DO student skipping STEP 1?

[maikelm]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey everyone,

I'm a second year DO student right now. The school requires me to complete COMLEX for graduation, but STEP is optional. I'm interested to pursuing internal medicine and then sub-specializing in cardiology or pulmonology right now. I would like to ideally match into a university hospital and if possible around Philly.

I am planning to take COMLEX 1 in 3/2026 or so. Then I'm planning to take COMLEX 2 a year later. I'm thinking of taking STEP 2 around the same time as I'm taking COMLEX 2.

My main reason for this timeline is to reduce the amount of stressful testing I have to deal with. I have been treading by throughout the year in school and just making it into second year. Also, if I take STEP 2 without liking the score, then I don't have to submit for residencies.

Would this process make sense? I'm thinking of potentially even taking STEP 1 after STEP 2 comes out too.
I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks
Maikel

 

[Shaggy_]

As a fourth year now, don’t do this. You don’t know if you will want to change specialties or whether your dream residencies will want STEP1. As someone who is applying surgery this year, I have seen my fellow colleagues struggle with the fact that they are now bottlenecked at certain programs because they didn’t take step one. I think like 90% of surgery programs wants it. I don’t know how it is for IM. But I do know I wanted to do IM before my surgery rotation… take it with level one and be done with it. You will thank yourself later if you pivot or want all options available to you.

 

[PuffBlueCat]

Also a 4th year DO student - I mirror what shaggy says above. I was planning on applying psych, and took both steps to make sure I didn’t close any doors for myself. I ended up switching to FM, so I probably wouldn’t have needed it, but I’m glad I took them anyway. Not taking it will close doors.

If you’re planning on taking step 2, then you should definitely take step 1. I imagine that pretty much all university-based IM programs in the NE are going to want step. I say take it as long as you are confident you can pass/score well.

 

[DOVinciRobot]

Take Step 1. You might end up switching later, but also cardiology programs do look at USMLE scores. You will hurt yourself further down the line by not having it.