oto opinions...

[otowannabe]

Crew! 1st timer here in dire need of honest advice...

I have a strong desire of pursuing an ENT residency but I have recently hit a MAJOR speed bump which has now put in an unfortunate situation and now I find myself questioning my oto desire

I am a 3rd year who attends a top 40 private med school in the west. 1st and 2nd year grades are decent, I would say average - above average (1/2 of my preclinical grades are H's - HP's); step 1 score 230+ ; 3rd year clinical grades: 1 H, the rest are HP's including surg, medicine; research in the works with a ENT presentation forthcoming later in 07 and will be an eventual publication; quality extra-curriculars. MY HUGE DILEMMA lies in that i recenlty received a grade of 'fail' in psychiatry, a grade not anticipated, and this will permanently be on my transcript (the course is set up where if you score below a certain grade on the shelf, you fail the clerkship, even though my evals in the course are great!)

I will get a letter from the course director and head backing me up and working my butt off on aways and at home I am sure I will get great evals and good LOR's; however, the damage has been done and now I am questioning whether I can even match, regardless of my home sub I and aways (planning on doing 2). I am willing to go anywhere for ENT and not tied to any geographical area.

Hope to hear from you guys!
Sincerely,
Sad otowannbe

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[RS6]

I have not been on a review committee for applicants so you might want to defer to others who have. Here is just my two cents. I think having a failing grade, especially a clerkship grade, might flag your application with a red flag. You would probably make the initial cut off for interviews based on your board scores but might get denied an interview during the actual selection process once they see the failing grade. Not all programs do this kind of filtering but it might happen at some institutions. However, the places you did get an interview at, you better have a seriously good answer as to why you failed the clerkship. I did a sub-i at another institution and only got a pass grade. I was asked about this at some but not all institutions. I would say around 3 places out of 16. I did not have a great answer to this question the first time I was asked about it and I might have shot myself in the foot at that particular place. It sounds like the rest of your application is just at about average or slightly below average for an ent applicant so if you want to match i would focus on bringing your whole application up a notch, however that may be. You still have some time left to shine and I would do so at your sub-i's. Work hard on whatever research projects you are currently doing. If you want to bring up your scores and show programs about your test taking ability, you could take step 2 early and rock it. Bottom-line, you have a flag on your application and you should know you have more of an up hill battle than other applicants. However, I am sure that there are ent residents out there that matched with a failing grade, preclinical or clinical. It is possible. Good luck to you. And if ent is something you really want to do, I wouldn't give it up because you think you might not match. You might regret not having tried to do something you love because the odds weren't in your favor.

 

[aggernodi]

Although unfortunate... I would still apply to ENT, but do have a back-up plan in case you don't match. If you truly have stellar LOR and your chairman is williing to go to bat for you (making personal phone calls to several top picks), it's still possible.

I would also consider a sub-I and work your butt off and be a superstar... make the program WANT you...

See the posts at:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=380580

 

[resxn]

agree with the above, with only one thing to add. Having been involved on 2 admissions committees at 2 different schools, those clinical grades vary widely in what a particular program thinks of them. Some value them highly, some don't really care. They want USMLE's and research.

I think you should still apply, have a great explanation for the fail, ask your chairman make a call to the "realistic" program you most want to go to, and then have a back up plan. I am optimistic that you can match and that it's more rather than less likely. But that depends on the 2 criteria above (explanation and chair-to-chair call).

Good luck.

IMO, shelf exams are worthless. Particularly Ob/gyn and Psych.