Doing well in school vs Joining clubs and doing extracurricular activities

[lazybutt26]

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So, a friend of mine has failed a big test and now she has to do really really well on other big test in order to bring herself up. I on the other hand am actually passing with honors getting all As since Block 1. My thought was, well, I need to see if I can do well and see if I can stretch out my plate since this is the very first semester of med school M1. Well, GPA really mattered for med school, so doing well in med school will translate too into getting into a good residency program and scoring well on boards. But well, that friend who's failing says somehow the grades in med school does not matter? and that I need to build up my resume.. but what I've realized so far now that we're through Block 3 is that, almost everything is medicine, no matter which topic you cover, is all interconnected, and you can't just swing it. The material builds up so if you didn't do well in Block 1, you don't have the base to do well in the upcoming blocks. And truly, I want to make sure that I learn the material really well so I can do well on board.

Should I continue to focus on doing well with school? or branch out and do other activities to build my resume? But I am worried that is going to take my time away and that I won't be getting all As ...Any thoughts?

 

[Oligodinero]

Grades matter. They will be reflected in your class rank and your Dean's letter. They are also an independent predictor of success on your boards, which are among the most important determinants of where/what you will match into. Extracurriculars are just icing on the cake. Grades trump them every day of the week. If you want to join one interest club and see how it affects your grades then go ahead. If you're looking for something outside of studies to strengthen your ERAS app, you will be even better off trying to get in on research/get your name on some pubs....especially if you want to match into a competitive specialty.

 

[Billroth_III]

I'm a 2nd year who will receive a STEP 1 board score so I am in a slightly different boat. I sacrifice minute class details to study for boards and stay on top of relevant information that we have already learned via Pathoma, Boards & Beyond etc. instead of some of my friends who do nothing but cram for tests and then can't remember something from 2 months ago because they don't review it. As long as I am not getting C's, I am ok with how I do in school.

I recently spoke to a PD in surgical specialty who told me that when STEP 1 goes P/F, he and several others PDs he knows will be looking at STEP 2. Doing well in pre-clinical years will never hurt but the reason it's not held in the same esteem from my understanding is that there is so much variety in grading from school to school. What's more important is that you are learning and retaining information, not just doing what you can to get an A.

Your friend may be aware that grades aren't the be-all end-all, but failing or sitting in a sea of C's is not the place to be. You don't need to be at the top, but don't be at the bottom either, failing a year will be a huge red flag and will close some doors.

In my opinion, unless the extracellular is something that residencies care about like research or if it's something you enjoy and will personally benefit from, I would not waste my time with ECs, they were important for getting into med school, they will not hold the same weight for residency programs.

Take a look at this for some more insight on what may help you with different residency programs:

https://mk0nrmp3oyqui6wqfm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-PD-Survey.pdf

 

[Chicken Bone]

I'm a 2nd year who will receive a STEP 1 board score so I am in a slightly different boat. I sacrifice minute class details to study for boards and stay on top of relevant information that we have already learned via Pathoma, Boards & Beyond etc. instead of some of my friends who do nothing but cram for tests and then can't remember something from 2 months ago because they don't review it. As long as I am not getting C's, I am ok with how I do in school.

I recently spoke to a PD in surgical specialty who told me that when STEP 1 goes P/F, he and several others PDs he knows will be looking at STEP 2. Doing well in pre-clinical years will never hurt but the reason it's not held in the same esteem from my understanding is that there is so much variety in grading from school to school. What's more important is that you are learning and retaining information, not just doing what you can to get an A.

Your friend may be aware that grades aren't the be-all end-all, but failing or sitting in a sea of C's is not the place to be. You don't need to be at the top, but don't be at the bottom either, failing a year will be a huge red flag and will close some doors.

In my opinion, unless the extracellular is something that residencies care about like research or if it's something you enjoy and will personally benefit from, I would not waste my time with ECs, they were important for getting into med school, they will not hold the same weight for residency programs.

