Step 2 CK  will still be reported as a numeric score, which still gives IMGs an area in which to shine. However, IMGs must note that until January 2022, the very importance of Step 1 and Step 2 CK scores dictates that any IMG who plans to be a serious contender must have solid Step scores. In other words, having competitive Step scores is an expectation, so it is not enough to distinguish you from other applicants. It doesn’t work in your favor to have a single-minded focus on excelling in the Step exams and relaxing thereafter.

There are other aspects of your application that Program Directors and the selection committee consider when they have to determine who they will invite to interviews and who they will rank highly. These include your letters of recommendation, your Medical School Program Evaluation (MSPE), your personal statement, and your perceived commitment to your specialty. Regardless of where each of these falls on the list of what programs are looking for, as an IMG, none of them can be lacklustre.

Do your very best on your Step exams, but don’t fall into the trap of neglecting other key aspects of your application process, including:

• networking
• carefully selecting and equipping those who will advocate for you on paper
• presenting yourself in a professional, memorable manner on paper
• advocating for yourself with ease during interviews 

In the words of one of our favorite IMG clients, programs view the quality of your application as a representation of how much effort you put into tasks. I like to say that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression! Therefore, the most important part of your residency application as an IMG is every part.  At every single stage of the process, you must seek to distinguish yourself; you must be memorable for being uniquely valuable.

To get our one-on-support with your match application, email the word “MATCH” to shawna (at) memorableessay.com.

The post This is the Most Important Part of Your Residency Application appeared first on Memorable Essay.

You’re reading this because you want to match. So know that every time a program interacts with you, in any way, they must be 100% clear on why you must be selected ahead of the other applicants.

It’s your job to communicate why this is so. And the way you do it is through creating and using a Main Message. Your Main Message is a clear and concise message about why you should be invited to interview and ranked highly by a program.

To get all of the information necessary for your main message you must answer three broad questions:

1. Why do you want to match into residency training in this specialty?

You must be able to articulate the reasons you’re interested in this specialty and what made you think of applying for it. For example, working with children gives you a feeling of fulfillment; that is why you’re interested in pediatrics. You’ll also need to mention what you’d like to achieve once you get into that specific residency program.

2. Why are you worthy of joining this program?

This is important because programs want to have people who can bring something of value to their program. You can mention academic reasons that make you worthy of selection. You can mention your high performance throughout your schooling and clinical rotations. You can also mention non-academic reasons like volunteering while you were studying to show that you’re well rounded.

 Other key areas to mention in this step would be your resilience and your willingness to go the extra mile for your patients. If you overcame obstacles, mention how you used them as stepping stones to grow as a young physician. Also, you may have documented cases where you went above and beyond the call of duty to attend to the needs of your patients, and this helped them have positive outcomes. If you can articulate your worth, you’ll be setting yourself apart from the others.

3. What is your unique value proposition?

Your unique value proposition is the most important part of any Main Message. This is something that you are 100% sure that no other applicant can say about themselves. You must be able to articulate what you can bring to the table that no other applicant can. Maybe, as a Pediatrics applicant, you come from a family of teachers so you have years of experience tutoring and attending to the psychosocial needs of children, in addition to enjoying attending to them in clinical settings. You must clearly express what makes you special.

After answering all of these questions, you must be able to succinctly state all of it in 5 or 6 sentences to create your Main Message.

Your Main Message makes you memorable! Create it and use it for the whole match season.

To get our one-on-support with your match application, email the word “MATCH” to shawna (at) memorableessay.com.

The post How to Make Residency Programs Want You: 3 Steps appeared first on Memorable Essay.

So you’re sitting there, thinking that it’s time to get your ERAS application started. 

Or maybe you have already started but it’s gobbling up so much of your time, because you’ve spent three hours requesting letters of recommendation, ten hours trying to figure out what to say in your personal statement, and ten more hours rummaging through your brain for content to put on your CV. 

Completing your ERAS Application doesn’t have to stress you out or take hours of your time,  trying to brainstorm, from scratch what you are going to say in your personal statement, then what you’ll say in your CV and LORs. This is an inefficient strategy if you want to get your application completed in a timely manner! 

You can save time, without compromising the quality of your application by implementing our proven secret strategy:

Create one robust message capturing your story and what you have to offer—what sets you apart from the others. Then use this message as a guide when creating each component of your application.

This is your Main Message, and it’s the secret sauce I have used to help IMGs match over the last 6 years. If you don’t have a Main Message, you need to stop and make one.

