Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Yes. Liability insurance is required for any externship in the United States, and IMGPrep provides a complete policy for every enrolled client. You receive the insurance company name, a direct contact, and an individualized copy of the policy. Coverage can begin in as little as two weeks from enrollment.

Each applicant must provide:

• Immunization records showing current inoculations for Hepatitis B, MMR, and Tetanus.
• Proof of a negative PPD within the previous 12 months. If the skin test is positive, proof of a negative chest X-ray reading completed in the U.S. within the past 12 months.
• A completed criminal background check, obtained online or through your local police department.

IMGPrep works exclusively with attending physicians who provide hands-on experience for medical graduates. All attendings are affiliated with a U.S. medical school, teaching hospital, or residency program — the credential that makes their letter of recommendation count toward your application.

Yes. IMGPrep will provide contact information for previous clients who have participated in our program. We encourage you to ask questions before enrolling.

Yes. IMGPrep only places Externs into hands-on rotations that satisfy the USCE component of the SUVY framework and generate the quality letter of recommendation residency programs expect during their selective screening review.

Your IMGPrep program list identifies the programs where you are most competitive within your chosen specialties — meaning programs where your SUVY profile (Scores, USCE, Visa, Year of Graduation) aligns with what the program actually accepts. This prevents wasted time and ERAS fees on programs that will filter you out at the binary stage of the Match Funnel.

The list also includes our Smart Filter, which cross-checks your individual statistics against thousands of programs in our database, and lets you email programs directly to follow up on specific questions.

Each program entry includes the four structural SUVY filters:

• Score requirements (USMLE Step 1 P/F status, Step 2 CK)
• Visa sponsorship status (J-1, H-1B, permanent resident, none)
• Year of Graduation cutoff (required vs. preferred)
• U.S. Clinical Experience requirements (required vs. preferred)

Comprehensive lists also include:

• Current resident roster and the medical schools they attended
• Percentage of IMGs in the program, with the breakdown between Caribbean and non-Caribbean graduates
• Whether any current residents attended your medical school or graduated from a school in your home country
• Detailed USCE acceptance criteria and a filter for "requires" vs. "prefers"
• Year of Graduation analysis distinguishing hard cutoffs from preferences — critical for non-recent graduates
• An updated comment section with a synopsis of each program

ERAS charges a fee for every program you apply to. The more programs per specialty, the more expensive each additional application becomes.

Worked examples.

• 30 Pediatrics programs = 30 × $11 = $330
• 25 Internal Medicine + 15 Family Medicine = (25 × $11) + (15 × $11) = $440
• 40 Psychiatry programs = (30 × $11) + (10 × $30) = $630
• 100 Internal Medicine + 50 Family Medicine = $2,430 + $930 = $3,360

Note for 2026 applicants — Emergency Medicine and OB-GYN have moved off ERAS to ResidencyCAS, which uses its own (lower) fee structure. If you are applying to either specialty, the fees above do not apply to those programs.

Applying to 100 IM programs plus 50 FM programs alone runs $3,360 in ERAS fees — before transcripts, before the NRMP fee, before any travel. The strategic answer is not "apply to more," it is "apply to the right ones." A customized list is built to do exactly that.

You can — but the math is unforgiving. There are more than 550 Internal Medicine and 685 Family Medicine residency programs in the U.S. alone. Researching each program's published SUVY filters, USCE preferences, IMG percentage, and year-of-graduation cutoffs takes hundreds of hours and still leaves gaps where programs publish nothing.

IMGPrep researches and updates more than 3,500 programs across nearly 40 specialties every cycle, producing the most complete IMG-focused database available. Your time is better spent on the qualitative review stage — personalizing applications and preparing for interviews — where the goodness-of-fit case is actually decided.

IMGPrep covers nearly 40 specialties. Our proprietary database has been refined and updated continuously since 2005, and it remains the most extensive IMG-focused residency program search engine available.

Each program list is customized to your individual qualifications, so no changes can be made after payment and there are no refunds or cancellations once the list is generated. Please verify that all submitted information is accurate before purchasing.

If you have questions or concerns before ordering, contact us directly — a team member will walk you through what your list will include for your specific profile.

As soon as your draft is uploaded, you are assigned a writer who handles all of your personal statements through completion. Shortly after accepting your draft, the writer emails you to clarify or expand on specific sections. You provide that material, the writer incorporates it and returns a revised draft, you suggest final changes, and the writer completes a polish pass before submission.

Yes. We recommend a separate personal statement tailored to each specialty. Each should speak to your specific interest in that field and the qualifications that make you a credible candidate for it. A single generic statement that hedges between two specialties signals weak commitment to both during holistic review.

No. Ghostwriting would be unethical and ultimately weaken your application — programs read thousands of statements and detect the ones written by someone other than the applicant. Nobody knows your story better than you, and an authentic statement is what allows the committee to evaluate your fit.

We do not edit drafts shorter than 650 words. We can only work with the material you provide, so the more honestly and completely you describe your experiences and motivations, the more effective the editing pass will be.

Your writer works closely with you to develop and refine your statement and provides two revision passes.

Ideally, one page. Under specific circumstances a longer statement is appropriate, but the personal statement should never exceed two pages — readers are time-constrained, and a tight statement signals editorial discipline.

We strongly recommend not writing your personal statement in one sitting. Take time to think through what you want to say. Write a draft, step away, and return with fresh eyes. You will almost always remember something worth including the second or third time through. Continue until you have a draft you are satisfied with, then submit it to your writer.

Ideally five to seven days to do the work properly across all revision passes. A rush option is available that can be completed in as little as three days when timing is tight.

Yes. Interview Prep is delivered live and one-on-one over standard video conferencing software. As long as you have an internet connection, you can participate from anywhere. This is essential rather than incidental: how you present yourself on camera — body language, pacing, eye contact — matters as much as the content of your answers, and a live video format is the only way to coach it.

No. Interview Prep is a process that cannot be compressed into a single day. Sessions are structured in one-hour blocks across a longer period so we can assess your performance, give feedback, and then let you practice and incorporate it before the next session. Between sessions you also work through assigned readings and homework. The cadence is what produces measurable improvement.

Yes. We understand most applicants are working clinical or other schedules during the day and will arrange session times that fit your availability, including evenings.

No two applicants are the same, and our philosophy is one-on-one coaching so your answers stay specific to your experience and your application. In rare cases where a group session would clearly benefit a particular applicant, we may arrange one.

Schedule your first session as soon as you have decided on a specialty and know which program you will be interviewing with. Our prep goes beyond general interview questions — we review the profile and mission statement of each specific program where you have an interview and tailor that session to it, while training you in techniques that transfer to every interview that follows.

After you complete Interview Preparation, you become eligible for our referral program. For every applicant you refer who signs up for services, you receive a credit equal to the cost of one hour of Medical Residency Interview Prep.