This page is dedicated to the new updated info. As I am no more doing electives, so I wont be a regular contributor of this page but all the visitors can contribute here. I am really pleased to copy paste the first contribution from vaibhav in the form of a comment under list of universities page. Others can also simply contribute this way by adding a comment and the content would be uploaded here. Thanks!
Mandatory Training Infection Control new
Submitted by medisid on Fri, 01/22/2010 - 12:45.

dear himanshu, i also needed the infxn ctrl training for MSKCC n NY letter.

MSKCC directed me to this NY state nurses association training which would suffice even for NY letter..........the link u mentioned has this course also.........goto ur link-> scroll below ->> NY state nurses association --->> new york -----> infxn ctrl training course ---> register

or http://www.elearnonline.net/coursedesc.a...D=463&s=44

It costs 25$ to do that online...............took me an hour to complete and then do the questions in the end. The qs r arranged sequentially as they are in the modules. so u just need to go back n revise while u r doing the qs.......(sorry for my cheating methods; but that way i sorted out the important topics) and u have 3 attempts to do that exam, otherwise u'll have to give again 25$. i passed on 1st attempt...u can too.......

Best Wishes
University of toronto query for immigration medical examination
Submitted by warriorshah (not verified) on Fri, 01/15/2010 - 13:14.

Hi umarbhai & others, I have got accepted for university of toronto in march for an elective in forensic psychiatry. I had to go to orthwestern university in february for another elective..Till then i wasn't getting any confirmation from university of toronto. But I still had hope, that i would get the elective, but i was running out of time in visa. So I applied well in advance for a visitor's visa for canada. After I applied and got the visa, I got acceptance from UoT. Now they write me an email that I will be requiring to undergo a immigration medical examination which will b required of me at the time of entry to canada. Now I already have the visa, so how should I go about it. Is there any1 who has done past electives at UoT or is gonna join me in march or would b goin in feb.

Q: Does the college ask you when you report them for electives, whether you gave the immigration medical examination or not ?

Q: If you enter Canada under reason that you want to meet your relatives, will it be ok if i am not able to give the exam.

Q: What is the exact way for applying this medical examination , in case u have the visas b4 handed bcoz I hav emailed the consulate, but they haven't replied back. Plus they don't answer on phone, they say to write an email. I am running out of time as I am leaving India on 27th and incase I don't get to do any medical examination, can i b under trouble because I already hav the visa and can enter canada with the purpose to meet relatives. The concern is if I will have any explaining to do to Elective office on 1st day.



Any past student will be best to guide me on this.



Thanx in advance
1. You have to get your new
Submitted by umar on Fri, 01/15/2010 - 13:56.

1. You have to get your medical examination done and you have to submit it once you reach Canada.

2. You MUST have your medical examination done in either case.

3. You can be in trouble if you dont have medical examination done, according to the best of my knowledge. Visit the following two links

http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/uni...isas/me...

http://www.cic.gc.ca/dmp-md/medical.aspx

Enter your continent and country at the bottom of the webpage of the second mentioned link. Look for the medical officer/ hospital in your city and call them to make an appointment.

For your ease, I am posting the links of designated medical practitioners in Pakistan & India (as I don't know which country you belong to).

http://www.cic.gc.ca/dmp-md/medicalinfo....ryName=...

http://www.cic.gc.ca/dmp-md/medicalinfo....ryName=...

You can also look for your country from this link http://www.cic.gc.ca/dmp-md/medical.aspx in case you are not living in Pakistan or India.
@ ALL new
Submitted by vaibhav on Sat, 12/05/2009 - 12:35.
vaibhav's picture

I just found an interesting article which i hope is helpful to all. Its a bit old article but i guess the basic requirements stay the same.. All the best to all and God bless .... A post by Dr.Mizani



'I was the Chief Resident of Morehouse School of Family Medicine in Atlanta, and 60% of our residents were IMGs. In our admission committees, we looked at the following (in order of importance):

1. USMLE SCORES and attempts

2. U.S. “Hands-on” clinical experience & acculturation – Up to one academic year (36 weeks); Observerships, externships or research didn’t count as it wasn’t clinical.

3. Research activities... In U.S a publication or a research activity is given a lot of value.

4. 3 to 5 recent letters of recommendation from licensed US physicians (< 12 months old), documenting your clinical experience in the US. The more LORs, the better, since not all LORs positively recommend an IMG, or carry a weight necessary to compete with American Graduate competition.

5. U.S. immigration status – if we liked an interviewee, we sponsored them… no problem.

6. ECFMG Certification

7. Passing score on USMLE Step 3, if taken – not a huge factor, but a good one. Definitely not as important as the top 6.

