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Our new blog series on medical specialties will help IMGs discover specialties that may be right for them.
Family medicine? Internal medicine? Neurology? Which medical specialty will you choose? There’s a lot at stake with this decision: your day-to-day routine, the age and gender of your patients, whether you’ll do procedures, and the income you can expect. No pressure, right?
To help you think through some of the options, we’re starting a new blog series about medical specialties that IMGs frequently match into. The series will begin in January 2017.
Your medical specialty choice
The medical specialty you choose has a big impact on your residency application process. If you choose a specialty that’s very competitive, you may have to apply to 35 programs. Then, you may have to fly around the country just to go to the five or six interviews you’re offered.
On the other hand, if you apply to a specialty that’s not as competitive, you may only have to send 20 applications yet end up with 14 interviews. That gives you more flexibility to decide how many interviews you’ll go to.
Bottom line: You may need to apply to more than one medical specialty so you can be sure you match and have a job next July.
How IMGs can match in their specialty
Good news: There’s been an uptick in IMGs who have obtained first-year positions. The number of non-U.S. citizen IMGs who obtained positions increased in 2016 for the fifth year in a row.
Keep in mind that IMGs who successfully matched are more likely to have ranked more programs within their preferred specialty, have higher United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and Step 2 CK scores, and are more likely to be U.S. citizens.
Other tips you may want to follow when applying for The Match:
- Include all of the programs on your list that expressed an interest in you and where you would accept a position.
- Indicate all of your qualifications in your application, but rest assured that you don’t have to have publications or have participated in research projects to match successfully.
- Be prepared to apply for your alternate specialty backups with strong Letters of Recommendation and Personal Statements for each specialty.
Exploring the possibilities
As an IMG student, you may feel it’s even more challenging to figure out which specialties are the most IMG-friendly. In our new medical specialties series, you’ll get an overview of a few of the specialties you may want to delve into, including:
- Child neurology
- Dermatology
- Family medicine
- Internal medicine
- Neurology
- Orthopaedic surgery
- Pathology
- Radiation oncology
- Vascular surgery
While you may want to look into these specialties to see which programs match well with your credentials, it’s ultimately your personal situation that will drive your choices.
Other helpful resources
Of course, you’ll also want to get help from other resources when you’re choosing a medical specialty. For instance, classmates, former grads, and family members may all have helpful ideas about your specialty choice. You may learn relevant information about a medical specialty on your rotations from your preceptors and their colleagues. The process is manageable if you get good advice.
Use every avenue to explore your specialty interests, call on your resources for helpful advice, and keep an eye out for our spotlight on specialties throughout the new year. It’s just one more way to help you choose the one that’s right for you.
Check out another great resource for coaching and a personalized plan on your road to residency: Kaplan’s complimentary Medical Advising Sessions.
The post Special Series: Choosing a Medical Specialty appeared first on Residency Secrets.