IMGs in Psychiatry

[baseball gal]

Hey everyone! this is my first post. I am glad to see that this Psychiatry section is becoming more active.

I was wondering what is the general consensus out there in the field of IMGs in Psychiatry. And is it getting more and more difficult to get into a residency progam. I noticed from last year's Match, there weren't many unfilled programs as seen in previous years. So it is making me worry a bit.

Good Luck Everyone!

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[Histrionic]

Hi Baseball Gal,
I am not certain about the "general consensus" towards IMG's, however, I know that over 40% of last years PGY1 spots were filled by IMG's based on AMA data. I do not know about the entire country, but in CA. there were only two vacancies last year. If you are passionate about psych, I am certain you can get into a good program.

 

[baseball gal]

hi histrionic,

thanks for the quick reply and advice, especially the boost.

after going through medical school, i realized that i really wanted to go into psych, but as i was researching programs, i saw that there are alot of IMGs in programs. i also had heard that many IMGs are going into the programs just for the visa. so now i am wondering if that lessens my chances to try and scramble.

anyways. thanks for the help!

 

[md-student]

From what I've been told by residency directors at some of the places I've interviewed - though there has been an upswing in psych applicants the past couple of years, the statistics have changed very little. There are about twice as many spots as there are US applicants. The number of spots filled by IMGs make up around 40-45%. This has been pretty stable. The drop in unfilled positions has changed very little from a percentage standpoint given the number of available spots. The percentage of applicants who successfully "match" has not changed. So most places are not expecting much of a change this year from the past several years. Of course, there will be some variations depending on where you plan to apply. The deep south and midwest schools are relatively easy matches and get a good number of IMGs. There are definately some really solid programs in the midwest...Pittsburgh, Northwestern, Iowa to name a few.

Hope this helps...