Dean's letter vs clinical grades

[coralfangs]

Which one has more weight?
I dunno... There are those clerkship directors who write ****ty (relatively) comments about you yet give you an honor and those clerkship directors who praise you for your knowledge, commitment, blah blah and give you a hp just because he only gives out honor to 5%, etc....

That's actually common to us at our school since we have 2 different hospital sites. And basically we know which site would write better comments (given that you are smart enough and work hard enough) and which site would give better grades, etc

Which one would you choose?

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[OveractiveBrain]

Dean's letters are usually standard. They take some compilation of the information given by attendings. They are hardly objective, and can carry only so much weight. Poor programs will look at your percentile. Better programs will give it a toss. Most people care far more about Boards, AOA, Grades, Research, Letters, Statement, than they do about the deans letter.

I would take excellent clinical grades hands down over any dean's letter.

The only exception would be if the Dean of Academic Affairs happened to also be married to the residency director of the program I wanted to attend.

 

[vicinihil]

I agree with above. Deans letter is a complication of clinical eval statements. Many programs extend invites without seeing the deans letter first. That goes to show how little weight it (may) carry.

I would go with grades farrrrrrrr over comments.

 

[newbie04]

Dean's Letter > Clinical Clerkship Grades, as per NRMP

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Dean's Letter > Clinical Clerkship Grades, as per NRMP

The title of that chart is "factors in selecting applicants to interview"

And yet if you look around this site, for most fields the interview invites are sent out well before the dean's letters are even released...

 

[vicinihil]

Yup, that's crap. There's also no way Step 2 is THAT important. Many places will rank/accept without a step 2 if your step 1 is strong enough.

Clinical grades >> MSPE

 

[newbie04]

The title of that chart is "factors in selecting applicants to interview"

And yet if you look around this site, for most fields the interview invites are sent out well before the dean's letters are even released...

Yup, that's crap. There's also no way Step 2 is THAT important. Many places will rank/accept without a step 2 if your step 1 is strong enough.

Clinical grades >> MSPE

Yeah, I'm not stating that MSPE > Clinical Grades...I was just passing along info from the NRMP.

Clinical grades >>> MSPE (Dean's Letter)

 

[Deferoxamine]

Clinical Grades > MSPE. Without a doubt.

Doesn't matter if your MSPE comments for that rotation state that you were the best thing since the toaster oven... if you got HP, you got a HP and that's it. They're not going to care what the MSPE says unless it's something BAD (i.e. tardy, does not work or play well with others, rude, unreliable, etc.).

Grades, activities, class standing, board scores, +/- AOA they can gather from your application.

 

[cpants]

Honestly I think MSPE and clinical grades are pretty much the same thing. Your MSPE will show your grades and comments for each class. It would be rare for you to have outstanding clinical grades and a bad MSPE or visa versa.