Medical Education US

i am a medical graduate from india. i have a keen desire to do my residency in psychiatry.however, i want to firstdo a master's in the neurobiology of stress or behavioural neuroscience(MS)
due to the difference of academic schedules of the two countries i stand to lose a year. so instead, i want to do a two yr MS and then start my residency.
this, according to me will also improve my CV as i feel that recommendation letters of US professors are taken to be more uniform and genuine and i stand to get into a better program.
additionally it will fulfil a long term wish, to resarch on STRESS.
please guide me about my plan with words of advice.and how should i go about it.
regards.

Seems to be a well thought out plan for a few reasons. First of all - even with doing the MS program, I am thinking that it remains difficult for international medical grads to match in US programs. However, if you are doing a masters program that is something that interests you - you really haven't lost anything by taking the time to pursue that program.

Additionally, I agree that doing some work in the US would be a help to you. The letters from US professors would be somewhat more helpful - although I think that the letters from doing clinical rotations are the most important. How you work in a lab doesn't really tell a residency program how you would perform on clinical rotations. I'm not sure how you get around this - perhaps there are ways to do externship clinical rotations of some type.

Also, if the person you are doing research with is on faculty in the psychiatry department, it may give you an "in" in getting a direct recommendation to their program.

Just some thoughts, but again, this is a little out of my area of expertise.

thank you dr Admin for your prompt attention.

i think i've seen you on studentdoctornet quite often!!

yes i agree with your point that clinical rotations experience and related recos are more valuable.

i understand that we, as img's, are not allowed to touch patients during observerships, but tell me, after i clear mystep 1,2 and CSA and get ECFMG certification, then suppose i can do effetive clinical rotations.. right?

and am i right when i say that during my two yrs of master's i will be able to take out time to do some externship.(what will this thing be called?.. observership,externship,working under a private or institution based physician...)

and are clinical research masters more compettive?could you give me some leads on them. i hve told ou my chief area of interest...
"the way the brain responds to stress, the interplay of neurotransmitters, and current progress in this area along with integration of alternative medicine (ayurveda,accupressure,puncture)"....

this more or less sums it up...


over to you sir.

I wish I could help you some more, but unfortunately, this is all well out of my area of expertise at this time. I don't know what credentials would be required for you to see patients as a medical student would. If anyone else has any insight on this - I'd greatly appreciate some follow-up information in this thread.

I'd be fairly certain that you could do an "observership" where you would shadow a clinical team / physician. You'd be able to participate in the discussions. I'm not sure what is involved for you to be able to personally interview patients as well as conduct physical exams.

I also don't really know how competitive the different masters level research programs are.

If I find anything out - I'll be sure to post it here though.

thanks anyways, it was heartening to get prompt replies.will be looking fwd to any further input.
regards.
pramit