Honored every rotation except for IM... - Applying IM next year

[HappiSquirrel]

As the title stated, I have honored every rotation in my third year except for my very last one (Internal Medicine). Only Passed. Does this look bad if I am applying for internal medicine? Does anyone have a similar experience?

Honestly, if you are a PD, what would you think if you saw a transcript like that?

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[WedgeDawg]

I'm going to move this to the regular medical students forum for you. It's more appropriate there and you'll get more people looking at it.

 

[3characterslong]

I'm going to move this to the regular medical students forum for you. It's more appropriate there and you'll get more people looking at it.

Do you really want more people to look at this post?

 

[Microshaft]

YOLO

 

[MerYangBey]

Why do you wanna apply to the one specialty that didn’t give you honors ?
I would be bitter if I were you.

 

[ParallelLines]

Why do you wanna apply to the one specialty that didn’t give you honors ?
I would be bitter if I were you.

Maybe bc his desire to do the specialty extends beyond the subjective grading of a random attending/preceptor

 

[Tenk]

I mean obviously it’s going to hurt. It won’t kill you but it will hurt. Nothing you can do about it though. If you are asked about it just don’t make excuses and say you were dissapointed with the score but know you can do better or some other positive stuff. Whatever you do don’t start blaming some preceptor or some unfair test or other crap. That makes you look immature. Good luck.

 

[IntheClouds4ever]

I’ve honored every rotation so far, except for FM.. I’m applying FM and give zero ***ks.

#yolo

 

[deleted938090]

Replace second line with title and voila

 

[MerYangBey]

Maybe bc his desire to do the specialty extends beyond the subjective grading of a random attending/preceptor

Oh wow how enlightening. I was clearly very serious

 

[CharlieBillings]

.

 

[Dwan]

People in here aren't taking OP seriously but isn't this a serious concern?

Aren't you supposed to honor your intended field? And getting only a pass is a red flag?

Considering only 10-15% get honors at my school, that's a ton of people with "red flags". Most of us seem to have done fine.

 

[TypeADissection]

Do you really want more people to look at this post?

Sheeit son. You can't go kicking a man while he's down like that. Dayum.

 

[jhamaican]

the only conceivable way this matters is if you are gunning for a high tier chairman type position in IM or an IM sub specialty.

In the above case, the higher up the ivory castle of medicine you can match into for residency, the better your prospects. And a lot of these top places care about IM honors, AOA etc...

Otherwise, you will match into a good IM program and become the interventional cardiologist or whatever you always dreamed of.

 

[EleanorAbernathyMD]

As the title stated, I have honored every rotation in my third year except for my very last one (Internal Medicine). Only Passed. Does this look bad if I am applying for internal medicine? Does anyone have a similar experience?

Honestly, if you are a PD, what would you think if you saw a transcript like that?

I'm just chiming in to let you know you won't be the only one in this boat next year. Same thing happened to me, although it was my first rotation and we take a very silly in house test rather than a shelf. As long as you have strong evals and letters without other red flags, I am sure you'll do fine.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

It totally depends. At some schools, 10% get Honors and 90% get pass. At others, 90% get Honors and 10% get pass. It will depend on why your grade was low - good clinical evals + poor shelf score is different from the opposite. Bottom line is that this certainly can't help, but it's unlikely to be the end of your career. Too many unknowns to be more specific than that.

 

[mostlywater]

I’ve honored every rotation so far, except for FM.. I’m applying FM and give zero ***ks.

#yolo

I honors'd every rotation except FM, and applied FM this year! It came up in a couple of interviews, but mostly because my interviewers thought it was funny and would tease me about it since otherwise I am a strong applicant with a history of commitment to FM. Rural FM folks probably have a different perspective on these things than academic IM folks, though.

 

[IntheClouds4ever]

I honors'd every rotation except FM, and applied FM this year! It came up in a couple of interviews, but mostly because my interviewers thought it was funny and would tease me about it since otherwise I am a strong applicant with a history of commitment to FM. Rural FM folks probably have a different perspective on these things than academic IM folks, though.

