International Medical Graduates Residency Competitive Index

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) August 10, 2010 --

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International Medical Graduates Residency Competitive Index

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Two years after the creation of its patent pending beta version online program named Butterfly™. Advanced Colleges of America and AmeriClerkships Medical Society are now ready to subject this revolutionary program to a massive feasibility study utilizing hundreds of teaching attending physicians and former and current residency program admission committee members as well as chief residents from across the United States to objectively evaluate the Butterfly™ Online System. Once statistically significant results have been gathered, they will be analyzed and implemented in order to further refine Butterfly™ for future use.

The Need for Butterfly: In the past, International Medical Students and Graduates were in need of an objective way to assess their competitiveness when applying to U.S. medical residency programs.

Background: High USMLE scores and recent graduation dates are only 2 factors in assessing one’s competitiveness as an applicant. According to the American Academy of Medical Colleges, Residency Directors may utilize 29 or more factors when evaluating an applicant’s desirability for an interview. These factors are typically mirrored by the questions asked by IMGs seeking careers in medicine in the U.S. One can minimize uncertainties by using the same tools that admission committees use to evaluate IMG applicants. The first step is to rate one’s current probability of securing interviews by answering the questions asked in Butterfly. After analyzing the results, the second step is to improve one’s probability by taking the appropriate action indicated to improve any factor that can indeed be changed.

Important Factors and Questions: IMGs often wonder which factors are important in their application. They ask questions such as: Have I applied to enough programs? When do I apply? When should I take Step 3? Why don’t high USMLE scorers always secure interviews? What is the value to U.S. Residency Directors of my foreign letters of recommendation? What are the criteria used by residency admission committees when choosing to grant or deny interviews to IMG applicants? How does my application compare to that of other IMGs? It took me 4 attempts to pass Step 1—does that matter?

Proposed Solution: It is extremely helpful to use an objective, unbiased, and free tool that provides instant feedback about the applicant’s overall competitiveness expressed as a statistical probability of securing residency interviews.

Actual Solution: This patent pending tool, developed by AmeriClerkships Medical Society, is already available to the public at no cost. It is called Butterfly™ : The Medical Residency Applicant’s Competitive Index Calculator.

Functionality: Butterfly provides an International Medical Graduate his/her Competitive Index and allows flexibility with career path modifications, such as a change in specialty or residency location, or perhaps the need to consider a different career within the healthcare industry. Butterfly™ may also be used to gather other relative indices, such as Interview Probability Percentage (IP%).

Instructions for Use:

* Online Users:
* Create a FREE Profile on Butterfly™.
* Answer the questionnaire; click on Save, then Next to see the next question. If a question does not apply to you, simply click on Save, then Next.
* Monitor the changing pattern of your overall score by implementing slight variations over time, such as passing a Step with multiple attempts. Your overall score is your “Competitive Index” where the Average Applicant = 47.6%, Above Average = 69.8%, and Competitive Applicant = 98.2%.

* Email your results to an Advanced Colleges of America Admission Advisor for a detailed analysis of your Butterfly™ Competitive Index score and print your results for future reference.
* In-person Users (using Microsoft Excel®):
* Read column 1: These are the factors that are the same criteria used most often by residency programs in order to select an applicant for interview.
* Select the categories and associated descriptors in columns 2, 3, or 4 that apply to you: These are the average values typically associated with each criterion and its sub-components. Answer the questions in each row in column 6.

* Begin to establish your own Residency Competitive Index Score before meeting with an AmeriClerkships strategist: Enter the number of points that correspond to the category which applies to you (for example: Passing USMLE Step 1 with a score of 86 = 15 points) in column 7.If you passed it on the 3rd attempt, you subtract 3 points (type “-3”).
* Email your results to an Advanced Colleges of America Admission Advisor for a detailed analysis of your Butterfly™ Competitive Index score and print your results for future reference.
* Recalculate your Residency Applicant Competitive Index after meeting with your Admission Advisor. This is the same as #3 and 4, but now is estimated as though you have participated in the suggested hands-on clinical experience and are now an Alumni of Advanced Colleges or AmeriClerkships.

Interpretation of Butterfly Results:The resulting IMG Residency Applicant Competitive Index Score (Butterfly™) will enable the applicant to objectively compare him/herself to other medical residency applicants utilizing a non-biased tool. Butterfly™ can also be used to estimate the probability of obtaining residency interviews and can suggest whether one should modify one’s approach. This is called the Interview Probability Percentage, indicating the % of obtaining ONE interview per 10 same-specialty programs that an IMG applies to (FM, IM, PEDS), if applied to no later than September 15th of each regular Match season. As such, a calculated Index Score of 60% by Applicant A can be interpreted as follows:

1. Applicant A is in the top 40% of the applicant pool; and
2. Applicant A has an Interview Probability Percentage of 60%, meaning that he/she has a 60% chance of expecting 1 interview from 10 programs that to which he/she applies. Thus, in order to secure 5 interviews, Applicant A must apply to at least 90 same-specialty primary care programs (Internal Medicine, Family Medicine or Pediatrics) no later than the 15th of September of the year preceding the Match.

Points of Discussion and Disclaimers: Butterfly is designed to provide the means by which International Medical Students and Graduates may gauge their competitiveness as applicants to U.S. residency programs and compare their assessment to that of prospective residency directors.

Please note that Butterfly:

1. Is not yet customizable, meaning that residency programs do not have the ability to modify each individual factor’s score due to variability among different programs’ standards and criteria.
2. Must only be used as a tool to gauge your competitiveness; not as an absolute predictor of how many and to which programs one should apply.
3. Is for informational purposes only.

4. Is based on evidence collected on residency applications during an 8-year span which is subject to individual variation over time. Although AmeriClerkships took great care in researching all relative data and consulted with hundreds of residency program associates (affiliated attendings, residents, chief residents, coordinators, directors, community attendings, etc.), the values expressed for each line-item (residency director selection criterion/factor) correspond to what was observed in the medical residency application world between the years of 2001 and 2009. Of course, such factors change from program to program and year to year, especially from one specialty to the next. Other uncontrollable factors pertain to the characteristics of the entire body of applicants during any given year and the total number of applicants applying to any particular program or specialty in any given year.
5. Is now undergoing a large scale feasibility study, the results of which are still pending.



Please contact an Admission Advisor to learn how to utilize Butterfly, or to enroll in Advanced Colleges of America.

More information can be found online at http://www.advancedcolleges.us

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