How did I get 26 Interviews and PREMATCHED?

[usmlerockers]

Hi everybody,
Though this might be a bit late for the Match 2008, I hope this post would help at least those who are planning for Match 2009 or later.
What I did:
1. I applied to 150 Internal Medicine programs:
It gets more competitive every year especially for the IMGs. Most of the IMG-friendly programs claim that they received more than 3000 applications this year. The record gets broken each year. This might also be due to each applicant applying to more than 100 programs. I thought applying to more programs would fetch more number of interviews. Hence I applied to 150 programs. Also I was planning to apply for Family Medicine programs if I dont get a good number of interviews in Internal medicine. Thank God I did not have to apply for FM. I should say I went through the eligibility criteria of each program before I applied to it. There is no point in applying to a program where you are not eligible to apply to. It gets filtered probably by their software itself. So please do not blindly apply to a large number of programs thinking that more number would fetch you more interviews. Rather apply to all the programs where you are eligible to apply.
2. Applying to J1 programs:
Though I wanted to join only H1b program, it is not a good idea to be choosy. It is always better to keep our options open and applying to both J1 and H1b programs.
3. Credentials:
USMLE Scores are by far the most important filtering factor used by programs. Work hard and get good scores. What is a good score? Well, this is a hard question to answer. For Internal Medicine, more than 90 would help. But remember there are a lot of double 99s around. So work hard and put in your maximum effort for Step 1 and step 2ck. Heard that Step 3 score is not that important. Dont know how far that is true. I got 86 and a program director during the interview said it is a good score for STEP 3.
Some people say double 99 is required to get into good programs. I dont think that is true. I got 95 and 99. 95 didnt hurt me. Programs mainly use scores just to filter the applicants. After that, they look into the whole application. So DO NOT lose heart if your scores are less. There are people who have joined residency with very low scores like 79. So never give up! What about a failure in USMLE? Work hard and always try to pass the exam in first attempt. But if you fail, that is not the end of the tunnel. Again there are a lot of guys who joined residency with multiple attempts in USMLE. There is always a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
Year of graduation: Though I have read that programs prefer fresh graduates, during the interviews I found many candidates who have completed post-graduation in home country. Do programs prefer guys who have already done residency in their home country? I think so. It does not mean that you should do a post-graduation in your country to improve your credentials. If you have decided that you are going to be in America, why waste time doing stuff which are not going to be recognised in the US. There are a lot of guys who have entered US residency straight from med school undergraduation.
ECFMG Certification and STEP 3: I was ECFMG certified and done with STEP 3 when I applied to programs. Having STEP 3 scores in hand when you apply would help you for sure. I am quite sure that it will fetch you some extra interview calls. Especially if your step 1 and/or step 2ck scores are less, it will definitely help you if you apply with a step 3 score. That does not mean that you should postpone your application until you get the STEP 3 score.
Research:
Most of the University programs look for research publications/ presentations in your CV. On the other hand most of the community programs are not bothered about this. US publications/ presentations carry more weightage than those done outside. I did not do research separately in any institution. I just participated in research in the hospital where I had USCE.
US Clinical experience:
This is another very important thing which the program directors look for in your CV. Many PDs use this as a filtering criteria. Dont waste time thinking whether observership would be considered as USCE or not. Some consider. Some dont. But that does not matter. Because getting observership itself is very difficult and competitive now. So apply to all/both observerships and externships. Do whatever and whenever you get. Something is better than nothing. Try to do as many USCE as possible. It is expensive but worth it.
Applying on SEP 1: This is very important. Never compromise in this. Send your documents (LORs and MSPE) to ERAS as early as possible in August and be ready with your CV and Personal Statement to apply right at Sep 1 00.00 AM (EST?). Take your exams well ahead in order to apply on Sep 1 with at least ECFMG certificate. This is to get a good number of interviews. Step 1 score alone is enough to get you interviews. But do not take risk. It is always better to apply with all the scores on Sep 1.
God's mercy- A short testimony to God:
According to me, this is the most important factor. I strongly believe that I got 26 interviews and prematched only because of God's mercy and grace and NOT BECAUSE OF MY CREDENTIALS. I am not writing this statement just like that. I have experienced a lot of obstacles and miracles over the last 2 years especially in my path towards residency in the US. In fact, it is God's miracle that I am writing a blog on tips and tricks for the Match as until recently I was a symbol of failure.
My US visa for CS exam was rejected 4 times consecutively and I got my visa on my 5th attempt. (I would blog on my US visa experiences soon). I would have reached a dead-end in my life as well as career if I had not applied for the visa for the 5th time. It had been God's plan. Well, God could have given me the visa at the first attempt itself. Why should he make me run from pillar to post? Firstly, I would NOT have known God if I got it on my own at the first attempt. Secondly, I would have got a false opinion of my capabilities. In reality, I am an average student. It is because of God that I have reached at least to this level. I would not have realised this otherwise. Thirdly, to improve my faith in God. Problems and obstacles in life are the ones which take us closer to God.
Also, I would like to confess here that my USCE and Research opportunities were purely God's miracles and they came to me at the right time. Without these, I am sure I would not have got even 10 out of those 26 interviews.
Take home message: Praise the Lord. After all, that was the purpose of our creation.
Glory be to God Almighty and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I am not a frequent visitor to this forum. But thought my experience will be helpful for the guys here.
I have also posted about : “USCE-How to apply/Vaccinations/ Is "observership" an USCE?/ FMG MD LORs” elsewhere in this forum.

