My husband was applying as a Canadian so the statistics are correct. IMG without US citizenship is actually around a 40% match rate. Take a look at the NRMP matching outcomes PDF.
He also tried for Family Medicine on his second and third try with excellent evaluations. But then it was too late, I suppose.
Although I still do not subscribe to the 'Just World' hypothesis, he is deserving and finally getting somewhere! I'll update later when I know more.
I also want to add that we know another student who didn't match. He is also an intelligent, hard-working person. He doesn't look like a weirdo or act like one. You would never know what he is been through just looking at him talk to people. The fact is, there is a lot of competition at the residency level. You know the saying it's harder to get out of medical school than into it? That's true. Well with more DO schools opening and letting in people with 22 MCAT, I am afraid of the fallout.
Part of the reason students are willing to go to any school is this unbelievably naive notion that they have 'made it' once they get accepted. Fine, but when you are part of the percentage that doesn't make it, it ruins your life. Financially and in some ways, spiritually.
People should know the risks and not only in the form of numbers and statistics. To drive home this point: a 1% chance of dying is worse than a 1% chance of catching the common cold, even if the probability equation would look the same. Correct me if my logic is faulty. People should see what the experience is like if they don't make it and that is why I share my story repeatedly. Then they know if going to the Caribbean is a 1% chance of a catastrophe or a 1% chance of a minor setback, akin to the common cold. That's up to them.
Furthermore, I really resent people apologizing for his situation and then turning around and telling him he basically deserves what happened to him. That makes bouncing back and moving on much more difficult because almost nobody wants to give him a shot. This is only an internet forum but unfortunately, program directors think the same way as the user advair. This happens to a lot of people in his situation and it's a fact of life to laud the successful and be skeptical of a less-than-great-but-good-enough history. So, living this reality has made me a more compassionate and forgiving person. I am thankful for our trying experiences. But I can't help anyone salvage their career unless I become a program director, adcom or avid reference-letter-writer in 20 years. For now, I spout drivel on the internet as a premed. 😀 Well, we won't give up. At the very least he'll be an amazing dad and a great professor.
I'm glad the OP is not considering the Caribbean at this time, but for posterity: know yourself and ask, What Would Warren Buffet Do?
I was apologetic for being realistic and providing a frank post, since it is clear through your posts that you still don't recognize that your husband was just a poor applicant.
And yes the people should know the risks, but your husbands story is not the correct one to provide the picture.
You say "less-than-great-but-good-enough" - failing step 1, and then getting a mediocre score the second time, is not less than great, it is very poor.
Again, I feel bad for your families situation, but playing victim in a situation where it is clear the applicant had major red flags doesn't really prove many of the points you make.
The people with
solid step scores and no red flags,
are the ones who truly prove the risks of going to the carribean and not matching despite being good applicants. Your husbands scores, although they may not be fully reflective of how great of a clinician he may be, are a big part of how residencies choose applicants. He knew that, as does everyone else in the carribean. He didn't have the luxury of failing step 1, and then scoring low. (Even USMD and DO's don't have that luxury, but get the leeway due to the culture of things to an extent).
On top of that, having the audacity to apply to a competitive specialty with a failed step 1, and then a low step 1 pass score, was his death knell. If you were a program director would you want to interview someone, who had seemingly no common sense? Remember, the program directors don't know your husband other than on paper. They don't know that he could be an amazing person and the next ghandi or mother teresa. Hindsight is 20/20 and common sense is not so common ; he should have applied FM in the very first place, and the risk he took and the result is
NOT reflective of the risk at hand for carribean applicants that actually have strong applications and
STILL don't match.
In fact, i'm sure those strong applicants who still don't match, are the ones who
resent posts like this, blaming the caribs that give the student the opportunity to prove themselves, but didn't - being lumped in with them, the ones who actually did prove themselves, but still got their lives ruined by not matching.
I hope you see where I am coming from, and sorry if it is too frank and harsh, but had to be said. I know a ross grad who had a 220-230 step who didn't match FM last year, and then matched this year. He did everything right, and still didn't match the first time. Forgive me for not seeing how your husbands situation is nowhere near the situation of other carib grads.