Take a look at this for some more insight on what may help you with different residency programs:

https://mk0nrmp3oyqui6wqfm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-PD-Survey.pdf

I never understand this PD survey in which research is not really that important among all specialties like what everyone is mentioning here

 

[lazybutt26]

I'm a 2nd year who will receive a STEP 1 board score so I am in a slightly different boat. I sacrifice minute class details to study for boards and stay on top of relevant information that we have already learned via Pathoma, Boards & Beyond etc. instead of some of my friends who do nothing but cram for tests and then can't remember something from 2 months ago because they don't review it. As long as I am not getting C's, I am ok with how I do in school.

I recently spoke to a PD in surgical specialty who told me that when STEP 1 goes P/F, he and several others PDs he knows will be looking at STEP 2. Doing well in pre-clinical years will never hurt but the reason it's not held in the same esteem from my understanding is that there is so much variety in grading from school to school. What's more important is that you are learning and retaining information, not just doing what you can to get an A.

Your friend may be aware that grades aren't the be-all end-all, but failing or sitting in a sea of C's is not the place to be. You don't need to be at the top, but don't be at the bottom either, failing a year will be a huge red flag and will close some doors.

In my opinion, unless the extracellular is something that residencies care about like research or if it's something you enjoy and will personally benefit from, I would not waste my time with ECs, they were important for getting into med school, they will not hold the same weight for residency programs.

Take a look at this for some more insight on what may help you with different residency programs:

https://mk0nrmp3oyqui6wqfm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-PD-Survey.pdf

Thank you for your reply. I will be taking Step 1 when it's already become P/F, so I figured that a lot of residencies will be looking at Step 2 as the main factor along with school performance and research. I also heard from someone that if you already know which specialty you want to get into, it's good to join a club or show some kind of commitment to that specialty early on. I think the grades are important not only for showing residencies how you performed at school, but also you can't gain clinical background knowledge from not doing well in school. If I start my third year and there's a young person with no smoking history showing emphysema presentation, I am gonna be able to tell the attending or the team, well maybe the person has the alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency. If I wasn't doing well in school and was barely getting by, I don't think I'd be able to pick up on little details like that. That's just my opinion. Anyways, I agree with you that unless I find a particular club super interesting to join, I think my focus should be getting good grades and doing well on the boards hopefully.

 

[lazybutt26]

I never understand this PD survey in which research is not really that important among all specialties like what everyone is mentioning here

I totally agree! That friend I mentioned also said I should be doing research to put that on my resume, but bro, I am not gonna waste my time doing research unless I find it super interesting to commit my time to. I am not gonna do it just to have it on my resume

 

[Ho0v-man]

Research is gonna be way more important in a P/F step 1 world. Literally performance in the first two years now barely matters provided you don’t fail anything. The people barely skating by but made time to get multiple pubs are going to look better than the people who didn’t publish but stayed in the top quartile.

 

[Chicken Bone]

Research is gonna be way more important in a P/F step 1 world. Literally performance in the first two years now barely matters provided you don’t fail anything. The people barely skating by but made time to get multiple pubs are going to look better than the people who didn’t publish but stayed in the top quartile.

people told me class rank matters much more than the research, the advisors from my school told us we don't even need research unless we want ultra-competitive programs. there are tons of different opinions fluff around. man, I never understand these people in my class study tens of hours every day to get a perfect score they are insane.

 

[Chicken Bone]

I totally agree! That friend I mentioned also said I should be doing research to put that on my resume, but bro, I am not gonna waste my time doing research unless I find it super interesting to commit my time to. I am not gonna do it just to have it on my resume

yea I agree I feel just do whatever you are interested in. Like I am not so interested in studying all day long. I rather spend my time in doing some research. I feel it is just better than having nothing

 

[Ho0v-man]

people told me class rank matters much more than the research, the advisors from my school told us we don't even need research unless we want ultra-competitive programs. there are tons of different opinions fluff around. man, I never understand these people in my class study tens of hours every day to get a perfect score they are insane.

