International Medical
Graduates Match and Scramble Services
210-787-4555
IMG Residency®
Match Services
Here is what we do for the Match:
Review your application package. This 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 U.S. LORs and clinical experience (if
necessary).
Guide you throughout the entire 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 ERAS® 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 beginning with school in his or her home country, coming to
the U.S., passing USMLEs, and getting to the finish line of this journey upon
finding a residency. Allow us to share a secret with you: This is merely the
beginning; surviving 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 will most likely 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 best fits 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 over 1,000 residencies and counting. Nevertheless, no two clients are
alike. We still consider every client's situation as a challenge to find the
best approach and get him or her into a program. Our clients' match readiness
ranges from "what is ERAS®?" to "I'm looking for anything for the third
consecutive year".
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 this? Unfortunately, no. You can get an idea of your
competitiveness by estimating 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 address provided
in the Contact Us page (info@imgresidency.com
or (815) 550-2224:
ERAS® Common Application Form (CAF) or CV
Personal statements, one for each
specialty
Dean's letter, LORs or LOR writers' names and contact
information
Call us if you have any questions: (210) 787-4555
Click on the Messenger button to begin online chat with a representative:
FAQs (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 the applicants
have second attempts (we also have high 90's, but this is rather unusual).
No
U.S. 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 them on your own. Our clients submit 30-40
applications. The 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 to contact 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 great value, the list alone does not
guarantee acceptance to a particular program - requirements are not written in stone.
They get bent 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 the list.
Q: What is your success rate? A: It varies by specialty with the 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 specialties.
Q: What if I do not match? A: We help our clients in the scramble process. Such is reality that some
of our clients will need to scramble. The 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 various topics. Forums we participate in:
www.imgforum.com,
www.imgresidency.com/community,
USMLEForum.com , www.prep4usmle.com, and
www.residentweb.com. Our philosophy - Post only if
you know the answer. Another option that we 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).
