Opthalmology as an IMG

[1dayumay]

Hello, non US IMG here. Wanted to ask if opthalmology is an IMG friendly specialty because I haven’t managed to find many statistics of the past years regarding the number of IMGs matching. Is a usmle step 1 score of 240 and decent scores of step 2 CK and CS along with some research done outside US and no US clinical experience yet enough to make it through? I would be willing to do 2-3 years of research in US ground prior to applying for a match to buff up my CV but I put so much efford into it and I would be severely depressed and disappointed finding out it was all done for nothing. Thanks and wishing you guys all the best

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[studentdocftw]

Google ophthalmology sf data. You will get match data from 2019 which also has data for the past several years. There, you will see ophthalmology certainly is not IMG friendly. Theres a high degree of self selection, yet the match rate for IMGs hovers around 25-30 % fairly consistently. So is it impossible? No. But it will definitely be difficult and your application has to be stellar (excellent boards, several optho pubs, etc).

 

[Cawolf]

Sort of echoing what was said above, it is very challenging but not impossible to do ophthalmology as an IMG. If you look at the 2019 data (https://www.sfmatch.org/PDFFilesDisplay/Ophthalmology_Residency_Stats_2019.pdf) you can see that only 129 IMGs registered for the match and only 61 participated - this led to 17 matches. So even through all of the self-selection down to 61 likely stellar applicants with US research and clinical experience, the match rate was 28%.

So it is not impossible, but a steep uphill battle you will want to throughly research before making any decisions.

 

[Dr. Doctor MD]

Sort of echoing what was said above, it is very challenging but not impossible to do ophthalmology as an IMG. If you look at the 2019 data (https://www.sfmatch.org/PDFFilesDisplay/Ophthalmology_Residency_Stats_2019.pdf) you can see that only 129 IMGs registered for the match and only 61 participated - this led to 17 matches. So even through all of the self-selection down to 61 likely stellar applicants with US research and clinical experience, the match rate was 28%.

So it is not impossible, but a steep uphill battle you will want to throughly research before making any decisions.

I would argue the match rate was actually 17/129 = 13%. Those other 70 people were real applicants, they just didn't get any interviews at all so they couldn't rank programs. They should be included in the denominator.

To OP, with a 240 on step 1 and even with 2+ years of research, I think your odds would be at best ~25%. Ophthalmology is one of the least IMG friendly specialties and the ones that do match usually have very strong connections to where they are taken. The vast majority of programs aren't even willing to consider IMGs even if you happen to be as good as your USMD counterparts, which at this point you are not.

I would not waste years of research with the goal of ophthalmology as it's just not a feasible option for your situation. Not trying to be mean, but you deserve and honest answer and I would hate to see you spend years of your life pursuing such an unlikely outcome.

 

[1dayumay]

Will doing Sub-internships and making connections in programs and collecting LORs make things easier? That seems the best way to get connected to a programm.

 

[Cawolf]

Will doing Sub-internships and making connections in programs and collecting LORs make things easier? That seems the best way to get connected to a programm.

It might be challenging to find those rotations as an IMG, but I have seen you guys doing pathology or pre-residency fellowships.

 

[radsisrad]

I would argue the match rate was actually 17/129 = 13%. Those other 70 people were real applicants, they just didn't get any interviews at all so they couldn't rank programs. They should be included in the denominator.

To OP, with a 240 on step 1 and even with 2+ years of research, I think your odds would be at best ~25%. Ophthalmology is one of the least IMG friendly specialties and the ones that do match usually have very strong connections to where they are taken. The vast majority of programs aren't even willing to consider IMGs even if you happen to be as good as your USMD counterparts, which at this point you are not.

I would not waste years of research with the goal of ophthalmology as it's just not a feasible option for your situation. Not trying to be mean, but you deserve and honest answer and I would hate to see you spend years of your life pursuing such an unlikely outcome.

Agree with above. If you had a 265, I might say otherwise, though I'd still advise concurrent applications to backup specialties.

 

[1dayumay]

The other specialty I would be interested in is ENT but things are even harder there from what I have gathered. It doesn’t matter though because I would never consider having a back up specialty especially after having spent countless hours for optha pubs. All these will go down the drain and i will have nothing to show off related to my backup specialty.
A better plan B is doing the residency outside the US

 

[DrJackRyan]

It seems like you need a blunt answer - you won't match ophthalmology in the US with a step 1 score of 240, IMG status, no US clinical experience, and a "decent step 2 CK". You would be wasting your time doing 2 years of research because at that point you'd be even farther out from graduation so your odds of matching would significantly lower. The average step 1 score for matched applicants was 244 last year. That basically means that US MD students even had better scores than you on average. You'd need at least 10 points higher than that to be considered by a program. Why would they take an IMG that performed worse than a US MD? Your plan B that is outside the US seems more feasible.

 

[1dayumay]

It seems like you need a blunt answer - you won't match ophthalmology in the US with a step 1 score of 240, IMG status, no US clinical experience, and a "decent step 2 CK". You would be wasting your time doing 2 years of research because at that point you'd be even farther out from graduation so your odds of matching would significantly lower. The average step 1 score for matched applicants was 244 last year. That basically means that US MD students even had better scores than you on average. You'd need at least 10 points higher than that to be considered by a program. Why would they take an IMG that performed worse than a US MD? Your plan B that is outside the US seems more feasible.

Thanks, makes total sense.