International Medical Graduates Match and Scramble Services

IMG Residency

Post Match Scramble Service

We pioneered Scramble services 6 years ago. Six years is a long time to invent and test a variety of strategies. Our client success has been measured over and over. We know how to scramble, period.

Scramble gets more competitive every year. The main reason is increased number of well-qualified applicants.

Here are some numbers for the year 2007 and delta with 2006 and 2005.

2007 07-06 Delta 06-05 Delta

Available residency positions 21,845 +186 +205

US Senior Applicants 15,206 +198 +289

IMG Applicants 15,112 +1,046 +1,078

Unfilled positions for the Scramble 1,331 -247 -107

Scrambling US Seniors 514 -516 +28

Unfilled positions left for IMGs 817 +179 -135

Scrambling IMGs 7,468 +3,361 +560

Averaged out IMG's odds in the scramble 11% -4% -1%

The statistics above do not account for candidates who scrambled without participating in the match, which makes IMG's chances even lower.

We have spent a lot of time analyzing the results and determining statistical correlations, therefore improving our process and future candidates' chances.

When we tried to time all the things that had to be done in the first couple of post match hours, we realized that there was no way a human being could do that. We wrote a state of the art software system that automates everything but you calling the programs.

It isn't a big deal to do that manually, but time is of essence! Try to estimate how much time you need just to send 30 e-mails or faxes. Take into account busy signals because everybody else is trying to do the same and you will end up with about 3 hours.

If you need to do it yourself

There may be a variety of reasons why you wouldn't hire us for the Scramble. Keeping in mind that not everybody can afford the full service, we want to share our A Plan for Scramble article, which has been published by many web sites and was refered to as very helpful by hundreds of people that used it. It may sound confusing at first. Please try to read it a couple of times until you have a clear understanding of the plan.

A Plan for Scramble

A day before the Scramble - Log on to ERAS and select ALL the programs from the specialties you wish to apply for. Assign Personal Statement, LORs and all other documents the same way you did when applying for the Match. As a result you should have all the programs in the "Selected" list with all the documents already assigned. Here is the reason. On the SCramble day, you will be able to apply to the 30 programs that ERAS allows you for much-much faster. You will only have to find them in your Selected list, check the boxes and click Apply. This will take you about 2 minutes. If you had to select them and assign the documents on the Scramble day, you would have spent at least one hour.

Scramble day:

11:50PM EST - Log on to ERAS and navigate to the Programs tab and then to the "Apply to Programs" tab, where you already selected all the possible programs a day earlier.

12:00PM EST - Log on to NRMP and get the Unfilled Positions report for your specialty. If you are looking for more than one specialty, you will have to run the report multiple times.

12:05PM EST - Having both windows open, ERAS and NRMP, start picking programs from NRMP's list and selecting them in ERAS window. The best selection would be in or around your city. As soon as you have 25-28 selected click at Apply to Programs button.

This will take you from 2 to 10 minutes depending on how fast you can navigate between the windows. Try to do some test runs before the scramble. You can search for the last year list on the Internet.

Now you can start e-mailing, calling, and faxing the programs. If you can get help from friends and relatives - please do so. Priorities should be set as following: E-mailing, Calling, Faxing. You and your helpers should do some dry runs of e-mailing a couple of days before the scramble. This will help you improve your throughput significantly. Here is the sequence: New E-mail, To: copy and paste from the list, Subject: copy and paste from a template you prepared earlier, Body: copy and paste from the template, Add attachments: select a PDF or MS Word file you prepared earlier with your complete application.

Calling - have your helpers dialing the numbers. Most of them will be busy. If any of them gets through, you should get the phone snd start talking.

Faxing - the least effective way of communication. Doing it with a fax machine will let you send 2-3 applications at most. You can subscribe to some faxing service online and submit your documents to them a day earlier. Keep in mind that fax get through rate will be very low - 2-10%. This is why this isn't going to be the best way to invest your time.

