Could Step 2 really offset clinical grades (especially with upward trajectories) for General Surgery programs?

[Medmania123]

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Current MS3 planning ahead for a general surgery application and trying to better understand how programs view clinical grades versus Step 2.

Brief background - attending a mid-tier school; and although I have had strong clinical performance across my third year, it did take me a few rotations in the beginning to figure out how to balance shelf preparation with my preparation, compared to some other students. I ended up with 3 Honors (including Surgery) and 4 High Passes in the remaining core clerkships.

As I plan ahead, my question is: for applicants targeting out-of-state academic, university-affiliated general surgery programs, how much could a very strong Step 2 score help offset not having an honors-heavy clerkship record? For example, if someone were to score 260+, would programs generally view that as evidence of strong medical knowledge even if the clinical transcript is more mixed?

Advisors at my institution have given somewhat variant perspectives thus far. One advised me to target home (most students match at our home institution at my school) and community programs, while several surgical faculty have suggested that strong sub-I performance, excellent letters, and a productive research year could still make some academic programs realistic.

I'll be taking a dedicated clinical research year before MS4 for academic and research interests, and I'm also wondering how much value there is in using that year to build connections at programs of interest, attend conferences, identify mentors, and plan away rotations strategically (if at all advised).

I would very much like to aim for some out-of-state programs to be closer to family (spread across a few states in the country) during training, but can certainly adjust expectations as appropriate!

Interested in hearing perspectives and many thanks in advance.

 

[eyeeye_captain]

Simple answer is yes to Step 2 covering you (should you do well) since you already honored surgery. That’s a significantly bigger factor than clinical grades.

Are those advisors surgeons who have sat on a residency panel? Because I’d agree with the surgical faculty.

If you’re set on the research year, yeah, be productive and network as much as you can. Get those LORs and I’d target aways, if you want to do them, at places where your mentors know well. If everybody likes you then you’re in good shape.

 

[Medmania123]

Simple answer is yes to Step 2 covering you (should you do well) since you already honored surgery. That’s a significantly bigger factor than clinical grades.

Are those advisors surgeons who have sat on a residency panel? Because I’d agree with the surgical faculty.

If you’re set on the research year, yeah, be productive and network as much as you can. Get those LORs and I’d target aways, if you want to do them, at places where your mentors know well. If everybody likes you then you’re in good shape.

Thank you very much, I appreciate it. Yes, a few of them were experienced with residency application review for our home program. I'll proceed accordingly with the year, thanks again!