Honoring all third year clerkships

[ponyfan]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I first want to preface this by saying that I attend a small (under 30 students per year) sub-campus of a middle tier medical school so it difficult to gauge my performance due such a small sample size, and my school has been less than helpful with supplying information about the university as a whole. But what percentage of MS3's nationally honor all of their required clerkships?

 

[DocDanny]

I first want to preface this by saying that I attend a small (under 30 students per year) sub-campus of a middle tier medical school so it difficult to gauge my performance due such a small sample size, and my school has been less than helpful with supplying information about the university as a whole. But what percentage of MS3's nationally honor all of their required clerkships?

Some of the clerkships that are part of my school won't honor ANYBODY, no matter what they do.

One told me that it would be impossible to honor an M3 because everybody has something they need to work on.

 

[golfman]

I first want to preface this by saying that I attend a small (under 30 students per year) sub-campus of a middle tier medical school so it difficult to gauge my performance due such a small sample size, and my school has been less than helpful with supplying information about the university as a whole. But what percentage of MS3's nationally honor all of their required clerkships?

Hard to say. At least at my school, I haven't heard of anybody that has. Our school tends to honor around 20% of the class for each rotation. With 3rd year grading as subjective as it is, and with a big part of your grade being just luck of the draw in terms of who evaluates you, it's tough to honor all of them. Even the smartest, best 3rd year students usually have at least one rotation where there evaluator is just a harsh grader (just gives everybody average).

Good question, though. I would say 5% honor all of them. But maybe different schools are more lenient in giving honors, in that case maybe more people would get it.

 

[username456789]

Hard to say. At least at my school, I haven't heard of anybody that has. Our school tends to honor around 20% of the class for each rotation. With 3rd year grading as subjective as it is, and with a big part of your grade being just luck of the draw in terms of who evaluates you, it's tough to honor all of them. Even the smartest, best 3rd year students usually have at least one rotation where there evaluator is just a harsh grader (just gives everybody average).

Good question, though. I would say 5% honor all of them. But maybe different schools are more lenient in giving honors, in that case maybe more people would get it.

Wow, 20%? Our school gives honors to 10%.

 

[golfman]

Wow, 20%? Our school gives honors to 10%.

Yeah, some rotations at our school do 10%, but most do around 20%. Or so we are told.

 

[BigRedder]

Our honors is the equivalent of an A, so it's also about 15-20%. In any given rotation that means like 3-6 students. If it were simply probability the number would be very low, but frankly the skills that help you in one rotation will help you in all, so the same people tend to get honors every time. If you are a hardworking, motivated person, and you do well on shelf exams, you should be able to do pretty well. Honors in all? Tough, but not impossible.

 

[dienekes88]

The Ladder.

I've heard of two people at my school in the last 3 years.

 

[golfman]

The Ladder.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

 

[mglavin]

3 people in my class of ~170 got all honors

 

[mmmcdowe]

I've seen a few 100% honors in the data published by my school.

 

[dienekes88]

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Hahahaha.

H
H
H
H
H
H
H

Looks similar, right?

 

[badasshairday]

Wow, 20%? Our school gives honors to 10%.

10% sounds like it would make gunnerism run rampant on the wards.

 

[username456789]

10% sounds like it would make gunnerism run rampant on the wards.

Surprisingly, this hasn't been my experience this year. But I know of several people who have performed at what I think many would consider "Honors" level who were skipped over for the designation. I myself dealt with it once on my very first rotation, for which they even state up front "We only handed out one Honors last year, and we never do it during the first half of the year, because let's be honest, a medical student in the beginning of their third year can't possibly be functioning anywhere near what one could consider 'Honors' level".

I got an "A" in that rotation, and was told I was as close to "Honors" as could be. All the glowing praise in the world, however, is pretty pointless when they still thumb their nose at you like that.

I honestly don't think I'd even care if I hadn't been planning all along to do an extremely competitive field, and am just now starting to consider an even more competitive specialty. There are a few other people I know of (who have been all-stars on rotations and done very well on shelves but still did not receive Honors) applying to things like Derm/Plastics/Ortho/Rads/RadOnc who are surely going to be going "up against" people from other schools who pan-honored M3. That kinda stinks, I guess.

 

[2012mdc]

Surprisingly, this hasn't been my experience this year. But I know of several people who have performed at what I think many would consider "Honors" level who were skipped over for the designation. I myself dealt with it once on my very first rotation, for which they even state up front "We only handed out one Honors last year, and we never do it during the first half of the year, because let's be honest, a medical student in the beginning of their third year can't possibly be functioning anywhere near what one could consider 'Honors' level".

I got an "A" in that rotation, and was told I was as close to "Honors" as could be. All the glowing praise in the world, however, is pretty pointless when they still thumb their nose at you like that.

I honestly don't think I'd even care if I hadn't been planning all along to do an extremely competitive field, and am just now starting to consider an even more competitive specialty. There are a few other people I know of (who have been all-stars on rotations and done very well on shelves but still did not receive Honors) applying to things like Derm/Plastics/Ortho/Rads/RadOnc who are surely going to be going "up against" people from other schools who pan-honored M3. That kinda stinks, I guess.

Are you worried PD's won't pay attention to the grade breakdown in the Dean's letter or that they just won't care?

Because grading policies differ so much I've always assumed that in terms of objective 3rd year performance one was compared to the rest of his school more than other applicants (save for shelf exams). Is this assumption wrong?

 

[yayMD]

I don't think it's that difficult if you have good people skills and don't mind being a sleep deprived slave for a year.

 

[username456789]

Are you worried PD's won't pay attention to the grade breakdown in the Dean's letter or that they just won't care?

Because grading policies differ so much I've always assumed that in terms of objective 3rd year performance one was compared to the rest of his school more than other applicants (save for shelf exams). Is this assumption wrong?

I honestly don't know how it works, so hopefully you're right.