How Important Is MSPE for IMG and What Is It??
The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), formally called the Dean’s Letter, is a vital part of your residency application. It is written to reflect all that you have done during your time at medical school and will evaluate your abilities and achievements. Written well like our sample MSPE for IMG application it can make your application truly stand out and help support your personal statement, externship for IMG, and other information in showing that you are the best applicant to select.
However, as it is an evaluation of your whole time at medical school you have ample opportunity to enhance what will appear within it. After all, you will want to ensure that it reflects you in the best possible light. The good thing is that the document is rarely written in isolation and without your knowledge. Mostly you will be involved in the writing process right from the start.
Getting the wording right and making an impression through the dean’s letter for IMG, however, is not always easy. This is why you may want to follow our advice to ensure that yours will be written perfectly.
What Will Your MSPE Cover?
If you are wondering what is MSPE for IMG then it will help to understand just what is covered within it. The medical student performance evaluation for IMG is split into just 6 sections and should be no longer than 7 pages in length. The six sections of your MSPE are:
- Identifying Information: this is your basic information such as your name.
- Noteworthy characteristics: formally known as unique characteristics this is your opportunity to show off what makes you different to the other applicants. This is almost always delivered in your own words.
- Academic history: this section provides a detailed breakdown of your time at school and any gaps in your time there and other information.
- Academic progress: this is one of the most important parts of the letter and will contain evaluations of your rotations, preclinical and basic science coursework.
- Summary: this section will summarize your performance and compare you to your peers.
- Medical school information: this section provides the information covering the specific program that you have followed within the school and other school data.
What Is Not Covered Within the MSPE Dean’s Letter IMG
The MSPE is not a document that will cover everything about you in total detail. After all, you are expected to also submit your exam results, resume, personal statement and a host of other information. So your MSPE will not include things such as:
- Individual grades for your basic sciences
- No Comp examination results
- The results of shelf examinations
What Has Changed Within the MSPE
The medical school performance evaluation is done through the guidance of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). They have recently made changes to the requirements of the MSPE. So you will need to check that any sample MSPE for IMG that you look at meets the new requirements. AAMC Recommendations for MSPE changes include all of these:
- Change unique characteristics to noteworthy characteristics
- Limit noteworthy characteristics to just three
- To place comparative data in the main body of the letter not in appendices
- To require school-wide comparisons
- Include professionalism
- Limit the length of the MSPE to 7 pages in 12pt font, single spaced
Is MSPE Necessary for IMG Applications and Can it Be Used as a Letter of Recommendation?
Your MSPE is a necessary part of your application along with your ECFMG status report, personal statement, and letters of recommendation. It cannot, however, replace your letters of recommendation as they are separate letters that should be sent to support your application.
What Specialties Are Filled by IMG Applicants?
Whether you are applying to IMG friendly family medicine residency programs or any others you will want to ensure that your dean’s letter will make your application stand out.
The following according to data collected by Med Fools are the most IMG friendly specialties that you could apply to:
- Internal medicine
- Family practice
- Pediatrics
- Psychiatry
- Obstetrics / Gynecology
- Emergency Medicine
- General Surgery
- Pathology
US-based residencies are applied to by graduates that have studied in many other countries. ECFMG data shows that the most common countries that applicants are accepted from outside of the US are:
- India
- Pakistan
- Nigeria
- Caribbean
- Syria
- Canada
- China
- Saudi Arabia