General Surgery Residency in US

A lot of our tips talk about how you can strengthen your application, but you can build a stronger application when you’ve done the things this program values in the years prior to the application. The application itself is the communication part (in which you communicate what you’ve done to the admission committee); but this section gives guidance on the substance part (what you can actually do before you apply). In this section we talk about what you can do in the years leading up to applying that can make you an ideal candidate. Supplement the following tips with general tips (under the tab of ‘Pre-Application’) to become a competitive applicant.

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES/BACKGROUND

Degree Requirement: Prospective general surgeons need to meet extensive educational requirements, often beginning with a bachelor’s degree in a science-related area. After finishing their undergraduate programs, they must complete medical school and a general surgery residency before seeking licensure and specialty certification. So in short, the basic academic requirements are to get into General Surgery residency in US:

• MBBS Graduation from PMDC accredited medical college.

• Must be eligible for ECFMG Certificate.
  • What is ECFMG Certificate? Certification from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). Through its program of certification, the ECFMG assesses the readiness of international medical graduates to enter US residency or fellowship programs. The process for certification is described at www.ecfmg.org.

• You can pursue MPH or PhD degree to strengthen your application. These advanced degrees will be especially useful in the context of your future academic plans beyond residency. For example, if you are interested in epidemiology or database research, you can benefit from a MPH or a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology etc.

CourseWork:

• Learn as much as possible in anatomy and embryology.
• As there is no longer a way to set yourself apart with honors during 1st/2nd year, your Step 1 score will be the highest asset to show for those 2 years of work.
• Surgical subspecialties and general surgery are increasingly competitive.
• Don’t neglect classes/subjects that you think will not be relevant to your ultimate career goal. Everything is relevant to surgery, especially during your residency years, and you never know if your career direction will change.
• Electives to consider:
  • Anatomy/autopsy
  • Clinical infectious diseases: great board prep
  • Critical care medicine: preparation for surgical ICU
  • Sports medicine: for the orthopedically-inclined 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCES

This seems to be very program specific and program director specific. However, generally speaking Academic programs place a lot higher value on research experience and publications then community surgery programs.

• It is better to get started early on in medical school and continue throughout all four years
• Show strong involvement in the work such as take part in the conception and design of the research proposal and not just work in a lab
• Publications and presentations
• Don’t do research for the sake of doing it
• Be prepared to actively discuss your research during interviews
• Visit: Selected Readings in General Surgery

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Do you need to do a sub-internship in general surgery?

• Necessary: if you did your rotation away from the core UW hospitals and you want to pursue general surgery or you received a HP in the core rotation and need to show improved performance.
• Helpful: if you need more letters of recommendation, need another opportunity to shine, want to learn about an aspect of surgery you did not have a chance to see, want to make more connections within the UW surgery department.
• No: if you are applying to a more distantly-related surgical field, such as ENT.
• Visit: 101 Tips for Surgical Internship

VOLUNTARY/ SOCIAL WORK

Volunteer work may be required depending on your program requirements.

OTHER EXPERIENCES/BACKGROUND

Believe it or not, surgery programs like to see well rounded residents. They know that you’ll have less chances of burning out if you have hobbies. It also shows you’re adept at time management and will be an interesting addition to their team. It’s also a great conversation starter during interviews.

• Make sure you add your interests / achievements in other areas to ERAS.

Professional affiliations

• You may want to consider joining a national surgery organization such as the ACS, AWS or other professional society.
• They usually have a student section and discounted attendance at national meetings or opportunity to apply for a scholarship.
  • For example, a majority of students matching in vascular surgery attend the annual SVS meeting on a scholarship.
• These are wonderful opportunities to network in the surgery community and get your name out there before interview season.
• Consider this as a worthwhile investment, even if you have to pay for it on your own.

TIME-LINE

What you should be doing, timeline-wise as an undergraduate Medical student?

