Residency in the U.S.

[osteon]

As an MD/PhD student, I'm highly interested in an academic career, so have been thinking about residency at a few U.S. schools that are compatible with my research interests to allow for post-doc opportunities (no top 5's; mostly in the 10-25 range for total school rank; for specialty, they rank in the 10-40 range). So, I'm just wondering if anyone here know anything about CMGs matching to the U.S. for residency. Aside from visa issues, and scoring well on the USMLE, I have a few additional questions that hopefully someone can help with:

 

1. Is it safe to assume that schools that generally accept Canadians for the MD are also willing to take Canadians for residency?

 

2. Based on last year's data (can't remember if it was CaRMS or NRMP data), only about 30 CMGs applied to the U.S. Is the explanation for this simply that Canadians prefer to stay in Canada/USMLE is a pain to do, or is there something else like issues around returning to Canada explaining why not many try for the U.S.?

 

3. Do U.S. residency programs evaluate applicants in a similar way to Canadian residency programs, or do they place added emphasis on undergrad MD location, research experience etc.? Maybe this is more of a factor for top 25 research-based programs?

 

4. I've heard that a potential reason why it's difficult to match to the U.S. is that the programs generally don't know who you are, as you're not from the U.S. and likely haven't rotated at their program. Does having connections (either through research or clinically) to the faculty members at these institutions help?

 

5. If anyone has any advice on how best to tailor an application to the U.S. for greatest chance of matching to a good program (if the game plan is different from Canada and CaRMS?), please let me know.

 

Thanks!