Hi guys: I have a few questions regarding our situation
1. How more competitive do we need to be to get a spot in Residency? Say I want a spot in Radiology and other US med student can get a residency spot with a 70 percentile in USMLE score and do i need a 85?
2. On average for residency, how long do we (as Carib med students) need to wait from the point we apply till getting it, for example in Radiology, anesthetics, etc.?
3. When do we take Step 1 and 2?
Thank you guys in advance :P

1. I don't know if there's an easy way of determining how much better you'd need to be than a US med student. It'll depend on what specialty, which program, and your scores/grades/ECs/LORs. Whether you need a visa will also affect your chances.
2. US and non-US medical students all participate in the same matching program for US residencies. You can submit your application to ERAS as early as the beginning of September (and it's advised you do this as early as possible). The interview period for all applicants is the same few months, but when you interview of course depends on where you applied, when, and how competitive you are. All lists are due at the same time, and all matches are announced on the same day. Caribbean students don't have a different timetable for this than anyone else.
3. Step 1 is taken after you finish basic sciences (first 2 years). Step 2 is normally taken after finishing your core clinical rotations in year 3, but there's a bit of leeway (couple months) in this depending on when you want to take it and how good your scores are. People with weaker Step 1 scores might want to take Step 2 earlier to have good grades to submit in September with their residency application (as opposed to submitting the Step 2 scores a month or two later).

Take all of these answers with a grain of salt - I haven't gone through this process yet, but this is what I've learned from reading others' posts. Any more experienced people are free to correct any of this or offer other opinions.

please do a little reading here first. you'll get a better sense of the various levels of competitiveness for a given field.

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Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

Most foreign grads will find it very difficult to get into competitive residencies like Radiology or Anesthesiology, unless they're exceptional students (in which case they'd have gotten into a US school anyway).

so then why are there IMGs in those fields?

its about scores...they get you through the door...as a new med student you need to focus on learning the basic - i mean really learning and understanding the material - and aim to get the highest step I score you can (and BTW its NOT a %tile, just a 2 digit score and a 75 is PASS, so aim for a 70 and you are in trouble...)...do a search, look on the nrmp website and see what scores are the norm for rads (many programs have a min score ~ 220/91ish(the 2 digit will change from year to year)...everything you need to do to get rads you can worry about when you get up to clinicals..

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GI Elective [x].......Wards [x]
Wards [x] ............Night Float [x]
MICU [x] .............CCU []
Wards [x] ............PGY 1 1/2 []
Elective!![x]..........Move Complete[]
VACATION!!!! [x]

Here's link to SGU's '08 match list for anesthesiology http://www.sgu.edu/ERD/2008/ResidPos...ology&count=-1

Of course, I didn't say it was impossible - just difficult. Less than 5% of SGU students match into Anesthesiology. For Radiology and Dermatology, it's a fraction of a percent. The vast majority (more than half) match into IM.

that concept is misleading--you need to know how many sgu students APPLIED to anesthesia to make any judgement on the number. Sure there are 5-600 people graduating, but not all of them went for anes- THEN 5% would be horrible. If however 30 people went for anes and all of them got it, well then that would be impressive (THAT however is NOT the case)

what you need to know is how many applied to make any statements on how difficult it is to get those competitive residencies (and you have an idea of how many in your class, but even then you'll be off- otherwise you have no idea...

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GI Elective [x].......Wards [x]
Wards [x] ............Night Float [x]
MICU [x] .............CCU []
Wards [x] ............PGY 1 1/2 []
Elective!![x]..........Move Complete[]
VACATION!!!! [x]

if you want to do rads, you better aim for a 90 and above on usmle 1, probably a 95 is safer for caribbean grads.

btw 75 is passing so if you aim 70, u be failing.

and like rok said, it is NOT a %tile!

Radiology matches

http://www.sgu.edu/ERD/2008/ResidPos...ology&count=-1