Your school doesn’t know what it’s talking about. These “advisors” are typically people who never went through any of this but have doctorates in education. They’re saying this to get you to focus on passing so they don’t get attention from COCA.

Most schools are p/f without class rank. You’ll only stand out if you’re close to the top or bottom. Now it’s going to be mostly step 2ck. What if you score below average on it? The only thing left to save you will be research. ECs are only talking points. Personal statements are barely ever unique. Letters of recommendation are almost exclusively effusive.

The system is rapidly changing to keep programs from evaluating any preclinical performance. So here’s what program directors are left with:

Student A got through preclinical.

Student B got through preclinical and managed to get multiple publications.

Who would you pick?

 

[Billroth_III]

Listen to @Ho0v-man on this, your school does not have your best interest in mind

 

[calivianya]

It's certainly not an either/or.

Manage your time well enough that you have time to work on extracurriculars while keeping up with your classes. You're going to have to learn how to juggle your time once M3 hits, between working and still keeping up with your studying - might as well start now.

Also, that attitude about research... it might be fine, depending on what you're pursuing and where you want to go, or it might completely destroy you. If you're okay with family med, IM, peds, etc. at a community program, you probably will be fine without any research. However, you better have some decent community involvement and volunteering in its place, because a lot of community programs prefer people with community involvement.

If you want a university program of any kind, you might not do so hot in the Match without research. Research brings a ton of money in. and research dollars contribute to program ranking. If the program cares about that, and you make it clear you don't want to do research based on your resume, they're going to think that ranking you to match would be carrying dead weight.

I absolutely effing hate research. I've been involved in six different projects so far. Looks like I'm only getting one or two pubs out of them because they all crashed and burned in various ways (either the faculty member's priorities changed, nobody could meet, someone else put it out first, we got too behind, etc), but at least I can talk about all of them.

 

[RapidEyeMovementLearning]

Your school doesn’t know what it’s talking about. These “advisors” are typically people who never went through any of this but have doctorates in education. They’re saying this to get you to focus on passing so they don’t get attention from COCA.

Most schools are p/f without class rank. You’ll only stand out if you’re close to the top or bottom. Now it’s going to be mostly step 2ck. What if you score below average on it? The only thing left to save you will be research. ECs are only talking points. Personal statements are barely ever unique. Letters of recommendation are almost exclusively effusive.

The system is rapidly changing to keep programs from evaluating any preclinical performance. So here’s what program directors are left with:

Student A got through preclinical.

Student B got through preclinical and managed to get multiple publications.

Who would you pick?

How can one get research opportunities if we don't go to an established school (ie newer DO school)?

I hear it's good to do it during summer after M1 but not sure how to find them

 

[BoneWizard]

How can one get research opportunities if we don't go to an established school (ie newer DO school)?

I hear it's good to do it during summer after M1 but not sure how to find them

Case reports are fairly easy to do. All you need is a physician that'll let you have access to cases. You can also help remotely with chart reviews for clinical research.

 

[Ho0v-man]

How can one get research opportunities if we don't go to an established school (ie newer DO school)?

I hear it's good to do it during summer after M1 but not sure how to find them

Maybe your professors have something going on. You need to reach out to residencies/med schools in your area/state as a start. Heck, if you’re going home during the summer maybe you can find something at your undergrad.

 

[WhereMyLiberalsAt]

If I start my third year and there's a young person with no smoking history showing emphysema presentation, I am gonna be able to tell the attending or the team, well maybe the person has the alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency. If I wasn't doing well in school and was barely getting by, I don't think I'd be able to pick up on little details like that.

Even the kid barely getting by knows this...

Every school is different, heck every course director is different. Some prepare you well for boards while others allow their test to be chuck full of obscure detail and/or have horribly written questions.

