US IMG prospects...

[sliced bread]

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yet another what are my chances ridiculousness, my sincerest apologies PM&R community 👍

US IMG mid 3rd year clinicals.... in love with physiatry, did PT assistant work for a few years prior to medical school, anyhoo just wanted some insight into my prospects down the road, what my ceiling may be b/c I'm unaware of the US MD vs US IMG vs DO divide among PM&R residency programs, do I have a chance at top programs and what may help to better my chances with 4th year looming...?

as it stands today:
step 1 248
step 2 262
no research or publications "yet"
general interest related volunteer and extracurricular shenanigans, etc

thanks PM&R community, cheers

 

[timisdaman]

Your scores are good, but especially as an IMG, unfortunately not enough. For "top" programs you need research. For most programs you will need at least an elective and a letter of recommendation in/from PM&R.

 

[ieatpaste37]

your scores are kind of low for pm&r. Usually you need >250 on step 1. That is the cut off. You should probably look at the lower tier programs.

 

[Iamnotme]

What does that mean?

 

[Flake0006]

To OP: If you have evidence you participated in research (abstract, review article, publication) you should be okay. Though US IMGs may be at a disadvantage it is possible to attain a spot with your performance.

To Iamnotme: While you may be competitive you are switching residencies which is an entirely different beast. I wish you luck but this is no easy road. If the medical students I have encountered rotating at my institution are fair representations of the applicant pool, PM&R is getting more competitive due to the limited number of spots and increasing number of highly qualified applicants. This was very apparent to me even during my application process and made interviews hard to come by for colleagues with similar statistics to mine at my medical school the following year.

 

[Iamnotme]

We disagree.

 

[Flake0006]

You already completed intern year. You are now off cycle and would have to sit out a year or get a spot from someone who drops out of PGY-2 year. I would say this is an issue. What people have done in the past doesn't mean much if essentially all spots for PM&R are filling every year now.

On a side note it is not going to help your case if you are online inferring PM&R is an non-competitive residency, labeling programs as low tier and persistently stating "I am a competitive candidate." For instance you just spoke with the LSU staff and had a lack luster interaction and now are online bashing them. That makes you easily identifiable and as noted all over this message board PM&R is still a small field and people tend to know each other and share information.

FYI. I would not rely solely on information online to rank programs. i.e. US News Rankings. LSU is a very resident friendly program. The residents have great MSK/Spine education and come out with skills that others might have to do a fellowship to get.