Surgery is one of those specialties that medical students and graduates generally find appealing because of it's intrinsic interventional aspects . However because of this it is a naturally competitive specialty, and very hard for IMGs to get into. Generally you have to be competitive at a number of levels to match in most of the surgical specialties, including having excellent scores, almost native English fluency, great communication skills, previous research experience, previous hands on experience in the US and good connections. I have seen many IMGs fall in the "surgery residency trap" and spend many years trying to get into surgery only to notice 5 or 6 years later that they were following a mirage, even when they eventually match in surgery. It's better to know more about this specialty before you embark on this long trip. This video is just my personal opinion which I made after interviewing several IMG residents and attendings that did surgical residencies in the US, as well as IMG applicants that spend many years of their lives trying to match.
Below are some screenshots then the their is a link for the video (in Arabic)
M.Soliman
Video about surgery and it's fellowships by Mohamed Soliman
Video by Motaz Selim about surgical fellowships
Motaz did transplant and vascular surgery fellowships in the US
Building Connections from a surgical perspective by Ramy Shoela
Surgery resident in Chicago,IL
Nora Serag Eldin , who applied for Surgery during the match, and matched in Prelim surgery, then did anesthesia
Last Edit: Aug 1, 2014 12:48:49 GMT -5 by msoliman