POINTS TO GET RESIDENCY

“BEWARE OF FRAUD PEOPLE”….. DO NOT TAKE ANY HELP FROM THE COMMERCIAL/PROFESIONAL COMPANIES SAYING THAT THEY COULD PUT YOU IN RESIDENCY POSITIONS. THEY ARE ALL FRUAD AND MAKING MONEY. FAMOUS AMONG THEM ARE “COON AND ASSOC. NEWYORK, DR. PENDI GROUP, CALIFORNIA, DR. SAMI GROUP, etc….
There are lot of people who would take a lot of money and don’t do anything, do not even think of any such services. You can always take help from some companies who help in writing resumes, personal/goal statement etc… but if a professional company tells you that they can put you in residency position (WHEN YOU PAY THEM), chances are that THEY ARE LYING about it.
Residency application:
Most programs will be ERAS based in 2001 so the paper applications would be out dated or no more accepted by the programs. …what is ERAS?……ERAS is elctronic residency application system….the system initially used by US graduates and now for all. the way it works is that you contact ECFMG and pay them some fee , they give you a code and detail instuctions, to log onto their website on internet and mail your supporting documents for residency application electronically …. rather than sending by regular mail to ECFMG…you do have to some documents in mail also as specified by ECFMG and then acording to your choices ECFMG applies electronically to those programs on your behalf with all the supporting documents.. and hence you dont have to send paper application to the programs directly though program can ask you to send some more documents once they receive your application……There is a certain amount of money you pay to ECFMG for applying to each program, details on ECFMG webpage….but the initial choice process remains thesame, as it was… like call the program before applying about their citeria each year for FMGs, score wise, visa sponsorship and other specific questions you have in mind….
(for only paper application), I spoke personally to some of the program coordinators and they have said that most of the IMGs do not send complete paper applcations. So please send a complete application. Send copies of the following documents:
Medical Diploma, Transcript, ECFMG certificate, Scores (step-1 and step-2), Dean’s letter, Letters of recommendation (preferably directly sent to the program director from the authors).
Please include all above mentioned documents with your application other wise it wont be considered and most of the programs wont even tell you that your application is not complete.
The NRMP match is very important and you should have a very clear concept for the match before applying to it. Because of this recent competition and reduction in residency slots, the match is getting tough each day. Your application and personal statement is very important. You should write a separate and specific personal statement for every specialty you apply to.

Be prepare for a question which might be the opening question of your residency interview and it is “what have you been doing since your graduation”. You should be able to tell them very specifically that you have been involved somehow with your profession and you are really devoted to it. It is mostly asked to doctors who are very old graduates (5-7 yrs.).
I will write more about match whenever I get time and will give you specific information, which would be very helpful.
ERAS application kit:
Because of this kit the application process is made very easy but on the other hand it is quite expensive. My personal opinion is that to save money and time, you should talk to the program director, to which you plan to apply for residency in a very straight forward manner, so that if he shows a positive attitude for an interview, only then you should put their name on ERAS kit. Otherwise you will waste a lot of money and time.
Before filling the kit you should read the instructions carefully and then go according to the specified directions.
Be realistic and judge your options/places to apply for residency according to your USMLE scores and working experience (USA). If you have low scores then plz. do not be so optimistic to apply to Harvard. Decide your options on the basis of your scores and USA working experience. The best working experience is research toward a publication or a clinical research fellow but right now most programs are asking for on hand clinical experience.
Personal statement:
Dear fellows, we have a tendency to write personal statement, which does not tell the program anything about us but the specialty we want to go to. It has been observed that the personal statement of FMGs does not matter much and is not very important but to write a good statement reflects your writing skills which is obviously a plus point. The statement should comprise your background, interests, justification for the specialty you are going to, your idea toward a life of a doctor and things like that. It should be easy to read not too heavy words and of course no street words and slang at all.
Other important point is that, it is better if you write different personal statements for different specialties because sometimes if you just change the name of specialty on the personal statement then it does not look very appropriate and looks a little odd.

