residencies for int'l med students

[caseofthemndays]

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Hi,
I've been posting in the int'l forum and the pre-med forum, but I feel like I've been getting unfounded opinions. How difficult is it for an American to get into a moderately competitive residency after going abroad? I'm not talking caribbean, I'm considering either American med schools in Israel or prestigious Australian schools. Any personal anecdotes? Thanks

 

[jeeb75]

According to the NRMP 2007 data, International medical graduates (IMG) who were US citizens had a match rate of 50%. There was 4255 total applicants, out of which 928 withdrew and 633 provided no rank list. There were 2694 active applicants of which 1347 matched and 1347 did not match.

The following link has data from 2001 to 2007 - http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2007.pdf

I went to a medical school in India, only have three interviews so far this match season. It is very frustrating as I wanted to do surgery, but it is so competitive that I have no chance. If you can go to an American medical school, it will be much better for you in the long run. As an IMG, getting into a preferred specialty may become difficult, unless you will be happy with FM, IM, psych or peds. Things you can do to make yourself more competitive is to try to find out if you can do externships in the US while you are a student as US clinical experience seems to be a big factor. Also you need to score high on the USMLEs to be competitive and you need to finish these exams soon after graduating.