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Started by license43
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If you do alright on boards, apply broadly, have no red flags, and aren't too picky about what kind of program you end up in, you could potentially match in any of those specialties with sub-average but passing grades.
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The ones you said.
I was wondering the same, except for EM. Are C's okay with a decent step 1 and 2?
6
68PGunner
Your chances of matching to a good PMR or Neurology program assuming a 230+ Step 1 are very high.
6
68PGunner
Just don't fail any class. Failing a class means a red flag. That means your application going to the bottom of the pile.
sorry if i sound stupid, but is a 230 + good?
There's correlation between grades and board scores. If you're getting Cs, you better study your ass off for EM. You'll need a 230 at least
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what about PMR, Neuro and even IM?
6
68PGunner
228-230 is around the 50% percentile. If you're above average on the Step 1, you're in a good spot when it comes to specialties like Neuro and PMR.
6
68PGunner
Nobody cares about your preclinical GPA. But if you are getting Cs, you have a major deficiency somewhere in your routine or study habit. When you start UFAPSing next year in prep for board, you should expect a 7% decrease in your grade. If you are barely surviving, UFAPSing means that you will fail class. On the other hand, not being able to UFAPSing means that you will be in the bottom quartile in term of Step 1 score.
Neuro resident here. No one cares about pre-clinical GPA, and there's no specific GPA to maintain to get into those specialties other than not failing. Some programs care a little bit about class rank. USMLE/COMLEX scores (esp USLME), LORs, "level of interest" in the field, and absence of red flags are important. I do recommend studying for the sake of understanding the material in the long run. The more you understand the concepts as a med student, the easier it is down the line.
A couple C's in preclinical years sure. C's in your clinical years? Not really.
For EM SLOEs(Standard Letter of Eval) > Step 1/Step 2 > Clinical grades.
I'm hoping clinical years will come easier to me than the krebs cycle lol. Thanks for your response.
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If you are on a traditional curriculum like mine (science then systems) I think you will do better the further you get. I know I have.
Yeah, ours is science and anatomy front loaded. Then pathophys later on... just trying to survive till then.
You have to think about these things from a Program Director's point of view. How do you reduce the sheer volume of applicants for the number of interview positions you want to offer (and then pare down to a list of candidates you think will do well at your program)? Program responsibilities don't immediately stop due to interview season, so the answer would be to use the filters provided by ERAS. There, candidates can be filtered out on anything on their uploaded CV - COMLEX/USMLE scores including pass/fails, class rank, etc. After that, candidate rankings are a whole different beast that's quite variable.
Now, not all programs are equally competitive - some will need to scrape a larger pool for a variety of reasons. So, the key here is to do your best as possible.
Now, not all programs are equally competitive - some will need to scrape a larger pool for a variety of reasons. So, the key here is to do your best as possible.