 

Things to do while in Medical School to boost your chances of acceptance:

YEAR 1 and 2:

Try to find a mentor early on, females are encouraged to look for female surgeon mentors Time with a surgeon outside of the rotation to get a better feel for the field Be involved in school, hospital, community, foreign work, research and demonstrate peer elected leadership positions Study hard! The summer between first and second year is very important, do research or something else you feel passionate about

YEAR 3 and 4:

Read a lot journals not just textbooks, they are more up to date and demonstrated your willingness to learn Work hard and take initiative with residents and attendings—show them you can interact well with them Come to surgical cases well prepared on the patient’s case and ask appropriate questions at appropriate times Have some night call and trauma experiences Do well in all rotations, not just surgery In third year- “find the surgery program director, chairman or surgery advisors by January to give you advice about your 4th year and to start the process of getting your letters of recommendation. Find out from the seniors who are the faculty that you need letters from or with whom you should do a rotation.” In third year, make sure attendings and residents know you are interested in surgery. Do Sub-internship in surgery and do well in it Do away rotations fourth year, especially in institutions you are interested in applying for residency Do several surgical rotations in a row during fourth year, this will give you a taste of life as a surgeon Fourth year is your last chance to learn other non-surgical subspecialties like critical care, radiology, anesthesia—take advantage of this, they will be helpful in the future The best resources to learn about the application process are the young residents and graduating fourth years in your school. They just went through it so they can give you the best and most current advice

All above mentioned activities will help you develop the skills you need to be a successful residency applicant and beyond. The sooner you take charge of your own professional development, the better you will ensure your success as a future resident in General Surgery.

This section provides an overview of general guidelines pertaining to the application process. It also delineates the key components of the application process.

GENERAL ADVICE

• Main Points:
  • Apply to 20-25 programs
  • Include both “dream” and “back-up” programs
  • Talk to many people to solicit advice and suggestions

• Use ERAS to start your application process: http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/start.htm. What’s in the ERAS?:
  • 3-4 letters of recommendation (includes Chairman’s letter but not the Dean’s letter)
  • CV – activities/awards/publications/etc. – will be entered into an online format
  • Personal statement
  • List of programs to which you are applying
  • What you need in your application:
  • ERAS application
  • Curriculum Vitae – please make it look professional

In a nutshell, the following sub-fields and/or degrees are available for General Surgery Residency:

• Match List:
  • If you are a competitive applicant then rank 10-15 programs, if you are less competitive then apply for 50-70 programs and make sure to include second and third tier programs
  • List your top choice first regardless of what you think your chances of matching there are

Refer to the Program Selection Section for further information.

TIME-LINE

In addition to the below time-line, The Application Process: A Timetable for Success by American Medical Association.

Component	Is this component required?	How important is this component (in the overall review of the application for admission)?	Notes on timelines (if applicable)
Standardized tests or entry exams	USMLE Step 1 (required by most programs) COMLEX (required by most programs) USMLE Step 2 (recommended by most programs) USMLE Step 3 (optional)	Very Important	Spend 12 months preparing for each test. Take test 6 months before app. deadline. Test scores are usually due before the overall app. deadline.
Transcripts (past academic records)	Required	Very Important	Request transcripts from school 2 months before app. deadline.
Letters of recommendation	Required	Very Important	You may have as many LoRs uploaded on the ERAS portal as you feel necessary; and later you may target each LoR to specific programs. However, no more than 4 letters can be assigned/sent to any individual program in MyERAS. Please contact each program for their LoR requirements.
Personal Statement	Required	Very Important	Start preparing statement 4 months before app. deadline. Spend 2 months in writing/ revising the personal statement.
Resume or CV	Required	Important	Spend 1 month in writing/ revising resume/CV.
Interviews	Required	Very Important	Spend 2 months in preparing for interviews. Interviews are usually conducted in any month between October and February of the students’ senior year.
Electives	Not mandatory	More Important (in Application Phase)	It is strongly recommended that IMGs participate in observership rotations in a clinical setting before applying to residency programs. Observerships provide IMGs with invaluable knowledge of U.S. medical clinical practice settings and with U.S. physicians who can serve as references.

The American College of Surgeons provides, on their website, information useful to students interested in applying to surgical residency programs.

• The ACS Medical Student Site: The American College of Surgeons home page for information for medical students interested in careers in surgery. This site links either directly or indirectly to the other sites listed below. A great place to start your search for information about surgical careers and how to become a surgeon.
• Characteristics of Matched Applicants:  Probably the most important report from the NRMP for applicants applying to the match. This will give students some idea of their competitiveness for securing a surgical residency as well as a good idea of how many programs to apply to, the importance of board scores in securing a position etc. A must for any student planning to apply for a surgical residency position. Read this one carefully! This is a report from the 2011 match, the latest data available. 

