Number of applications have risen this year again. - matchmaker2007

[ArchivalUser]

whatever you will say guys but i think that USA is the most tolerant country because after september 11,they are still allowing us arabs and muslims coming to their country where we can still, by extra work and determination become a chief of a department of even up to Cardiothoracic surgery.....

[ArchivalUser]

I remember you can apply total of 240 programs which sponsors J1 or H1 or both ... this 240 includes the Univ programs which mention they sponser J1 but tough to get for IMGs

[ArchivalUser]

usapplicant,

Congratulations. Its a great thing to be born in the USA. Probably because of this one factor may be you will get a residency in FP whose chances otherwise look dismal.

There is more to a language than just using capital letters at the start of the sentence. Believe me you cant get a Nobel just for getting the syntax correct.

Lot of travelling around neccessarily does not remove ignorance. If it were to, then nomads would have been the most knowledgeable people and civilization itself would have cultivated ignorance.

Why cant you just understand my question? I ask very humbly due to the lack of sufficient experience whether the whole of the USA sounds ust like this forum. You never got the question right in the first place and that shows lack of understanding in a language which you learnt first.

What I was trying to point out is the difficulty americans have in accepting criticism. Nobody accepts baseless accusations but what if they are factual. For example I do accept that I was wrong in criticising your President in a public forum, however idiotic he may be, and I am extremely sorry for that. Now can you do the same for you. Below is a list of your statements which are very glaring. Lets see if you have the guts to make amends.

1. Learn the difference between a history and a physical exam. It will serve you and your patients well in the future.

2. As I stated before I think the whole match process is arbitrary and capricious. Its all based on money and greed. The money and greed mostly being on the side of the applicants.

3. so I think based on life experience my resume seems to indicate that I am better traveled and less ignorant that yourself.

4. See in the US we have cardiologists and echo cardiograms.

5. usapplicant - 10/03/07 20:59

Amen the_heeb. As a US citizen that is in medical school in Europe its amazing how unpractical the teaching is. These ph-ckers don't teach $h-t. Its all theory. I'm not going to be a textbook when I graduate from medical school. I'm going to be a doctor. So teach me to be a doctor.

I easily passed the USMLE on a first attempt. I'm still terrified to treat a patient.

Hands on is where its at.

6. usapplicant - 10/03/07 21:18

4 programs! Wow. There really must be a method to his/her madness. PDs don't have time to go through 100 applications from Bangladesh let allow take the time to interview all those people +the Indians +the Pakistanis +whoever else.

All these are your statements which I have cut and pasted here. Here are my simple doubts. Kindly clear them if you can and blow my ignorance away.

1. Dont you think people here dont even know that difference?

2. Are you sure all applicants think only about the money?

3. what is the connection mate?

4. Do cardiologist and Echo exist in the USA only?

5. Does not even a single european school teaches well?

6. Its an obvious derogatory commet towards any Bangaladeshi.

Now do you really have the guts to accept mistakes my friend?

[ArchivalUser]

usapplicant,

One more thing I forgot to add. I did read the post many times and no one has called you a RACIST in any reply. If you do find such a post kindly bring it to my motice.

[ArchivalUser]

can this be called a 3rd world war?

[ArchivalUser]

1. My point was at that point I never said anything about taking a history. Yet I was criticized for advocating not taking proper history. The critism was pretty strong when I didn't even do what I was being accused of doing. I defended myself. Sure it was a little over the top. That's the way I am. I don't wish the person ill.
2. I just made an generalisation. I can't tell you what 100% of the people are thinking 100% of the time, but I think anyone taking even a casual look at the match for Americans AND foreigners would have to conclude money plays a role. I don't see whats insulting about that to any one group. That was a pretty equal opportunity statement and once again it was a lot more critical of the US system than any foreign system.
3. My point was I was only speaking about two countries that I've spent the biggest part of my life in and that I've trained in. I'm not just engaging in ideal speculation. You did not grow up in the US. You do not have close family relatives that are doctors in the US that sit down and explain these things to you and you did not then leave the US and go and experience a whole other culture for medical school. I think this is a valid rebuttal to your blanket claims of American ignorance. I felt that I had to present my credentials that I happen to think in this narrow context are more robust than yours. If you disagree please present your credentials and we'll evaluate them.
4. The crack about cardiologists and echo was a sarcastic crack on my part to illustrate a point. Of course I think cardilogitsts and echos exist in other countries. My point was with your stethescope routine you were acting like they don't exist. Docs in America are hungry for work. So give them work. I'm not going to fiddle with a suspicious murmur. I'm going to punt it to a Cardiologist and let him spend his time fiddling with it.
5. I don't know about every European medical school. I know the country I went to and a couple of others where I have friends that it. And they do teach certain things well. An American grad would fail our final exams. Not because we are better doctors but because we focus on different things. Its like the USMLEs. If that stuff was emphasized over here then we would do better on it. A lot of stuff on the USMLEs is not critical for treating pts. It doesn't determine how good of a doctor you'll be. I honestly think in some ways I would have been better of going to medical school in a third world country. I think it would have been more hands on.
6 Its not an obviously derogatory comment towards Bangladeshi's. Just because you declare my statements RACIST or derogatory doesn't make them so. Please remove Bangladesh and insert the more politically correct country of you choice. You are missing the point.

