Importance of Your Personal Statement Internal Medicine IMG
Your personal statement residency internal medicine IMG is one of the most important parts of your application. To gain a place you will need to match the quality of our sample MSPE for IMG application and submit documentation that is going to make you truly stand out. Gaining a place is more than just a matter of having the best scores. The best personal statement for internal medicine residency can make a huge difference to your chances of acceptance. By knowing writing tricks, you can be sure that your IMG internal medicine residency application will have the highest chance of success.
What about the competition? According to the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates ECFMG, there were over 7200 non-US International Medical Graduates (IMGs) that applied for a residency place and just over 52% were granted a place (3,800). As NRMP match data suggests, most IMGs come from India and Pakistan and that the average USMLE stage 1 and stage 2 scores are 236 and 241 for matched candidates.
A personal statement is a descriptive write-up highlighting your personal achievements as well as who you are, which will then be shared with the admissions board that you will be applying to. As you know, a personal statement requires a lot of care as well as input to ensure that it impresses the admissions panel and ultimately increases your chances of admission to the Institute of your choice. That being said, here are a few facts to keep in mind when writing your personal statement IMG application.
What Is Required for Your ERAS Application?
Residency applications are made through the Electronic Residency Application Service and then matched through the NRMP Match program. All of the required information for the programs that you apply to have to be uploaded to ERAS so that they can view it. The following are some of the information along with who is responsible and how it should be uploaded:
Component | Who | Where | Tips |
Common Application / Resume | Applicant | MyERas | Do not submit (certify) until you are sure it is complete and error free. |
Personal Statement | Applicant | MyEras | Use a different statement for each of the specialties that you apply to. |
Photograph | Applicant | OASIS or MyECFMG | Must be in JPEG format and less than 100KB in size. Head and shoulders view. |
USMLE Transcript | Medical School | OASIS | There is a fee to pay for the transmission of your transcript ($80). If you get updates to your score then it must be retransmitted. |
Medical School Transcripts | Medical School | OASIS | Ensure that you request the transcripts in advance. You are able to review them prior to submission and request changes if required. |
Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) | Medical School | OASIS | Released on October 1st. Ensure that you review it before it is sent. Once released it is too late to make changes. |
Letters of Recommendation | The Writer | LoR Portal | Ensure that you ask the recommender. They should if possible be from the US. You need to decide if you will waive the right to read what they say. |
Standardized Video Interview | Applicant | MyERAS | Submit by July 15th. Be professional and treat is as if it were a face to face interview. |
ECFMG | ECFMG | OASIS | |
PTAL | Applicant | OASIS | Only required for programs in California |
Internal Medicine Interview Questions and Answers
Uploading all of your documents is far from the end of the process. If the program is impressed by the documentation and your personal statement residency internal medicine IMG then they may invite you for an interview. Many of the applicants will have completed an internal medicine observership IMG or an externship to gain experience within the US. How well you perform on your interview will fix how you are ranked for the Match.
The following are some of the most common residency questions you may be asked and the answers that you should give:
Question | How to Answer |
Can you tell us a little about yourself? | Provide them with biographical information such as where you were bought up and where you went to medical school. Also, explain how you became interested in medicine. |
Why do you want to be a doctor? | DO NOT answer with a cliché. Try to identify a few ideas that are important to you and talk around those. |
Why do you want to work in internal medicine? | Ensure that you show you have a real interest in this specialty and that you have held it for a long time. Demonstrate your commitment by explaining what you have already done. |
Why have you applied to this program? | Do your homework and ensure that you know the program inside out. Highlight the specific points that you are looking forward to and how you hope to contribute to the program. |
What volunteer work have you done? | Ensure that you explain why you have done any volunteer work and not simply what you actually did. |
Do you have any hobbies? | Show that you have interests outside of just medicine. They want to see that you are a real person. |
What are your career plans? | Show that you have goals but that you are willing to change them as you learn more. |
Do you have an interesting case? | Talk about the team not just about you. But, show what you learned from it. |
What will you do if you don’t get accepted in internal medicine? | Clearly, show that this is your passion. But also be clear that you have a lot to learn and if you did fail to be selected you will work to find out why and address those issues. |
Where to Apply for Your IMG Friendly Internal Medicine Residency Program
If you are looking for an internal medicine IMG friendly residency programs list then we can help you. The following are a few of the most IMG friendly internal medicine residency programs that you can apply to.
