Do IMGs who graduated from prestigious med schools have a higher chance to get into residency?

[Doctorspiele]

The American residency programs probably aren't that familiar with foreign med schools and their reputation but the many med schools IMGs graduate from certainly defer in terms of reputation and quality. Like does a graduate from a prestigious European internationally renowned med school have a higher chance than let's say a graduate from some unknown med school in Egypt? I mean there might be bias regarding the competence of foreign trained graduates and residency programs see IMGs as a risk factor, don't they? They certainly don't have to worry about the quality of education from another first world country in Europe, especially if it's a very big and highly renowned university clinic. So what are the chances of this type of IMG?

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[mimelim]

The American residency programs probably aren't that familiar with foreign med schools and their reputation but the many med schools IMGs graduate from certainly defer in terms of reputation and quality. Like does a graduate from a prestigious European internationally renowned med school have a higher chance than let's say a graduate from some unknown med school in Egypt? I mean there might be bias regarding the competence of foreign trained graduates and residency programs see IMGs as a risk factor, don't they? They certainly don't have to worry about the quality of education from another first world country in Europe, especially if it's a very big and highly renowned university clinic. So what are the chances of this type of IMG?

Foreign school name matters. However, I would be very careful about your own biases. Just because YOU don't know the name of schools in the middle east or Asia, doesn't mean that others don't. The vast majority of American physicians can't name more than maybe 1 or 2 schools in Europe, much less know anything about their quality. The issue with FMGs is not their medical knowledge competency as they routinely have a better fund of knowledge than many if not most American grads, it is their ability to do a job in an American hospital. While being in a western European nation may help with this, many times it doesn't.

It matters, but personal connections and specific knowledge of the schools is what really matters. There are plenty of faculty that know the big names where they grew up or where they trained. That will matter a lot more than vague general "prestige".