USMLE - Toshi's good news and advices.

I met Toshi (Toshimasa Okabe, 岡部 利昌) during my Ohio State University rotation 3 years ago. He is from Tokyo University. He is confident, easy to get along with, fond of making jokes. He left the OSU several weeks earlier than me. He came to Taiwan for a brief visit one year later (March, 2006). Jeremy and I took him to 士林 night market and then 師大 night market. We enjoyed a great time.





I knew that Toshi wanted to be a doctor in the US. His goal is to be an internist specialized in infectious disease control. He said he would like to participate some philanthropic organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières some day.

During preparation of my application (I didn't plan to get a US residency then actually) I heard from Jeremy that Toshi is successfully accepted by an internal medicine program from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in Philadelphia. It's an excellent job for a international medical graduate to be accepted in a university-based program.

Congratulations, Toshi!!

Here's the excerpt of what he said in an email:

1) To obtain highest score possible on USMLEs. If you do not get 99/99 on both steps, there's virtually no chance your application will be looked at seriously in anesthesiology, surgery, emergency medicine, ophthalmology or ENTs. Those are the most competitive programs to get into even for US grads, not to mention foreign grads.

2) To have a personal connection with a program director for which you'll apply for. Connection matters extensively! In my case, the chief of oncology at my medical center is a powerful guy who got trained at TJU several years ago, and he personally sent the credit of my personal attribute to the program director, who subsequently allowed me to do one month of elective rotation there back in November. He also arranged a residency interview during the elective period. Then I was offered a position on out of match basis.

Wooo.... I'm afraid that I don't have such a good "connection." :~