you'll never have a chance of matching without coming and doing a research year in the states. even with the research year it is still an uphill battle. great scores though. good luck.

thanks a lot for ur reply, it seems that the less than 10% of IMGs that match ortho each year are already orthopedic surgeons in their home country, any insight about if there's students in my situation matching too ?

also, how many of months of ortho AIs do u think I should take, without ruining my application for other residencies ?

I read that doing research in the same place u think u could get a chance in getting accepted is my only hope, does that mean I should aim for non top medical centers in research too ?

sorry for asking too many questions, but would u guys recommend doing more than 6 months of rotations instead of research ? or both (with delaying graduation) ?

I'd appreciate any input.

If you don't mind why come to the states for ortho?

With scores as high as you have, it may be possible--I did meet one FMG on the interview trail last year at Seaton Hall NJ (who has taken FMG's in years past). Also I've heard of some FMG's getting into Ortho from research or other specialties, so I suppose it can happen. If you are going to try, make sure to apply broadly and also do some away rotations. I felt that both these strategies helped my application a lot (although I am a US grad...but your scores are quite a bit higher than mine). Just for general numbers most US grads that go into ortho do a couple of Sub-I rotations (I did 4), a bit of research in ortho, have higher than average scores (but often lower than yours), interview well, and apply broadly (probably 40 or more programs...since my scores were just OK I applied to 90). Also, it may get expensive quickly, but you will want to take as many interviews as are offered to increase chances of a match (I interviewed 13).

For Internal Medicine you should have little problem matching, especially if you apply to enough programs. 260 would be quite impressive for IM--so I imagine if you decide on this track interviewing well is probably the main concern.

best of luck! anything is possible with the crazy match