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Writer's pictureDoctor Sebas

๐ˆ'๐Œ ๐€๐๐๐‹๐˜๐ˆ๐๐† ๐“๐‡๐ˆ๐’ ๐˜๐„๐€๐‘.๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐๐จ ๐ˆ ๐๐จ?

Updated: Jun 23, 2020

VERY IMPORTANT NEWS GUYS!! ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜€ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ข๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿญ.

What does that mean? Youโ€˜ll have one ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ต to work on your application.


๐—ช๐—›๐—”๐—ง ๐—ง๐—ข ๐——๐—ข ๐—ง๐—œ๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ ๐—ข๐—–๐—ง๐—ข๐—•๐—˜๐—ฅ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿญ?


โ€ข๐„๐‘๐€๐’ ๐“๐Ž๐Š๐„๐

Sarting June 23 you can get you token, it costs $145 and it will give you access to the ERAS website, where you can start filling up all the info

Note: You can get your token today, in one month, 2 months or at anytime!! These is no difference!!

The only think is: The sooner you get it - The sooner you can start working on your ERAS CV :)


โ€ข๐‹๐ž๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐‘๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ โœ‰๏ธ Request your LORs to doctor ASAP so you have them ready

I explain on this post how to request them

โ€ข๐’๐ญ๐ž๐ฉ ๐’๐œ๐จ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐Ÿ“ Try to have at least STEP 1 & STEP 2 CK scores


Take STEP 2 CS, if you donโ€™t get your results by that time donโ€™t worry! You can still apply! Itโ€™s better if you have your CS results of course, but programs understand this current situation, most of them will still consider you if your result is pending [CLARIFICATION: This year STEP 2 CS is suspended, disregard this part]

As soon as you get your pending result ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ to the program letting them know, itโ€™s also a good opportunity to express your interest towards them!


This year programs will start reviewing your applications October 21, that means you need to take your STEP 1 & CK at least 3 weeks prior than that to have your results ready.


โ€ข๐„๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐๐ซ๐จ๐Ÿ๐ข๐œ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ

Since STEP 2 CS is suspended, 2020 applicants will have to take an english exam to show their English proficiency and get certified with that +STEP 1 & CK.

ECFMG will announced soon which exam. (I think TOEFL or something similar)


โ€ข๐‚๐ฎ๐ซ๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐•๐ข๐ญ๐š๐ž ๐Ÿ—’ Work on your CV, you will have to write down all your detailed experience on everything that you worked on, volunteered, research, etc. So make sure to explain everything, correct your grammar and have doctors review it.



โ€ข๐Œ๐’๐๐„๐Ÿ“Š Request your MSPE to your school, most international school wonโ€™t do it for you, they will send you the info that you need and then you will have to do it yourself. (I didnโ€™t submit a MSPE because I didnโ€™t have it on time, but I did send a deanโ€™s letter, which they consider it as a MSPE's replacement)


What is MSPE?

"The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) is a summary letter of evaluation intended to provide residency program directors an honest and objective summary of a student's salient experiences, attributes, and academic performance." -AAMC


โ€ข๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ โœ๐Ÿผ Start working on your Personal Statement and make sure to have as many people as possible read it and get their feeback, if you are doing a rotation in the USA ask the doctors that you meet if they could read it, most of them will be happy to do it! Make sure to ๐œ๐จ๐ซ๐ซ๐ž๐œ๐ญ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ฆ๐ฆ๐š๐ซ! PDs find it very bad if you make spelling errors in your PS!


โ€ข๐‡๐จ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐š๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐Ÿฅ Check programโ€™s requirements and if you are eligibily to apply to that program. You can apply to any program but if you donโ€™t have all their requirement they will automatically filter you out.



๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ธ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฎ ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—บ?

โ–ธCheck what they ask for YOG โ–ธIf they ask for USCE and how many months of it โ–ธIf they sponsor visa โ–ธWhat's the minimum STEP score to apply if your have low scores โ–ธIf they have IMG's in their program, etc

โ–ธDo they sponsor visa



You can find all the requirements in the program's website & also using FREIDA.

๐…๐‘๐„๐ˆ๐ƒ๐€ This is a the official website of the American Medical Association, and it's used to find all the programs and their information


Search by specialty, and and you will find everything that I mentioned previous about looking for in a program


Go to the ๐—œ๐— ๐—š๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ and you can move it so you find programs that have 10%+ IMGs, 20%+, 50%+, 90%+, and even some program have almost ๐Ÿญ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ% ๐—œ๐— ๐—š๐˜€! you can find all that find there.


Follow these steps to check what's the IMGs % in that program:



I ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ to use FREIDA to search for programs

You can ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„ doing that to have an idea

What IMG percentage in frieda will be most optimal so we donโ€™t miss any IMG friendly programs?