Also, check out the following links in order to land onto the right decision:

• General Surgery News Blogpost
• Is the surgeon still “captain of the ship”?
• White Collar and Blue Collar Surgery
• Academic vs. community hospital for surgery residency
• Surgical residency Articles  
• How hard is landing a surgery residency? by Student Doctor Forum
• FAQ for matching in General Surgery by Medical School Section of Rebbit Blog  

Also, read academic/science blogs or message boards. These will help you understand and navigate academic culture and give you better insight into the variety of experiences of academics. You can find great science blogs through ResearchBlogging, Scientific American, ScienceBlogs, Scientopia, and other science blog networks. You can also learn a lot about academic life in general by reading GradHacker, The Grad Café, GradLand, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Moreover, Here is the list of top 50 General Surgery blogs that are useful for students to seek advice about residency application in General Surgery. These are run mostly by students for students. Almost all questions have been asked, but the quality of the answer varies, so take everything with a grain of salt.

Complement the above field-specific tips with general tips on overview (under the tab of ‘overview’).

Pakistani applicants suffer most because of inadequate information — or wrong information — about essays and personal statements. This section will address those inadequacies specifically in relation to applying for this program. Supplement the following field-specific tips with general tips (under the tab of ‘essay’) to craft a stellar personal statement.

BASIC INFORMATION

Personal Statement – actually pretty important. Most schools include the quality of this in their ranking. Make sure you talk about things that set you apart from others, rather than regurgitating your CV.

In general, you want to fly under the radar by writing something compelling but relatively bland. The goal is to have a personal statement that is solid. Many of your interviewers may merely skim it for red flags or interesting things to talk to you about (remember: anything you put in your CV/PS is fair game for your interviewer to bring up). Cater to the skimmers and write something simple. In order to accomplish this, the single best thing you can do is just sit down for a couple hours and write something – anything – and do it early. Doing so will allow you to get feedback from your letter writers, who probably are or have been interviewers themselves and know what makes for a solid personal statement.

ACTION-STEPS/ RESOURCES

Which resources should I make use of?

• Read the following links before start planning your personal statement:
  • Writing the Personal Statement for Residency
  • Tips on Preparing your Personal Statement
  • Writing a Personal Statement
• After reading the above link, check out the following samples to get an idea on how successful General Surgery major applicants have written their personal statements:
  • Sample Personal Statement for General Surgery
  • Sample Personal Statement of General Surgery
  • Sample Personal Statement Portal – General Residency      
• It is recommended writing your own statement, and not using some pre-prepared format. Just give yourself enough time to do it.

TIPS ON GOOD AND BAD STATEMENTS

What is essential in the statement:

Be sure your statement is clearly written. Common mistakes: lack of flow (i.e., jumping from one tangent to the next), lack of structure (i.e., each paragraph should develop an idea and each sentence should build on the one before it), spelling errors, grammatical errors, using clichés or tired analogies and metaphors, beginning every sentence with “I”, using abbreviations.

• Always try to “show” rather than tell. For example, don’t say “I am hardworking” rather, write about an experience where you clearly worked hard.
• Be sure to correct spelling and grammar errors! Readers will interpret these errors to mean that you are not attentive to details and they will conclude that you approach the care of patients in the same way.
• Think of your Personal Statement as a conversation starter for your interviews. Give your interviewers something interesting about you that’s worth talking about.
• Avoid exaggeration. For instance, do not overstate your role in a research project.
• Avoid lying. Every year some students lie in an effort to come across in a better light. If you are caught, it will be extremely damaging to your candidacy and if you are not caught, you will have to live in fear that someday your lie may be discovered.
• Do not simply repeat information from your CV. The personal statement is not an expanded version of the CV.
• Seek help when writing the personal statement. Your statement should be reviewed by several people, including your advisor. Try to find someone that is in no way connected to the medical field to read it as well. If you have someone that is particularly talented with grammar, bribe them with whatever it takes to have them go through it with a fine tooth comb for syntax, punctuation, etc.
• Begin your statement with an attention grabber. Reviewers will be reading hundreds of statements and you should capture their attention from the beginning by using a story, a quote, or even an anecdote.
• ERAS can hold multiple personal statements, and it is okay to have several. You have the option to assign statements to different programs.

This section will cover the basics about recommendation letters, which are one of the most important parts of the application process. Supplement the following field-specific tips with general tips (under the tab of ‘recommendations’) to ensure you have strong letters of recommendation.

