Hey,
YOU are the one who has to decide what you want in your career. Dont ask anonymous people about your chances and let them discourage YOU. There is no one in this forum who has more credentials that you at age of 26. Just do it buddy.
http://www.med.wayne.edu/neurosurgery/setti.htm
^^
If this guy from india can do it..you could also do it.
For the record, it looks like the guy to which you are referring did an internship year first at SUNY, then did a year in gen surg at SUNY, then got an NS position at Kansas. The OP is asking for advice on whether he'd match straight into NS. Providing one example of an FMG who ended up in NS in the U.S. does not answer his question on what his odds are. Maybe the guy had connections. Maybe the guy had phenomenal scores. What we do know is that he came to NY as an intern without a NS residency, obviously worked hard to get the gen surg position, and even harder to get the Kansas NS position. A great and accomplished man, no doubt. But give credence to the steps he had to take.
While it's obvious you're trying to be supportive, he's not asking for cheerleading, he's asking for advice. ..."no one in this forum who has more credentials that you at age of 26"? 1) You have no idea of the credentials of others on this forum, 2) many NS applicants have advanced degrees and are extensively published.
hey..thanks for the 'entirely unrelated note'..well its a matter of individual choice really for a person to chose whether to stay back and get trained in India or any other country of origin or go to the other side of the globe..I merely mentioned my position to see if I had a better chance at cracking the match than anybody else really..Well I can't comment for the rest of the 99% as they chose to do whatever they want to do!!
All I can say for myself is that I have been fascinated with neurosurgery from the beginning and hope to train in the states. Unfortunately being bitten by the Wanderlust bug early on in my life dint help either.As I believe a person is a sum total of his/hers experiences I thought I should get some experience living and working elsewhere too..might settle on a remote farm in Melanesiafor all I know..So after going off an obtuse tangent there Id like to say that the bottomline is : its one's choice really!
Thanks to the others for the kind words of encouragement..
Good luck to you. Hopefully you didn't take my discounting of the other guy's post as discouragement.
Looking at the stats on NS matching, in 2005, 15 IMGs matched NS out of ~150 total. 25% of IMG entrants into the match got a spot, compared to 60% of U.S. grads (keep in mind NS applicants are heavily self-selecting, however). Of all the entrants who matched, 21% were AOA, 13% had a Ph.D. The average USMLE Step I score for all who matched was 235. Pretty much the same for 2006. (This information is from the 2nd sticky thread at the top of the NS forum).
