MSPE/Dean's letter Summary paragraph

[Renovar]

Just had a chance to review my MSPE. Overall I am very pleased with it.

Any thought on how to interpret the key "summary paragraph"? On my letter, everything in the paragraph sounded very sickly positive, including the last sentence. But after talking to a couple other med students from other schools, I just realize that this paragraph contains the "ranking information", especially the last sentence. And something like "he is a GOOD candidate for residency" may in fact mean below-average.

Would anyone care to share what systems their school uses in making the determination of the adjectives used in this all-important section? (ie. what qualifyer adjectives are used and what do they represent. What's "exceptional" vs "outstanding" vs "excellent"?)

Pardon my anal-ness, but I am just curious.

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[Olanzapine]

Different schools use different "codes", but every school sends an accompanying sheet that explains their code along with how many people get A's, B's in every rotation and class. You should ask your office of student affairs to see this as it's your right.

 

[Renovar]

Originally posted by Olanzapine
Different schools use different "codes", but every school sends an accompanying sheet that explains their code along with how many people get A's, B's in every rotation and class. You should ask your office of student affairs to see this as it's your right.

And although I know of some school that does have these accompanying explanations, I dont think my school has them because even last year's graduating class doesn't seem to have a clue about the summary paragraph adjective. (ie. my dean's office says the letter, after we correct it for factual error, will be final version uploaded to ERAS, without any further additions.) Would anyone have this info from their school care to share what their school's breakdown?

 

[Hop Toad]

Junior AOA, all A's on 3rd year rotations, very high boards

"Outstanding" in last paragraph. I hope this is the top adjective, but I don't know what anyone else got at this school.

 

[Ludy]

We got to see the appendix that goes along with the dean's letter and has the breakdown of that key word in the last sentence. Here, it goes "outstanding" (20%), "excellent" (40%), "very good"(25%) and "good" (15%).

 

[sanfilippo]

if you have junior aoa status, you're in the top 15% of your class, OBVIOUSLY (unless you bombed all your clerkships)

also, our final paragraph qualifiers are the same as Ludy's except they correspond equally to quartiles.

our review starts next week...........
-S.

 

[squeek]

We have "outstanding," "excellent," "good," and "fair," in that order. Hope this helps...

 

[ckent]

Shoot, I spent all week looking for the appendix that showed how our break down was made but I couldn't find it along with my copy of my dean's letter. I guess that someone is getting a kick out of reviewing my dean's letter. Anyways, I found some websites with different break downs for the MSPE. My school's most closely reflect's U Masses, with outstanding being ~top 10%, excellent and potentially outstanding being ~next 15%, excellent being the next 25%, very good being the next 25%, good being the next 15%, solid being the next 10% to the best of my recollection. So in other words, in terms of class rank
outstanding: top 10%
outstanding and potentially outstanding: top 25%
Excellent: top 50%
Very good: top 75%
Good: top 90%
Solid: top 100%
If my recollection is incorrect, I will go back and correct this later if I ever get my hands on another copy of my dean's letter appendix.
Here are some other school's break down's that I was able to find on the web:

http://www.umassmed.edu/studentaffairs/mspe.cfm
http://www.hmc.psu.edu/md/students/mspe.html

 

[drgas]

We have oustanding, excellent, very good, good. Our school does not have formal rankings so this adjective is code-word for where you stand compared to your peers. It's based on number of honors in 3rd year with the majority getting excellent (need only 1 honors for this).

 

[stephew]

people worry waaaay too much about them. Everyone knows they are merely a verbal reiteration of things found anywhere-as you're posts all suggest you are aware of. They are the least compelling component of a CV. Your overall boards, clinical grades awards and Letters of rec really tell the picture (as well as whatever neat stuff you did)