle does theirs compare to? Skilled worker? Office staff? Other professionals? What about starting a family?
No 3. The future. I would probably want to come back home after the fellowship. Maybe go into primary care in a semi-rural area, mostly see kids (if I go the pediatric route), but probably adults, too. I like this. However, maybe I will want to go to the US again. Assuming I'll be on a J-1 visa - am I right in thinking that after spending two years in my home country, I could go back and work, given that I can get a job somewhere that will help with a work visa? Will I even be able to complete residency + fellowship on the J-1 visa, if I do a combined residency (ped-em or im-em)? If I understand correctly, the J-1 visa is valid for 7 years max, the combined programs are 5 years and the cardiology fellowships, adult or pediatric, are 3 years?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this, and especially for any replies...
I've been a long time lurker in the forums, but I haven't posted much. I've been considering doing my residency in the US, and I have a few questions. First, I will summarize my questions, then I will explain the background and try to provide relevant information.
Basically, my questions are:
1. My competitiveness for programs I'm mainly looking at, which are (residency) general internal medicine, general pediatrics, im-em, or peds-em and (fellowship) cardiology or pediatric cardiology.
2. A US residents lifestyle.
3. Visa issues and the future, after completing residency/fellowship.
As a general introduction, I am currently a 5th year medical student in a 6 year program in my home country, Iceland.
For no. 1, I realize I don't have the big factors in yet, i.e. USMLE scores and LORs. What I'm interested in right now, however, is how much my general background will help/hurt me.
I am an FMG, from a US perspective, and I am not a US citizen, nor do I have a green card or a visa of any kind. My medical school is a western European university, it is quite competitive (it admits 48 students per year, from an application pool of about 250-300).
I am by most standards, a non-traditional medical student. I realized at 21 that I wanted to become a doctor, after taking an EMT course and wilderness EMT course in the US. So I attended nightschool for two years to complete what was left of college. After that, I didn't apply for medical school here in Iceland, rather I went to DOTE in Hungary. After two years there, I decided I wanted to come home. I took the Icelandic medical school admission test, scored in ca. the 95th percentile. After being admitted to the first year, I presented my studies from Hungary to each professor in the first two academic years. To make a long story short, I was allowed to start in the third year, so I didn't lose any time by transferring.
I have 12 years experience of volunteering in search and rescue, of those, I have been a paid instructor in ICE-SAR's rescue school for seven years.
Basically, I want to be a cardiologist. With or without a board certification in emergency medicine. I have not decided whether I want to deal with children or adults, so I'm deciding between pediatric cardiology and general cardiology. Hence, my residency would be internal medicine or pediatrics (with or without emergency medicine), and my fellowship would be cardiology (adult or pediatric, depending on which residency I end up in).
No 2. I know I can get a residency in Scandinavia. They're longer in years, but there, residents work only 40 hours per week, get paid better than US residents, and have more benefits, eg. 3-9 months paid maternity/paternity leaves, etc. US residencies are famous for providing the best education, however. Also, US board certification works everywhere, scandinavian works pretty much anywhere except in the US. Maybe, someday, I will want to work in the US, it would be nice to have that possibility.
So, bottomline, how to residents in the US live? What can they afford? Apartments? Houses? Cars? Whose lifestyle does theirs compare to? Skilled worker? Office staff? Other professionals? What about starting a family?
No 3. The future. I would probably want to come back home after the fellowship. Maybe go into primary care in a semi-rural area, mostly see kids (if I go the pediatric route), but probably adults, too. I like this. However, maybe I will want to go to the US again. Assuming I'll be on a J-1 visa - am I right in thinking that after spending two years in my home country, I could go back and work, given that I can get a job somewhere that will help with a work visa? Will I even be able to complete residency + fellowship on the J-1 visa, if I do a combined residency (ped-em or im-em)? If I understand correctly, the J-1 visa is valid for 7 years max, the combined programs are 5 years and the cardiology fellowships, adult or pediatric, are 3 years?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this, and especially for any replies...
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