Hey y'all, hope everyone doing well- I just received Step 1 score which is a 239. I go to a mid tier MD school in the NE and my dream was to go to a top tier IM school, but with this step score, is that now not possible? DOes anyone have any advice on what other specialties are available for me to apply to? ty!
239 step 1 score, not sure what this means?
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Your cake is not even half baked. You still have:
-Clerkship grades
-SubI
-Step 2CK (more important)
-AOA potential
It's not a great score but all your goals for a top school are still in play as I highly doubt even MGH is screening out Step 1 <240. Also, midtier MD school in the NE... Are we talking BU/Rochester or Rutgers/NYMC? There's a difference.
Regardless, 250+ on Step 2 + Honors in Medicine will get you interviews at top places and probably a match at a mid/upper tier place ultimately.
AOA will catapolt you into the elite tier level. It's not an exact science, but being part of an exclusive high performing group PDs can filter out on ERAS is a big plus.
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Hiya thanks for the reply! I was talking more along the Rutgers/NYMC level! And ty yeah I'm not entirely sure if I'll get AOA tbh (as of now I'm willing to bet that I won't), but it's nice/important for me to see that there are many more components involved, so thanks for outlining that! So I guess going forward I should just focus on clerkship grades for right now? Ty again for the help
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Things change since I was in med school? Had always thought Step 1 was more important than step 2ck
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Practically, it probably still is even for IM until 2022 hits, but I think if OP can do well on Step 2CK that can overshadow (in a good way) his Step 1 score which is what I meant by more important. I don't think the Step 1 will get filtered out and if OP takes CK before applications and scores well, that coupled with the recent policy changes (Step 1 P/F) coupled with the fact that CK is more clinically relevant will lead committees so focus more on OPs Step 2 CK score.
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Good job! Not sure if it's competitive for the higher up IM programs, but it's a good score.
If you look at the residency explorer, a 239 puts you in the middle 50% of matched residents at most IM programs (barring a few like MGH, UCSF, etc where you would be <25th percentile). Even at the very top programs, there are still people who match there with that score. I guess what I'm saying is kind of an echo of everyone else. It won't turn heads at top programs but it will at least keep you in the running at most of them.
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