This really isn’t a hard scenario, get past preclinical while building a CV showing academic/research productivity.

 

[Deecee2DO]

DO school advisors dont know squat about matching into competitive programs. You have to do all your own research by talking to residents at programs you want to go to or academic faculty/PDs if you know them. DO schools number one goal is making sure you pass comlex level 1 and 2. They could give a rats ass about research, usmle in general, or connections/letters from well known faculty you know the stuff that actually matters for someone that wants to do something competitive. Do not listen to your school, in fact do the opposite (thats what I did). for example my “advisor” told me to spend time studying for OMM during the year because its prominent on comlex. I spent close to zero time studying OMM at all and spent all my time during M2 doing Step questions from qbanks, pathoma, boards and beyond and sketchy because this person has zero clue what shes talking about. If i had listened to her i (might) have gotten a higher comlex but definitely wouldnt have hit my usmle goal score

 

[djiboutiman]

I think you’re doing the right thing for now. Your first semester focus should be purely on keeping up with classes and building your study habits. But you need to do something besides school work eventually to give yourself an upper hand when it comes time for residency. This is especially true if you want to do something competitive.

I think the common approach is to do research between M1 and M2 and hopefully continue that during your M2 year. if your school doesn’t have much in terms of research, check out nearby MD schools, residencies, or even the professional specialty organizations. If you don’t like research though, you can always try doing some sort of volunteer activity.

If you find yourself with lots of free time then add some extracurriculars that interest you.

 

[cw2013]

"Competitive" is a relative term. Many specialties are straight up competitive at every program, BUT even in specialties not considered competitive, the top programs and best locations are going to be very competitive. At the competitive programs IM applicants will look a lot like the ortho applicants.

Figure out what you want and plan accordingly. If you want to expand your options research is a must.

 

[Tgfu34]

How can one get research opportunities if we don't go to an established school (ie newer DO school)?

I hear it's good to do it during summer after M1 but not sure how to find them

My school does not have hardly any research being performed and does not have an academic institution less than 2 hours away so getting research was hard for me. I started cold-emailing research directors of residency programs for the field I am interested in at locations nearby and ended up receiving 25-30 No's/radio silence. Eventually ended up receiving one school that was interested, went and interviewed for a spot in their lab and performed research there over the summer. Social media has also been priceless for me (Twitter) that has allowed me to connect with people I never thought I could. All I did was slide in the DM's of current residents asking if they needed a med student grunt to do some work and most of them were willing to look for a project. Being at a newer/non-research oriented DO school sucks but the opportunities are definitely out there - you'll just have to do more work on your end.

But the above posters have a great point - don't do research if you're not picky about location/specialty/not interested. It's a lot of time that could be used somewhere else, especially if you're more passionate about rural medicine. If you're looking for specific regions for residency, academic programs and competitive/hyper-competitive specialties, productive research is an absolute must.

 

[Sharingan001]

My school does not have hardly any research being performed and does not have an academic institution less than 2 hours away so getting research was hard for me. I started cold-emailing research directors of residency programs for the field I am interested in at locations nearby and ended up receiving 25-30 No's/radio silence. Eventually ended up receiving one school that was interested, went and interviewed for a spot in their lab and performed research there over the summer. Social media has also been priceless for me (Twitter) that has allowed me to connect with people I never thought I could. All I did was slide in the DM's of current residents asking if they needed a med student grunt to do some work and most of them were willing to look for a project. Being at a newer/non-research oriented DO school sucks but the opportunities are definitely out there - you'll just have to do more work on your end.

But the above posters have a great point - don't do research if you're not picky about location/specialty/not interested. It's a lot of time that could be used somewhere else, especially if you're more passionate about rural medicine. If you're looking for specific regions for residency, academic programs and competitive/hyper-competitive specialties, productive research is an absolute must.

