MD Clerkship Grades for IM - Hopeful Heme/Onc

[Hawke97]

Hello everyone!
I wanted to inquire about people's thoughts on my specific situation. At my school there is H/HP/P/F. I'm not sure of the distributions but I know they made it harder this year by increasing the threshold at my school. I'm an MS2 MD student and I'm interested in heme/onc and so want to be able to at least get into an academic IM residency that has an associated fellowship program. I'm not shooting for Ivy league or anything super prestigious just something that gets me where I need to go. We are currently in our first clerkship block (my school starts clerkships 2nd year). After finishing pediatrics, I was one point away from high pass despite doing above average on the shelf. I wanted to know how much the difference between HP/P makes a difference when pursuing this career path? This question is for my most recent P (pediatrics) and for clerkship grades more generally. I will obviously try to do the best I can, I just want to get an idea of what are good benchmarks for this career path.
Thank you for your time in advance, and feel free to tell me I'm worrying too much if you think that's the case.

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[GoSpursGo]

Nobody is going to care that you got a P in your peds rotation. Obviously getting at least HP on IM would be good, but there are so many academic IM programs that assuming you're coming from a US MD school it is basically impossible to not match somewhere academic unless you have a red flag somewhere in your app. Obviously the better the program you get into, the better your chances for an eventual heme/onc match.

 

[Hawke97]

Nobody is going to care that you got a P in your peds rotation. Obviously getting at least HP on IM would be good, but there are so many academic IM programs that assuming you're coming from a US MD school it is basically impossible to not match somewhere academic unless you have a red flag somewhere in your app. Obviously the better the program you get into, the better your chances for an eventual heme/onc match.

Okay that makes sense. I am at a US MD school (T50) so hopefully that helps. I'm just trying to set expectations for myself so I can preserve my mental health somewhat, haha.

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

How does this play out for T20 IM without Honors in IM? I'm an MSTP student at a mid-tier program also interested in heme/onc who's otherwise been doing very well on clerkships (all H, good comments) and has a good app otherwise (NIH fellowships, good pubs, great ECs, leadership, etc...). However, it appears IM will be 100% luck. Without going into the details of my program or how our grades are calculated, the clerkship director is a bit of a kook to put things lightly. They barely ever give out passes, about 95% of the class has gotten HP so far this year, and the 5% who honored can't really figure out why. It's effectively a HP/F rotation with the illusion of a possible H based entirely on whether you get good attendings.

Rant aside, how will my very likely HP affect my chances in the match at top programs (i.e., T20 or so)? I'm older and have a partner with an established career and parents who aren't getting any younger, so I can't exactly go galivanting halfway across the country to keep my dreams doing meaningful academic research at a top institution (with the resources and infrastructure for my area of interest) alive.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Rant aside, how will my very likely HP affect my chances in the match at top programs (i.e., T20 or so)? I'm older and have a partner with an established career and parents who aren't getting any younger, so I can't exactly go galivanting halfway across the country to keep my dreams doing meaningful academic research at a top institution (with the resources and infrastructure for my area of interest) alive.

0% HP will affect you.

Now, if you're really aiming specifically for an ivory tower IM program with the intent of becoming a physician scientist, then the most important thing you can do is publish your PhD work in a high impact journal.