If at any time through this process you get a phone call, drop everything and fully concentrate on the interview.

Should you be calling the programs?

This is the question everybody asks. You shouldn't dismiss this opportunity altogether but it is very important to set your priorities right. When you are calling the programs you can get three possible answers:

"Please submit your application".
If you say that your application has been submitted, the answer will be either "We will call you after we look at the application in case if you qualify" or
The best one - "let's talk"

Unfortunately in 99% of the cases you will be getting answers 1 or 2.

Please keep in mind that each call will take 5-10 minutes of your time. Compare this with 1 minute per program with ERAS.

The bottom line is that it may help calling the programs, but only after you are done submitting your ERAS applications.

Interviews

Please let us share some real-life scramble experience.

Your goal is to have as many programs as possible to become interested in your candidacy and call you for a phone interview. Any call may be the only call from programs on that day, so please be prepared and do your best. Typical interview subjects are:

Your prior work experience
Your dedication to medicine and to a specialty in particular
Your short and long-term goals
Where do you see yourself ten years from now (urban/rural, practicing, teaching, attending, etc.)
How comfortable are you being a mentor for interns and medical school students as a senior resident
And many-many more...

There are no correct and incorrect answers. Program faculty is just trying to see if you are a good fit personality-wise. If you got a call, you have already passed credentials screening and program liked most of the things about you. So, just be who you are. Be enthusiastic. At the end of the interview you will have a chance to ask your questions. You should ask about anything you really want to know (how many attendings at the program, are there any research opportunities, are there any other IMGs at the program, is there a day care facility at the hospital, how good local schools are, what is the traffic situation). Your questions should demonstrate that you really are interested in the program.

The interview is usually 15-30 minute long. You should expect ANY type of subject being discussed.

Some programs will ask to schedule a face-to-face interview for the next day. This is not very common though. You sure should go, but have your cell phone with you in case if you get a call from another program.

Offers are usually made on a spot. So, be ready for your Yes or No answer right away.

What you can do, try to research the program as you speak. But do it only if this won't affect your interview performance. You can go to www.google.com and just type program name there. You will get a link to the program web site. This may help you evaluate the program better. This can also help if you show the interviewer that you already have some information about the program and you like it.

Please also take a look at our Interviews page at

www.imgresidency.com/interviews.html

Communication

Have at least two phone lines available:

- The one that you put on your application should be used for inbound calls only

- Use the other one for calling the programs

- It also is a good idea to have call waiting feature on the telephone you are using for inbound calls, so that you can take a quick break from your current interview, find out who is calling, switch back and call the other program after that

It is a good idea to have a fast Internet connection. This way you can research the program on the spot.

Clean up you e-mail to make sure there is enough free space to receive programs feedback. Check your e-mail every 3-5 minutes. In spite of some suggestions on the Internet, we recommend Hotmail.com or Live.com service over Yahoo. This is a technical neety-greedy thing, but beleive me with Hotmail, your e-mail will show up in your mailbox 2-5 minutes faster.

Make sure you have correct name in your e-mail account settings, so when you send an e-mail, a program can easily find your application by name in the From: field. Even though you prefer to be called by a nickname, please change it to the name matching your documents at least for this week.

If you use a cell phone for inbound calls, periodically check your phone voice mail indicator to make sure you have not missed a call. Sometimes cell phone calls get routed directly to the voicemail.

It is an extremely stressful day. Try to get a good night sleep before that. Have some snacks at your residence to avoid being away for lunch.

We wish you the best of luck!

Helpful Links:
IMG Forum
Our Blog
IMG Residency Wiki
ECFMG ERAS Scramble
NRMP Match Results
AMA FREIDA online program search
AMA FREIDA statistics by specialty
ACGME accredited program search
NRMP's IMG Guide to the Match
Medical Education A forum for medical students, residents and others interested in medicine