How would one go about actually availing and completing research opportunities at places outside our research-lacking DO schools? My school only has 3 weeks or so off for summer break (not including remediation week). Can I realistically even complete anything during that time? Can research be done remotely where it doesn't matter where you physically reside?

 

[anonymouskoala28]

How would one go about actually availing and completing research opportunities at places outside our research-lacking DO schools? My school only has 3 weeks or so off for summer break (not including remediation week). Can I realistically even complete anything during that time? Can research be done remotely where it doesn't matter where you physically reside?

This is most definitely possible. I'm at a DO school with actually several labs, and it didn't do anything for me. I'm at the top of my class, lots of EC's, connections w/ faculty - still didn't get a SINGLE lab spot even with prior lab experience. I cold emailed several residents (even some back home where I was from in a very rural area). I emailed faculty about non-lab related projects as well. From this, I now have a completed lit review, going to help with 2 research projects residents are already working on - getting data now, one from back home is going to create a project for me over the summer and just finally got accepted for a remote position for a long-term project. None of these require me to be in person. Granted, these are a lot of projects so don't spread yourself too thin by accepting too many once you get some responses. If anyone else offered me something at this point I would turn it down. I'm interested in competitive surgical specialties so I know I need lots of research and if you're considering something similar I'd get on it. With COVID, a lot of things are remote right now so you'll probably have more luck than normal. I would email the closest hospital even if it's not that close and see if there's any residents that need a medical student to do the work they don't want to do. Most residencies require them to publish something.

 

[_DeBakey_]

ECs for the sake of ECs in med school outside of something research related is a WASTE. This is not undergrad anymore, you are all adults in grad school. Stop buying into the belief that everyone is going to be impressed by you doing something completely altruistic like volunteering at the local soup kitchen or organizing a zoom lecture for a group of students in your school club.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

Your friend sounds to be in denial. Apparently it’s common for floundering students to start bulking up on ECs hoping it will save them. But according The the PD survey, it won’t. Don’t let this so called friend drag you down too. They’re probably right that you should start branching out & emphasizing research as others have said. But in year one, a lot of us are just working on getting our study habits where they need to be. Research at this juncture is a bonus.

 

[Tgfu34]

How would one go about actually availing and completing research opportunities at places outside our research-lacking DO schools? My school only has 3 weeks or so off for summer break (not including remediation week). Can I realistically even complete anything during that time? Can research be done remotely where it doesn't matter where you physically reside?

You absolutely can heavily contribute/complete something during that time. I was able to find a spot in a lab by cold emailing program directors asking if they had any PI's looking for a summer student, but sometimes that doesn't always work. In regards to type of research, it will be tough to pump out a solid basic science paper in 3 weeks unless you join in on a project that is near completion. On the other hand, you could definitely complete a solid systematic review or a couple lit reviews in that time. I currently do all my research remotely - if you find a lab/group of students that is consistently publishing, odds are they could use someone for data analysis/writing. Show that you are reliable and dedicated and they should have no issues keeping you in the loop throughout the school year to maintain your research output, provided you want to continue during the year.

 

[TwistedTea]

Number of club memberships is inversely correlated with both intelligence and normality

 

[Chicken Bone]

How would one go about actually availing and completing research opportunities at places outside our research-lacking DO schools? My school only has 3 weeks or so off for summer break (not including remediation week). Can I realistically even complete anything during that time? Can research be done remotely where it doesn't matter where you physically reside?

