Grades and residency

[OnMyWayThere]

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I am sorry to bother your thread with this... I am just looking a head a few years and was wondering:

What factors are taken into consideration when applying to a competitive residency? (LORS, MS grades, Undergrad, USMLE)??

Thank you all in advance...

 

[goobernaculum]

undergrad...don't worry about that for residency. that only matters for med school (no matter what other people say it really really does help if you do well at a well known undergrad. just look at the class composition of the top 5 schools).
for residency, think about usmle, lors, grades, research, and last - and probably least - extracurriculars. plus...it helps if you do well at a well known med school also. their match lists aren't top notch by mere coincidence. keep in mind that clinical grades are much more heavily weighed over pre-clinical grades (that is, if your school is on a grading system rather than a pass/fail system).

 

[Kalel]

For most residency programs, I think that it goes like this:
Clincal grades and evals>LOR>USMLE I>USMLE II>research experience>leadership positions> preclinical grades> extracurriculars. This formula differs depending on the program (academic vs community) and specialty (family med vs surgical subspecialty) you are applying for. An example of their differences would be how family med programs may put a lot of value in community health extracurricular activities while other specialties may wonder why you weren't using that time to conduct research. Most places use step I as a cutoff too.

 

[Jalby]

Clincal grades and evals>LOR>USMLE I>USMLE II>research experience>leadership positions> preclinical grades> extracurriculars.

This is pretty accurate. Here is what I have heard (roughly)

Clincal grades and evals=USMLE I>LOR>research experience>leadership positions> preclinical grades> extracurriculars


I don't include USMLE II because most students don't take it before they already have matched or finished interviewing.

 

[omarsaleh66]

pertaining to research, how many papers do competitive applicants get published? (sorry if this is a dumb question)

Im asking this cuz its kinda cool that research is more important than preclinical grades. I am working on a paper right now for Anesthesia Journal, and if research is that good, ill focus alot more time on trying to get published than preclinical classes.

thanks u guys for the insight

1

Omar

 

[hammertime]

This is the wrong attitude to take. Yes, I agree that preclinical grades are lower on the importance ladder, but working hard in your first two years can translate into a better board score and can even help on the shelf-exams during your clinical years.

Research should viewed as icing on the cake, not a requirement. If you have a desire to work in academia, match in a competetive residency or are really interested in pursuing it, then by all means go for it. But never give it more weight than your classwork.

 

[Jalby]

Originally posted by hammertime
This is the wrong attitude to take. Yes, I agree that preclinical grades are lower on the importance ladder, but working hard in your first two years can translate into a better board score and can even help on the shelf-exams during your clinical years.

Working efficiently the first 2 years translates into good board scores, not working hard. If you focus on the material that is in the review books, you will know the stuff most likely to be on the boards a lot better than the other stuff which is necessary to get a high grade in the individual class. i.e. 80% of what is in class will be on boards. I spend 95% of my time on that, 5% on the other, when it comes time to study for boards I'm a lot more prepared than the person trying to get honors and spands 70% on the 80 and 30% on the stuff that will seperate them from the rest of their class.