Little help for a Brit?

[WalterDandy]

Hello everyone, not only am I a Brit but I'm also a noob so I may need forgiveness on several levels!

Just had a couple of questions to put to the group.

I'm at Med school in the UK (Year 3/4), I'm sitting my step 1 in June, Step 2 CK and CS to follow, ideally before Xmas.

I've got postgrad degrees in neuroscience and I really want to get a place on a neurosurgical residency in the US.

Here are the q's:

Unfortunately I've missed the deadline to apply for a position starting June 2009 but I keep reading about "non-match" appointments. Is there a way of talking to institutions directly i.e. to skip the match process entirely? If so can anyone tell me how best to go about this?

Visa wise, does anyone know how best to go about getting an H-1B visa? It seems a bit of a Catch 22 that you cant get a visa until you've got a job but you can't get a job until you've got a visa (???)

Lastly, I'm due an elective next Easter time so I'm hoping to visit a few institutions. Can anyone reccommend me some good places to go visit ie, where has the best match of being a great institution but also a great place to live? San Fransisco appears to tick both boxes but Pittsburgh doesn't if you see what I mean!

Also, if anyone could recommend me some good surgeons to spend some time with for an elective (prob best to do this by PM) in terms of their ability to teach or if there's an uncommon procedure they specialise in, I really would appreciate that.

I know these are big asks for a noob but I'm just drowning in small print information that all seems to contradict so if ayone has any words of wisdom that can help me out, eternal gratitude shall be theirs!

Thanks for reading thus far!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mpp]

You haven't missed the application deadline. You cannot apply for resiency until your final year of medical school (after you have taken Step 1). You will apply in September 2008 to begin your PGY-1 year in July 2009. You don't start neurosurgery itself until July 2010 but you'll still need to do that PGY-1 year.

Don't have any specific suggestions. Visit where you would be interested in going. Also, look on website to see resident lists to find places that are known for taking foreign graduates as there are more than enough U.S. graduates to go around that many programs won't take any foreign graduates.

You'll need connections to get into a neurosurgery program outside of the match and these are usually only to fill spots by people that have quit. You'll still need to have that PGY-1 year complete.

 

[WalterDandy]

Cheers mpp, thats really great. Thanks for getting back to me.

Thats good news. I think I was a bit confused by the key dates on the sfmatch website. It says there to apply in the January to begin in the July of the following year so that must mean to begin PGY-2.

So to complete a PGY-1 year, does this mean a separate application this september via the NRMP? Do I apply to the sfmatch and NRMP at the same time? Could a situation arise where I was succesful in getting a PGY-1 place but was unsuccessful at getting a place on a residency program?

Apologies in advance for my cluelessness!

 

[mpp]

Neurosurgery will not be using SFMATCH any longer. You will apply via NRMP for neurosurgery and like I said that now includes the PGY-1 year for the vast majority of positions.

I think your timeframe for Step 1 should be Ok but double check on that. Most U.S. medical students take Step 1 after year 2 of 4 so they have that long squared away. To be competitive you'll need some U.S. clinical experience with good letters of recommendation.

 

[WalterDandy]

I heard some rumblings about neurosurgery no longer using sfmatch but I didn't know it had switched to nmrp so thanks for that.

My plan is to spend my 12 week elective at 2 or 3 institutions doing as much clinical work as I can and hopefully I can make enough contacts to get good LORs.

I know I'm going to have an "interesting" summer/autumn soing back to abck boards but with my timeline and the other commitments I had in the past couple of years, there's no other way I could have done it.

I guess I should get back to the study!!

Ta, mpp.