BASIC INFORMATION

Dean’s Letter – automatically sent out by KSOM on Nov. 1. Not too helpful, because they all sound the same.

Chairman’s Letter of Recommendation – for General Surgery, you must meet with Dr. Demeester after he gets to know you from selective. Interviews are given as a first-come, first-served, so make an appointment as soon as you know you are planning to apply for General Surgery 2 more Letters of Recommendation – must be surgeons who know you well. No Emergency docs or OB-GYNS. Preferably, they should be nationally recognized Professors of surgery, but it’s better to get a great letter from an Assistant Professor than a so-so letter from a Professor.

Give each of your letter writers as much notice as you can to get their letters in for you (> 2 weeks, if possible), but also give a hard deadline that is several weeks before you want to submit your ERAS. Many surgeons are procrastinators. Remember to always be extremely cordial with your reminders. At this point, there may not be much choice in choosing your letter writers, but – as everyone will tell you – choose surgeons who have worked with you clinically and ask each if he or she would be able write you an “excellent” or “very strong” letter. When you email each letter writer, it is often best to set up a physical meeting to discuss writing your letter and to provide a copy of your CV and PS. Again, giving each writer your CV and PS forces you to get several rounds of feedback on each item. Additionally, they have more information to highlight in their letter.

ACTION-STEPS/RESOURCES

• Before requesting your recommenders for LoR, go over the following links carefully:
  • Residency Application Series: Letters of Recommendation
  • Medical: Tips for Writing Letters of Recommendation
  • General Surgery Letters of Recommendations Guidelines and Samples
  • Guidelines for Letters of Recommendation
  • Letters of Recommendation
  • Letters of Recommendation: How to Rate, Write, and Use Them in Your Evaluation of Applicants  
• Also, consult Sample Letter of Recommendation – General Surgery.

• Note: ERAS can hold an unlimited number of letters of recommendation.
  • NEVER say no to someone who offers you a letter of recommendation, especially within surgery – better to have it and decide not to use it later.
  • One of your letters for general surgery should be a chairman letter from Dr. Pellegrini. Dr. Tatum will pass along more information about how to arrange for these letters each year.
  • Two to three other letters may be used, and for surgery applications they are usually from surgeons within the specialty to which you are applying.
  • Do not use a letter from a non-surgical person if it can be avoided.

TIPS ON GOOD AND BAD LETTERS

What is essential in the LoRs:

After Board Scores and Grades, this is the MOST important aspect of the application!

• Very important to have strong letters only from SURGEONS, especially program directors, clerkship directors, chairmen, senior faculty, or from surgeons that the admissions committee know
• Letter from someone who really knows you and can comment on your character, technical skills, your determination for surgery, not just recite your CV. It may be a good idea to meet with your letter writers to discuss these things
• Mention something along the lines of the letter writer wanting you to be in his or her own surgery residency program

Letter Writers: Ideally your letter writers are faculty who know you well and have worked closely with you. However, they often will also be more senior faculty and you should be prepared to present a fairly polished front when meeting with them. This means having an updated CV about which you should be able to provide more information when asked, a personal statement that has gone through at least a few iterations and is not in a first-draft form, and at least a vague idea of what your future interests clinically and academically might be. Your letter writers will often not be people to whom you will send emails about minor questions, but from whom you can elicit opinions re: your list of programs, your rank list, and who may be willing to make calls or reach out to people at programs that you are especially interested in when interviews are all done.

• Ideally, you have stayed in touch with one or two surgery faculty whom you met during your 3rd year rotations. Clerkship facilitators are often a good source, because you have met with them outside of regular clinical duties and medical student education is important to them. Try to meet as early as possible with these surgeons so that your third year is fresh in their minds.

• Other Faculty from Third Year: It is not recommended including letters from faculty in other disciplines besides surgery. The only exception would be if you have done extensive research with that physician. Many residency interviewers appreciate letters from their friends and other names they recognize. Plus, a surgeon knows the attributes someone needs to excel in the field and can best highlight those in a letter.

• Research Mentors: Very important, especially at academic residency programs. Instead of just focusing on your clinical acumen, these letters emphasize a different skill set that will be important in the future. Moreover, you will probably have spent more time with these faculty, so they truly know you better and can write more anecdotally.

