Why is it hard for foreign med students to get into a competitive residency in the U.S?

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redence

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Just a college freshman with a question: Why is it hard (low chance) for foreign med school students to match into anesthesiology, dermatology, radiology...etc in the U.S? If a U.S student and foreign student both get a good USMLE score, who would match into those competitive residencies? Isn’t a good USMLE score enough for those residencies? Why do foreigners match into primary care and the less competitive residencies? Is there some discrimination against foreign students?​

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Gas is not competitive.

US grads are a known commodity, and US med schools have accrediting bodies with specific standards that ensure a minimum quality of education...at least to some extent.
 
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You dont have to deal with Visa, cultural, or language barriers that may come with foriegn grads. FMGS. That being said, FMGs rockstars land residencies in those fields listed, usually after extensive research scut work in the US.
 
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Just a college freshman with a question: Why is it hard (low chance) for foreign med school students to match into anesthesiology, dermatology, radiology...etc in the U.S? If a U.S student and foreign student both get a good USMLE score, who would match into those competitive residencies? Isn’t a good USMLE score enough for those residencies? Why do foreigners match into primary care and the less competitive residencies? Is there some discrimination against foreign students?​

You don't pay tax money, which is used to finance these residency programs in the first place.
 
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Neither do most premed college students.
However, their parents do pay. Through various conduits the federal taxpayers spend about $15 billion per year on residency training. In addition state governments also contribute to residency training through direct grants and through Medicaid. U.S. taxpayers should expect that taxpayer support of residency training will produce physicians who will practice in the U.S. It is always assumed on SDN that every foreign FMG will stay in the U.S. at the conclusion of his or her residency but I can't find any data to support that assumption. My understanding is that foreigners who train here usually come in on J1 visas and unless they are willing to practice in a remote area they must leave at the end of their training.

If someone has a link to an actual study or data set concerning U.S. retention of foreign FMG trainees, please post it.
 
Just a college freshman with a question: Why is it hard (low chance) for foreign med school students to match into anesthesiology, dermatology, radiology...etc in the U.S? If a U.S student and foreign student both get a good USMLE score, who would match into those competitive residencies? Isn’t a good USMLE score enough for those residencies? Why do foreigners match into primary care and the less competitive residencies? Is there some discrimination against foreign students?​

I’m addition to the excellent reasons listed above, it is also just an effect of how the system is designed.

People who do med school in the US Will have the backing of a US medical school. These students have easy access to LORs from people in their field, and often US schools have established mentor ship tracks for matching students into competitive specialities.

There are also fewer total training positions available in fields like derm, ortho, plastics, etc. While there are thousands of training spots available for IM, there may only be a few hundred spots for the more competitive residencies.

Finally, at the risk of sounding insensitive, the US has no responsibility to provide foreign doctors training of any kind. You’re welcome to stay in your home country and be an ophthalmologist, but if you want to come here, you’ve gotta accept what we’re offering.
 
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Why should US residencies equally treat US and foreign MDs? It makes no sense. You protect your own. Go to any country and see that they do not prefer their own students. Just an idiotic concept to feel everything should be equal.
 
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The same principle applies to other countries. As others have said the U.S has no responsibility to take on FMGs(or for that matter contribute to the brain drain of those respective countries). It’s not a negative thing to give preference to the U.S med graduates —who among other things can transition into U.S residencies with greater ease in comparison to FMGs who might on average have less U.S clinical exposure.
 
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Isn’t a good USMLE score enough for those residencies?​

not really comparable considering some FMGs have 1-2+ years of dedicated time to study for it
 
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Just a college freshman with a question: Why is it hard (low chance) for foreign med school students to match into anesthesiology, dermatology, radiology...etc in the U.S? If a U.S student and foreign student both get a good USMLE score, who would match into those competitive residencies? Isn’t a good USMLE score enough for those residencies? Why do foreigners match into primary care and the less competitive residencies? Is there some discrimination against foreign students?​

Supply and demand.
 
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Just a college freshman with a question: Why is it hard (low chance) for foreign med school students to match into anesthesiology, dermatology, radiology...etc in the U.S? If a U.S student and foreign student both get a good USMLE score, who would match into those competitive residencies? Isn’t a good USMLE score enough for those residencies? Why do foreigners match into primary care and the less competitive residencies? Is there some discrimination against foreign students?​
The standards of a U.S. Medical School is unquestionable! This is known in the U.S. as well as in other countries like the EU countries as well as Asian and African nations.
In the years gone by , UK was considered the seat of learning for Medicine.....but no more unfortunately.
All the best!

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Just a college freshman with a question: Why is it hard (low chance) for foreign med school students to match into anesthesiology, dermatology, radiology...etc in the U.S? If a U.S student and foreign student both get a good USMLE score, who would match into those competitive residencies? Isn’t a good USMLE score enough for those residencies? Why do foreigners match into primary care and the less competitive residencies? Is there some discrimination against foreign students?​


The program directors for the better and usually competitive residencies want to be able to showcase their residents in their profile listings. They want to list John Doe, JHU Med and Tanya Jones, UCLA Med. They don’t want to list Mary Smith, SGU.
Having top Step I and II scores aren’t going to compensate. Besides I’ve never seen any residency program list the individual’s Step scores on their residents profile page.
 
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