Advice

[luft]

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So, I'm a fourth year who is applying to psychiatry. I have a bit of a dilemma. my in house test scores are abysmal and my step one and two leave a lot to be desired - both between 200 and 210. My evaluations were very good, especially in psych and I feel that I am very lucky in that I fell in love with a specialty that I shouldn't have any problems getting into, even with my low scores (assuming I apply broadly enough). I know that I may very well end up at a lower-teir program, but I can live with that. Part of the problem is I tend to be a chronic procrastinator and I never studied enough. My dilemma is that my scores are at least partially explainable by the fact that in my second year I started having some interpersonal issues with one of my roomates which pulled out a whole bunch of psych stuff that I had never delt with. I ended up with a major case of major depression and pretty much lost any ability to focus on studies, so my second half of my second year I barely pulled everything off (I'm very lucky in that I didn't have to repeat that year) and third year I pretty much stopped studying altogether and it very much shows in my test scores (although I was still lucky enough to pass everything). I went through counseling at the second half of my second year and made a lot of major advances in myself personally and I feel that I am a much stronger, stable person now. I have also started studying again which is a major relief. I also have an amazing group of friends (including the roomate that I had all the problems with) that I feel I can share pretty much anything with. The whole experience also has a lot to do with why I like psychiatry so much and I feel also gives me an edge in that it is very easy for me to empathize with patients whom others don't want/like to deal with. So my question is: I know that my low scores are going to come up, and of course the question of why I want to go into psychiatry. How much of what I went through do you think I should disclose in interviews? I realize this can be very risky as very often programs are trying to filter out people with active psychopathology, but I also think I could turn this into one of my biggest strengths as well as discount my biggest weaknesses if I can pull it off. So that's my dilemma. If something isn't clear, feel free to ask.

 

[goldengate]

my step one and two leave a lot to be desired - both between 200 and 210. So my question is: I know that my low scores are going to come up, and of course the question of why I want to go into psychiatry. How much of what I went through do you think I should disclose in interviews?

First of all, I believe your USMLE scores are pretty average for those that match in Psych. According to the NRMP 2005 report the mean Step 1 for US Srs. matching in Psych was 210.

You have definitely gone through a lot...are you including all this in your personal statement? I wouldn't use your experience to justify your "low" scores, as it's not really that low at all....you could, however, mention it in support of your interest in the specialty. Hang in there!

 

[luft]

I know my step scores are average for psych - they could just be a lot better. I guess what I didn't emphasize was that my scores on in-house exams and my overall class rank is horrible. However, that is not universal. There are a few tests that I actually scored very well on, my IM test for instance. What is kind of embarrasing is that my psych test is my lowest test score from my third year. My school tests the heck out of us, so there is a good running record of me doing fairly poorly overall. I don't know how standardized deans letters are, but my school has a very comprehensive deans letter that covers every aspect of our performance in med school, so residencies are going to see all of my in-house test scores as well as all my evaluations by the various doctors I have worked with. I'm actually going to go talk to one of the psych advisors (who is also the residency director, so perhaps not the absolute best person to talk to, but she knows me) today and see what she thinks about the situation. I didn't add anything in my personal statement about any of this, but I am planning on doing a major last-minute revision to try to encorporate all this as well. Good thing psych is okay with long personal statements. What sucks is that I had such a nice personal statement (or at least my friends and I thought so). I do still need to get experienced feedback on it.