-It really depends on the specialty that you are applying!


Eg, OB/GYN doesn't have as much spots as IM, and also is less IMG friendly.

I put the IMG filter starting at 5% and went from that.

I'll do a LIVE INSTAGRAM VIDEO about what to look for in a program on my ig @doctor.sebas

โ€ข๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿญ,๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ Applicants may begin submitting applications to residency programs. โ€ข๐—ข๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿญ,๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ Residency programs may begin reviewing applications. ๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ž๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ญ ๐š๐Ÿ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐‡๐จ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐š๐ฅ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐ง ๐Ž๐œ๐ญ๐จ๐›๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ?



  • Hospitals will start reviewing applications almost right away.

  • Within a ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐˜„ ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜†๐˜€ to a couple of ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ธ๐˜€ you will receive e-mails inviting you for an interview.

-Make sure to have your phone all the times, some programs over-invite candidates, so you have to reply almost right away. I don't want to scare you, but I heard people that didn't get an interview day to book and got in the waiting list for replying only 10 minutes later!! You really wanna make sure to reply right away if you want to get all your interviews booked! (I was overseas with a 13 hrs time zone difference during my first interviews, so I would had to reply at like 11pm and sometimes 2-3 AM!

  • During ๐๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ-๐‰๐š๐ง๐ฎ๐š๐ซ๐ฒ you will have your interviews.

  • ๐Ž๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ก with ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ your interviews you will have to submit your rank list for the Match.

-๐——๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ is by the last week of ๐—™๐—ฒ๐—ฏ/ first week of ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ต

(It's usually the on Feb but due to Covid I think this year it will be the first week of March)

  • Around the ๐Ÿ‘๐ซ๐ ๐Œ๐จ๐ง๐๐š๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Œ๐š๐ซ๐œ๐ก you will get an e-mailed if you matched, and that same week on ๐…๐ซ๐ข๐๐š๐ฒ you will find out ๐ฐ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž you matched, Congrats!! YOU HAVE ๐Œ๐€๐“๐‚๐‡๐„๐ƒ! :)


Good luck guys, you are doing a great job! Keep working hard!

If you want more information about all these, check out my other post called: "Everything that you need to know about USMLE. There I explain ๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—น๐˜† ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฐ๐—ต, whatโ€™s ๐„๐‘๐€๐’, when to get your ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ป, etc. Make sure to read it if you have any doubts about it.


โ€ขI want you to succeed and ๐š๐œ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ ๐จ๐š๐ฅ๐ฌ matching in your dream program!!

Iโ€™ll make a post on how to ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜„๐˜€ by reaching out to programs, how to improve your ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜„ ๐˜€๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น๐˜€, and ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ during the interview. Also explaining whatโ€™s expected in ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜„ ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ. Stay tuned!!


I start my OB/GYN residency July 1 - If you wanna check out my life as a resident in NYC make make sure to follow me on Instagram: @doctor.sebas



If you are feeling stressed due to the current pandemic, your exams, studies, application, family problems, itโ€™s very normal, just try to cope with your stress:



HOW TO DEAL WITH STRESS?


โœ…๐ƒ๐Žโ€™๐ฌ: โ–ธMeditate๐Ÿง˜๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ โ–ธExercise๐Ÿคธโ€โ™‚๏ธ

โ–ธEat healthy๐Ÿฅ—

โ–ธThink positive๐Ÿ™Œ

โ–ธWork on your beathing๐Ÿ™‡๐Ÿฝ

โ–ธRead a book that you like ๐Ÿ“š

โ–ธListen to music, watch a movie ๐Ÿฟ โ–ธSleep hygiene๐Ÿ’ค โ–ธTalk to others๐Ÿ—ฃ โ–ธTake care of yourself๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿฝโ€โ™€๏ธ

โ–ธSeek profesional advise



โŒ๐ƒ๐Ž๐โ€™๐“๐ฌ: โ–ธDonโ€™t smoke๐Ÿšฌ โ–ธDonโ€™t drink alcohol๐Ÿท โ–ธDonโ€™t drink too much caffeineโ˜•

โ–ธDon't procrastinate

โ–ธDon't overwork

โ–ธDon't argue

โ–ธDonโ€™t overthink๐Ÿคฏ

โ–ธDon't self medicate๐Ÿ’Š

โ–ธDon't blame your problems to others






Share this post with your friend that are applying this year๐Ÿ˜€


If you have more doubts, I made a post explaining Everything that you need to know about USMLE, and also on 17+ ways to improve your CV

Trust yourself & the process, stay positive, you have been working so hard to get this far, continue pushing that extra pound, you ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐š๐ค๐ž ๐ข๐ญ!! ๐Ÿ‘Š


Sebastian Arruarana, MD Fb page: Doctor Sebas ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—บ: @doctor.sebas

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