Cutoffs for Internal Med

[dharmabum7]

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First aid for the match says that board scores for IM are not critical like in other more competitive fields.

what is technically a good score for IM? the mean 216? or higher?

 

[Fermi]

This has been debated here before. Like you said, most books about the match just state that you need a passing score to match in IM. This is not very useful information because there is such a huge spectrum of IM programs for those with different aims--primary care/categorical, community/university. It's probably true that you can match somewhere with any passing score, but I've never found any information specifically about the more "competitive" academic IM programs' selectivity. In the absence of any real information, I suppose you might take a look at the data for more competitive specialties and use that as a guide for the top-tier programs.

 

[dharmabum7]

thanks fermi.

anybody else heard what step 1 cutoffs are for internal med programs?

 

[Renovar]

I heard some rumors that some elite programs like MGH, Brighams, et al uses step 1 scores like 230 or 235 or something like that for interview cutoffs. Some other good IM programs uses scores like 85 or 90 2 digit score for FMG's. So I would say that if you are an US med school grad and you beat 230 or so (or ~92 on 2 digit) your score should be strong enough for any program and wont play a negative factor. If you have 215-230 your door is still wide open to most good programs although you might not get an interview at the few select elite programs if those above-stated rumors are true. If you score below the mean, you should apply broadly and see what happens. If you are FMG, obviously higher the better, especially if you are looking at the top academic hospitals. Definitely try to beat 90 to positively assert that you are indeed markedly above average even compared to US medical students.