8. Interview skills and English COMPETENCY – of course, you have to get an interview first.

According to the NRMP, the following are positive Match predictors:
1. For all – #contiguous ranks
2. 2nd for all 4 groups – USMLE Step 2
3. Step 1 for less competitive specialties only
4. Research nor # of publications was not a significant predictor of Match
5. For U.S. graduates – Being a graduate of top 40 NIH research medical schools, PHD and AOA member

A Comparison of Residency Selection Criteria for 1996 to 2006 (AAMC Central Group on Education Meeting 2007) identified Most important residency secelction criteria to be:
1. Disciplinary actino in med school
2. Received a failure in a required clerkships
3. Failed USMLE Step 2 CK prior to passing
4. Failed USMLE Step 2 CS prior to passing
5. Failed USMLE Step 1 prior to passing
6. Taken extended time to graduate for academic reasons
7. Applied to more than one specialty
8. Graduates in lower 25% of class
9. Grades in required clerkships
10. Received a failure in a pre-clinical course

Although the above 10 are primarily for U.S. graduates, the fundamentals are the same for IMGs; therefore and IMG who has an application that looks very similar to a U.S. graduate, he/she will be assessed based on the above criteria.

Hope this helps during the regular Match, and especially during the annual Scramble.

All the best – Dr. Mizani'

Impact Factor! new
Submitted by medisid on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 12:02.

I would like to one note about the relative reputation of journals. Its decided by 'Impact Factor' of each journal. When you have got a very good study and you have many options; then it is wise to decide between journals by its IF. The worlds most reputed journal is NEJM(New England-, published in Massachhussets). Its IF is around 40. And it is very diffcult to get a publication there. Even PhDs and faculty are continuously striving for it. The Indian Journal of Medical Research(official pub of ICMR) has an IF of 2-3(yes between 2 and 3!) and IJMR claims to be having the highest IF among all indian journals. So IF is a good way to decide the relative reputation of indexed journals. The calculation of IF is done by the # of references cited by other journals to the articles of journals being tested for its IF. Its a complex statistical process beyond simple understanding.

But having said that any article in an indexed journal is good. If possible try for journals with high IF. But a non-indexed publication is fine too, coz it will prove that you are well aquainted with the process of writing an article and getting it published, than others who dont.

Updates to clear out Confusion

Friends.. this is the procedure at this company for MPI

Academicins procedure -

1. You mail Steve saying you need a MPI for a certain period.

2. He mails u back a student form in which u have to fill in details.

- here u mention all the colleges you are going to apply.

3. This is processed and a quotation is sent for the period u demand an MPI.

note- the quotation is based on the no. of months and has nothing to do with the no. of colleges.

( i got a quotation of $ 523 for 3 months).

4. Then if u accept this quotation u mail steve stating that u accept.

5. Then when u accept this quotation the documents are sent.

- one is the letter which will state that u will be covered for MPI when accepted.it is a general letter so it can be presented to any college u apply.

- second is the agreement between you and the company. u hae to sign and return this to the company.

-third is the payment u have to make

note- the payment has to be made before hand. i enquired in detail. if in case u r not selected for the electives the money will be refunded fully.

So this is the procedure . It takes minimun of 6 days and a max of 20 days to get all this done.Depends on the processing.

I hope this clears everything about this MPI.( Andy hope this helps)

All the best friends...

God bless Umar bhai, Medisid, Purav

NIHnew
Submitted by medisid (not verified) on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 11:29.

thanx pal!

well as per my experiences, if u get >26 in speaking in toefl n good overall toefl scores; they seem to matter the most. PLUS u need to send in LOR from dean n faculty through their email , which is also a hassle, since this and >26 score filters most of the applications and the few applications that the nih ppl they get, they accept.

i had avg cv, small research exp, no publixn(yet) but good personal statemnt regarding y i want that particular specialty rotation. when u fill out your form online, near personal statement box, u'll see them describing what u should write there. reasons for choosing speacilaty, reasons for choosing NIH. try to give em an attitude that u want to have research based clinical experience. they like that a lot. this year i have seen 5-6 ppl getting into nih in specialties like cards, endocr, etc.

EARLY application, COMPLETE paperwork, GOOD personal statement which shows your true intent in that specialty and instituion; makes you stand out of crowd. BUT keep in mind electives that were easy b4 have applied or may do so in future stringent rules like step1, high toefl scores, authorization # etc and hav become inaccessible due to that.(mainly because of high number of applications from indo-pak).

so apply online early(4-5 months in advance), send in your trancsript by post and u may send your saved html page of toefl score from your ETS account page.( i did that! and they accepted it). the elective co-ordinator is very freindly and co-operative. be kind n polite to her.