I am doing four projects right now, after the first semester I submitted one manuscript and one abstract to a big conference. out of the current four projects, one is from the lab I worked before med school, we wrote a new paper based on my colleague's raw data, we did this during the winter break. One review paper is from my friend in graduate school, I barely do anything for that project but help him revise his manuscript with his mentor. Another one is a case-control study which is a little special, the guy a resident is my high school friend and he invited me to help him do this project with him, that is all. For the last project, I am the boss of this project it is something about my undergrad and grad study, I organized a team and do something and we sent in this abstract already and are finishing up the full paper right now. For summer, we now applying for the summer grant to continue this project to make it a pilot RCT. As you can see all of these are remote. All you need to do is even if you can't land anywhere, do something by yourself and organize a team for you. There are also many grant opportunities you can apply for if you have ideas (anything like do a survey is ok too), or even you don thave money just try to do something (like social media research about a certain disease, this is super easy people just watch youtube videos about a disease and publish papers for example). For timing, Nah, I don't see you can finish most of the things within three weeks (assume you are talking about from the preparation to manuscript submission)

I also highly suggest you read something about meta-analysis, I know an IM PGY-2 who is a guru in meta, he is pumping meta papers in high high impact journals every month. Once you know the trick for meta, it is very easy to publish (well although he suggests if you can find something else to do, do it over the meta, publishing too much meta is looked down on sometimes, he is doing this because he can't find anything else to do...)

another thing I wanted to say I am way away from the top rank, I score slightly less than average probably in the third quartile now, idc as long as I can pass I am satisfied. You need to make a balance in between if you think grades are important. although I know some geniuses who can do both things simultaneously, I am not hahah

 

[BakedButters]

Everyone is talking about research, but for the cohort with the step 1 pass/fail impact, shouldn't step 2 and class rank be of greater importance. Doesn't the Dean's letter reveal one's class rank?

 

[_DeBakey_]

Everyone is talking about research, but for the cohort with the step 1 pass/fail impact, shouldn't step 2 and class rank be of greater importance. Doesn't the Dean's letter reveal one's class rank?

What prevents class rank/grades from being a big determinant (as of now) is the differences between institutions.

Student #1 at school X finishes with a 74 and gets a "P" vs Student #1 at school Y finishes with a 74 and gets a "C".

Student #2 at school X finishes with a 94 and gets a "P" vs Student #2 at school Y finishes with a 94 and gets an "A".

Then some schools still do +/- so throw that in the mix and no PD is going to want to sort through it.

 

[BakedButters]

What prevents class rank/grades from being a big determinant (as of now) is the differences between institutions.

Student #1 at school X finishes with a 74 and gets a "P" vs Student #1 at school Y finishes with a 74 and gets a "C".

Student #2 at school X finishes with a 94 and gets a "P" vs Student #2 at school Y finishes with a 94 and gets an "A".

Then some schools still do +/- so throw that in the mix and no PD is going to want to sort through it.

Yes but there's internal ranking and quartile in the Dean's letter for comparison even if schools do P/F. At least I always see directors ranking Dean's letter high up in importance for ranking applicants.

https://mk0nrmp3oyqui6wqfm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-PD-Survey.pdf

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Everyone is talking about research, but for the cohort with the step 1 pass/fail impact, shouldn't step 2 and class rank be of greater importance. Doesn't the Dean's letter reveal one's class rank?

My rank that’s dead middle didn’t ever come up at my double digit academic interviews.. but my 10 pubs came up every time.

 

[Billroth_III]

I always thought your Deans Letter was fairly generic and just states that you were a good/great student and completed pre clinical years without failing.

Correct me if I’m wrong

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I always thought your Deans Letter was fairly generic and just states that you were a good/great student and completed pre clinical years without failing.

Correct me if I’m wrong

If schools rank the rank is usually included in the deans letter. Mine is.

 

[lazybutt26]

Yes but there's internal ranking and quartile in the Dean's letter for comparison even if schools do P/F. At least I always see directors ranking Dean's letter high up in importance for ranking applicants.

https://mk0nrmp3oyqui6wqfm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-PD-Survey.pdf

Could you elaborate on this? I don’t have much insight on this but just heard from school that our school doesn’t do the class ranking but something about the deans letter that will let the PDs know the academic performance during med school. I am class of 2024 and will be taking step 1 as P/F so there are much uncertainties as to how we would be evaluated. That friend I mentioned in the original post said yet again that the grades don’t matter because we don’t do the class ranking but I still think it’s important and it’s a cornerstone for everything

 

[lazybutt26]

My rank that’s dead middle didn’t ever come up at my double digit academic interviews.. but my 10 pubs came up every time.

how did you get so many pubs during med school! Spent a lot of time doing research apparently but how?!

