rising step 1 average

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some fourth years have recently told me that this year some derm programs wouldn't even interview applicants who have below a 260.. is this true?? a 250 won't even cut it anymore?

Originally Posted by exeunt

some fourth years have recently told me that this year some derm programs wouldn't even interview applicants who have below a 260.. is this true?? a 250 won't even cut it anymore?

No most interviewees had something between a 240-260

You know, I understand that derm is competitive and has one of the highest board averages but I know a lot of people who have matched with scores of 230-240. I think fields like plastics, ENT, ortho, and rads have more of an emphasis on ridiculously high board scores than fields like derm.

Originally Posted by sawtella

You know, I understand that derm is competitive and has one of the highest board averages but I know a lot of people who have matched with scores of 230-240. I think fields like plastics, ENT, ortho, and rads have more of an emphasis on ridiculously high board scores than fields like derm.

I will have to respectfully disagree... Derm is all about numbers and I do know people top of the class, high honors, 230's-250's that didn't match in Derm.

-R

Originally Posted by sawtella

You know, I understand that derm is competitive and has one of the highest board averages but I know a lot of people who have matched with scores of 230-240. I think fields like plastics, ENT, ortho, and rads have more of an emphasis on ridiculously high board scores than fields like derm.

According to page 13 of https://www.aamc.org/students/downlo...comes.pdf, the average score of matched applicants for the following specialities last year was:

plastics: ~251
derm: ~244
ENT: ~242
RadOnc: ~241
Rads: ~241

Per page 16 of the same application, RadOnc had the highest mean number of research experiences/applicant for matched applicants (8.3), followed by plastic surgery (8.1), and then dermatology (7.4).


Per page 19 of the same publication, dermatology had the highest percentage of matched applicants who were members of AOA (51%), followed by plastic surgery (46%), ENT (42%), and then RadOnc (31%).

EDIT: I looked at the actual #s listed in each of the subsections. The average scores are lower than what they appear to be based upon the charts (i.e. Derm's average score for matched applicants was actually 244, and plastics had a mean score of 249. However, the general trends still hold true.).

wow! now those are some evidence-based comments. I feel like evidence based comments like this have no business on SDN!

just jokin :-)

There's no question that people who match into derm have some of the highest board scores. But the purpose of my earlier post was to show that you do not need ridiculously high board scores to match derm. A solid board score (230-240) with great extracurriculars will give you a good shot of matching. I know for a fact that everyone who has matched into derm from my school within the last 2 years did NOT have a step I score >245 (our school nominates junior and senior AOA almost strictly on board scores so it's easy to figure out based on AOA status). Furthermore, two of the co-applicants in my current class are not AOA and therefore did not have out-of-this-world board scores but still managed double digit interviews and will most likely match. They did, however, have solid research and great LORs. All this to say, derm is not all about numbers. If you have a solid score and a well rounded application, you'll have a great shot at matching.

Originally Posted by sawtella

There's no question that people who match into derm have some of the highest board scores. But the purpose of my earlier post was to show that you do not need ridiculously high board scores to match derm. A solid board score (230-240) with great extracurriculars will give you a good shot of matching. I know for a fact that everyone who has matched into derm from my school within the last 2 years did NOT have a step I score >245 (our school nominates junior and senior AOA almost strictly on board scores so it's easy to figure out based on AOA status). Furthermore, two of the co-applicants in my current class are not AOA and therefore did not have out-of-this-world board scores but still managed double digit interviews and will most likely match. They did, however, have solid research and great LORs. All this to say, derm is not all about numbers. If you have a solid score and a well rounded application, you'll have a great shot at matching.

Agreed

Originally Posted by sawtella

There's no question that people who match into derm have some of the highest board scores. But the purpose of my earlier post was to show that you do not need ridiculously high board scores to match derm. A solid board score (230-240) with great extracurriculars will give you a good shot of matching. I know for a fact that everyone who has matched into derm from my school within the last 2 years did NOT have a step I score >245 (our school nominates junior and senior AOA almost strictly on board scores so it's easy to figure out based on AOA status). Furthermore, two of the co-applicants in my current class are not AOA and therefore did not have out-of-this-world board scores but still managed double digit interviews and will most likely match. They did, however, have solid research and great LORs. All this to say, derm is not all about numbers. If you have a solid score and a well rounded application, you'll have a great shot at matching.

I think it's less competitive this year, as we've seen more people w/ lower board scores applying. That's just my sense.

Originally Posted by pupster

I think it's less competitive this year, as we've seen more people w/ lower board scores applying. That's just my sense.

How do you figure? I sincerely hope so but I feel like less competitive is still pretty damn competitive haha.

Originally Posted by vicinihil

How do you figure? I sincerely hope so but I feel like less competitive is still pretty damn competitive haha.

For what it's worth, according to:

http://www.nrmp.org/pressrelease2012.pdf

"Specialty TrendsMatch results can be an indicator of career interests among U.S. medical school seniors. Among the notable trends this year:

• Dermatology, orthopaedic surgery, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, radiation oncology, thoracic surgery, and vascular surgery were the most competitive fields for applicants"

Updated info here: http://www.nrmp.org/data/datatables2012.pdf

I was chatting with a senior derm professor at the AAD and he told me they had 120 (I think) applicants with scores above 260 (out of the 600 or so total applicants) and they interviewed only 60 out of that 120. Just one spot of data, may not be representative.

Originally Posted by RapplixGmed

I summed the distributions of everybody who applied to the match in 2009 to give the distribution of scores and percentiles for step 1, which nbme unhelpfully did not provide for us in our score reports. Just giving a mean and sd is unconvincing for assuming normality so I didn't want to rely on that for calculating percentiles. The lower end of the curve is truncated but it should give you guys a rough idea based on real data. Keep in mind the percentiles are for people applying for the match and not for people taking the test.

Not sure if the number of people getting >260 has increased in the last 2-3 years, but even if it was 500 students, that seems like an awfully high percentage going into derm. Certainly possible but seems a bit extreme (Seems like 31 >260 matched in 2011)...

And the average for matched students seems in the 245 range. If there are only around 300 spots and around half have >260, are there an equal number <240 matching as well?

As per actual screener at aad, some at least one schools set the bar at 260 and took all their selections as such. Only one school, but it happens! Moral of the story, just do your best. Every little bit counts