Letter of recommendation help for IMG

[peaceBluemchen]

Hello,

I am in my final clerkship year of medical school in Germany and I plan on applying for Internal Medicine residencies in Canada. Due to limitations created by my school, I am only able to do 8 weeks of a clinical clerkship in Newfoundland in orthopaedic surgery. In terms of letters of recommendation, I am looking for advice on who to ask.
Would it be ideal to have one LOR from a German internist, and two LOR's from Canadian surgeons? Or vice versa?
Also, I am considering performing an observership in internal medicine in Canada. Would a LOR from a Canadian observership be less valuable than a German clinical clerkship LOR?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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[UBC2014]

Get as many strong LORs from Canadian schools as possible. Good luck!

Have you taken the required exams? If you really want to end up in Canada, it might be worth looking into the US residencies as another route to practicing in Canada eventually.

 

[peaceBluemchen]

Get as many strong LORs from Canadian schools as possible. Good luck!

Have you taken the required exams? If you really want to end up in Canada, it might be worth looking into the US residencies as another route to practicing in Canada eventually.

Thank you! I plan on taking the MCCEE and OSCE soon.

 

[UBC2014]

Feel free to PM me and i can help shed some light on the process - I know the German system is different, and will be in contact with another German student looking to do their "internship" year in some form in Canada.

 

[UBC2014]

An observership LOR is not very valuable and I would not use it as one of your LORs for a residency application. The fact that you did an observership in Canada shows interest to practicing in Canada and looks good on your CV when you apply here, but a LOR from an observership doesn't have much to say about your performance as a medical student and is thus not very valuable.

Do you have Canadian citizenship or permanent residency? If not then you will only be eligible to participate in the second iteration of the residency match, which means you can only apply for residency positions that remain unfilled after everyone else has already matched.

I thought you had to have PR to partake in CaRMS regardless of iteration?