11-22-2005, 01:01 PM
WHY DUKE UNIVERSITY INTERNAL MEDICINE/ PSYCH IS MY NUMBER ONE:
This is an incredible choice for an IMG who needs a visa
1. Big name institution
2. H1b visa offered
3. no fellowship needed (disadvantage of H1 visa cancels out)
4. pay after five years of residency is 300 000 USD, will go up to 400, 000 USD when I graduate
5. growing need for IM/ PSYCH faculty
6. Board Certification both in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry
7. fourth and fifth years of residency are very very light
8. H1b offers opportunities for moonlighting, in Chicago, you earn $ 100/ hour for moonlighting, in one night- $ 1200 and in one week, $ 8400, that™s cool money.
9. Low cost of living in Durham
10. easy transition to IM/ PSYCH faculty- assistant Professor at Duke, few years later can easily transition to even bigger name Institutions
11. Research opportunities as resident and faculty- $ 300 million grants a year, research triangle is situated in Raleigh- Durham- Chapel Hill.
12. The best part of IM/ PSYCH over IM is- all three years of IM residency is very hectic, intense and competitive. By second year, you decide on sub-specialty and need to do research in your sub-specialty, need to get good LORs, go through ERAS, use contacts, and attend fellowship interviews and so on. Such a pain. And with competitive specialties like CARDIOLOGY AND GI, very difficult to match at good programs, especially on a H1b visa. Cardio and GI pay minimum of 400 000 a year going upto 600 000 a year. If you can™t get into these, in ID, rheumatology or Endocrinology, it is difficult to go to more than 250 or 300 000. Remember these are national average (some Pediatricians in New York earn 1.2 million a year). We are talking about minimums. And especially with Cardiology, three years of Internal Medicine, three years of Cardiology fellowship and then two years of Electrophysiology or Interventional Cardiology fellowship will take a total of eight years. Remember that at a lot of programs, you need to be a chief resident at your program to get into Cardiology fellowships. And this is if all goes well and your rotation performance and LORs are stellar enough. So pretty much the next ten years until you get a job will be hell. And remember, when you get a job as an Interventional Cardio, you work about 80 hours a week to earn the 600 000. so what™s the point. 80 hours a week and little vacation hardly gives you time to enjoy life and the money you earn. Except for giving pharmaceutical company sponsored talks about drugs and international conferences, you have no LIFE. IM/ PSYCH- five years of residency, no fellowship, good lifestyle and cool 300- 400 000 a year. What more do you want.
13. IM/ PSYCH far less competitive than IM, and easier to get into than IM into big programs.
14. Can do fellowship in IM or PSYCH after IM/ PSYCH, if at all necessary.
15. Personally for me, it is like the best choice I ever made. I was battling to choose between Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. I am very good at Internal Medicine and fascinated by psychiatric research. To combine both in one residency is perfect.
16. The bigger question of INTEREST VERSUS MONEY. IM PLUS CARDIOLOGY= 500 K MINIMUM. PSYCH PLUS FELLOWSHIP= 200 K MINIMUM. So, it was difficult for me to choose between a lucrative cardiology lie versus an interesting psychiatry research life without a lot of money.
17. Another issue for me is the positive force of all my family, relatives and friends who are ADAMANT that even if MAYO PSYCH OFFERS A PRE-MATCH, IS HOULDNT TAKE IT. And they go on to say, if BRIDGEPORT HOSP offers PRE-MATCH, take it in Internal Medicine. Some of them suggested that I should take the pre-match at Guthrie- Robert Pacer since they sponsor H1b visas!!!!!!. So doing IM/ PSYCH satisfies both them and me, with H1b visa, at a big program is an unbelievable option.
18. IM/ PSYCH PAY at 300 K is way above the national average and higher than the salary of the US PRESIDENT.
19. lifestyle during IM/ PSYCH residency is way better than IM and much worse than PSYCH.
I am just thinking out loud about my career options. A sort of internal argument.
The choice for me was between 80 hour week interventional cardiology (600 K) versus academic psychiatric research (100 K).
Now IM/ PSYCH at about 50 hours a week for 300- 400 K (varies by year and state) is the perfect fit.
Now the question is solved as to what is number one on my list. It is very difficult for IMGs to match at their number one choice.
The most important question is how DUKE UNIVERSITY is going to rank me at IM / PSYCH. They are interviewing seventy applicants for six slots. So it is improbable that I am going to match there. Plus my interview experience was only above average.
My interviews before I get back home in the first week of December, are at Moses Cone, Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, Creighton and Mayo Clinic. Which I am sure, I will rank below Duke IM/ PSYCH. So my number one slot on the rank order list is filled up. The competition is for the next few slots.
Michigan State University (East Lansing)- Nov 29
I have thirteen interviews in January, and I am not sure if I will come back in January. So may be I will cancel all of them. The good ones are
Emory University- Psych
Tufts University- Psych
St. Louis University- IM
UTMB, Galveston- IM
All surgery interviews- Mayo/ Albert Einstein and Maimonides
Community IM- st. Joseph, st. Francis, Michael Reese, resurrection West Lake, interfaith, UIC Urbana
Anybody on hold at any of the above programs let me know. I can cancel some of them for you.
If any of the program director™s read my post on pay scales and lifestyle being important considerations in career choice, they may not even rank me. But the bitter truth is that these factors are important to me in choosing a residency and career.
How will I get the chance to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, go on wine trails of the Napa valley in California, take a safari trip in the Masai Mara national park in Kenya or go on an œanaconda style boat trip on the Amazon in South America
A million things to do require a million dollars and plenty of vacation!!!!!!!
Comments or criticism of my number one choice on my rank order list.
March 16, 2006 1 pm ET- the moment of a lifetime!!!!!!
Good luck guys
Baby Aspirin
