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What Are IMG Friendly Residency Programs?
A residency program that is considered IMG (international medical graduate) friendly is open to having, or historically has had, IMGs in their program. Many IMG friendly programs have residents from varying backgrounds and medical schools. You can typically see this diversity in their resident rosters. Applying to these programs can be helpful to IMGs applying for a spot in US medical residency, as it has become increasingly competitive over the years. With a higher number of applicants than available spots, IMGs may find it difficult to stand out against US MD students. This is why IMG friendly programs can be so important in the application process.
Some students make the crucial mistake of not doing in-depth research of residency programs. In doing so, they risk applying to programs that they may not be a good fit for or have no chance at matching to. Additionally, they may overlook IMG friendly programs and apply solely based on prestige. While it is important to apply to programs that you’d be happy at, it is important to be realistic about your chances of matching at each particular program. This helps you to maximize your chances of a successful match and find programs that are looking for candidates like you. So how can you find this information?
Let's get into it!
Residency Program Websites
Researching residency program websites is a good way to get a feel for a program's IMG friendliness. You can start by looking at a program's resident roster. Many times, programs will include the medical school the resident attended. You can use this information to see if the program has a diverse roster and if there are any current residents who are alumni from your medical school. You may also want to look at the types of visa's sponsored as well. They may even outright state on their website if they're IMG friendly or not. Many times, there is a FAQs section that answers this.
A tip to help you track these programs is to create a spreadsheet. There, you can track each program based on how well you like the program, your fit for their program, if you meet their criteria or cutoff filters, and their perceived IMG friendliness. You can use this spreadsheet as a tool when applying to programs later. You may also want to keep this spreadsheet and update it during and after interview season. This way, you can track how you'd like to rank each program, if at all, in your rank order list.
Online Tools
Free online resources such as Residency Explorer and AAMC's FREIDA™ are great tools to find information on residency programs. These sites collect and display information about residency programs such as Step scores, program requirements, visas sponsored, and resident demographics. One important piece of data you can use is “percentages of residents by student type”. This information will allow you to see the percentages of Non-US IMGs, US-IMGs, US DO, and US MD residents in that particular program.
Additionally, these programs typically offer information about the program such as the link to their website, interview criteria, program coordinator info, and their ACGME Program Code. These can be incredibly useful when learning more about programs. Please note that some of this information may not have this information or be up-to-date. Therefore, it’s important to check this with the residency program website.
MD2B Connect IMG Friendly Residency Programs Tool
Our IMG Friendly Residency Programs tool provides information we've collected about residency programs in a way that's easy to use. The tool only displays programs that we have identified as IMG friendly, based on the percentage of IMGs in that given program. It is organized by specialty and state and includes criteria about each programs USMLE Step score requirements, requirements for USCE, graduation year cutoff, sponsored visas, and percentage of IMGs in the program.
Because this is a free resource we provide and it does take time to research and update this information, we currently only have data for the following specialties: internal medicine, family medicine, pathology, pediatrics, and neurology. This information is updated periodically; however, it is important to check residency program websites for the most up-to-date information.
Other Factors to consider
Geographic Location
There are some additional things to keep in mind when searching for IMG Friendly Programs. First, is to keep geographic preference in mind. Some states are more IMG friendly than other states. For example, some of the top IMG friendly states are as follows: Michigan, Florida, New York, and Texas, just to name a few. Applying to programs in states that are IMG friendly can help your chances of matching successfully.
Specialty
Some specialties are more competitive than others. One comparison is that of dermatology and internal medicine. Dermatology has very few spots and a large number of applicants whereas internal medicine has a lot of spots and a large number of applicants. This is no way means that IMGs cannot match into competitive specialties. Simply put, specialties that are less competitive are typically more IMG friendly due to the number of spots they have to fill. Some of the top IMG friendly specialties are as follows: family medicine, internal medicine, pathology, and pediatrics.
Background & Situation
In applying to residency, you should always consider your situation as a whole. If you have any red flags in your application and you're worried about matching, focusing on IMG friendly programs might help you in your attempt to match. If your application is solid then you might be in a place to be more competitive at programs that are less IMG friendly. Whatever the case may be, it's important to have a realistic approach to the programs you are applying to.
In conclusion, finding IMG friendly programs can be a daunting task. However, there are a number of resources out there to help you with this research. Given the hurdles IMGs already face in the residency match process, applying to IMG friendly programs can significantly increase their chances of a successful match. Additionally, carefully applying to programs can help save precious time and resources, as well as maximize your chances of matching at a program that is right for you.
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