• Surgery Faculty from 4th Year:The majority of letters will often be from this group. Sub-Is in May, June, and July are ideal. It is best to request a letter right after working with someone, so they can best remember your performance. You have learned a lot during your 3rd year and can really shine during these rotations, giving faculty a lot of good things to write about.
• Chairman’s Letter: Some medical schools will include a letter from the Chairman of Surgery for all students applying in general surgery and will set up a meeting for each student. Be prepared for this meeting as it may be your first and only chance to make an impression and communicate things you’d like highlighted in that letter.

What are bad LoRs/ what things to avoid:

• Avoid generic or mediocre letters
• Get letters from faculty who are full time staff, not residents or voluntary faculty

This section will cover everything else related to the application process; including transcripts, interviews, resumes, and standardized tests.

TRANSCRIPTS

Basic Information:

Medical School Transcripts – Honors in Surgery and Year III, IV most important. AOA is sought after in most institutions.

 

 

Tips:

• Excellent academic record- top 1/3 -1/2 of class, AOA membership, honors in surgery

Complement the above field-specific tips with general tips on transcripts (under the tab of ‘transcripts’).

INTERVIEWS

Basic Information:

Interviews are the most important aspect of the application process and serve as a means for a program to find out about the applicant and whether he/she would be a potential good fit for their residency program. However, and perhaps more importantly, it is an essential way for the applicant to get to know a program, its strengths and weaknesses, its culture, and whether it is a place the applicant feels would be the best match to spend (at least) the next three years of his/her life. Programs such as General Surgery and Pediatrics interview far more number of applicants than positions available while programs such as pathology, neurology are much more tighter when it comes to interview invitations. Interviews with each program will include a pre-interview dinner, the main interviews next morning, and lunch, which is followed by a tour of the hospital.

Resources:

If you do get a call for an interview, in order to prepare well, seek advice from the following links in addition to the tips below.

• The Interview Process – Medical Student Education
• How to interview for a General Surgery Residency Position
• What is the residency interview process like in General Surgery?
• General Surgery Residency Interview Questions

Interview Tips: 

It is also important to think of answers to questions specific to your application. For instance, if there is a specific deficiency in your application, you should be ready to answer questions regarding that deficiency. Also be ready to describe any and all aspects of your application. If you included a research project from prior to medical school, you should be able to describe the project in detail in your interview. Some interviews have ethical questions so it is important to develop your own method to answer these types of questions. Think of ethical scenarios you witnessed during med school and be prepared to discuss the reason you or your team acted in that manner.

Going into your interviews you should also know the assets of the programs at which you are visiting. Most general surgery programs have good websites which can provide you with the program’s mission statement, the basic structure of the program, recent accomplishments of the faculty, research opportunities, and recent graduate placement. Mentors can also help you by pointing out a program’s strengths and weaknesses. Having this information can aid you in developing well thought-out questions for your interviews. Gathering this information will also help later down the road when making your rank list.

 

 

How to Prepare for the Interview:

• Research program completely before you go and refresh memory prior to the interview
• Go to dinner the night before and get the scoop on the program, including requirement for research and typical projects, etc.
• Know your own CV and Personal Statement!!!
• Plan your arrival to the hospital, it’s a new environment, you cannot afford to be late, so arrive early.
• Carefully and thoughtfully prepare questions to ask – especially about educational experience and patient care
• Residents are a great help in figuring out what your interviewers are like and solidifying questions
• Write down information about the experience during and after the interview
• Occasionally, interviewers will purposefully ask you a difficult question that you can’t answer. Smile, and be gracious under pressure.
• Generate your rank list as you go, keep info from programs organized
  • Take notes after the interview and BEFORE the next interview. You will be surprised how much they all start to blend together by the end and you can’t remember the details of each.
• Be perceptive of the situation, make a strategy as you meet people and learn more
• You will have ego bruising moments as you encounter amazing applicants from other areas that seem to be more qualified than you. STAY CONFIDENT – you are a successful student from a great school!

