International Medical
Graduates Match and Scramble Services
IMG Residency
Match Services
Here is what we do for the match:
Review your application package. That includes review and editing of the two
most important documents: CV and Personal Statement.
Develop a plan of
action. This plan includes "How to get US LORs" (and clinical experience, if
necessary).
Guide you throughout the whole process, from putting your
application together, to helping you with interview Thank You letters.
Submit
your application to all the programs via alternative channels. You will have to
submit the ERASŪ application only to the programs that have provided some
positive feedback.
Provide you with a personalized list of programs in your
specialty matching your credentials.
We helped our first scramble client in 2002 and our first match group of
clients in 2003. We understand that our client's future lies in our hands and
handle this responsibility very delicately. Every client is an individual with
a long history starting from the school in his or her home country, coming to
the US, passing USMLEs and getting to the finish line of this journey when
finding a residency. We will share a secret with you: This is just the
beginning. Surviving the residency is another challenge, but that is a
different matter.
You have come here looking for information on how to make this coming match a
success. There is a substantial amount of information on the Internet on what
you should do to match successfully. However, the major problem with this is
that the forums only give a description of an individual's personal experience
and it probably will not be the same as yours.
Have you bought a consumer product recently? You probably went to newsgroups
and found different reviews for similar products, trying to find which of
these would fit your needs and budget. You possibly did a lot of research on
the web just to conclude that what one person loves, another hates. The
residency search works the same way. Every success story you find is what
worked for one candidate. You think, "Will this work for me?" and try to
generalize what you have seen and then apply it to your particular situation.
It does not work this way. People tend to omit a lot of information, assuming
that it's not important.
What should really help is a hand from someone who has "seen it all". We have
located more than 200 residencies and counting, nevertheless no two clients are
alike. We still consider every client's situation as a challenge to find the
best approach to get him or her into a program. Our clients' match readiness
ranges from "what is ERASŪ?" to "I'm looking for anything for the third year in
a row".
You must have at least five interviews to have good chances in the match. Our
goal is to provide you with as many interviews as possible (at least five). Can
we guarantee that? Unfortunatly no. You can get an idea of your
"competitiveness" by estimating at how many programs you qualify for at
www.residencyplace.com. If you get 80+ programs in a given specialty, you
should do fine.
How to get started
Please e-mail, fax, or mail the following documents to the addressed provided
in the Contact Us page (info@imgresidency.com
or (815) 550-2224):
ERASŪ Common Application Form (CAF) or CV.
Personal statements, one for each
specialty.
Dean's letter, LORs or LOR writers' names, and contact
information.
Med school transcript.
USMLE Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3, if
available, score reports.
ECFMGŪ certificate, if available.
Your picture.
Call us if you have any questions: (210) 787-4555.
Click on the Messenger button to start online chat with a representative:
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the typical applicant profile? A: Typical profile:
5+ years after school.
USMLE scores in high 70's, about half of applicants
with second attempts (we also have high 90's, but this is rather unusual).
No
US clinical experience.
Looking for Family Medicine, Internal Medicine,
Surgery, or Psychiatry.
Application lacks personality. Same package is used by
applicant for different specialties.
Q: How many interviews do I need to "guarantee" a match? A: We've seen some people matching with one interview, and others having to
scramble after 10. Our goal is at least 5 interviews.
Q: How many applications should I send to get 5 interviews? A: A typical candidate should send about 150-200 well-prepared
applications assuming you do it on your own. Our clients submit 30-40
applications. Average number of submitted applications per IMG in the Match
2006 was 63.
Q: You will provide me with a list of programs that I qualify for. Why would
I need contacting the programs, isn't the list sufficient? A: We have compiled the list by calling every program and inquiring
about their requirements. You may choose to buy just a personalized program
list. Even though it definitely has a great value, the list alone does not
solve the whole problem - requirements are not written in stone. They get
bended in 90% of cases for the right candidate. Let's say you have publications
or research experience in the field that the program is focusing on. In this
case your scores might not matter much. This is why we recommend a combination
of individual program contacts and a list.
Q: What is your success rate? A: It varies by specialty, with overall success rate above 70%. In
some specialties, it is as high as 93%. We also have internal success criteria,
which is how many interviews our candidates received. With a goal of 5
interviews, we succeed in 90% across all the specialties.
Q: What if I do not match? A: We help our clients in the scramble process. Life is life and some
of our clients will need to scramble. Scramble service is included free of charge.
Q: Can you help me if I just want to do everything myself? A: We also participate and sponsor multiple IMG forums, where we
always post our honest opinion on different topics. Forums we participate in:
www.imgforum.com,
www.imgresidency.com/community,
USMLEForum.com , www.prep4usmle.com, and
www.residentweb.com forums. Our philosophy is - Post only if
you know the answer. Another option that w can recommend is using
the MD Site Builder, which allows you to
create a web page with all of your application documents.
Q: Why should I choose you over your competition? A: This is the most frequently asked question. You can only compare
the quality of a service after you try it. You definitely cannot try all
services at once (we had a client who did just that and ended up on the wrong
side of the river). As soon as we discovered this, we returned his money just
because the situation was so similar to two doctors treating the same patient
without being aware of each other's orders. In the issue of choice, you must
trust your own intuition. To help you with your decision, we will be happy to
provide as many references as you wish (one of our clients asked for 10
references).