To get all of the information necessary for your Main Message, you must answer three broad questions:

1. Why do you want to match into residency training in this specialty?

You must be able to articulate the reasons you’re interested in this specialty, what made you think of applying for it, and what you’d like to achieve once you get into that specific residency program.

2. Why are you worthy to join this program?

This is the Million Dollar Question because programs want to have people who can bring something of value to their program. If you don’t know why you’re worthy, Ambitious IMG, neither will those programs you’re hoping will invite you to interview.

3. What is your unique value proposition?

This is the most important part of any Main Message. It is something that you are 100% sure that no other applicant can say about themselves.

Save time and energy as you complete your residency application ( there are already so many other things you have to do) by creating a Main Message before you do anything else.

Until next time,

Be Memorable!

To get our one-on-support with your match application, email the word “MATCH” to shawna (at) memorableessay.com.

The post How to Save Hours On Your Residency Match Application appeared first on Memorable Essay.

These struggles may come in the form of negative emotions like feeling nervous, overwhelmed, or you may just feel downright lost. That’s okay. 

Here are some things you can focus on to move forward. 

1. Get Clear: Get clear about who you are, where you’re taking your medical career, and why you’re taking it in that direction. As simple as this sounds, it is critical that you take time to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. Why do you want to get into internal medicine and not pediatrics? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Clarity of purpose will help you know “Your Why”, and knowing “Your Why” put you a step ahead of most.

2. Strategize: After you get a clear vision of what you want and why you want it, you must now make some moves. You have a vision of where you’re going and you need to impose that vision on the world.

A strategic plan is a play-by-play and day-to-day guide of what you must do to get from where you are to where you want to be. Having a strategy will give you confidence, help you work on your application in a paced manner, and give you direction.  

3. Get Support: Most amazing feats cannot be achieved alone. Figure out the parts of your process that you’re struggling with, like organizing it all, coming up with a strategy, mastering your Step exams, creating your personal statement and CV, interviewing, then seek help from people who have a track record of doing these things well. 

Everyone won’t match on their first try. Not every Ambitious IMG will match. However, you can increase your odds of matching on your first attempt, and doing so without feeling nervous, overwhelmed, and lost as you put together your application by:

• being clear about your why you must pursue your match goal to the end 
• having a strategic plan to get your application done 
• getting help will increase your chances of getting the outcome you want.

The post Do These 3 Things As You Work On Your Residency Application appeared first on Memorable Essay.

These include the ability to:

• make a strategic plan
• build key relationships
• push through external resistance
• overcome internal resistance like self-doubt and imposter syndrome

However, no skill is more important than self-advocacy. Self-advocacy is the ability to stand up for yourself and the things that are important to you.

To be a self-advocate, you need to:

1. Constantly “look inside yourself” and become clear about what you want for yourself
2. Develop and carry out a plan to help you get the vision you have for yourself
3. Push through any internal or external obstacle until you get to what you want

This may sound like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be! Take small steps.

To help you become a better self-advocate during your match journey, you need to ask yourself one question every day: “How did I advocate for myself today?”

Since matching as an IMG will require that you become a staunch self-advocate , asking yourself these seven words,  “How did I advocate for myself today?”, will change the trajectory of your life. 

So, how did you advocate for yourself today?

• Did you sit and decide why you are going to match no matter what (or are you still “okay” with the idea of not matching)?
• Did you create a calendar for the week with protected times for studying and working on your application (or are you still prioritizing other people’s priorities)?
• Did you seek help for your USMLE prep or did you keep struggling on your own?
• Did you neglect to reschedule your Step date even though you’re not scoring how you want to, and you can feel you are not prepared?
• Did you stick to your work schedule for your application or did you allow yourself to be distracted?
• Did you ask a colleague who matched into a program you like to chat with you for 15 minutes, or are you still wondering from afar how they got in because you don’t want to bother them?
• Did you guide the person writing your Letter of Recommendation, or are you just hoping they give you an excellent letter?
• Did you seek help with putting together your personal statement and CV, or did you keep struggling with them alone?
• Did you send your programs Thank You notes in which you subtly addressed a question you fumbled on during the interview, or did you just give up on amending your mistake?

Asking yourself, “How did I advocate for myself today? at the end of every day will force you to re-evaluate your daily performance as it relates to your goal of matching. 

Asking this question also allows you to see how you can advocate for yourself tomorrow and make good use of new opportunities to do better!

Tell us in the comments, how did you advocate for yourself today?

The post Do You Have This Skill, Ambitious IMG? appeared first on Memorable Essay.