Ultimately the goal of the interview is to see if you are a right fit for that specific program and vice versa, if the program is really the right fit for you

• Behave appropriately at ALL times, not just during the actual interview and only with the person who is interviewing you. Be polite and courteous to everyone, you never know exactly who you are meeting and what role they may play in admissions, this especially includes the residency program coordinator and the other residents. Also, mind your behavior when you are alone, you never know who is watching.
• Show interest in the program: do your research about the program, ask good and appropriate questions, do not ask questions about information that is readily available to you
• If there are any events before the interview to which you are invited—GO and really get to know the residents, for these are the people you will potentially be spending the next five years with. Also keep in mind that this is a chance for them to get to know you better then just a 30 minute interview
• Be confident, but not arrogant and be prepared to demonstrate WHY the program should accept YOU.
• If you have to cancel the interview, call and do it as quickly as possible
• Follow up with appropriate correspondence, send Thank You notes, make sure it is addressed to the CORRECT hospital and personnel, but do not send unnecessary emails and calls constantly checking on the status of your application
• Dress appropriately and professionally. Present yourself well. Have great eye contact, handshake.
• Immediately answer any interview invitations and try to let the residency coordinator know of any special needs you as soon as you can (i.e. dietary preferences, time constraints)
• Plan to arrive early and have contingency plans for any weather/road delays
• Feel comfortable using resources provided such as list of residents whom you may contact
• PRACTICE interviewing skills, do mock interviews

Some Common questions include:

• Why did you choose to pursue general surgery?
• Who are your role models and why?
• Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
• What do you look for in a program?
• Why this program?
• Are you hoping to specialize?
• Tell admission committee about your research?
• What are your hobbies outside of school?
• What is your proudest accomplishment?
• Why should admission committee choose you?
• What traits do you feel are important to succeed in surgery?

Complement the above field-specific tips with general tips on preparing for interviews (under the tab of ‘interview’).

RESUME/CV

Basic Information: 

There are two forms of your CV that you need. First, a CV that you can give to letter writers to facilitate their writing awesome letters. Second, your CV in ERAS form. For the latter, just like on the medical school application, you have a couple lines (~1000 characters) to explain each activity. As you would expect, be yourself, tell a cohesive story, etc. If available in your Surgery Education Office, it is extremely helpful to look at examples of previous applications (a few examples are included in the Appendix). Don’t plagiarize, but use this to find the appropriate tone, key things to mention, etc. Also, seeing the experiences of the classes before you will likely jog your memory and remind you of experiences/awards you received but may have forgotten about. Like your personal statement, start now and sit down and write a CV, then revise, revise, revise after having your advisors look it over.

 

 

Resources:

• For a detailed guideline of how to write/build your resume/CV, go over the following links:
  • Writing a Curriculum Vitae for General Surgery Residency
  • Medical CV Writing Skills  
• Also, do check out the General Surgery Resident – Resume Samples to have an idea on how successful residency applicants in General Surgery have written their resumes.
• It is a good idea to download some faculty CVs from the departments you are applying to. This will give you a sense of what these look like and what goes into them.

Resume/CV Tips:

• There is no separate CV/Resume document that needs to be submitted with the application. The ERAS application contains ‘Common Application Form (CAF)’ which takes the form of CV which is sent to the programs. Print out that CV and take it with you to interviews, just in case.
• Include elements from college and medical school, and other previous work
• Be sure your CV looks sincere and not filled with meaningless one time activities
• Longer doesn’t necessarily mean better
• Have it reviewed by your career advisor before submission.

Complement the above field-specific tips with general tips on building a resume (under the tab of ‘Resume/CV’).

 

 

STANDARDIZED TESTS

 

Basic Information:

• USMLE Scores – Part I is mandatory. Part II is not. Do not stress about taking Part II early… admission committees rarely see it in the applications and when they do, it rarely improves the application beyond Part I. Scores below 200 will hurt your application, 200-220 is okay for middle tier programs; over 220 is a must for top tier programs.

Tests Needed:

• USMLE Step 1 (required by most programs)
• COMLEX (required by most programs)
• USMLE Step 2 (recommended by most programs)
• USMLE Step 3 (optional)

Resources:

• One of the initial screening tests for residency interview offers is the USMLE Step 1 score, set yourself up to do well.
  • Try to study for boards along with classes, which may require using additional resources. Goljan pathology and biochemistry books, First Aid, various Lange textbooks, flash cards, question banks, etc… Doing this will help you differentiate the minutia you need to know for your final vs the minutia you need to remember because you are going to be asked about it again on boards.
  • The Goljan pathology recorded lectures are gold. Start listening to them with each relevant second year class.
• Go to the following links to help you prep for the USMLE Step 1:
  • USMLE Step 1 Average Match Scores by Specialty
  • How to overcome a low USMLE Step I score and become a surgeon