****ing COMAT was sooo broad with no specific qbank designated questions... I’m still a bit salty over it because of pride. Oh well. Academic IM might turn their nose up or furrow their brow, but I don’t think it’ll stop op from getting in to a decent program assuming the rest of the app is worthy.

 

[Quantal Reasoning]

Only a student, but I humbly say that it'll be seen as a fluke. I think PDs are aware of subjectivity, and seeing the otherwise perfect track-record will give pause.

 

[7331poas]

I honors'd every rotation except FM, and applied FM this year! It came up in a couple of interviews, but mostly because my interviewers thought it was funny and would tease me about it since otherwise I am a strong applicant with a history of commitment to FM. Rural FM folks probably have a different perspective on these things than academic IM folks, though.

FM is very different than top IM

 

[NYCdude]

Well, on interviews PD's told me that the Honors I received in my sub-internship "made up for" the pass that I got in IM and they didn't even bring it up after that.

Make sure you do your AI early so it shows up in your transcript when it gets sent out to the different programs. Getting Honors should be rather easy unless your school is stupid and wants to purposely screw you. Have a good explanation for why you only got a pass when you go on interviews (hint: don't try to deflect responsibility or shift blame. Completely own up to it and state how the experience was a learning opportunity to improve yourself yada yada, etc.) Do those things and you'll be more than fine.

 

[mrbreakfast]

Do your acting internship before applying, honor it, and I doubt anyone will care. As others noted, med schools are often more generous on AI grades, and you likely won't have the same preceptors.

 

[Eyeronic]

You're fine. Maybe not "Brigham/UCSF automatic lock" fine, but not much reason to worry. Moreso than most other specialties, top tier Internal Medicine programs want to see versatility and the whole package deal; a combination of good intellect, good work ethic, AND good people skills. Honoring Pediatrics, Radiology, Ob/Gyn, Psychiatry, etc. are all worth something there. And with that many MS3 Honors in your book, you're probably a lock for AOA unless you did something extremely stupid.

More often than not, the "bros" that I saw land the awesome surgical subspecialty matches bumbled around on other rotations that were "beneath" them, and those surgical blocks were all or nothing for their chances.
Anyone who tells you Honors in IM is a must doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

[VincentAdultman]

Only a student, but I humbly say that it'll be seen as a fluke. I think PDs are aware of subjectivity, and seeing the otherwise perfect track-record will give pause.

Umm, it’s going to raise eyebrows and can definitely see it coming up on interviews. Fortunately though AIs are a thing so just get ready, figure out what you did on your rotation, and don’t do that.

 

[studentdocftw]

Was the pass mainly because of the shelf? Clinical evals? Or both? If it's the first, probably won't impact you that much so long as you do well on your SubI. If clinical evals were a big contributor, it's going to hurt. Either way it's irrelevant..only thing you can do now is rock your SubI, fix what you did wrong on your IM rotation, and own your pass during interviews.

 

[HappiSquirrel]

Thanks for all the comments, everyone. Overall, I think it does hurt but it is not the end of the world.

 

[deleted645092]

People in here aren't taking OP seriously but isn't this a serious concern?

Aren't you supposed to honor your intended field? And getting only a pass is a red flag?

Bro if everyone had to honor specific rotations in order to go into their field there would be only like 25% of all people qualified to go into any given field. At least hypothetically since honors aren’t supposed to go to everyone.

 

[afib123]

Bro if everyone had to honor specific rotations in order to go into their field there would be only like 25% of all people qualified to go into any given field. At least hypothetically since honors aren’t supposed to go to everyone.

This. There is so many factors that go into honors, mainly subjective evaluations that I think it's a ridiculous measure if you got honors in most other rotations.
If rotations were purely based on the shelf score, perhaps because that's objectively comparing everyone that get honors.