I have heard that there is basically no mechanism to obtain a good deans letter for residency applications after graduating from the Polish schools, particularly Poznan. Do any of you guys have any experience with this? Is it true, or is there a workaround?

I am looking at trying to obtain a residency in a more academic / research based program, and understand that this letter is basically critical for any of the better residency programs in the US.

Cheers

I goto PUMS, and from what i understand actually everyone gets a letter from the dean, yes its a almost purely fill in the blank; but honestly no one in the states is going to give a damn about that letter. They know exactly the level of credibility has, so its best to depend on letters of recommendation from your clinical rotations. If you get a recommendation from your target location well all the better no? Anyway this is what the upper years tell me GL...

Thank you very much for your reply. That actually does help quite a bit. Can you shine any light on the process for finding US-based rotations for your M4 year? Is there any significant bias against foreign medical students that you have been able to discern? And, are these rotations, and more specifically, their letters of recommendation, not too late for your residency applications? Is it possible to spend the 16 weeks of away-rotations in the US at the beginning of your M4 year, finishing off the remainder in Poland, or are they necessarily at the end of the year?

with clinicalls its all you, no help period. Its pretty much word of mouth from the upper years what to do.
Having said that.. everyone that passes step two from here that i know of got there residencies. Well making the match is up to you too... its all you here anyway by year 4 you expect nothing from the deans office. haha by year one you dont.

And yes people commonly do there 16 wks in the states, infact you have to go somewhere in year 4. well i guess you could stay too haha. god SOS those people. But its common for people to do it whenever i guess fall or winter.

hope that helps
GL

Yeah, that helps.

Can you tell me where you (or some of your friends) have placed for residencies? I have tried to find PUMS graduate placements on Google, and it's not easy...

well to be brief, and most accurate, i know people that went to Rochester, NY
, yale, mayo, Cleavland, detroit, new orleans, chicago, phili... and some of these people mentioned completed and are working in these places as well.

The residency thing is a hard one. unless they are a closer friend, residency is a one way door and people never look back at poznan, so you simply dont hear from them.

one key concept STEP 1 Grade: it makes you or breaks you... thats it..
GL.

You don't know where anyone has placed for their residency? That is a bit disheartening on its own. Are each of the year classes just completely insulated from other years? Also, is there not a general posting of where people placed? I would assume that this would be a major event and even sales point for the graduating classes.

I think he/she just told you where.

Mmmmm... nice try. It might be, but it ain't. The last thing a grad who has successfully matched somewhere wants to do is field random e-mails/phone calls from prospective applicants. What could they be selling?

if your asking if the classes are seperated. well, put it this way, out side of my IM group. i see maybe one other group at random so out of the 67 people in our class. I see on average tops 12, and thats only because there are in our ward, or in a combined class. I havent met anyone from year one this year... and i know some friends from a couple of other years that i play poker with or just connected. Other then that i mind my own... Mostly i guess you know the people you work with, live by, or play wiht

The people that i know in residency however, are either my friends family's, my friends from other times, or associates of some sort.

Other then that there is no formal or informal, or concept of alumni.
Like i said after 4 years of POZ, you just dont want it... haha GL .

IF you want a good alumni association try going to NYU or something.

oh yeah, graduation here is more of a fizzle, not a bang. People just fade out after may 30... you see'm or you dont.

No, actually, the way I read that, he/she just told me where people do their away rotations.


Not for the students, perhaps, but for the school. For the university to be able to say "We placed X number of students at the following hospitals" would go far in attracting potential students. This is not for direct contact purposes - this is for raw data demonstrating a successful placement program.