Hints/help - residency in US, visa and spouse

[Guest Dakota82]

I am a Canadian student (currently in 2nd year med school) who would like to do my residency in the US. I am thinking about plastics, which is very competitive. Can anybody out there who is also looking at a residency in the US comment on what I should be doing right now to make myself more "attractive" to the US schools when I go for interviews?

 

Also, another question...I am married, and I was wondering if anyone may be able to comment on the likelihood of my husband being able to come to the States with me if and when I do this (he would be just working, not going to school) - what kind of visa would he need, or would it be even likely that he could get a visa?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[Guest moo]

As you said, plastics is very competitive. I knew a kid, AOA, all honors third year, great recs, 250 on step I, great research, did not match. A lot of it is connections. You probably should do a few away rotations in the US. Your USMLE should be > 250 (especially as a Canadian). High-quality research is desired. Getting excellent letters in the field and trying to honor as many rotations as possible should also be a priority. (I'm sure this is stuff you know already)Also, as a Canadian student, with no American green card at least, I assume, it is very very difficult to match into--you're almost always going to be relegated to programs at undesirable locations or undesirable programs period--if you match at all. As a Canadian student, you are unfortunately also somewhat of an unknown entity. Most competitive US programs still care very much about the medical school you attended. Sorry for the dismal outlook but this is the way I've seen plastics go. Even my cocky friend has decided plastics is too competitive for him--his back up is now rads. (This is a guy that had a guaranteed ENT spot for him at an outside institution through his connections with our ENT PD.)

 

In the event that you do match, your husband will be able to secure a visa, no problem. I'm not sure about his work status though but he may be able to apply for a SSN to be able to work. However, most SSNs given out say have a line saying "not eligible to work" or something like that.

[Guest Ian Wong]

I would echo moo's comments that matching US Plastics from a Canadian program, particularly if you aren't from McGill or Toronto (which are often the only 2 programs that US program directors are at all familiar with), is going to be a hugely uphill battle, and probably not any better odds than matching into a Canadian plastics spot.

 

The problem is twofold. First, there's usually only a few plastics spots at each program, and programs are usually very regionally biased. It's very difficult for a program to justify giving you a spot if you don't have good reasons for wanting to relocate in that area (there's an increased risk for your resident to be unhappy, and a greater likelihood that they don't really want to be at your program as their #1 choice). If you are outside of that region, those program directors also may not be familiar with your school, and have no alumni or other connections there (which is huge when it comes to matching into a competitive specialty). It'll be tough getting interviews outside of your regional area, which pretty much is most of the US.

 

The second issue is the visa problem. Since Plastics is the hardest match out there (neck and neck each year with Derm), there's an endless number of well-qualified US citizen applicants who don't require the residency program to go through the hassles of obtaining a visa for you to practise. Less competitive specialties like many of the primary care specialties often use international med graduates to fill their rosters and are comfortable getting visas for their residents. Plastics programs often have little to no experience in this and therefore are reluctant to go through the pains to get familiar with this process; they can afford to shun all international applicants because there are so many good US med graduates.

 

In order to have a competitive US application, preferentially you would want to rock your USMLE Step 1 exam (ie. 250 or greater), get some research published and hopefully get to the US for some conferences and elective rotations to get your name out there, and do anything you can to get a green card (probably impossible to achieve prior to graduation unless you can get married to a US citizen).

 

Even then, it's not anything close to a sure thing.

 

Ian

[Guest Dakota82]

Wow...sounds like I don't have much of a chance. *sigh* :|