Last Friday, I knew that I have matched to the Internal Medicine residency program at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in New York. A program that my wife Setana Idriss and I have chosen as our top rank and we both matched into it as a couple.
All praise goes to ALLAH for making this dream come true.
In this post, I will share my experience and the steps that I have taken on this journey. I will break it down in bullet points by dates to make it easier to follow the story.
-Disclaimer:
*This could be the longest post you’ve ever read in your life!
*I have attached my personal statement that I have used in my application. DO NOT COPY-PASTE any part of it and use it in your application as it might cause YOU a problem.
Here we go:
-April 2010, I graduated Medical School from Al-Neelain University.
-Dec. 2011, finished my internship in Sudan. By that time I was not able to afford to go to the UK “although I have already passed my Royal College Exams by this time”. I was ready to leave Sudan by any means and was just waiting for any opportunity.
-Oct. 2012, moved to Libya to work as a GP in an ER. Started gaining confidence and becoming more and more able to deal with critically ill and injured patients.
-Aug. 2013, proposed and got married “3aggid” to Um Julie. Here, I started thinking about moving to a more family-oriented country.
-Dec. 2013, moved to KSA. Worked in Internal Medicine/ICU. Great hospital, great training, and a great experience.
-Jan 2015, marriage ceremony and my wife joined me in KSA.
-Feb 2016, moved to Chicago with an exit visa from Saudi, burning all the bridges to go back. 2 weeks after I landed, I started working in a restaurant, gained a lot of “knife skills” and learned tons of recipes! Lol. I started doubting myself if I made the right decision. My wife was pregnant and the pressure was ONNN! I had to work a lot of hours to make just enough money to pay the bills.
-JUNE 6th 2016, my baby Julie was born. Here, my wife stepped up to rescue me. 2 weeks after her C-Section, she took on two jobs, one in research and one as a tutor in KAPLAN. She was done with her STEPs and she wanted to give me the chance to study. However, I still did a part-time job and I was taking care of Julie while her mom was gone so I did not study a single bit.
-Oct. 2016, I joined my wife in her research job. A job that pays 30$/hour made me seriously consider switching careers and continue in the medical research field especially that my wife had an unsuccessful match application that year and I was personally surrounded by negative people who kept on telling me that it is nearly impossible to match after 5 years of graduation.
-April 2017, with the support of my dear friend and mentor Huzaifa Salim, I took STEP 2 CS after 2 weeks of preparation only. The result came out in May and it felt really good to pass.
-August 2017, I started preparing for STEP II CK after a short vacation in Sudan. Took the exam in Dec. 2017 and the result came out in Jan. 2018, getting a very decent “above average” score has boosted my confidence to the sky but at the back of my head, I knew I have STEP 1 left and it is the hardest to prepare for.
-Feb 2018, I quit my job and so did my wife to go back to Sudan. My wife was hoping to match and come back in June for the residency and I was hoping to prepare for STEP 1 and come back to take the exam in June too. My wife did not match “again” and I came back in June alone, leaving my family behind.
-June 2018, took my STEP 1 and I passed it with a modest “slightly below average” score.
UNEMPLOYED AND HOMELESS, literally HOMELESS, I had to face this application season. … My friends Mohammed Abdulrahman Huzaifa Ahmed Salim Mohamed Mostafa Abubekr Abdel Hady Mohamed Gr Mohamed A-nh @mujtaba opened their homes for me and made me feel like a king, they would sleep on the floor so I could sleep on their beds. This whole thing would have been impossible to do if it wasn’t for them. I took a rental car and started driving it for Uber/Lyft, I made just enough money to rent a place and bring my wife and kid to join me again. With some loans and fundraisers from close family members and friends, I paid the application fees for me and my wife. I kept on driving throughout the season and up to date, I drove over 45,000 miles!
-Sep. 2018 I applied to 180 IM programs.
-In the second week of Oct. 2018, I received 5 interview invites, Boston University, Vassar Brothers, Advocate Masonic, Beaumont Dearborn, and Rochester General. I was thrilled and I was even more excited by the time I finished those 5, I have received 2 more, Kingsbrook and Hackensack.
-Jan 22, I was heading to the airport with my wife so we can both attend one of the 3 interviews we had in common. My flight was canceled 16 hours before my wife’s interview and 40 hours before mine because of a snowstorm. We drove for 14 hours in the storm with our baby in the back seat to make it just in time for the interviews and then we drove another 14 hours back. That’s how desperate we were to match together.
