Thanks captain obvious.
However, one can do well on the boards going to any of these schools if they put their mind to it. You will notice if you look at the UF match lists that many people matched in at UF not out of state places like Harvard. You will also learn that if you talk to med students that many are not aiming to go to Harvard or Hopkins for residency. In fact, I know of an EM resident on here who says he's way happier at his small community hospital in Michigan then he was when he was at Duke in a diff. residency program before reapplying for the Match. I also know that several people in Tampa, for instance, stay in Tampa post med school for residency out of choice not because they couldn't go elsewhere. Those who really gunned to go elsewhere to top residencies did make it in to those top medical centers. Those who chose to stay did so usually for reasons related to spouse or other familial reason or other reasons in general. At the end of the day, going to a place like HMS for residency or even med school isn't what makes a better doctor. The work you put in to learn how to become a competent physician is what will make you a good doctor.
UF's board scores are strong. That is true. But if you look at their match lists you'll find most people don't end up either by choice or not by choice to go up north or wherever the best known residency programs are in a given field. Miami has a smaller average by a few points and yet they have shown people to match in competitive fields. So has USF. Its just the way it goes.
I want to make 3 quick comments:
1) You should NOT be making your decision on which med school to attend by their "avg board scores". I have said this multiple times in the past on these forums. I think this is a poor measure of any med school. Why? Because how a med student performs on the Step exams is significantly less a reflection of their med school education and more about how well they studied during the weeks prior to the exam and how naturally good they are at standardized tests. Sure you have to study well and you need good teachers and study environment at your med school, but face it - the majority of your learning is based on how much individual effort you put into studying and all med schools will teach you what you need to know for the boards. Plus, the boards test your knowledge differently than your med school classes will so you actually study a little differently. My point is that all of the FL school have competitive board score averages. If school A has say an average of 225 and school B has an average of 230 this tells you absolutely nothing - I repeat,
nothing - about the quality of education at each school. Plus, board score averages change year to year so the next year school B might not do as well as school A. Make your med school decision based on other factors that have been discussed previously. Forget board scores.
2) Someone mentioned previously that they didn't know what a competitive board score is. I think the average from year to year nationwide is 216-218. Most of the competitive specialties (plastics, derm, rad onc, ENT, etc) do screen out applicants with lower board scores - they have the luxury of doing so because they have so many qualified people applying and most people have great scores. I know that for example at USF the ENT program looks for 225 and above. A lot of rad onc programs look only at applicants with at least a 230. I'd say if you have above a 220 you'd be in the running for a competitive program, but most people aim for at least a 230. This is a generalization and there will be exceptions. I know of people who have been interviewed at 1st tier programs such as Harvard with less than a 220, but obviously they had other aspects to their application that made them stellar. I should clarify that plenty of people match into residencies with less than a 220, but these tend to be less competitive fields like psychiatry, internal med, peds, etc. I applied for radiation oncology this year, which is one of the tougher fields to get into nowadays, and eventually was offered a residency position outside of the match a week ago. My Step 1 score was ~230 and Step 2 score was ~250. I am not AOA or #1 in my class. I tell you all this only to show you being competitive is more than just your scores and your grades. Many of the other people interviewing for the same rad onc spots that I were AOA and had 260+ Step scores. I worked my butt off doing extra research and spent a lot of time in the rad onc dept at the Moffitt Cancer Center which led to great letters of rec. Being competitive is much more than a Step score...but a strong Step score will definitely get you past the initial screening process.
3) I agree with the sentiment posted above. Just because you are AOA and have a 260 Step 1 score, that doesn't mean you want or need to go to somewhere prestigious. Plenty of people choose to stay locally due to family, etc and are happier that they did so. You'll see when you are in my shoes that residency decisions are very much based on location, family, and how you liked each program on your interviews. The most competitive programs that I interviewed at just weren't right for me based on my impression of the residents when I interviewed, the program setup, the faculty, etc.
I hope these points help.
I wonder if there's anything we can do about that.