- Interfaith Medical Center: This program achieves an ABIM pass rate of 95% and takes in 27 residents each year from all around the world.
- Central Michigan University College of Medicine Program: this highly focused internal medicine residency is one of the best in the country and happy to work with IMGs.
- Harlem Hospital Center Program: This program prides itself on working with IMGs and minorities within its residency.
- Prince George’s Hospital Center Program: with patients that come from some of the wealthiest and poorest areas in the country you will gain a huge amount of experience from this IMG friendly program.
- Presence Saint Joseph Hospital (Chicago) Program: all applicants are chosen purely on merit no matter where they may come from in the world.
What Documents Can Will You Need to Write for Your Application?
To get an interview your application documents have got to impress. Often trying to write them all yourself as well as working with ECFMG’s ERAS Support Service and everything else that you will need to do can be overwhelming. The following is a list of documents you will need to prepare for your application:
The Don’ts of Personal Statement IMG Writing
Have you always been curious why your personal statement internal medicine IMG applications have been failing in the past? Perhaps you have been doing the following errors to your personal statements without even knowing:
- Don’t plagiarize – Plagiarism is one of the biggest offenses in the world of academic writing; this also applies to write your IMG personal statement for the admissions board. Ensure that you do not plagiarize any content (especially borrowing the language of your personal statement from another example that you may have come across online). Even though these samples are published online, copying them word for word is one of the worst ideas that you can come up with. In fact, plagiarism may result in a serious investigation by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) resulting in your ineligibility to be part of any matching program.
- Don’t blubber a lot about your accomplishments – There is a reason why the application process must include a CV. So that you can list your accomplishments there! A common mistake that hundreds, if not thousands of IMGs make is to talk about the ‘cool’ things they have done over their course in medical school to the admissions panel in their personal statement. The word ‘personal’ should let you know that it is a section geared to helping you explain who you are as a person, and why you are the best student to be awarded an IMG residency.
- Don’t mention your religion or your political affiliations – Even without knowing, people are naturally biased. That includes the person reading your medical residency personal statement for IMG! So you may state that you belong to the left-wing while the recipient of your application is a right-wing supporter! Do you think that he or she will take the time to look at your application twice? Not at all! As a rule of thumb, always ensure to keep your personal matters such as your religion under lock and key to avoid any unwarranted penalization!
- Don’t discuss salary or payment – As much as you would like to be handsomely paid during your residency, bringing up your salary is not a smart idea. One thing you should know is that when applying for residency in the U.S. a salary for residency will already have been predetermined by the institution that you will match with!
- Don’t rush the writing process! – One of the biggest mistakes that students make is rushing through writing their personal statements for IMG as if they were writing a storybook or something. Make sure to first organize your thoughts and then communicate exactly what you want to say.
The Do’s of Personal Statement IMG Writing
Here are some of the tips you should follow while writing your personal statement whether it is a personal statement residency internal medicine IMG or any other specified type:
Why Might You Work with IMG Personal Statement Writing Services?
If you need an answer on “how many internal medicine residency programs should I apply to” you can find it from this article but if you are thinking about someone who can help you with writing your application documents there is an additional solution. There is reliable and effective help that is supplied through online services that are not only highly experienced but also qualified in internal medicine themselves.
Here are some of the essential features such services can offer for your IMG letter of recommendation writing and improving:
Hence, if you are looking for an essential service that guarantees quality assistance with each and every personal statement, then you need to find the best one!