[Xaquake]

It's clear that American grads are preferred over IMGs. Are there some residency spots in certain specialties that IMGs almost never get?

Also, for the residency positions, how does it generally work i.e. do they generally get done with the applications of all the American grads and distribute the leftovers to IMGs, or are there some seats reserved for IMGs?

 

[Sabio]

It's clear that American grads are preferred over IMGs. Are there some residency spots in certain specialties that IMGs almost never get?

Also, for the residency positions, how does it generally work i.e. do they generally get done with the applications of all the American grads and distribute the leftovers to IMGs, or are there some seats reserved for IMGs?

generally speaking the surgical subspecialties are reserved for AMGs.
Yes. IMGs usually compete on leftovers only but remember there are certain programs to which AMGs never apply

 

[Xaquake]

generally speaking the surgical subspecialties are reserved for AMGs.

I was fostering hopes of neuro or orthopedic surgery...would it be wise to give up on that? I mean what if I managed excellent exam scores and an externship or two? Well, do they not even look at the IMG applications until the pile of AMGs is empty?

If you do know of some people who managed to get into the surgical subspecialties, please tell me more about them and the circumstances. I realize these questions are a bit specific so answering could be tough.

Yes. IMGs usually compete on leftovers only but remember there are certain programs to which AMGs never apply

Could you name a few? I hope there are some in that list that interest me.

Is there some kind of official statistical record that could be of relevance here?

Thanks!

 

[Sabio]

Nothing is impossible in America!

I was fostering hopes of neuro or orthopedic surgery...would it be wise to give up on that? I mean what if I managed excellent exam scores and an externship or two? Well, do they not even look at the IMG applications until the pile of AMGs is empty?

If you do know of some people who managed to get into the surgical subspecialties, please tell me more about them and the circumstances. I realize these questions are a bit specific so answering could be tough.Could you name a few? I hope there are some in that list that interest me.

Is there some kind of official statistical record that could be of relevance here?

There's nothing impossible in America. They call it the land of opportunities. If you get super high scores and if you do USCE and research and you are a fresh grad then you may have the chance to go into surgical subspecialties.

I know a friend who's an IMG from Finland. He came to USA in the year 2001 and then he got over 95 in both the steps then he applied to ortho and he did not get any interview.
Then he did one year externship and applied and again no interviews.
Then he did two years clinical orthopedic research and again no interviews.
Then he went and met and begged program directors throughout US, one of them asked him to something extraordinary in sports! So he went and participated in a Marathone and he got an excellent position in it, then he went back to that program director and this time he took him now he's almost finishing his orthopedic residency and his dream has become a reality.
The morale of this story is that you can do whatever you want to do but you have to have patience and determination and persistence.

Generally the programs that are not attractive to AMGs are low profile community hospitals and clinics and therefore you see a lot of IMGs in them.

There's no official statistics that delineate the percentage of AMGs and IMGs in the different residency programs but what you can do is that you visit the program website and see who are the current residents as they usually mentioned their school of graduation (do not depend on ethnicity as many Asians and Hispanics have actually graduated from US) and see which program is having a significant number of IMGs.