grading systems

[TxEMDoc08]

Hey guys, I was wondering how much you think the grading system of a school should weigh in on one's final decision when deciding where to go. I know that the grading system can have an effect on the environment of the school, i.e. how "cut throat" the class is, but other than that, does it really matter?

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[lord_jeebus]

I'm a 4th year student at an H/P/F school. We are rare for having no form of class rank, nor an AOA chapter (all but 4 schools have one).

I don't think it should be a factor in your selection of a school at all.

Competitive people will be competitive and find ways to look good at others' expense in any grading system. Preclinical grades are irrelevant, so if you're stressing over getting an A in those courses you are just hurting yourself. Preclinical grading systems are completely different from school to school, so residency directors assess your learning of this material by looking at your Step 1 score instead.

All schools will have narrative evaluations for clinical rotations, which do matter, and certain people will be motivated to work harder than others. A few of those will do things that will hurt their peers. This is true anywhere, and you can probably identify the future generation of such people by looking around your premed classes.

 

[Doublecortin]

I've heard that every single med school in the country ranks its students, although they may not admit that or state that explicitly anywhere. I know at UCLA their classes are p/f but they have an internal system where the top10% or so get Honors on their transcript. At UCI I also heard that they rank their students, although the dean stated otherwise. I think deans say that to create a less competitive environment.

The reason I think is that when you apply for residency, your dean needs to say " Oh such and such, was in the top 20% of his class, blah, blah, blah"

I'd like to hear what other people know

 

[lord_jeebus]

Every school, even one without a secret internal rank, will assign an adjective to you in your Dean's Letter which goes out with your residency application. It is found in the last paragraph and is generally on the scale of outstanding-excellent-very good-good-adequate. This adjective indicates where you stand relative to your peers. In some cases, the association of adjective with class rank may be explicit (eg. top 5% = outstanding). In my case, it (for better or worse) is the Dean's gestalt feel for where I stand.

Similarly, because almost every school has AOA, they have some sort of system for awarding it to students, and residency programs know that such a student is in a top fraction of their class.

 

[vr4nut]

Similarly, because almost every school has AOA, they have some sort of system for awarding it to students, and residency programs know that such a student is in a top fraction of their class.

I've always wondered, for schools without an AOA chapter, does that mean none of the students make AOA?

That could be something to consider, since AOA will help your application to residency programs.

After suffering through the H/HP/P/F system, I decided early on I would rather just be assigned an exact percentile for each course and overall. That way you (and residency programs) know exactly where you stand and you don't have to get depressed if you miss a cutoff by one point or something stupid like that. There is no way you can be mis-represented (for better or for worse ) with such a system. Competition will be high no matter what system is used, because even with H/HP/P/F, students ARE ranked in the end for AOA selection and MSPE letters, as has been mentioned.

To answer the original question, I don't think grading system should factor into your decision on which school to attend. Everyone will crab about grades no matter how they are figured.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I've always wondered, for schools without an AOA chapter, does that mean none of the students make AOA?

That could be something to consider, since AOA will help your application to residency programs.

ERAS gives you 3 options: AOA, not AOA, no AOA chapter, so PD's know if it was available to you.

2 of the 4 schools without AOA are Harvard and Stanford and they seem to do extraordinarily well in the match.