US IMG USMLE Scores in the Match

The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) defines international medical graduates (IMG) as physicians who graduated from a medical school located outside the United States and Canada.  The location of the school, not the citizenship, determines whether a physician applying to residency is an IMG.  Depending on citizenship, these applicants can be classified as US IMGs or non-US IMGs.  Today, we will look at the match statistics of US IMGs in the 2013 Match, published by the NRMP in Charting Outcomes in the Match, International Medical Graduates.

The number of applicants matched to each field will depend on the size of the specialty.  Internal Medicine is by far the largest specialty in all of medicine and therefore will receive a large percentage of graduates from all categories of applicants.  The above data also designates the sample size for the following tables.

Specialty	Mean STEP 1
Radiology-Diagnostic	237
Anesthesiology	234
Surgery-General	227
Emergency Medicine	225
Pathology	224
PM&R	223
Internal Medicine	221
OBGYN	221
Average	217
Neurology	216
Pediatrics	216
Family Medicine	206
Psychiatry	205

Specialty	Mean STEP 2
Radiology-Diagnostic	241
Anesthesiology	239
Emergency Medicine	235
Surgery-General	234
OBGYN	232
PM&R	231
Internal Medicine	228
Pathology	226
Average	224
Pediatrics	224
Neurology	222
Family Medicine	213
Psychiatry	211

Source:  Charting Outcomes in the Match, International Medical Graduates

The two tables above list the mean USMLE STEP 1 and STEP 2 CK scores for US IMGs who matched into their specialties in 2013.  The average scores for those who matched were 217 and 224, respectively.  Radiology, Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, and General Surgery applicants who matched had the highest average scores.  Tomorrow we will discuss USMLE scores for non-US IMG applicants.