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Too late to apply for 2013 with only Step 1?
- Thread starter Mirron
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To answer your primary question, yes, it is too late to apply for the current cycle as an IMG who hasn't taken Step 2 (especially with a mediocre Step 1). As an IMG, you need to be ECFMG eligible before most programs will consider you and you absolutely must be ECFMG certified before starting in July. Since you still have 2 step exams to take before that could happen, even in the best of circumstances you'd be pissing in the wind at this point.
You could go ahead and register for the Match and see if you get any love in SOAP but that's pretty low yield at this point too.
I'm just curious, if you haven't been doing anything clinical, and you haven't been studying for/taking Step 2 and you haven't been applying for residency, WTH have you been doing the last year and a half?
To be completely (and perhaps brutally) honest, it's going to be a massively uphill climb for you in the US. You're an IMG, you don't have any USCE (and the observerships you're planning to do, while not a complete waste of time, won't count as USCE), you have a very mediocre Step 1 and by the time you get around to applying you're going to be 3 years out from graduation. That's 4 strikes by my count. Again, not completely insurmountable, but not an easy row to hoe by any stretch.
If you've got a got a spot in Ireland you should pursue that. Not as a placeholder while you wait for another US cycle to roll around, but as a career plan.
TL;DR
1. Too late for this Match...not gonna happen
2. If you can get Step 2 (CK and CS) knocked out in the next 4 months, SOAP is a possibility
3. How do you like Dublin?
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It's not meant as a personal attack, just a reality check. Whoever is encouraging you to apply this year when you don't have the most basic things in order (Step 2, LORs, USCE, a specialty) needs to put down the crack pipe.
You need to realize that most programs are done (or nearly done) offering invites for this year. Even if you were a stellar candidate (Top 10 US grad, AOA with a PhD, 250+ on both steps) and you were just now thinking of maybe starting to possibly apply at this point, you'd be up s*** creek.
So let's ignore this year. Outside of SOAP (assuming you get your ECFMG ducks in a row), it's not happening.
So for next year...you need to rock Step 2 (think 260, not 230...I'm serious). You need USCE...the bummer of it is that you can't get it. You refer to them as externships but, if you've already graduated, you can't do externships (clerkships, whatever), you can only do observerships. The difference is that, in the former, you function like any other M3/M4, taking care of patients, writing the notes, making the plans, presenting to the attending, etc. In an observership, you observe. That's it. No notes, no H+Ps, no clinical decision making...just watching. Some places (NYMH comes to mind) will even make you wear a different color coat than everyone else, just so you "know your place."
Is it "game over?" No. But you've got a lot of work to do.
FWIW, you can actually use your medical issue to your advantage if you spin your personal statement right. We ranked a fellowship candidate in our Top 10 this year primarily because her PS discussed how she took a year off during residency to deal with a personal cancer diagnosis that was quickly followed by her fiance being diagnosed with and then dying from leukemia (the facts of which were supported by all of her LORs).
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why do people do this? 🙄
why do people do this? 🙄
