3rd Yr Clerkship Grades- No Honors System!

[ddrop25]

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So I am part the weird group of med schools that does not give out ANY Honors for clerkships...we are strictly P/F and get a percent grade...that is the only thing that shows up on our transcript...I have seen elsewhere this will be a distinct disadvatange to me on applications!...

So I am freaking out a bit, but I have heard that it might not be a bad idea to describe our grading system on the ERAS app?....my question is should I put this somewhere in there?, and if so, where should I explain it?....thanks!!

 

[ranmyaku]

If I'm not mistaken, the Dean's letter will have that information in it. The school puts in whatever your 'grades' are, and they also describe the grading system in the letter.

 

[sade]

My uni didnt have one either. And Ive already seen my dean's letter just wrote my average score in percentage. And a point saying I was among the few Foreign graduate who managed to graduate. Its supposed to be a complement!!

 

[Winged Scapula]

Grades are fairly low on the grand scale of important factors in residency application assessment. They are not consistent between schools, therefore, your class rank is more important.

I wouldn't worry about it (ok, you can worry about it if you must, but since it cannot be changed and your Dean's letter will explain the grading system at your school, it doesn't seem worth it).

 

[atsai3]

So I am freaking out a bit, but I have heard that it might not be a bad idea to describe our grading system on the ERAS app?....my question is should I put this somewhere in there?, and if so, where should I explain it?....thanks!!

As previous posters have noted, this information goes in the dean's letter. The dean's letter will also describe your candidacy in a final paragraph that includes a summary sentence, e.g., "This is a very good candidate for residency training" vs. "This is an exceptional candidate", etc etc. Each school has its own code for the summary sentence, and generally that information is provided in an appendix to the dean's letter along with an explanation of the school's grading system.

At Penn State, for example, the distribution is as follows:

Superior 5%
Outstanding 25%
Excellent 50%
Very Good 20%​

So if your school only offers P/F for clerkship grades, no worries. Some kind of numeric comparison will work its way into your application.

Best,
-AT.

 

[Acherona]

At Penn State, for example, the distribution is as follows:

Superior 5%
Outstanding 25%
Excellent 50%
Very Good 20%​

-AT.

are you kidding? So excellent is average and very good is below average? That's manipulative.

 

[atsai3]

are you kidding? So excellent is average and very good is below average? That's manipulative.

There is nothing manipulative about it. Included with the dean's letter is a key for interpreting the code words (e.g., very good / excellent / etc). So when a reader sees "very good", they will understand that this represents the bottom 20%.

Cheers
-AT.