EM Chances After Step 1

Started by Isoval
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Isoval

Isoval

Newly-minted attending :)
Verified Member
Physician
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7+ Year Member
Alright, I'm just going to throw this out on the table because I'm too lazy to make an anonymous account.

I got my USMLE scores back this morning and did markedly worse than my UWSA predictions; over 15 points lower than UWSA 2 and 20 lower than UWSA 1.

How realistic is it to match into Emergency Medicine with a 224 or should I start putting my eggs into the Internal Medicine basket?

I'm still a little shell-shocked by the score. I do not have COMLEX yet.
 
Isoval said:
Alright, I'm just going to throw this out on the table because I'm too lazy to make an anonymous account.

I got my USMLE scores back this morning and did markedly worse than my UWSA predictions; over 15 points lower than UWSA 2 and 20 lower than UWSA 1.

How realistic is it to match into Emergency Medicine with a 224 or should I start putting my eggs into the Internal Medicine basket?

I'm still a little shell-shocked by the score. I do not have COMLEX yet.
Click to expand...
I'm an MD student but I'm in the same boat. Heavily debating just applying IM at this point
 
Isoval said:
Alright, I'm just going to throw this out on the table because I'm too lazy to make an anonymous account.

I got my USMLE scores back this morning and did markedly worse than my UWSA predictions; over 15 points lower than UWSA 2 and 20 lower than UWSA 1.

How realistic is it to match into Emergency Medicine with a 224 or should I start putting my eggs into the Internal Medicine basket?

I'm still a little shell-shocked by the score. I do not have COMLEX yet.
Click to expand...

I think that’s fine. I’m not in EM but I have a lot of friends who are and applied with similar stats and matched top 3.

That being said, IM is absolutely becoming more competitive — at least the top/above average programs. On the other hand, smaller to midsize community programs are very attainable with that score. That’s just my input!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
sdfa8 said:
I think that’s fine. I’m not in EM but I have a lot of friends who are and applied with similar stats and matched top 3.

That being said, IM is absolutely becoming more competitive — at least the top/above average programs. On the other hand, smaller to midsize community programs are very attainable with that score. That’s just my input!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Do you think a university IM program would be doable?
 
Isoval said:
Alright, I'm just going to throw this out on the table because I'm too lazy to make an anonymous account.

I got my USMLE scores back this morning and did markedly worse than my UWSA predictions; over 15 points lower than UWSA 2 and 20 lower than UWSA 1.

How realistic is it to match into Emergency Medicine with a 224 or should I start putting my eggs into the Internal Medicine basket?

I'm still a little shell-shocked by the score. I do not have COMLEX yet.
Click to expand...
Always thought that 225+ was good enough for EM especially at community programs, EM likes step 2 and SLOE's more anyway, for IM it should be good enough for low tier university and community programs.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Isoval said:
Do you think a university IM program would be doable?
Click to expand...

Yes but what I’ve realized after applying to residency is there are low tier university and high tier community, if that makes sense. Some community programs give you some pretty great experience while there are some university programs that are meh. So in the end it’s absolutely up to how you feel about what they offer - is it more inpatient or outpatient electives you want? Do they give you a huge educational stipend and resources or relatively less so? Is the patient population mostly Medicaid or more wealthy families? All of that isn’t directly related to rank or status and more if it’s in line with what you’re looking to do after training.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
sdfa8 said:
Yes but what I’ve realized after applying to residency is there are low tier university and high tier community, if that makes sense. Some community programs give you some pretty great experience while there are some university programs that are meh. So in the end it’s absolutely up to how you feel about what they offer - is it more inpatient or outpatient electives you want? Do they give you a huge educational stipend and resources or relatively less so? Is the patient population mostly Medicaid or more wealthy families? All of that isn’t directly related to rank or status and more if it’s in line with what you’re looking to do after training.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I see what you mean. Thanks so much for your insight!

And ditto with everyone else! I'm still a little surprised I scored so far under my practice tests, but you guys have made me realize it isn't, in fact...really all that bad?

Much love to you all!
 
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