Medical School in Mexico....

[hopfulstudent]

What are the chances of getting into a good residency program coming from a medical school in Mexico? Specifically Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara.
Please feel free to provide any other information about medical schools in Mexico.


Thanks

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[apumic]

Poor. Very, very poor. UAG is a nice school. Cool place. But your US residency chances suck. Don't do it if you want to come back to the States. If you want a US residency, you need to attend a US school. End of thread.

Oh...wait... let me predict... now that I've made that statement, about 3 or 4 people will come one here and tell me I'm wrong and they know somebody who went to an internat'l school and got into rads or derm in the US and blah blah blah.... So let me respond now and say those are BY FAR exceptions to the rule. If you go the IMG/FMG route, your chances of coming back to the US are quite low.

 

[DocMcCoy]

Poor. Very, very poor. UAG is a nice school. Cool place. But your US residency chances suck. Don't do it if you want to come back to the States. If you want a US residency, you need to attend a US school. End of thread.

Oh...wait... let me predict... now that I've made that statement, about 3 or 4 people will come one here and tell me I'm wrong and they know somebody who went to an internat'l school and got into rads or derm in the US and blah blah blah.... So let me respond now and say those are BY FAR exceptions to the rule. If you go the IMG/FMG route, your chances of coming back to the US are quite low.

But I know this guy... JK

Yes, I agree that it would be really, really hard.
Seriously though, would it be harder than say for a Caribbean graduate since they have some affiliation with US hospitals? About the same difficulty? I'd like to know.

 

[Hope2008]

Statistically, it would be hard for you to match if you are an IMG. If you are planning to complete your residency in the U.S., without a doubt, it is recommended to attend a U.S. medical school.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

Poor. Very, very poor. UAG is a nice school. Cool place. But your US residency chances suck. Don't do it if you want to come back to the States. If you want a US residency, you need to attend a US school. End of thread.

Oh...wait... let me predict... now that I've made that statement, about 3 or 4 people will come one here and tell me I'm wrong and they know somebody who went to an internat'l school and got into rads or derm in the US and blah blah blah.... So let me respond now and say those are BY FAR exceptions to the rule. If you go the IMG/FMG route, your chances of coming back to the US are quite low.

Let me correct this poster, almost as he or she predicted. While "very, very" may be a ‘super' informative descriptor, how about I offer you some objective data.

http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2009.pdf

This is the 2009 national registry match program data. It is a little cumbersome to sift through, but the answers you are seeking can be found here.

For example, go to page 8 (it's actually page 16 of the pdf file). Go to the bottom graph titled "Foreign-trained physicians." According to the graph, approximately 40% of the IMGs in 2009 were SUCCESSFUL in obtaining US RESIDENCY training. If you go to the next page, you can actually see the numerical data used in the graph. While numbers vary for specific subgroups, IMG's have somewhere around a 40 to 50% chance of matching to a US Residency, so if your only option is to go to school internationally, it is not impossible to return to the US to train and practice. Personally, I would not consider a 40% chance "very, very poor". Sure, it will be much tougher than if you were a US graduate (~95%), but as long as you are realistic about it, you can look at it as motivation to do really well on your USMLE board exams.

With that being said, one caveat is that IMG's tend to match into programs traditionally known to be minimally competitive programs and even less so to moderately competitive programs. IMG's are rarely matched to highly competitive programs, but it is possible. With that being said, I have no hard data to support this paragraph. This comes from my experience working and corresponding with IMG's.

I hope this helps.

-admissions committee interviewer / senior medical student

Also, hard data is almost always better than individual opinion.

 

[Morsetlis]

Aggregate data can be hard to interpret.

 

[lovemesomeTJ]

www.valuemd.com

 

[searun]

Your odds are not good. As good as a weekend in Vegas, hmm, depends on how good a gambler you are. But I would not bet my life, or even, the ranch, on it.

 

[DocMcCoy]

Let me correct this poster, almost as he or she predicted. While "very, very" may be a ‘super’ informative descriptor, how about I offer you some objective data.

http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2009.pdf

This is the 2009 national registry match program data. It is a little cumbersome to sift through, but the answers you are seeking can be found here.

For example, go to page 8 (it’s actually page 16 of the pdf file). Go to the bottom graph titled "Foreign-trained physicians." According to the graph, approximately 40% of the IMGs in 2009 were SUCCESSFUL in obtaining US RESIDENCY training. If you go to the next page, you can actually see the numerical data used in the graph. While numbers vary for specific subgroups, IMG's have somewhere around a 40 to 50% chance of matching to a US Residency, so if your only option is to go to school internationally, it is not impossible to return to the US to train and practice. Personally, I would not consider a 40% chance "very, very poor". Sure, it will be much tougher than if you were a US graduate (~95%), but as long as you are realistic about it, you can look at it as motivation to do really well on your USMLE board exams.

With that being said, one caveat is that IMG's tend to match into programs traditionally known to be minimally competitive programs and even less so to moderately competitive programs. IMG's are rarely matched to highly competitive programs, but it is possible. With that being said, I have no hard data to support this paragraph. This comes from my experience working and corresponding with IMG's.

I hope this helps.

-admissions committee interviewer / senior medical student

Also, hard data is almost always better than individual opinion.

