Hi,

I am a canadian student going to Queens University (2nd year) in Canada and applying to St.Georges third year premed program. I have done a lot of research on my different foreign medical school options and have tentively decided on this one as I am sure I would like to practice medicine in the states (and would like to do my clinicals there - although also seriously considering Australia). Anyway, I know this question comes up all the time but I was wondering how hard it is to get an ER residency in the states as a CANADIAN out of St.Georges. I see that a lot of St.Georges students have done it (I have consulted the residency placement list for 2002 and 2003) but the list doesn't tell me much about my chances. I don't know what % of students applying for ER got it (ie. maybe every single student out of St.G applied for ER and only these students got it). Does anyone know how I could get some good stats on this issue or know anyone from St.G's that I could consult who got ER? Does anyone know what "its a tough residency to get" means exactly, and whether I will have to go to extroadonary lenghts to get ER like some IMG's who have gone to get radiology? All of these questions are assuming that I will do well on the UCLME's and the boards.

I have one other quick question. One of my friends who is a doctor in the states (he's 45) told me that there is an internship year (maybe it is called something else now) before residency. Why have I not heard anyone talk about this year before? What is it? Is it optional? Does it improve your chances of getting ER significantly? Does everyone do it? If I weren't to get ER and did pretty good on my board/UCLME's would I be guaranteed Peds or IM at a US hospital as a back up?

Thank you