-Bottom line:
-Chase your dream regardless of how hard it might seem.
-Surround yourself with positive people to get a positive result.
-Be desperate and pushy.
-Ask for help if you need to but never STOP!
-Pray often.
All praise goes to ALLAH for making this dream come true.
In this post, I will share my experience and the steps that I have taken on this journey. I will break it down in bullet points by dates to make it easier to follow the story.
-Disclaimer:
*This could be the longest post you’ve ever read in your life!
*I have attached my personal statement that I have used in my application. DO NOT COPY-PASTE any part of it and use it in your application as it might cause YOU a problem.
Here we go:
-April 2010, I graduated Medical School from Al-Neelain University.
-Dec. 2011, finished my internship in Sudan. By that time I was not able to afford to go to the UK “although I have already passed my Royal College Exams by this time”. I was ready to leave Sudan by any means and was just waiting for any opportunity.
-Oct. 2012, moved to Libya to work as a GP in an ER. Started gaining confidence and becoming more and more able to deal with critically ill and injured patients.
-Aug. 2013, proposed and got married “3aggid” to Um Julie. Here, I started thinking about moving to a more family-oriented country.
-Dec. 2013, moved to KSA. Worked in Internal Medicine/ICU. Great hospital, great training, and a great experience.
-Jan 2015, marriage ceremony and my wife joined me in KSA.
-Feb 2016, moved to Chicago with an exit visa from Saudi, burning all the bridges to go back. 2 weeks after I landed, I started working in a restaurant, gained a lot of “knife skills” and learned tons of recipes! Lol. I started doubting myself if I made the right decision. My wife was pregnant and the pressure was ONNN! I had to work a lot of hours to make just enough money to pay the bills.
-JUNE 6th 2016, my baby Julie was born. Here, my wife stepped up to rescue me. 2 weeks after her C-Section, she took on two jobs, one in research and one as a tutor in KAPLAN. She was done with her STEPs and she wanted to give me the chance to study. However, I still did a part-time job and I was taking care of Julie while her mom was gone so I did not study a single bit.
-Oct. 2016, I joined my wife in her research job. A job that pays 30$/hour made me seriously consider switching careers and continue in the medical research field especially that my wife had an unsuccessful match application that year and I was personally surrounded by negative people who kept on telling me that it is nearly impossible to match after 5 years of graduation.
-April 2017, with the support of my dear friend and mentor Huzaifa Salim, I took STEP 2 CS after 2 weeks of preparation only. The result came out in May and it felt really good to pass.
-August 2017, I started preparing for STEP II CK after a short vacation in Sudan. Took the exam in Dec. 2017 and the result came out in Jan. 2018, getting a very decent “above average” score has boosted my confidence to the sky but at the back of my head, I knew I have STEP 1 left and it is the hardest to prepare for.
-Feb 2018, I quit my job and so did my wife to go back to Sudan. My wife was hoping to match and come back in June for the residency and I was hoping to prepare for STEP 1 and come back to take the exam in June too. My wife did not match “again” and I came back in June alone, leaving my family behind.
-June 2018, took my STEP 1 and I passed it with a modest “slightly below average” score.
UNEMPLOYED AND HOMELESS, literally HOMELESS, I had to face this application season. … My friends Mohammed Abdulrahman Huzaifa Ahmed Salim Mohamed Mostafa Abubekr Abdel Hady Mohamed Gr Mohamed A-nh @mujtaba opened their homes for me and made me feel like a king, they would sleep on the floor so I could sleep on their beds. This whole thing would have been impossible to do if it wasn’t for them. I took a rental car and started driving it for Uber/Lyft, I made just enough money to rent a place and bring my wife and kid to join me again. With some loans and fundraisers from close family members and friends, I paid the application fees for me and my wife. I kept on driving throughout the season and up to date, I drove over 45,000 miles!
-Sep. 2018 I applied to 180 IM programs.
-In the second week of Oct. 2018, I received 5 interview invites, Boston University, Vassar Brothers, Advocate Masonic, Beaumont Dearborn, and Rochester General. I was thrilled and I was even more excited by the time I finished those 5, I have received 2 more, Kingsbrook and Hackensack.