Get my blogs in your email by clicking the link below:

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/email...&loc=en_US
Thanks.

[wasteur]

This is the worst post on US medical residency application I have ever seen. The closing paragraphs on god were a particular low point, but there is strong competition.

If you read the online documents of the NBME, you can see that only in a few specialities do the majority get stellar USMLE scores. Figure out the causality yourself, but IMGs who get matched have slightly higher (5 or 10 points on the ubiquitous three digit score). The charts I have seen show a mean with an error bar coving the middle two quartiles. Average scores get you on to most residencies.

In case you haven't researched it, it costs money for each post you apply to, although slightly cheaper per line if you apply to an absurdly large number, like 150.

Best of luck,

O.

[Scottish Chap]

The original poster was actually pretty accurate, and it's misleading to dismiss it.

I agree with the original poster (who was talking about internal medicine residency positions), average scores do not get you into most residency positions in the U.S. if you did your medical degree outside of North America. Check out this recent matching chart, and especially for internal medicine (what the first poster was talking about): www.nrmp.org/data/chartingoutcomes2007.pdf

You can see that foreign medical graduates with an average Step 1 score only have a 40% chance of matching in their preferred specialty (chart 15). On the same graph, U.S. medical school graduates have a >95% chance of matching into their preferred specialty....a massive difference.

You can also see that around 50% of the foreign medical graduate applicants for internal medicine did not match with an average Step 1 score (chart IM-3, page 47).

It's also sometimes a little misleading when looking at absolute match data for foreign medical graduates because a massive proportion of them end up in community hospitals and in remote areas. Yes, they may match (again, at a much lower rate compared to those applying from the U.S.), but they are often going to places that no stateside graduate wants to go to.

I think I may have mentioned it in previous posts that, on average, a British med school graduate probably does a little better that other foreign medical graduates if they try to secure a stateside residency, but it's absolutely critical that you try to score above average on the USMLE if you want to secure a non-competitive specialty (paeds, medicine, obs/gyn, family medicine etc.) in an academic centre. For competitive institutions (Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Penn, UCSF, Wash U, Cornell etc.) or a competitive specialty anyhere (dermatology, neurosurgery, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, ENT, plastic surgery, radiology etc.), you'll almost never see a substantial representation of foreign medical graduates. Those that do end up there are usually board-certified in their own country, and/or they have substantial research experience and/or political connections.