board score vs class rank

[medstudent2005]

howdie folks

just got a question concerning your experiences with applying for rads...I have a step 1 score of 243/98, which my counselor said was good, and last year, i was ranking in the top 20. however, i don't know what my rank this year will be (3rd year of medical school) i did pretty well in my surgery and psychiatry rotations, but got a sucky grade in ob/gyn (B) and i am waiting to see how i did on my family medicine rotation and still have peds and internal medicine to go...however, i don't know if i'm just going downhill after the ob gyn disaster. so my question is, although i seem to have a good board score, i may drop in my ranking this year, and i'm wondering how much of an impact that might make?
i don't know have too many extracurricular stuff either...yeah, pretty boring

thanks for any input

NT

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[medstudent2005]

dudes, throw me a line here...can anyone give me any input on the class rank situation? thanks

 

[samsoccer7]

Well, since nobody really talks about class rank either here or at auntminnie, I'm assuming board scores are much more important. Grades, and thus class rank, are not standardized by schools, but the USMLE is, and so it serves as one of the only way to compares students.

 

[wannaberad]

rank is important primarily through its effect on AOA.

I suspect everyone obsesses about the Step 1 b/c it's the only thing they know the unambiguous truth about. Sure connections are more important, as are research and med school prestige, but...

Connections? Sure I know the program director, but maybe somebody else knows the department chair. What's more important?

Research? Are my four papers in journals nobody's ever heard of better than Joe's one paper in Nature?

Med school prestige? My school's not well known, but the radiology dept's good...is it better than a guy with med school and radiology dept. in the middle?

243>242>241. End of story. Even if it's not that key, you know where you stand.

 

[Spacedman]

i think the last two posters got it right-- i'm watching the classmates i started with getting ready to match (the match list comes out in ~2 weeks), and it really seems like a crap shoot.

from auntminnie, if you look in the archives a bit, you'll see a lot of different theories on how the programs end up making their decision (look up posts by Jeff Gregg, he's a PGY? at duke). also, there was a post on auntminnie about a year ago, supposedly by someone on the UCSF resident selection committee ranking the most important factors in an application-- i do remember that board scores were pretty far down the list, as were preclinical grades.

my impression is that board scores (step 1) get you in the door, and you get "pre ranked" mostly on the basis of your dean's letter/clinical grades, AOA & research. i've heard several times that the interview really only moves you, at most, a couple spots up or down-- they're really just checking to make sure you're not a freak.

maybe someone else has better information...

spaced