can you be below average in medical school if you want to go into pediatrics?

[stripedscarf]

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I have seen stories of people that are able to have a little more balance in their medical school life, such as being able to exercise daily, see friends, ect., but at the cost of their grades. However some people that are going into less competitive residencies are fine with just passing and say it is a trade-off they are willing to make based on their priorities. I wanted to know if this is true and to what extent?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Hi--this question really doesn't require a confidential response. Could we please move this to the regular forums so that everyone can participate in the discussion?

Yes, this is true. By definition, half of any med school class will be in the bottom half. Simply passing med school will require a lot of work, but if you are not aiming for a super competitive specialty you need not study 24/7.

 

[longhaul3]

Medical school is different for everyone. For most people it does not take 24/7 studying to get by. You may find that you can do well with minimal studying and have plenty of free time.

Most of my classmates and I had plenty of time to exercise and enjoy our daily lives in med school. When it came to seeing my friends outside of medicine, the limiting factor was always their availability, not mine.

Residency, on the other hand, is a different story - although peds is not bad lifestyle wise.

 

[WhoTellsYourStory?]

I learned pretty quickly on in medical school that I was never going to do much better than average on my exams. I became a much happier person after accepting that. For me, I was much more social in medical school than college, had plenty of time for hobbies, and was able to travel and visit my family often. You just need to decide what kind of grades you are satisfied with but as long as you don't want to do a competitive speciality, you will be just fine with average grades. I had average grades, average Step scores for peds, and average ECs and am about to be starting my Peds residency at a decent program.

 

[sarcasmrules]

I can't speak for everything else, but I would argue there is a way to get good exercise while maintaining good grades in medical school by jump roping. 1 minute of jump roping equates to 3 minutes of running. A study showed people who jump roped 10 minutes a day for 6 days showed the same cardiovascular improvement as those who ran 30 minutes a day for 6 days. In addition to its efficiency, jump roping is portable: you can literally do it anywhere, even during a study break and you don't even need to drive to the gym. It's also cheap. You can buy a jump rope for $5-$10 and don't need any expensive gym memberships.

Jump roping is a grossly underrated activity, especially when closed were closed during lockdowns.

 

[Goro]

I have seen stories of people that are able to have a little more balance in their medical school life, such as being able to exercise daily, see friends, ect., but at the cost of their grades. However some people that are going into less competitive residencies are fine with just passing and say it is a trade-off they are willing to make based on their priorities. I wanted to know if this is true and to what extent?

Yes, it's true.
Things also depend upon how you do in your rotations. It's not just about the pre-clinical years

 

[sarcasmrules]

Yes, it's true.
Things also depend upon how you do in your rotations. It's not just about the pre-clinical years

I think the emphasis on pre-clinical years were emphasized on because residency programs placed the most emphasis on Step 1 scores according to what I read. With step 1 being P/F, there will indeed be more emphasis on the clinical years and especially Step 2 C/K.

I wonder how much emphasis is placed on Step 3 in fellowship applications (not just with Step 1 being P/F but historically) since Step 3 is taken during your internship year and if you're not applying to fellowship, the test might as well be P/F for you.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

I think the emphasis on pre-clinical years were emphasized on because residency programs placed the most emphasis on Step 1 scores according to what I read. With step 1 being P/F, there will indeed be more emphasis on the clinical years and especially Step 2 C/K.

I wonder how much emphasis is placed on Step 3 in fellowship applications (not just with Step 1 being P/F but historically) since Step 3 is taken during your internship year and if you're not applying to fellowship, the test might as well be P/F for you.

Yeah, CK and clinical grades are going to be king (the latter was already one of the biggest metrics). Pediatrics is already such a humanistic focused specialty, if you have a CK score near the top of the bell curve and knock your rotations out of the park, one will end up doing fine at the end of the day.

David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
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