-Jan 22, I was heading to the airport with my wife so we can both attend one of the 3 interviews we had in common. My flight was canceled 16 hours before my wife’s interview and 40 hours before mine because of a snowstorm. We drove for 14 hours in the storm with our baby in the back seat to make it just in time for the interviews and then we drove another 14 hours back. That’s how desperate we were to match together.
-Bottom line:
-Chase your dream regardless of how hard it might seem.
-Surround yourself with positive people to get a positive result.
-Be desperate and pushy.
-Ask for help if you need to but never STOP!
-Pray often.
Below is my Personal Statement. READ ONLY!
I have never envisioned myself becoming a doctor. As a child, I was always fascinated by numbers and I initially aspired to be a mathematician. But in life, every life-changing decision is accompanied by a life-changing event. My plan had suddenly changed when, as a teenager in Baghdad, I saw my friend bleed to death from a piece of shrapnel from a nearby bomb blast that pierced his neck. Watching a human life violently but silently slip away showed me how helpless and fragile we really are, and I thought to myself; I want to understand the fragility of the human body. I made the decision to embark on a career path that would help me save lives. This was the event that pushed me into medicine.
I was born in Sudan, an underdeveloped country in East Africa. When I was three years old, my parents moved our family to Iraq in hopes of a better life. I have consistently been the top of my class, I really thought I had my life figured out and worries escaped my mind bit by bit. Unfortunately, this peace and prosperity were not meant to last. I was a senior in high school when my life suffered major derailment; the war broke out. Few months after the war started, we fled Baghdad to a refugee camp in the middle of the desert in Syria. I was seventeen years old when we lost everything and returned to Sudan. Luckily, whatever resilience I have developed facing those horrors has stayed within me, and today, 15 years later, that resilience is still pushing my boundaries to limits I am yet to discover.
I started working in construction while studying to gain a high school diploma. With a scholarship for academic excellence, I was accepted into medical school. I continued to work while in medical school and I am proud to say that I graduated among the top ten students in my class. Once again, I was at a crossroads: either continue my medical training in Sudan or aim higher and seek a brighter future for myself and my family. Poverty, lack of financial and professional reward in Sudan led me into moving to Libya, which ended up being far from stable. However, I have learned the importance of being vigilant and resourceful. I've also learned how to work under pressure, racial and tribal tensions. Situations like these intertwined with the passion to save lives and pushed me to manage resources in smart ways. I will never forget saving a nine-year-old child who had a gunshot to the chest. Transforming a nasogastric-tube into a chest-tube and making an underwater seal out of a saline bottle, I saved the child’s life and it made me realize the power I had, and it helped me understand the immense good I could do with it. I worked in Libya for a little over a year.
Soon after, I yearned for a place where I could practice modern medicine under the effect of international guidelines, protocols and clinical trial results. I moved to Saudi Arabia where I worked in an ICU of a highly equipped tertiary hospital for over two years. I learned a lot of interventional skills and dealt with numerous critically ill and injured patients. The physicians and staff of this hospital were incredibly adept and cultured a high-functioning and quick-paced environment where I thrived. While this experience was valuable to me, my biggest breakthrough came when I moved to the United States in 2016. A safe and stable country, at the cutting edge of medicine. Far from easy, the move took a toll on me. I moved here with a pregnant wife, quitting my job in Saudi, and to make ends meet, I had to take odd jobs at first, working in restaurants and pharmacies. I then caught a glimpse of my future by landing a job as a Clinical Research Coordinator in a research center in Chicago. To my surprise and deep content, I felt my life getting back on track. I was back in the medical field, exposed to cutting-edge therapies. Although I wasn't practicing in the doctor capacity, I dealt regularly with patients and I was back in the learning role. The Investigators would take extra time to explain to me the treatments and systems here in the United States. I took my board exams while working full-time and passed with flying colors, and now, here I am – one step away from making my dream a reality.