PDs don't have time to go through thousands of applications and hundreds of interviews. If you flood them they will just go with a known quantity AMGs and throw the rest in the trash. Sending in hundreds of applications to multiple specialties is only going to cheapen FMGs. PDs are probably looking at anyone that does that as mercenaries. They don't know the individuals but they may start stereotyping groups. I guarantee you if this absurd trend continues the NBME will start publish data on people that apply to multiple specialties and PDs will start asking about it on the interview trail. They won't give names but they'll definitely post trends. If people do this 200 program application across 4 specialties thing and it becomes a significant trend you will hear more about it.

[ArchivalUser]

I agree with your last point..applying crazily to hundreds of programs are changing the trends of matching procces...specialties traditionally easy to get like FM or psych are becoming amazingly competitive..Some programs have had to increase the hurdle in their minimun criteria in order to get the lesser amount of applications posible...we're seeing people with 90s being rejected...and so on..
I think is the moment that the number of applications and specialties for each applicants be disclosed...

[ArchivalUser]

americaisshit,

Criticizing Bush is fine. He is not some kind of deity. America is a democracy. We are free to criticize our leaders. And other countries and people are free to criticize him.

My problem is I meet foreigners for the first time and they start bitching and complaining about Bush. Like Bush somehow personally took food out of their mouths. Bush has hurt a lot more people in America than he has in other countries besides Afghanistan and Iraq. Also nothing we were discussing had to do with Bush. I mean I disagreed with a fellow from China but I didn't start criticizing the Communist Party's treatment of dissidents. For all I know his mother or father could be a dissident in jail right now. I may have a problem with something he said and I may have a problem with some of what China's government has done in the past but they are two separate issues.

I would welcome a robust debate/criticism of GW Bush but really that should happen in a political forum. Unless of course you are talking about how he wasted $1 Trillion in Iraq and underfunded the healthcare system. That's a valid topic.

[ArchivalUser]

americaisshit,

"have not spent much time in usa but from americans visiting this forum i suppose the united states of A is a very intolerant racist place"

This statement was made after my comment so I assumed that it was directed at me or people like me in general. If it was not then I will retract my previous statements about racism.

I must say though that any time you leave your home country and go to compete for scarce resources (ie residency positions) in a foreign land there are going to be issues. That's ANYWHERE. The US is no exception. This kind of competition and desperation brings out the best and the worst in people. I don't know where you're from but I'm sure if the situation was reversed there would be people on the internet in your country screaming bloody murder if I showed up and sent 200 applications to peds, psych, IM, and FP.

My advice to you is to check out other countries. As bad as things are in the US its infinitely better than several first world countries that come to mind. Especially for members of certain ethnic groups.

As I've stated before, have you noticed how all the terrorists come from Europe, but yet we are the ones bombing the heck out of the middle east? Do you ever wonder why that is? Its because unlike Muslims in Europe Muslim Americas have MORE education and make MORE money than the average American. We non Muslims should actually be angry at them ;D!

The Match... Its a lousy process full of lousy people. But its still the best in the world for a lot of people.

[ArchivalUser]

bird77,

americaisshit, admonished me that I should apologize to you, so I retract my previous harsh statement.

Thank you for agreeing with me at least on one point . I think what a lot of people don't understand is that there are human beings on the other end of ERAS. They have to trawl through thousands of applications. The computer system that was supposed to make the application system run smoother is being abused. I can't see PDs putting up with this year after year.

People need to realize these people have to train medical students, residents, and fellows; do research; see patients; and manage their departments. What makes people think a person has the time to look at 1000 applications from mercenaries that will apply to anything anywhere. They are going to take the process as seriously as the applicant. Plus how do you think they feel when a guy trains in neurosurgery in his home country, gets double 99s, and now he's applying to a community FP program in BFE because he/she wants to "help people". I mean these PDs aren't dumb.

It just burns me because come March we are going to be getting all this I was discriminated against BS from people with 99s. All I have to say to those people is you are cheapening your 99. If someone has an 85 and good LoR and has continually shown interest in my specialty and program I would accept them vs a mercinary from (fill in the blank) who I know is using my ENTIRE SPECIALTY as a backup.

If some mercenary blows into my small community hospital with his 99s and the first time I heard of him/her was when their form letter application landed on my desk I would have an issue with them. Frankly I would be a little insulted.

Think about it from their end. They see your neurosurgery training and research and your 99s. It must be a shot to the gut when they get your personal statement and you BS them about how you've always seen yourself moving from (fill in the blank) to rural Arkansas to "help people".

I WILL beat out 99s for a job. And its not solely because I am an American. It is because I did multiple US rotations in my specialty of choice and got ALL my LoRs from US attendings in my specialty and I stayed in touch with people at the programs throughout the process. Frankly I don't see much hope of landing a job outside of a handful of programs for me. My anonymous application is going to be swept up in the tsunami coming from overseas. Hopefully my commitment to the specialty will help a bit.