Does honors/high pass designation on rotations really matter as much as where you fall on the MSPE histogram?

[psyspy]

I feel like the histogram gives a more accurate assessment because honors/high pass percentage for each rotation and each school can vary

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[GoSpursGo]

They are both important. The MSPE usually outlines how many students get each grade on each rotation

 

[jstwannagraduaaate!!!]

If you're a PD reviewing 1k applications, are you going to look at everyone's histogram or are you going to look at their letter grade first to stratify?

 

[cj_cregg]

Agree with above - both are important and provide additional context/info for the other. The histogram on pretty much every MSPE I have seen is right next to the individual student's grade/evals for each clerkship or course, so we see them both basically at the same time. If you got an honors on the rotation but 80% of your class got honors, I don't care quite as much. If 5% of your class got honors, it's a boost for you. Similarly, if you just passed but 80% of your class honors, that might hurt you somewhat. If almost everybody in your class "just passed," I'm not too concerned.

 

[Babble Heap]

Descriptors for clinical performance change from institution to institution. An honors from one school can mean substantially less than an honors from another. Ivy League schools, in particular, tend to game the system by using descriptors that all sound exceptional, even for students who are actually demonstrating marginal performance within the context of their peers. Personally, I always review the histogram to be sure that potential interviewees fall in the top descriptor for rotations of interest, regardless of the actual words attached to that position.

 

[workaholic007]

how many % of people are expected to get honors for a course on average?

For my school is seems like its 40% (low tier MD), and i got 5/7 honors. Comments are minimal due to structure of school. Not sure what to think

 

[workaholic007]

Whats considered competitive for academic programs? if 40% of people get honors, how many honors is considered good? Would you say clinical grades matter as much as step scores now

 

[workaholic007]

I don't think I can answer these for my program yet let alone generally, curious to see how our first cycle goes with no step 1 scores lol. I'm FM so a bit of a different animal in terms of what we look for in an applicant as well.

Fair enough. thank you for the help