PS- try to post other queries in the respective section; i usually troll the whole website everyday so will try to respond there also.

Baylor Authorization # tips
Submitted by medisid (not verified) on Sat, 10/10/2009 - 16:59.

Baylor has become quite impossible this year compared to last year when many people got in.

Now b4 applying u have to send in ur particluars by email to get an authorization number. as per their norms they have rationed the amount of applicants from each country and issue auth # for such purpose. if they have issued the total ration/quota for that country, they will not issue more. and u wont have a chance to send in your applications. PLUS these authorizations numbers are issued only during the beginning of academic year. like for 2009-2010 year, they had put up on their website that they will issue auth # for all aplications in academic year(09-10) in early april 2009. i used to check regularly but they suddenly put up a notice inviting requests for auth # on 10th Apr etc( im not sure abt the date) and within 24-48 hrs the whole quota for INDIA was fulled and i was rejected a request for auth # stating that my country limit has reached. i missed by a day. IMAGINE THAT. So if you are thinking for applying for 2010-2011 better put that baylor site on your mozilla fastdial and check for it everyday (begininning 2010).

Analogy the H1B visa cap/limit thats gets filled in day or two for every year!

RACE AGAINST TIME!
@ ALL .. FEW MORE UPDATES
Submitted by vaibhav (not verified) on Wed, 09/30/2009 - 12:04.

1. The following universities has stopped accepting students for this academic year 2009-2010

a.Uni. of Massachusettes

b.Uni of Connecticut

2. Many students complain that most E.C's dont respond to your Emails.But believe me most of them do and are friendly. the only thing is they get a lot of mails so u should know how to write a mail.The tips i am mentioning here are my views.(so if anything is wrong umar bhai kindly correct it) -

a.Start with Dear ...........

b.Dont give your history there,they dont have time to read that.

c.Be short and to the point.

d.Be clear about your question.

e.And if u need clarifiction of any info which is already on the website,dont forget to mention that u did not understand the info mentioned on website.If u dont mention this they will send u link to the same website which is waste of ur and their time.

f. Be polite when u mail them.Dont show that u are ordering them to respond.

Eg- i have seen students mailing in this way - 'i want to know is step 1 necessary? reply 'Yhis gives a bad impression.

the correct way may be- 'i would like to know whether step 1 is mandatory? kindly reply

thanking u in anticipation.'

HOPE THE GUIDELINES HELP.

ALL THE BEST TO ALL.

AND AS ALWAYS 'GOD BLESS U UMAR BHAI'

Note : The university of chicago does not accept students from india.. they accept students from LCME accredited schools only....
Toefl Scores card delivery sucks
Submitted by medisid (not verified) on Thu, 10/01/2009 - 21:32.

i passed on 30th may, i waited for my score report for 6 weeks but i didnt reach me.

i emailed them and they said they had resent it, but gaian after 6 weeks it didnt reach me. same happened with a friend from my city who sat the exam with me.

Eventually i had to change my home address in ETS to my relative in USA and again ordered candidate score report at 17$ to that address. he then scanned n sent it to me. 'Thanks'

MY SUGGESTION:

if u have any reliable relative/friend then give their address in the ETS website as your own and let the score reach them. when they get it ask them to scan it properly n send it to you or ask them to speedpost it to u in Ind/Pak. It takes 2 weeks for domestic delivery in USA n 4-6 weeks for international delivery. Plus the ETS guys send it by normal mail, and u know the condition of them in India. no guarantee that u'll have them.

So if u receive it in USA u save 2-4 weeks in time and a guarantee of sure delivery.

Thanks for sharing Helpful information and announcement. thanks

Now that you understand that your study guides are meant to show you what is high-yield, open it up in class and add some more depth to all of the high-yield stuff in the book. For example, if you are looking in your biochemistry section and reading about tryptophan, then your professor mentions something extra that isn't in that book, add it in, and then what you get after doing this during your basic sciences is a high-yield guide that also includes more depth. This strategy will help you put together the perfect study guide.

Thanks,
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I am an Medical Students. It is Useful Information

Filling in the cracks simply means to add information that you otherwise wouldn't have in a particular section. So for example, lets say were talking about tryptophan during biochemistry class, and your professor mentions that the triptan drugs (sumatriptan) mimic the effects of serotonin, which is a pre-cursor of tryptophan, well you jot this down and this gives you a much more rounded piece of information, so when the big day of the exam comes you don't just have a superficial piece of high-yield information, but you have a high-yield piece of information that is supported by a bunch of other related facts.



Thanks,
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Hi Michealborow1,

I am truly agree with your opinion and I think you have posted the best practical example ! Hope you will showcase your views in the every post in the upcoming future ........

Have a great day !