Thread: Foreign Medical Student or Not?

The short answer is yes, you are.

Well you are not a Foreign Medical Student in the fact that you are a U.S. citizen, and not a foreign citizen (I assume). A more proper term is International Medical Graduate (IMG), or USIMG more specifically.

Originally Posted by Dr.SP

My medical advisor told me today that if you graduate from Ross or St.Georges you are not considered a Foreign medical student. I though differently in that you are considered one. Does anybody know for a fact whether you are or not?

Ok the short and long version:
short version
yes you are.

the long version:
technically you would be an international medical graduate (IMG) whereas a non-US citizen from a non-US school (follow still) is an FMG or foreign medical graduate. In reality no one pays much attention to this distinction and it doesnt mean much in translation.

My guess? your premed advisor is not at all aware of the differentiation and just doesnt know what she's talking about. Is she the one that told someone that 50% dont get residencies and left it at that? If not perhaps she is more insightful but if so, she should have explained the long version to you.

Yes, SGU and Ross grads are IMG's in the sense that we need to go through ECFMG process and hold ECFMG certificates.

What your pre-med advisor may mean is that SGU grads (can't speak for Ross) are not treated as typical "IMG's" by many residency program directors, and that our residency placement is very similar to most US medical school both in terms of specialty placemenst and percentage of graduates in residency.

P