"Ceiling" for stronger IMG applicant

[IMGyn]

Hello all, I've been a lurker on these forums for a few months now. I'd like to crowd-source some feedback as we have now officially begun the ERAS application season and I've been unable to find anyone else in quite the same position.

I am a US-IMG attending a "top 3" caribbean school applying for OB-GYN. Some relevant info:

• 4.0 pre-clinicals GPA (no failed classes or repeats).
• Step 1: 250's, Step 2 CK: 270's Step 2 CS: pass, 1st attempt.
• Completing my 3rd and 4th years at two fairly large hospital centers with many ACGME-accredited residency programs.
• Honors for every 3rd year clerkship.
• Letters from all US MD's (2 OB, 2 non-OB).
• Fairly standard extra-curriculars, except no research experience.

I just recently submitted 180+ applications to programs around the country to all different types of programs. I was just wondering what I should type of "ceiling" I can reasonably expect in terms of tiers of programs that will offer me an interview. I'm obviously not expecting Hopkins or Brigham but I also hope to not "settle" for weaker/small community programs. As with most things I think the answer lies somewhere in between but I am hoping you guys can shed some light on where that might be. I'd appreciate any advice/welcome further questions, thanks!

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[doctorbunny]

Let me know how it's going for you! I am an MS3 with an eerily similar application to yours who is planning on OBGYN, so any updates on your progress would be appreciated.


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[doctorbunny]

Hello all, I've been a lurker on these forums for a few months now. I'd like to crowd-source some feedback as we have now officially begun the ERAS application season and I've been unable to find anyone else in quite the same position.

I am a US-IMG attending a "top 3" caribbean school applying for OB-GYN. Some relevant info:

• 4.0 pre-clinicals GPA (no failed classes or repeats).
• Step 1: 250's, Step 2 CK: 270's Step 2 CS: pass, 1st attempt.
• Completing my 3rd and 4th years at two fairly large hospital centers with many ACGME-accredited residency programs.
• Honors for every 3rd year clerkship.
• Letters from all US MD's (2 OB, 2 non-OB).
• Fairly standard extra-curriculars, except no research experience.

I just recently submitted 180+ applications to programs around the country to all different types of programs. I was just wondering what I should type of "ceiling" I can reasonably expect in terms of tiers of programs that will offer me an interview. I'm obviously not expecting Hopkins or Brigham but I also hope to not "settle" for weaker/small community programs. As with most things I think the answer lies somewhere in between but I am hoping you guys can shed some light on where that might be. I'd appreciate any advice/welcome further questions, thanks!

Hey OP how did interview season go? I am hoping you will come back and update!


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[IMGyn]

Hi doctorbunny, thanks for your interest! Overall my interview season went about as successfully as I could have hoped for. Due to the fact that I am an IMG as well as couples matching, I applied to >150 programs. I received a total of 31 interview offers and ended up going on 23 of them. At this point interview season is basically over. I'm definitely exhausted and ready to be done. However I do realize that this is a good problem to have and certainly preferable to the alternative. As expected, my interview offers were primarily from community or university-affiliated community programs but I did receive 4-5 offers from university programs (all of which had matched IMG's in the past). If you'd like advice or guidance I'd be more than happy to chat via PM, but off the top of my head here are some take-away points from my experience:

1) In retrospect, I definitely over-applied, even given my circumstances. Most of my offers came from states or programs which are traditionally IMG-friendly in the first place (e.g., NY/NJ, Michigan, PA, etc). My advice would be to limit your applications to those areas unless you're from or have family ties to a certain location. Even in that case there's no guarantee--I was literally born and raised within 10 miles from an IMG-friendly program, volunteered at that hospital in high school and still was rejected.

2) I was pleased with the "caliber" of programs that I ended up interviewing at. Obviously there were some offers from some notoriously "malignant" programs but luckily I was in a position where I could afford to decline or cancel those interviews. I think when I first started the whole interview process I was hoping to end up at a university program, moreso for the name recognition and "prestige" than anything else. However as I went on more interviews, I realized that a university-affiliated community program aligned more with my career goals and the type of training that I'm looking for. My advice would be to keep an open mind, make sure you know what you want out of a residency, and make your rank list based on how you personally perceived the programs vs. how others might view them.

3) This probably applies to anyone who is couples matching but definitely try to leverage your SO's interviews to get a few more interviews of your own.

Hope this helps and again, I'm more than happy to answer any questions that anyone might have!

 

[doctorbunny]

Great answer, thank you so much for following up!!


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