APPLICATION STRATEGIES: LESSONS FROM THE PAST...

Let's begin with a quote by Arie De Gues to give ourselves a good context why this post is important:

“The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.”

Which is pretty reflective on what Aristotle had once said,

''The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows''.

Having said that, back to our topic :

1. Apply on time: For God's sake ! and that means September to very early-October 2007 if you are aiming for the 2008 Residency match! Start your deadline clocks today ! And gather all required stuff on time - Time goes fast while we are busy, and Sept. 2007 will be here faster than you think ! (Yes - you can apply only with Step 1 Scores too and mention the Step2CK date on your application). And of course, read about the technical reason to apply on day one - if you are not ready to.

2. USMLE Steps Planning: Plan Steps such that you have Step 1 and Step 2 CK IN HAND at the time of applying. Grant about 4-weeks to the ECFMG slow-pokes for your scores - schedule accordingly ! This assures the maximum number of interviews. If you are applying on a single score like ONLY step 1 or ONLY Step 2 CK - interviews are much lesser !

3. USCE - US Clinical Experience / Research Experience ! Try hard to get this, coz it now seems to be the most important application booster after your scores ! A lower score with US clinical experience may get ranked high by program directors than someone with high 90s but no clinical experience. Match 2006 certainly has proved that USCE is very important to program directors ! As an additional proof of its rising importance, check out this IMG requirements page put up by the Pediatric Residency Program at University California at San Francisco.

Be advised that in terms of importance / preference for Residency Applications:

Clerkships, Electives, Externships > Observerships > Short-Term Clinical Research

Dedicated Long term Clinical Research is gaining a lot of importance as far as residency admissions are concerned and a good number of publications go a long way helping you out. Read about advantages of Clinical research for the residency seeking IMG.

More dedicated to explanation of the various types of USCE in a separate post. Externships or Sub-Internships, Mini-Residencies, and Clerkships / Electives are considered true USCE since they give you hands-on clinical experience, whereas Observerships ( a.k.a 'Shadowing') only give you a chance to be a passive observer without being allowed to touch the patient. Start contacting hospitals where you can go and try to fix them early - so that you can specify that on your ERAS application that its arranged. Even you arrange it later, you can always call up the programs that you have interviews with or interviewed with later, so that they rank you high in mid-February. Click herefor an ongoing compilation of places that offer Observerships in the USA. Again , USCE has proved important in the 2006 match , with many 95-plus scorers going unmatched while 80-scores with USCE matching ! So take note ...

4. US Letters of Recommendations (LORs): Try to get atleast 2 LORs from US doctors / Clinical Researchers - your application will get considered way high ! Read more about them at LOR basics for Residency.

5.ECFMG Document Verification: If you medical school is slow about verifying your documents from ECFMG - get on their asses and get it done before applying too - trust me, it helps to be ECFMG certified atleast before you interview. Don't forget to have your Dean's letter or the MSPE ready by July-August.

6.Take the Step 2 CS (CSA) Early: If you have not already, my personal recommendation is book the earliest day for Step 2 CS Today ! It takes only 15 days to study well for it and now you can take it even before Step 1 (Preferrable, given the crazy delays in score reporting in the later half of the year). Last year, many Step 2 CS results were delayed and people could not participate in the match ! To see the earliest date available at this very moment at the 5 CSA centers in USA - Click Here! . Some programs like the Internal Medicine Residency Program at the Penn State's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center would like to see Step 2 CS results even before you apply to their program, hence, its in your best interests to have as many Step Scores ready before you apply so that you can be eligible for as many programs as you can be. Even ECFMG issued a notice urging candidates to book a date before the end of July to ensure a date for the year. My USMLE Step 2 CS Tips-N-Tricks-N-Notes have been compiled at [especially for IMGs] at CSprotocol.blogspot.com

7. Start early on your Personal Statement : Don't make a sloppy last-minute job out of it. For every specialty you apply for, it is advisable to have two formats for your Personal Statements - one for Community Programs and the other for University-based programs. More on Personal Statements at http://www.usmletomd.com/ps

8. About Step 3 and H1B Visa: If you wish to be considered for an H1B sponsorship, Step 3 must be completed ideally before you even go for the interview - but thats painting a very very ideal picture. The second best would be to have your results
before the programs submit their candidate ranking to NRMP. Will be writing more on Step 3 on a separate dedicated post.

9. Targetted Applying approach: When the time to apply arrives, you will be busy calling up programs to know visa policies and other policies such as minimum scores, USCE requirements, Reco requirements and so on. Many of you will call up those hundreds of programs and decide where to apply. Thats cool - and I advocate that approach - But, in addition, it helps to make it targetted basing whom you call depending on which programs actually gave out H1 Visas in the past ! I have begun compiling a list of IMG-friendly residency Programs at http://www.USMLEtoMD.com/imgfriendly based on collected information from pals and will be completed soon.

10. Speeden up your USMLE prep: Agreed that these studies get pretty boring - so get your a study partner - Enlist yourself for free at www.USMLEbuddies.com. Besides study partner listings - more new innovative resources will keep getting added - that are otherwise hard to find - such as Interview Experience Submissions Database , which has about 270 First Hand Interview Experiences by residency applicants and gives a lot of info about Individual programs like Fellowship chances, Visas offered, Prematches given or not, etc. Other resources will are scattered here and there - so grab the diamonds ;-)


11. Interview Performance: Again , the year 2005-06 has proven how much this matters ! In year 2005, A well-known IMG-Friendly university program called about 200 candidates for interviews, but only ranked about 50-60 candidates based on interview performances and assurances from candidates! So - it's not just your personality that matters on an interview, but also how much you can assure the program director that you are genuinely interested in the program.
When your time arrives, you could use Residency Interview Tips-N-Tricks are being compiled at USMLEtoMD.com/mdinterviews, besides real interview experience submissions by 2005-'06 interviewees Here.

12. No Gaps on the Resume ! This is particularly more important for the IMGs taking the USMLEs is not viewed as an excuse for a 'time-off' and sitting home. So try your best to keep something going on like some nominal research or a part-time clinical experience. Of course, this won't be a concern for those involved in some academic program or medical school.

13. Professional Help: A little bit of that does not matter - of course as long as you are not paying too much ! That's why quiet a few friends of mine and other people on the forum have been using these neat books which are not too expensive either:

• Iserson's Getting into a Residency (Click Here): For about 36-38$ has been around for a long time and covers all aspects

And

• Residency Match: 101 Biggest Mistakes And How To Avoid Them (Click Here) - By Samir Desai, MD ranging from 17-19 $ is not a bad deal either !

Search keywords to this blog article:

- "California H-1b residency usmle"
- "when to apply for residency 2008"
- "usmle residency application tips"
- "how to improve chances for residency medicine and surgery"
- "usmle forum, fellow match"