Your advice for an IMG

If you are coming from a Canadian school, you are not going to be viewed as a typical FMG. If you are a Canadian citizen who went to school elsewhere, that is another story. The quality of your med school does come into play, no question. You should definitely apply if you really want to either way, but Canadian residencies are probably still your best bet. I would not do the shotgun approach on ERAS for US residencies, but stick to programs with realistic chances of matching. I don't know of any FMG-friendly programs, I can't understand why any program would be courting FMGs since there are hundreds of excellent applicants schooled on our own soil. Also realize that your USMLE scores are only a small factor for your application, but will get some doors open. Hope for the best, expect the worst, but don't go down without a fight. If you don't try you'll never know. The worst they can say is No, so you lick your wound and move on. Good Luck.

UMDNJ in Newark, New Jersey is a very strong and well-balanced program with great residents, graet attendings, nice facilities, and outstanding didactics. In recent years, they appear to have mde an effort to add an international feel to the program by adding a strong FMG from well-established schools around the globe -- England, Australia, Canada. You should definitely strongly consider this program.

Well guys I know this issue FMG in ortho has been beaten to death but still I think some of you'll still give it a few kicks.

Well I am an FMG from India right now deciding to do MPH in States [ Have not decided on UNI yet, My GRE score is 1510/1600 and there are chances i will get scholarship]. I'd be on F1 visa so would be able to do externships/ research assistantships at whatever university i go.

I have already given my USMLE 1 and 2 and scores are 245 / 98 and 240/ 96 . will be giving my step 2 CS when i'd be in states during my course.

Now the eternal question is that Giving my present cirumstances and the fact that i am on a student visa and will need a universty which'd sponcer my H1b [ i have a kind of list of those] i know that I am at HUGE Odds. but I still wanna give try to Ortho .

Where do you guys see my position as far as ortho is concerned ? I want to know about realistic chances.

Also any chances of getting Genreal Surgery with this portfolio? I know all this is an uphill battle but i am ready to give it a shot.

Thanks for any advise.

Superstar FMGs in ortho always seem to have a shot (which you sound like you are). I've definately seen more FMGs in general surgery though so I think your chances that are relatively greater. The FMGs in general surgery usually have to do a preliminary year or two in general surgery before they get accepted (to see how good you are clinically and if you can really fit in). Not as familiar with ortho FMG but I'm sure the case is similar.

Your scores seem good and all, but who doesn't want a guy named Death? Now that is a way to open some eyes of program directors. I think you should lead with that, "Nice to meet you Dr. So-and-so, my name is Death and it would behoove you to let me into your program..."

I understand , It'd have been difficult saying " Hello Dr. So and So my name is Dr.rwbrhp29 , how about taking me in your program?"

Dr. Death,

Just to give you some perspective on how hard this even for the United States Citizens/US med grads. I have higher scores (than yourself) on both my USMLE's and I was rejected at about 70% of the programs I applied. Not trying to discourage --- just wanted you to have a realistic idea of what those scores actualy mean.

Dr. D,
don't listen to the talk that 245/240 isn't good enough. to say that those numbers (or better according to perpetual p) correlate to getting 30% of interviews for an ortho app from the US is just plain bad information. I know plenty of US applicants with those numbers who got approximately 70-80% of the interviews they applied to. I have no idea what else is in perpetual p's application or what he is like, but there are other reasons (some totally arbitrary) why some people seem to get lots of interviews whereas others struggle a bit more. This is in no way meant as a shot at PerpetualP- he is probably a great guy who deserved more success in obtaining interviews than he had. But no matter how much he may or may not have been "screwed" by this system that doesn't change the fact that board scores and interview invitations aren't linearally correlated. I think people reading these message boards really have to start getting comfortable with that fact. As much as people would like to justify success/failure along those lines, it isn't that simple. Boards scores are very important. But as many have written (see posts by busticate on this topic), above a certain level it really becomes less of a factor to distinguish between applicants. Trust me, there are NO programs with a 250 cutoff.

Bottom line- being a FMG will make it hard for you to find success. I have heard from some PDs that they simply wont accept any FMGs, regardless of how seemingly qualified. You've got an serious uphill battle ahead of you in either ortho or in gen surg. But if it doesn't work out for you, it won't be because of your USMLE numbers. From that standpoint, I'd say that you've done a good job of putting yourself in as good a position as possible. No one will look at those scores and say you're "unqualified".

I agree with the previous post. I have been reading this forum for 4 years and the numbers that get posted on here are ridiculously misleading. Not to say that you can have bad numbers and land a spot, but 245 does not get you 30% of your interviews. It is not so much a numbers game as people want to make it and if you allow yourself to focus on the numbers it will be very humbling. I debated up until the moment my interview offers started coming in if I had good enough numbers.....227 on step 1 by the way. I applied to 38 programs and received 17 interview offers. Almost 50%. Yet classmates who had higher GPA and Step 1 scores ended up with less interview offers. I don't have research out the wazoo. But I had great letters from Big Names, but so did my classmates. It realy does not make much since. It is a crapshoot when it comes to getting interviews. At least if you are a US med grad.

As for FMG's, find the programs that have taken them in the past and focus there, b/c there are a ton of programs that will not look at FMG's regardless of their numbers.

Thanks a lot daniels and jude for the encouraging words. I'd at least try to give it a shot. Thank you again!

Thanks to perppriapism too. i need to know the bleak side of the night too.

I totally agree with jude and jack that there is a ton more to getting in than just Step 1, or as previously stated the number of interviews would be proportional, and they are far from that. I got 240s on Step 1, I'm AOA, I have a research pub for a big name ortho deparmtent in a famous basic science journal, excellent LORs (read them on an interview), and yet only got 11 interviews out of 47 programs (