Despite the unspeakable tragedies I have witnessed and the struggles that I have suffered, I am proud of what I have managed to accomplish throughout my life. I'm proud of the man I have become, a man driven by resilience, perseverance, and the heightened sense of responsibility. My life experiences have polished my sense of duty, my appreciation, and respect for human life, and a firsthand understanding of people that go through unimaginable struggles in their lives. The life I lived has trained me to be a committed individual and that is witnessed by my commitment to each and every job I’ve held. I have learned to be fearless while still being a team player. I have dealt with a wide range of patients and circumstances and I understand the challenges that a physician must undergo on a daily basis. My versatility and experiences as a student and practitioner of medicine are valuable to any team. I have the ethics, knowledge, skills, attitude, and educational background you are looking for. My patience, along with my interpersonal skills makes me an ideal candidate. I can do justice to my profession as I know how to deal with patients. I am quick with judgments. I am detail-oriented and as per the requirement of the job, I can be sympathetic and communicate well with patients, their families, and my colleagues as well. I have no doubt that I will be an asset to your healthcare facility and I hope to prove that if given the opportunity. Thank you for your time and consideration
I was born in Sudan, an underdeveloped country in East Africa. When I was three years old, my parents moved our family to Iraq in hopes of a better life. I have consistently been the top of my class, I really thought I had my life figured out and worries escaped my mind bit by bit. Unfortunately, this peace and prosperity were not meant to last. I was a senior in high school when my life suffered major derailment; the war broke out. Few months after the war started, we fled Baghdad to a refugee camp in the middle of the desert in Syria. I was seventeen years old when we lost everything and returned to Sudan. Luckily, whatever resilience I have developed facing those horrors has stayed within me, and today, 15 years later, that resilience is still pushing my boundaries to limits I am yet to discover.
I started working in construction while studying to gain a high school diploma. With a scholarship for academic excellence, I was accepted into medical school. I continued to work while in medical school and I am proud to say that I graduated among the top ten students in my class. Once again, I was at a crossroads: either continue my medical training in Sudan or aim higher and seek a brighter future for myself and my family. Poverty, lack of financial and professional reward in Sudan led me into moving to Libya, which ended up being far from stable. However, I have learned the importance of being vigilant and resourceful. I've also learned how to work under pressure, racial and tribal tensions. Situations like these intertwined with the passion to save lives and pushed me to manage resources in smart ways. I will never forget saving a nine-year-old child who had a gunshot to the chest. Transforming a nasogastric-tube into a chest-tube and making an underwater seal out of a saline bottle, I saved the child’s life and it made me realize the power I had, and it helped me understand the immense good I could do with it. I worked in Libya for a little over a year.
Soon after, I yearned for a place where I could practice modern medicine under the effect of international guidelines, protocols and clinical trial results. I moved to Saudi Arabia where I worked in an ICU of a highly equipped tertiary hospital for over two years. I learned a lot of interventional skills and dealt with numerous critically ill and injured patients. The physicians and staff of this hospital were incredibly adept and cultured a high-functioning and quick-paced environment where I thrived. While this experience was valuable to me, my biggest breakthrough came when I moved to the United States in 2016. A safe and stable country, at the cutting edge of medicine. Far from easy, the move took a toll on me. I moved here with a pregnant wife, quitting my job in Saudi, and to make ends meet, I had to take odd jobs at first, working in restaurants and pharmacies. I then caught a glimpse of my future by landing a job as a Clinical Research Coordinator in a research center in Chicago. To my surprise and deep content, I felt my life getting back on track. I was back in the medical field, exposed to cutting-edge therapies. Although I wasn't practicing in the doctor capacity, I dealt regularly with patients and I was back in the learning role. The Investigators would take extra time to explain to me the treatments and systems here in the United States. I took my board exams while working full-time and passed with flying colors, and now, here I am – one step away from making my dream a reality.
Despite the unspeakable tragedies I have witnessed and the struggles that I have suffered, I am proud of what I have managed to accomplish throughout my life. I'm proud of the man I have become, a man driven by resilience, perseverance, and the heightened sense of responsibility. My life experiences have polished my sense of duty, my appreciation, and respect for human life, and a firsthand understanding of people that go through unimaginable struggles in their lives. The life I lived has trained me to be a committed individual and that is witnessed by my commitment to each and every job I’ve held. I have learned to be fearless while still being a team player. I have dealt with a wide range of patients and circumstances and I understand the challenges that a physician must undergo on a daily basis. My versatility and experiences as a student and practitioner of medicine are valuable to any team. I have the ethics, knowledge, skills, attitude, and educational background you are looking for. My patience, along with my interpersonal skills makes me an ideal candidate. I can do justice to my profession as I know how to deal with patients. I am quick with judgments. I am detail-oriented and as per the requirement of the job, I can be sympathetic and communicate well with patients, their families, and my colleagues as well. I have no doubt that I will be an asset to your healthcare facility and I hope to prove that if given the opportunity. Thank you for your time and consideration
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