3rd year clinical grades

[Deucedano]

I did very well the first two years of med school with all honors except one class, got an award for the highest grade in Pathology during second year (go figure) and Step 1 256. Now this year, I have high passed FM, OBGYN, and honored PEDS. Im on medicine now and I dont have confidence that I will get honors. Would it hurt me if I have mostly high pass during this year? Would I still be competitive at the top programs like UCSF and stanford?

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[Euchromatin]

I think pass or high pass will be more than sufficient grades for clinical clerkships, as long as you do well on any pathology rotation(s), particularly if you are doing an audition rotation, and get some good letters of recommendation from pathologists.

 

[KCShaw]

At two programs I was at I don't remember anyone, ever, having recollection of or otherwise apparently giving a crap what someone's med school grades/honors/whatever were - so long as there were no reported failures or odd schedule (especially those that might look like making up time for or repeating something) to explain. People sometimes wanted to know what school you came from (familiarity & brand-name make some difference, but not that much in my experience). But mostly they wanted to know what your USMLE scores were and whether you had any experience in pathology, then to a lesser extent other things like recommendation letters, personal statement, etc. (the latter things were usually either neutrals or negatives, rarely a big boost).

The fascination with getting honors in everything generally can be left behind with undergrad, IMO, as apparently medical school admissions have to nitpick to filter through the applicants. This doesn't seem to be so in path resident applications. If some of the name-brand places look at things differently, so be it, I've just not come across such. For what it's worth.

 

[lurksalot]

Agreed, it won't matter too much whether you have Honors or HP in all of your clinical rotations.

I do read the Dean's letter carefully, though... the comments from those that evaluated you are in this. I just make sure there are no red flags.