do pseudo-grades matter?

[Danosaur]

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Hi guys,

I am going to be a M1 next year, and I was wondering if grading systems matter. since schools rank you eventually, does attending a school that gives you letter grades, pseudo-grades like honors/high pass/pass/fail, or just pass/fail grades matter? for residency placement? or for the competative atmosphere of the school?

good luck on exams,
dan

 

[DW3843]

I have no experience with the "pseudo-grade" system, but I can tell you this. The PD for the Emergency Med residency at my school said he hates when he gets an application from a student who went to a school with Honors/Pass etc. I think he was just commenting on how it can sometimes be hard for him to know what that means if he is not familiar with that school and its grading policy. It can be hard to decipher what those pseudo-grades mean in comparision to the standard letter grading system. I think this is more of a problem when dealing with apps from schools that the PD does not normally have apps from or does not know the PD or other faculty there.

 

[SoCuteMD]

I have no experience with the "pseudo-grade" system, but I can tell you this. The PD for the Emergency Med residency at my school said he hates when he gets an application from a student who went to a school with Honors/Pass etc. I think he was just commenting on how it can sometimes be hard for him to know what that means if he is not familiar with that school and its grading policy. It can be hard to decipher what those pseudo-grades mean in comparision to the standard letter grading system. I think this is more of a problem when dealing with apps from schools that the PD does not normally have apps from or does not know the PD or other faculty there.

My school has "pseudo grades" and includes a graph in our Dean's letter that shows what percentage got Honors/High Pass/Pass etc. I thought every school did that?

 

[akaz]

Aren't most honors/pass/fail. I think most schools I interviewed at were: Cornell, U of Mich, Mount Sinai, Pitt, BU, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth (i think) the list goes on.

I think a few big name schools aren't Hopkins and Emory. I am sure there are others.

My school has "pseudo grades" and includes a graph in our Dean's letter that shows what percentage got Honors/High Pass/Pass etc. I thought every school did that?

 

[sscooterguy]

What you call pseudo grades do indeed matter, from what my 4th year soon to be resident friends say. The first two years don't matter as much, but 3rd year clinical grades matter immensely if your school has them. This is especially true if you are going for a competative field or highly desirable residency program. And by the way, not EVERY school releases your class rank. They may keep tabs and rank for honors purposes, but some refuse to release your standing.

My girlfriend who matched in ER this year in the east coast told me that clinical grades mattered, a whole lot and definately helped her get her residency. Another note about ER, as a specialty, they have been trying to objectively look at applicants in the recent years. As mentioned in previous posts, some schools have ONLY pass fail where as others have pass/fail/high pass/honors, and still a few others have grades. ER has letter writers and residency directors fill out specific forms that ask the writers to rank the applicant objectively, asking, "is this student the: top 10%, top 25%, etc, of the students for which you have written letters".

Just something to mull on.

sscooterguy

 

[Dr Trek 1]

I always find the schools comical that use the "Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail" system. It is just like the A/B/C/F system many med schools use. Just my $.02.


Never the less, I think a "Pass" looks better than a "C" on your transcript, even though in many cases it may mean the same thing. Anyone have any input on this?

 

[trudub]

I would say the majority of schools do use the pseudogrades of some form or anothers, so I find it weird that a residency director would not like receiving a transcript with pseudogrades given that probably the majority of transcripts are that way.

 

[DW3843]

I would say the majority of schools do use the pseudogrades of some form or anothers, so I find it weird that a residency director would not like receiving a transcript with pseudogrades given that probably the majority of transcripts are that way.

I think the point was that there seems to be some ambiguity in how a school might define what is Honors or what is considered High Pass etc. For example, could you equate Honors at one institution with Honors at a different school? Although someone mentioned that the "pseudograde" system seems to break down essentially the same as the old school letter grade system. It just seems like the GPA system gives a more precise and concrete idea of a student's performance.

That probably comes into play like I mentioned when a PD gets an application from Middle of Nowhere University and is unfamiliar (relatively speaking) with that school and its grading system.

 

[SoCuteMD]

I think the point was that there seems to be some ambiguity in how a school might define what is Honors or what is considered High Pass etc. For example, could you equate Honors at one institution with Honors at a different school? Although someone mentioned that the "pseudograde" system seems to break down essentially the same as the old school letter grade system. It just seems like the GPA system gives a more precise and concrete idea of a student's performance.

That probably comes into play like I mentioned when a PD gets an application from Middle of Nowhere University and is unfamiliar (relatively speaking) with that school and its grading system.

Hence why most dean's offices (as I have been told) include a breakdown of how many Honors, High Pass, Pass. That way you can see that someone who got honors was in the top x% of the class in that class.

 

[Cinnameg]

I think the point was that there seems to be some ambiguity in how a school might define what is Honors or what is considered High Pass etc. For example, could you equate Honors at one institution with Honors at a different school? Although someone mentioned that the "pseudograde" system seems to break down essentially the same as the old school letter grade system. It just seems like the GPA system gives a more precise and concrete idea of a student's performance.

That probably comes into play like I mentioned when a PD gets an application from Middle of Nowhere University and is unfamiliar (relatively speaking) with that school and its grading system.

Actually, the pseudogrades DON'T break down into A, B, C, and F. Honors is usually 90% and above, High Pass is 85%-90%, Pass is 60%-85%, and Fail is below 60%. At several schools where I interviewed, they had this same breakdown, so it seems common. Since there's only a 5% range for High Pass, it doesn't really correspond to a B, and since there's a HUGE range for Pass, it doesn't correspond to a C.