 

[Billroth_III]

Could you elaborate on this? I don’t have much insight on this but just heard from school that our school doesn’t do the class ranking but something about the deans letter that will let the PDs know the academic performance during med school. I am class of 2024 and will be taking step 1 as P/F so there are much uncertainties as to how we would be evaluated. That friend I mentioned in the original post said yet again that the grades don’t matter because we don’t do the class ranking but I still think it’s important and it’s a cornerstone for everything

Cornerstone of what?

The first 2 years of med school test how well you can memorize minute details in a very short period of time and recall them for a poorly written exam by a bunch of PhDs.

You posted this back in November and had people telling you the same thing since then, what do you want us to say at this point?

If you think "it's a cornerstone for everything" then gun for the top spot, no one is stopping you.

 

[lazybutt26]

Cornerstone of what?

The first 2 years of med school test how well you can memorize minute details in a very short period of time and recall them for a poorly written exam by a bunch of PhDs.

You posted this back in November and had people telling you the same thing since then, what do you want us to say at this point?

If you think "it's a cornerstone for everything" then gun for the top spot, no one is stopping you.

Geez grouch. I posted this back in November and didn’t get a chance to see the comments until now. I guess you have so much time in your hands. For those who are getting good grades and put efforts to getting good grades, I believe their efforts should be at least acknowledged when being evaluated by residency programs that’s all. Plus, I hope you’re not just memorizing therm for the sake of passing the test, I hope you learn them and understand them because you will be using it to treat the patients? At least that’s how I see it

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Geez grouch. I posted this back in November and didn’t get a chance to see the comments until now. I guess you have so much time in your hands. For those who are getting good grades and put efforts to getting good grades, I believe their efforts should be at least acknowledged when being evaluated by residency programs that’s all. Plus, I hope you’re not just memorizing therm for the sake of passing the test, I hope you learn them and understand them because you will be using it to treat the patients? At least that’s how I see it

Lmao. Ok.

 

[recycledpaper]

The only things that matter for residency application are board scores, class rank/grades, and LORs (if it is from someone prominent in the field). Maybe throw in research if it's actually an interesting project, and even then this mostly demonstrates your resolve in finishing projects more so than actual content of the research (again, no one gives a ****).

No one gives a **** about your personal statement or if you were the president of your specialty interest group with 5 people in it where all you had to do was invite speakers and put together a few workshops. Anyone else who says otherwise does poorly in class/academics and is misleading you.

Everyone in my class who matched strongly did well on boards and class material. Almost no one had any major extracurricular activities.

 

[MICKY MANTLE]

The only things that matter for residency application are board scores, class rank/grades, and LORs (if it is from someone prominent in the field). Maybe throw in research if it's actually an interesting project, and even then this mostly demonstrates your resolve in finishing projects more so than actual content of the research (again, no one gives a ****).

No one gives a **** about your personal statement or if you were the president of your specialty interest group with 5 people in it where all you had to do was invite speakers and put together a few workshops. Anyone else who says otherwise does poorly in class/academics and is misleading you.

Everyone in my class who matched strongly did well on boards and class material. Almost no one had any major extracurricular activities.

"throw in research if it's actually an interesting project, and even then this mostly demonstrates your resolve in finishing projects more so than actual content of the research (again, no one gives a ****)."

I would say that this is not necessarily true....academics look for a commitment to research, especially in the uber competitive fields( Neurosurgery, plastics, etc), even more so for the DO applicant.