Improving my chances

[Asthion]

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So, I applied this year and no interviews.

My background
Caribbean grad
US citizen
Community program-University Affiliate

3 papers published (1 under consideration)
1 cards paper submitted to AJC
15+ posters at ACP
1 poster at National ACP
Reviewer for 2 journals

What do I need to do to improve my chances?

 

[Asthion]

Forgot to mention.

90+ on all steps.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[OptimusPrime]

here is how i see it, there are several areas where you will be judged:


pedigree (college, med school, residency and so forth)

academic potential (research, papers, posters)

fame (Who do you know aka Letters of Rec)

how good are your clinical-cardiology instincts/knowledge/execution (sorry, not part of the equation unfortunately... yeah, yeah, people can talk about it in your letters but everybody's letter of rec say this guy/girl is a clinical wiz kid and we all can't be that so anyways ;-)

of the three main areas your weakness is your pedigree, your academic potential is decent but not good enough to make up for the first part. you need couple of circulation/JACC papers before it can over come it.

soooo, what you can work on for future sake is your fame buddy, pretty much what i'm saying is finding the biggest fat cat in the world of cards and kiss his/her ass to no end, do research with them, wash their car, whatever it takes for them to write you some good letters and when the time is right make some phone calls for you.

in the end i know quite a few kids that had pretty much no academia potential (abstract here, poster there... pure BS in my mind), decent pedigree (IVY league, top tier residency) and pretty good fame (letters from fat cats) and they hit the jackpot with more interviews than they knew what to do with.

good luck,

OP

 

[dragonfly99]

Posters at ACP meetings the cardiologists are not really going to care about.
If you could get a paper in a cardiology journal that might help.

How many programs did you apply to, and what type?

If you apply again I think you need to apply only to programs that you know take IMG and FMG's.

Your step scores sound all right but not great.

You didn't go to a university residency and are a Caribbean grad, both of which are hurting you, as you know.

Who are your LOR's from? Are they full professor cardiologists? Associate professors? Private practice cardiologists?

Are you done w/residency already?

In your situation I think you need to consider either doing another specialty (endocrine and be a lipid specialist, nephrology and become a HTN specialist, etc.), or if you want to try cards again, do a 1 year heart failure fellowship, or perhaps just a couple of research years in the lab of some big whig cardiologist.

IMG/FMG's do get into cardiology every year, although it isn't easy. Getting no interviews at all is a bad sign. You need to honestly assess your overall application, including step scores, cardiology publications, all your LOR's, including whether your medicine program director's letter was helping you or not. Without faculty help it will be hard for you to get in, b/c you can't rest on your pedigree like some others.

 

[tibor75]

I hope you applied to the wrong programs. Because if you applied to the "right" ones, and got zero hits at even an interview, you pretty much have a zippo chance.