Clerkship Grades

[cgk]

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For those of us who are almost finished with our ever challenging PGY3 year, I would be curious to know how you all did. For me it was a mixed bag of Honors, High Passes, and even a few Passes( I have no idea how the f... that happened). Assuming all the other components of a well qualified applicant are met, does a mixed bag of clerkship grades prevent sucessfully matching into RAd/ONC?

 

[asmallchild]

I think the OP meant MS3 instead of PGY3.

 

[MHotep]

For those of us who are almost finished with our ever challenging PGY3 year, I would be curious to know how you all did. For me it was a mixed bag of Honors, High Passes, and even a few Passes( I have no idea how the f... that happened). Assuming all the other components of a well qualified applicant are met, does a mixed bag of clerkship grades prevent sucessfully matching into RAd/ONC?

If we tell you that you have no chance of matching, would you choose a different specialty?

 

[cgk]

I think the OP meant MS3 instead of PGY3.

Sorry, It's been a long day. I did mean MS3 year. Any thoughts?

 

[Zepavishnu]

.

 

[IRISH22]

so maybe I'll give you a straight answer and spare you the sarcasm that seems to run rampant on here lately...

you should have no problem matching with mostly honors and high passes on MS3 rotations. I wouldnt worry about the regular pass, as long as it wasnt in a core discipline such as int medicine. even if it was in medicine, as long as you have an explanation prepared for interviews you should be fine.

That being said, I never had a single radonc interviewer even mention one of my clinical grades. Everyone is so focused on the research you have been involved in or who you know...its pathetic actually. So to answer your question more directly, I would say get involved in research and grades be damned. Its sad but true, since a good oncologist is more than a productive researcher, IMHO. I digress...

 

[asmallchild]

I was able to match into a similarly competitive specialty (not rad onc) without the typical "all honors" in the clinical years

I think research and connections (especially for a small field) can help to overcome that deficiency

 

[deleted4401]

Had to flip through apps for potential interview candidates ... wasn't asked to look at medical school grades. Not sure how much it matters, it's hard to really gauge - is an honors at Tulane the same as an honors at Harvard (probably not)? But, is all honors at Tulane the same as all high passes at Harvard (I have no idea)? AOA usually seems to work as a proxy for grades for non-elite schools. Grades pretty low on the totem pole of what matters.

Matching into rad-onc in three sentences:

Get some oncology research published. Do well on your boards. Don't be too much of a jerk on interviews. Steph - you oughtta sticky this

S

 

[Impressions]

Don't be angry I am posting this under impressions, I have not had time to set up a profile. I just wanted to echo SimulD that grades really don't matter much in Rad Onc. I recently matched to a great program with a mixed bag of HP's and H's from a low tier medical school. I think the best thing to look at is the facts of the NRMP match stats which show that Rad Onc only takes about 20% of candidates that are AOA, compared to the other "most competitive fields" namely Derm and Plastics that take 40-50% AOA. The real shining point for Rad Onc is our average candidate has 6 publications, and we have by far the most MD/PhD's of any field in medicine. The field is research obsessed!!! Don't sweat HP's, and while I never P'ed anything I don't think it will matter. Here is my order of importance for matching.

1. Publications (try for papers, abstracts are easy and they know that)
2. Letters of Recommendation
3. Boards (shoot for 235 and better)
4. Grades (AOA is always great, but 80%ish of those that matched where not AOA)
5. Be nice and presentable for a 20 minute interview.