PLUS POINTS TO GET RESIDENCY
1. Electives done in USA during Medical School (for Medical students).
2. US citizenship. (the best chance). If you have low scores.
3. Permanent Resident status (Green Card), It is also very good but works specifically in Post-Match. Sometimes in Match also with low scores.
4. Right now US might be very hard place to get residency position but again let me remind you that Good score in USMLE is the key to success. Please do not just attempt to pass the exam.
5. From the year 2000 and onwards CSA qualified candidates would be preferred over non-CSA qualified so if you are in USA and even if you have your ECFMG certificate, please try to find sometime and do CSA.
6. For candidates who are in USA, the best approach is personal approach. Call the program director, set an appointment and talk to him with full confidence and show your interest in his program. The worst case scenario is that he would refuse but even then you have nothing to lose.
7. Try to talk to people and person you have worked for (research or externship) and ask them straight-forwardly if they could talk to program director for you.
8. If you are in USA then please make use of this time. Do not be shy to talk to program director. Sometimes they might be looking for a candidate like you.
The point is if you are in USA then utilize this time and apply personal approach. If you are planning to come to USA for residency then plan to do electives during your medical school training.
Programs you should apply if you have very good scores (88-90+)
When applying to these programs please make sure that you are research oriented and scientist type of person.
A word of caution to all FMGs/IMGs, please when you have good scores 88 or 90s then you deserve to be in good program, if you apply to programs like Harlem Hsopital, New York or Cook County, Chicago, then the chances are that you will get pre-match but you won’t accept it because you want to go to a good program. So my friends it’s not fair with the other FMG/IMGs, who unfortunately have low scores. By doing this on one hand you steal a chance of interview and position from FMG with low scores and on the other you make them (these junk programs) realize that they are very good programs and they could get people with high scores. I hope you understand my point and would be careful in future.
The whole point is that you deserve to be in good program because of your scores, don’t compromise on that and if you believe in yourself and God, then you will get a good program, you just have to be confident and strong in your approach. Don’t give these junk programs a chance to use you. You are good and you will get a good program. I know people with 90s scores get 35-40 interview calls from good and junk programs (like Harlem etc..) and they dont even go for all interviews and hence they steal this chance from another IMG and finally they match in a university program. These are just predictions not hard and fast rules, if these programs are closing and they have to take FMGs to run the programs, then they would take FMGs also, I hope you understand my point.
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Emory (Georgia)
4. Stanford
5. Mayo Clinic (Minnesota)
6. Baylor College of Medicine
7. UCLA
8. Yale
There are some other programs which surely need very high scores, (82-85+).
1. UT-South Western (Dallas)
2. Vanderbilt University
3. UT-Medical School (Houston)
4. UMDNJ (New Jersey)
5. Cornell
6. Wayne State University
7. Brown Univ.
8. Duke Univ.
9. Case Wesrtern Reserve
How to select Programs when you have low scores(below 80 or combination of 70s/80s)
My first and very honest suggestion is to be REALISTIC. Do not waste your time and money. the programs which you select are very important.
In the NRMP directory, they categorize programs with X, Y or Z affiliations. Well first of all what that means?
X programs : These are the university programs and all the residency programs they have are affiliated with the mentioned university.
Y programs: These are programs which have affiliations for some of their residency programs but not all or they might have affiliations for PGY-1 or PGY-2 but not all the years. The problem is that NRMP directory does not clearly specifies this point and details. These might be university or community/commercial chain hospital programs. It might include prestigious institute like Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit) or a very small or even rural community hospital of Idaho state.
Z programs: These are the programs which have no affiliations or they do not work with any university. But there might be some programs which are Z category for some residency positions but not all. The problem is that NRMP directory does not clearly specifies this point and details.
No Associations Programs: These are the programs clearly stating no associations.
The point is that I think it might matter when you take your board exams that, where you did your residency but to get into any accreditated program is the key point. Please understand this that, even “Z” or “NO ASSOCIATION” programs are accreditated, that is why they are in NRMP directory.