Nice post, good info 👍

 

[WoWdoc]

I work in a Lvl 3 emergency room. Two of are best doctors matriculated from that school. It is very possible to have a good career as an MD from mexico. Also as a bonus you get to learn spanish which can be very convienient as many of your future patients will be spanish speaking. Especially if you plan on working in the southwest.

 

[lovemesomeTJ]

I work in a Lvl 3 emergency room in Arkansas. Two of are best doctors matriculated from that school. It is very possible to have a good career as an MD from mexico. Also as a bonus you get to learn spanish which can be very convienient as many of your future patients will be spanish speaking. Especially if you plan on working in the southwest.

How long have they been practicing in the States? Did they have the option to go through the Fifth Pathway program? That would've made it easier for them to gain residency in the US but unfortunately, that program is no longer supported by the AMA and is kinda up in the air, as far as what I've read. What I will admit, is that I don't know if the program exists at all anymore. It might, and might be accepted by certain schools without the support of the AMA. UAG's site isn't helpful because it was last updated in 2007 with regards to that program.

 

[oze]

my dad went there! then again we're from mexico and he practices back home.

 

[StormingWynn]

Let me correct this poster, almost as he or she predicted. While "very, very" may be a ‘super' informative descriptor, how about I offer you some objective data.

http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2009.pdf

This is the 2009 national registry match program data. It is a little cumbersome to sift through, but the answers you are seeking can be found here.

For example, go to page 8 (it's actually page 16 of the pdf file). Go to the bottom graph titled "Foreign-trained physicians." According to the graph, approximately 40% of the IMGs in 2009 were SUCCESSFUL in obtaining US RESIDENCY training. If you go to the next page, you can actually see the numerical data used in the graph. While numbers vary for specific subgroups, IMG's have somewhere around a 40 to 50% chance of matching to a US Residency, so if your only option is to go to school internationally, it is not impossible to return to the US to train and practice. Personally, I would not consider a 40% chance "very, very poor". Sure, it will be much tougher than if you were a US graduate (~95%), but as long as you are realistic about it, you can look at it as motivation to do really well on your USMLE board exams.

With that being said, one caveat is that IMG's tend to match into programs traditionally known to be minimally competitive programs and even less so to moderately competitive programs. IMG's are rarely matched to highly competitive programs, but it is possible. With that being said, I have no hard data to support this paragraph. This comes from my experience working and corresponding with IMG's.

I hope this helps.

-admissions committee interviewer / senior medical student

Also, hard data is almost always better than individual opinion.

Nice post, good info 👍

I concur 👍

 

[GoSpursGo]

Let me correct this poster, almost as he or she predicted. While "very, very" may be a ‘super’ informative descriptor, how about I offer you some objective data.

http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2009.pdf

This is the 2009 national registry match program data. It is a little cumbersome to sift through, but the answers you are seeking can be found here.

For example, go to page 8 (it’s actually page 16 of the pdf file). Go to the bottom graph titled "Foreign-trained physicians." According to the graph, approximately 40% of the IMGs in 2009 were SUCCESSFUL in obtaining US RESIDENCY training. If you go to the next page, you can actually see the numerical data used in the graph. While numbers vary for specific subgroups, IMG's have somewhere around a 40 to 50% chance of matching to a US Residency, so if your only option is to go to school internationally, it is not impossible to return to the US to train and practice. Personally, I would not consider a 40% chance "very, very poor". Sure, it will be much tougher than if you were a US graduate (~95%), but as long as you are realistic about it, you can look at it as motivation to do really well on your USMLE board exams.

With that being said, one caveat is that IMG's tend to match into programs traditionally known to be minimally competitive programs and even less so to moderately competitive programs. IMG's are rarely matched to highly competitive programs, but it is possible. With that being said, I have no hard data to support this paragraph. This comes from my experience working and corresponding with IMG's.

I hope this helps.

-admissions committee interviewer / senior medical student

Also, hard data is almost always better than individual opinion.

Nice data. However, clearly everyone who goes down there thinks they're in that ~40%, while in reality 6 out of 10 people who think that are wrong. That's before you take into account the high levels of attrition before you even reach the match phase (I'm not sure of the case with regards to Mexican medical schools, but I do know that most Caribbean schools lose a large portion of their class before they get to the match at all making the percentage of people who go down there who fail even higher) or that the residency that you'll probably be matching may not be your dream job. Furthermore, it only looks to get worse in the coming years for IMGs as US med school class sizes continue to increase while the residency slot numbers remain static.

So on the whole, while I would not characterize going foreign as being "very, very poor," I do think it's fair to say that it's highly risky and fraught with uncertainty. That said, for some people who have irreparable GPAs but have reason to believe they can hack it, it can be a necessary last option. However I would suggest exhausting all possibilities as far as improving your application for US MD and DO schools before going abroad.

 

[Tin Man]

Something else to consider is how the Mexican school stacks up against other medical schools being incorperated into the stats. I don't want to try looking at the site from my iPod, but whn the stats are that 40% of international students who apply match into the US, that doesn't mean that 40% of Mexican applicants who apply match. It means 40% of everyone who applied in the whole world, including those applying from European schools which, in many cases, tend to be pretty kick ass medical schools.