Undergraduate to Medical School

It’s been a long and winding journey from Canadian undergraduate to practicing physician in the United States on an H1b visa to, hopefully, a United States citizen. There have been good times and bad times, and unexpected twists, but life is what happens to you when you’re making plans.

I was born and raised in Canada and attended the University of Western Ontario. With only seventeen medical schools in the country, competition was fierce. Like many other Canadians, I left the country to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. I applied to various foreign medical schools and, eventually, enrolled in St. George’s University – School of Medicine on the island of Grenada in the Caribbean.

I packed my bags and headed to the Grenada. In addition to the academic challenges of medical school, I adjusted to living in a third world country. Some loved the experience while others hated it. For me, it was an experience of a lifetime, and time of tremendous personal growth.

The competition for a residency position in the United States was intense as a double foreigner, a Canadian and an International Medical Graduate (IMG). I was quoted during my medical school clinical rotations a 33% chance of matching as an IMG. Although I did enter the match through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), I eventually accepted a prematch position at a program that historically took J1 visa holders but had not accepted a J1 visa holder for the past decade.