Frequently asked questions

Not only, though Caribbean students are the core of it. The coaching is built for the IMG route more broadly, which takes in students at international medical schools outside the Caribbean and applicants heading for the Canadian CaRMS match as well as the NRMP. Those paths share a curriculum rhythm, a clinical timeline, and a reality on a US or Canadian residency program’s desk that coaching built for US MD students can miss. Nothing here is watered down for a general audience. The Caribbean emphasis is not marketing either. Dr. Mickey is a Saba University graduate and valedictorian who matched into pediatrics at the University of Iowa, went on to a pediatric cardiology fellowship at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory, and serves as a Chief Medical Officer. What you get here is guidance from someone who has walked the IMG path himself, not someone estimating it from the outside.

USMLE tutoring teaches you content. Dr. Mickey teaches you strategy, context, and what to do with the content once you have it. A tutor will explain why aldosterone rises in heart failure. A coach will tell you which question types are draining your time, when to schedule your exam given your Caribbean clinical calendar, how to interpret the score you get, and what it means for the specialties you are still targeting. The two work together, and plenty of students need both. If the content itself is the problem, a good tutor is the right first spend. If your preparation is sound but the plan around it is not, that is where coaching earns its place.

It is not content tutoring, so if what you need is someone to teach you renal physiology, a subject tutor is the better spend. It is not an admissions agency and we do not place students into schools or programs. It is not legal or immigration advice, and visa questions that need a lawyer get sent to one. It is not therapy or medical care, and no physician-patient relationship is created by coaching. Being clear about the edges is part of the job. Anything outside them, we will tell you and point you somewhere better.

No, and you should be skeptical of anyone who says otherwise. The Match depends on your scores, your school, your specialty, your visa status, your interviews and the shape of a given cycle, and no coach controls those. What coaching does is remove the avoidable losses: the mistimed exam, the personal statement that argues the wrong case, the specialty list built on hope instead of evidence, the red flag handled badly. We will give you an honest read of where you stand, including when the honest read is not what you were hoping for.

Virtually. Sessions are held over secure video, scheduled around Caribbean, US, and Canadian time zones, and recorded with your permission so you can review them later. Occasional in-person meetings are available around major conferences and rotation hubs, but the program is built to work from wherever your training takes you.

Yes, particularly if you are weighing fellowship applications, navigating a probationary evaluation, rebuilding after a transfer, or planning the transition to attending. Caribbean graduates carry the IMG signal into residency and into fellowship selection, and the playbook that got you through the match is not the one that gets you into a competitive fellowship. Dr. Mickey has coached residents at every stage of that transition.

The Match Package is $6,900, the Rescue Package is $8,900, and Day 1 to PGY-1 Premium is $8,500 per year or $29,500 paid in full. If your situation does not fit one of the three, a Custom Package is scoped and priced on your free call; custom engagements typically begin around $4,500, and you receive a written, itemized quote before you commit. Installment plans are available on every package.

No coach can guarantee a match, and you should walk away from anyone who says otherwise. Match Package clients who complete the full program and go unmatched receive the Rescue post-mortem diagnostic at no charge and a $1,500 credit toward the Rescue rebuild. Premium clients have rescue support included.

The Match Package works with the application you already have. Premium builds that application over four years, before your scores, grades, and letters are locked. The extra investment buys the years in which the inputs can still change.

You do not have to decide first. The free call is a diagnostic. Dr. Mickey reads your scores, timeline, and goals, then tells you which one or two tracks actually fit. You never buy a track you do not need. Published prices mean you know the investment before you ever book the call.

Yes, and most students do. A typical engagement blends two or three tracks, and you can add or upgrade one at any point as your cycle unfolds.

Most engagements run six to eighteen months, depending on where you enter the program and what you are working toward. A pre-clinical Caribbean student building a Step 1 plan looks different from an MS4 preparing for interview season, and both look different from a re-applicant rebuilding after an unmatched cycle. The free consultation is where we scope the realistic timeline for your situation before either of us commits.

Match support is a suite of services, not a single deliverable. It engages at different stages: IMG Career Strategy sets the roadmap, Personal Statement and Application Narrative engineers your ERAS, Residency Interview Coaching prepares you for the interview season that decides the outcome, and Re-Applicant and Rescue Coaching is there if a cycle needs rebuilding. Most clients use two or three of these in combination, typically starting six to twelve months before ERAS opens. The free strategy call is where we scope which ones fit your situation.

Yes. Personal Statement and Application Narrative is one of our six core services, and it is where most of our clients see the largest visible improvement. The approach is narrative coaching, not templates. We build your ERAS around the story a program committee will actually use to decide on you, and gaps, attempts, and time off are addressed directly rather than hidden.

The first call is diagnostic, not promotional. We read your ERAS, your personal statement, your letters, your interview record, and your match trail, and we give you an honest answer about what signaled weak and what is recoverable. From there we rebuild: gap-year plan, specialty-fit evaluation, re-submission strategy, and a new narrative for this cycle. Reapplying without that diagnosis is the single biggest reason IMGs go unmatched twice. It is not too late, but it is later than it was, so start early.

Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3. Each is scoped differently. Step 1 coaching is diagnostic and calendar-driven; Caribbean basic-science schedules do not align cleanly with US MD study timelines, and your plan has to reflect that. Step 2 CK is the score residency programs weigh most heavily in the match era, so our approach is built around the clerkship year you are taking it in. Step 3 coaching focuses on timing: when to sit, when to report, and how the score fits inside your ERAS narrative.

Because Step 1 became pass or fail, and the numeric signal programs used to sort applicants moved to Step 2 CK. For a Caribbean student that shifts the whole calendar. The exam that now carries the most weight sits in the middle of your clinical years, often while you are rotating, sometimes across sites and time zones. Preparing for it the way you prepared for Step 1 is a common and expensive mistake. Where your Step 2 CK sits in your clinical calendar is one of the first things we look at.

No, but it changes the strategy, and pretending otherwise wastes your cycle. An attempt is visible, permanent, and read in context, so the work is making the context favorable: what changed afterwards, what the retake shows, and how the rest of the application carries the argument. Red flags handled honestly consistently beat red flags handled badly. What does not work is hoping nobody looks, or applying to the same specialty list you had before the attempt.

Yes. CaRMS has different timelines, different evaluation weights, and a different structural reality for IMGs than the NRMP, and Dr. Mickey has coached Canadian applicants through both paths. If you are Canadian-bound, the free strategy call will help you make the decision most Canadian IMGs need to make early: whether to apply US, Canada, or both, and in what order.

It is one of the most consequential decisions a Canadian IMG makes, and it has to be made early because the two systems have different exams, different timelines and different documentation. Applying to both is possible and often sensible, but doing it well means sequencing the requirements rather than discovering them. The Playbook lays out how the two routes run alongside each other, and the free call is where we work out which order makes sense for you. Get the Playbook.

Dr. Mickey, personally. He is a Saba University graduate and valedictorian, board certified in Pediatrics and in Clinical Informatics, Stanford Applied Compassion Coach certified, and a serving Chief Medical Officer. He has coached 500+ students. There is no account manager and no junior coach delivering the sessions. That is also why capacity is limited and why the calendar sometimes runs a few weeks out.

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Book the free 20-minute call. Reading a page can tell you how the Caribbean route works in general, but it cannot tell you whether your Step 2 CK timing is wrong, whether your specialty list is realistic, or what to do about the attempt on your transcript. That takes someone reading your actual case. There is no payment and no obligation, and if we are not the right fit for you we will say so on the call.