Core rotation grades-What did I just do?

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rdubbs

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I'm an MD/PhD student who was on the cardiology track through the first 2 yrs of med school and 4 yrs of graduate work, until I did my anesthesia rotation a few months ago. Completely loved it and have been spending as much time as I can in the OR on off days (I’m on family med now).

My top choice is Stanford for a number of reasons. I am especially interested in their Fellowship in Anesthesia and Research Medicine program, and equally interested in getting the hell out of the norhteast. I'm wondering how much I hurt my chances with a "P" grade in surgery. The grading system at my med school = Fail, Marginal pass, Pass, High Pass, Honors. I had a horrible experience during surgery but that’s all I'll say about it.

As it stands now, I'm pretty happy with the other parts of my app. Good board scores, a number of publications (all cardiovascular med related journals though) and hopefully some good rec letters. I only have one other 3rd yr grade so far and it's an HP in medicine. I'm pretty pissed about this surgery grade and it’s been on my mind for weeks. How bad did I screw myself ?
 
I'm an MD/PhD student who was on the cardiology track through the first 2 yrs of med school and 4 yrs of graduate work, until I did my anesthesia rotation a few months ago. Completely loved it and have been spending as much time as I can in the OR on off days (I’m on family med now).

My top choice is Stanford for a number of reasons. I am especially interested in their Fellowship in Anesthesia and Research Medicine program, and equally interested in getting the hell out of the norhteast. I'm wondering how much I hurt my chances with a "P" grade in surgery. The grading system at my med school = Fail, Marginal pass, Pass, High Pass, Honors. I had a horrible experience during surgery but that’s all I'll say about it.

As it stands now, I'm pretty happy with the other parts of my app. Good board scores, a number of publications (all cardiovascular med related journals though) and hopefully some good rec letters. I only have one other 3rd yr grade so far and it's an HP in medicine. I'm pretty pissed about this surgery grade and it’s been on my mind for weeks. How bad did I screw myself ?

I don't think you screwed yourself, but it does probably put you out of the running for things like AOA, which can be helpful when looking at top top programs. I recommend kicking it in the rest of your rotations this year, attempting to get Honors in all of your clerkships, and of course doing great in your anesthesia electives. Good luck.
 
I'll second the advice from switching2gas -- you certainly didn't total your application by a pass in Surgery, but it'd be good to try for honors in your M3 electives, high honors in your anesthesia elective, and perhaps an away elective in cardiac anesthesia at your top institutions.

With regards to Stanford, I had the opportunity to do an away elective there in 2009, and was pretty impressed. One thing to note that the program is very competitive -- per report from the program director, the median Step 1 score for incoming CA-1 residents in 2009 was 238. PM if you need information on housing, or miscellaneous details.

PS: If you're looking for a residency with a research-track, I'd recommend a close look at UCSF and Columbia, which both offer a specialized research pathway with substantial financial support ($10,000 - $15,000 extra per year) for accepted residents. Just fyi.
 
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Got a Pass in Surgery. HP in medicine. No PhD. Got an interview at Stanford. Don't worry.


I'm an MD/PhD student who was on the cardiology track through the first 2 yrs of med school and 4 yrs of graduate work, until I did my anesthesia rotation a few months ago. Completely loved it and have been spending as much time as I can in the OR on off days (I’m on family med now).

My top choice is Stanford for a number of reasons. I am especially interested in their Fellowship in Anesthesia and Research Medicine program, and equally interested in getting the hell out of the norhteast. I'm wondering how much I hurt my chances with a "P" grade in surgery. The grading system at my med school = Fail, Marginal pass, Pass, High Pass, Honors. I had a horrible experience during surgery but that’s all I'll say about it.

As it stands now, I'm pretty happy with the other parts of my app. Good board scores, a number of publications (all cardiovascular med related journals though) and hopefully some good rec letters. I only have one other 3rd yr grade so far and it's an HP in medicine. I'm pretty pissed about this surgery grade and it’s been on my mind for weeks. How bad did I screw myself ?
 
I'm an MD/PhD student who was on the cardiology track through the first 2 yrs of med school and 4 yrs of graduate work, until I did my anesthesia rotation a few months ago. Completely loved it and have been spending as much time as I can in the OR on off days (I’m on family med now).

My top choice is Stanford for a number of reasons. I am especially interested in their Fellowship in Anesthesia and Research Medicine program, and equally interested in getting the hell out of the norhteast. I'm wondering how much I hurt my chances with a "P" grade in surgery. The grading system at my med school = Fail, Marginal pass, Pass, High Pass, Honors. I had a horrible experience during surgery but that’s all I'll say about it.

As it stands now, I'm pretty happy with the other parts of my app. Good board scores, a number of publications (all cardiovascular med related journals though) and hopefully some good rec letters. I only have one other 3rd yr grade so far and it's an HP in medicine. I'm pretty pissed about this surgery grade and it’s been on my mind for weeks. How bad did I screw myself ?

Hi rdubbs,
i'm starting the FARM program this coming july as a CA1 @ stanford. feel free to PM me if you have questions. i thought i'd link a thread i started last year about research friendly anesthesiology programs. Starting at post #13 you can find a short list of programs with some kind of research track.

i have no idea what a "P" in surgery will mean for you, but i can tell you there are a lot of programs interested in recruiting md/phds who plan to continue research. i think anesthesiology is a great choice for md/phds right now- the supply/demand of research MDs is heavily in your favor, and periop medicine encompasses almost every field of study.

also, FYI, only UCSF has a true "research" track approved by the ABA, and it has a unique match code (distinct from the conventional pathway). it allows you significant research time as early as CA2- you can see the timeline for yourself. interestingly, only ucsf has a "research stipend" that doesn't come to you as extra salary, because of UC bylaws. on the other hand, stanford, penn, columbia, cornell, sinai, duke and yale (probly missing some) have a research track where they tack on 5-20K as salary.

good luck!

S
 
Thanks for the helpful comments. I'll be organizing my fourth year schedule soon and would greatly appreciate Checkov's and Spacedman's insight before setting up my away roatation at Stanford. Will be pm'ing you guys soon.
 
Hi rdubbs,

i think anesthesiology is a great choice for md/phds right now- the supply/demand of research MDs is heavily in your favor, and periop medicine encompasses almost every field of study.

I'm applying to anesthesia programs right now and look forward to entering. For MD/PhDs who plan to do research, I think it's worth pointing out one minor drawback--it shouldn't keep anyone from entering the field, but it should be something you're aware of--I'm glad people made me aware of it.

Getting research time in anesthesia can be a little bit more difficult than for other departments for a good reason--we're (still) highly compensated. This has two implications:

1) Your time is more expensive than an internist's--i.e., covering 25% of your time will be more expensive than covering 25% of an internist's time. So any grant you write will be more expensive than an internist's, for example. I don't think this matters as much for NIH grants, but it may matter more for foundations, as they tend to be more budget conscious and may impose stricter budget limits.

2) The NIH caps what it will pay for salaries on grants, and--again this is a good thing in a way--most academic anesthesiologists (even asst profs) are close to/above this cap. Therefore, unless your department subsidizes the difference (and from what I've heard, departments vary about this), your research time is at a pay cut.

Again, I personally believe you should do what you like and let any obstacles work themselves out, so I wouldn't let the above dissuade me from a research career in anesthesia. And the converse of what I've said is true: because we are highly compensated, you could take a pay cut to do research and still do pretty well. But when I was choosing what field to go in to, I'm glad someone pointed this out to me so that it would be at least something to consider.
 
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