Puls UM

APPLYING FOR
RESIDENCY IN
THE U.S.
Applying for residency will become an ordeal
that you cannot wait to finish. Once you finish applying,
you will hate the waiting for interviews, and once you finish
with interviews, you will abhor the tension of Match
day, and once you are offered a residency, you wish you
never had to work. It is a painstaking process of gathering
the right documents, registering and filling out endless
forms, constant watching of deadlines, and waiting (always
waiting) for letters of recommendation. Applying
for residency also involves money. On average, expect to
spend close to a thousand dollars for registering fees and
applications.
Applying for residency in the states involves
three separate organizations: ERAS support services at
ECFMG (this is where your USMLE scores are found),
ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) by
AAMC, and NRMP (National Resident Matching Program).
If this is not already confusing, it becomes even
more so as you continue registering for all of them. Our
goal for this article is not to describe all the steps involved
because the explanations can be found on their website
provided at the end of this article. Our aim is to give you
an idea of what to expect and what to prepare for, in the application
process. Letters of recommendation should come
from doctors working in the United States from either
electives you have done or are doing at the time, or observerships
with family doctors, etc. They are most favored
by residency programs. Letters of recommendation from
Europe do not hold as much sway in your application. The
Dean’s Letter will be mostly completed by the university.
The ERAS support services issues a token ($75)
on July 1st, which entitles you to set up an application
at the ERAS website. This is your first step in applying
for residency. Filling out the application involves the
CAF (common application form), Profile, and Personal
Statement. This is also where you select your residency
programs. Registering with the NRMP from August 15th
will enter you into the match and scramble in March. The
deadline is November 30th, so do not forget to do it. On
September 2nd you can send out your application to the
program.
The documents that you will need to send include:
MSPE (Medical Student Performance Evaluation)
also known as the Dean’s Letter, medical school transcript,
original letters of recommendation (3), a photograph,
and a California letter (if applicable). Letters of
recommendation should come from doctors working in
the United States from either electives you have done or
are doing at the time, or observerships with U.S. doctors.
They are most favored by residency programs. Letters of
recommendation from European doctors do not hold as
much sway in your application. The Dean’s Letter will be
mostly completed by the university. Most importantly,
you must have passed your STEP 2 CS in order to participate
in the match. If you fail the exam, you are automatically
withdrawn from the match and will only have access
to a list of unfilled programs during the scramble. The
scramble is a two-day chaotic, intense period of re-applying
and frantic contacting of programs. The programs
feel the pressure too as they are suddenly bombarded with
faxes, phone calls, emails, and applications from unmatched
candidates.
If you successfully score a contract, you will
still need to pass the CS before you begin your residency
in order to have the official ECFMG certificate that you
will be hearing and reading so much about. The application
process may be long and arduous and pricey, but that
is part of the package of becoming a doctor in the United
States. For it to go as smoothly as possible for you, we
recommend taking the CS exam six months in advance,
so that if you fail it you can retake it and still get the results
before the match. Another thing to remember is to
have at least three letters of recommendation from U.S.
doctors. Since doctors are usually busy, ask them early
for the letters and they might have them ready for you in
a month. At the end of all this, you will not believe that
you went through it and there will be feelings of pride and
accomplishment in you. You will succeed as long as you
persevere and have faith. Success is inevitable. After all,
who does not need a doctor?
Website: www.ecfmg.org
Aneta Bakula and Katarzyna Piotrowska
19