Test Tips:

Advice for 3rd year for Step 1

• What score do you need?
  • Some academic programs have a minimum score of 220 for your application to be considered, while community programs may use 200 as their cut off. That said, average USMLE step 1 score for all students matching in general surgery in 2011 was 222. >230 is generally considered to be solidly competitive. If your score is lower than this, do not fear, there are still ways to get an interview at your program of choice, despite their score requirements.
• What is the best way to study for Step 1?
  • First Aid is the classic go-to resource for step 1 studying
  • “Step 1 Secrets” is also highly recommended
  • USMLE World is widely considered to be the best QBank
  • Goljan audio lecture series is a honey pot of step 1 information… listen to as many of them as possible.
  • Step 1 prep courses are, in general, not considered to be worth the time or money, but if you are the type of person who learns best in that setting, and you have PLENTY of time for studying, you could consider one.

Complement the above field-specific tips with general tips on preparing for standardized tests (under the tab of ‘tests’).

FINAL COMMENTS ON APPLICATIONS

A few statements you stand by (let’s get rid of some myths):

• It is never too late to choose surgery as a career. Many do not choose until the end of their third year.
• Though most students who know they are interested in surgery do it as their last rotation in Year III, whether you do surgery first or last has historically had no effect on your grade or outcome.
• If you are savvy in your rank list, you will likely match in a program. Most don’t match because they did not rank enough programs (or the right programs). Be honest about your prospects and have a mentor.
• The majority of general surgery programs are very good. You will graduate being a good surgeon and you will get a good fellowship or a job.

Negative Traits in Application:

• Poor academic performances
• If Step 1 scores are low, take Step 2 in time for applications
• Extended period of unexplained absence from medical school or before residency
• Professionalism or ethics concerns
• Being part of many extracurricular activities at the expense of academic performance
• Strong grades and scores, but otherwise blank application. Successful applicants demonstrate being well-rounded
• Inappropriate or careless picture in application
• Ways to help overcome any flaws include personal calls and notes from personal connections of the program you are interested in on your behalf

Special Notes for International Medical Graduates:

• Make sure you have U.S experience by doing clinical rotations and letters of recommendations from U.S surgeons
• Research and publications with an American university helps
• VISA issues are usually one of the biggest concerns and greatest deterring factors for foreign doctors who are not U.S citizens
• Be prepared to do a preliminary year before being offered a full categorical position

Complement the above field-specific tips with general tips on final comments on applications (under the tab of ‘overview’).

This section will cover approximate costs of the program and provide information of resources that may help with funding. Complement the following field-specific tips with general tips on finances (under the tab of ‘finances’).

TIPS ON COSTS

What are the estimated/approximate costs of applying and attending (in the currency of the country in which the program is located)?

A tally of responses to the annual Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) graduation questionnaire showed that the average debt of medical students graduating in 2010 was $157,944. More than 59% of students finished medical school owing $150,000 or more. According to the AAMC annual tuition and student fees survey, first-year tuition and fees for in-state residents attending public medical schools in 2007 averaged $22,199. First-year tuition and fees for in-state students attending private schools that year averaged $39,964. The AAMC estimates that costs in addition to tuition and fees associated with medical school attendance in 2007 averaged $18,000.

The following sources were consulted in developing this tip-sheet and we encourage you to consult these sources for additional information and guidance on your application.

• Surgery Residency Application Guidebook by University of Michigan – Department of Surgery
• What it takes to get into a General Surgery Residency by Shirin Towfigh, MD, Resident, Department of Surgery, Howard University
• Advice and a 4-year plan for students interested in Surgery and Surgical Subspecialties by Washington University – Department of Surgery
• Information for Students Wishing to Match into a Surgical Residency Program by Medical University of South Carolina
• Essentials of Matching in General Surgery by Lily Gutnik, AMSA Surgery Interest Group Coordinator
• So You Want to Be a Surgeon by American College of Surgeons
• Online Guide to Choosing a Surgical Residency by American College of Surgeons

Furthermore, the following sources were also consulted in developing this tip-sheet: General Surgery Match Applicant Profile by Medical Forum; Spotlights: General Surgery by Short White Coats Blog; How to match into General Surgery by Surviving Gray’s Blog; USMLE and Residency Applicant Guide – General Surgery by Applicant Guide Blog.