how important are clinical rotation grades . . .

[HiddenTruth]

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of rotations (specialties) which you will not apply to?

 

[Seaglass]

An isolated Pass here or there probably doesn't hurt you much, a pattern of just passing with an isolated honors/high pass probably doesn't help you. All honors/high pass definitely helps. Certain specialties want to see you do well in other specialties. For example, in EM they like to see that you did well in IM for example, although a pass won't really hurt you either.

C

 

[Rogue_Leader]

Here's what I've heard (anecdotally) that residency programs look at in order of importance.

1. Step 1 score
2. Clinical rotation grades
3. Recommendations.
4. Basic Science and med grades (First and second year courses)
5. Research experience (depending on what field you're going for).
6. Everything else they say they care about but really don't (Extra carriculars, essays, etc).

Number 6 is mainly good for interview fodder so they have something to talk about while they decide to reject you because you're ugly and have the fashion sense of a chimp. Also, the school you went to plays a rold in there, probably somewhere between 5 and 6 (You know, the difference in going to HMS vs. East Podunk State medical college).

 

[Sweet Tea]

Here's what I've heard (anecdotally) that residency programs look at in order of importance.

1. Step 1 score
2. Clinical rotation grades
3. Recommendations.
4. Basic Science and med grades (First and second year courses)
5. Research experience (depending on what field you're going for).
6. Everything else they say they care about but really don't (Extra carriculars, essays, etc).

Number 6 is mainly good for interview fodder so they have something to talk about while they decide to reject you because you're ugly and have the fashion sense of a chimp. Also, the school you went to plays a rold in there, probably somewhere between 5 and 6 (You know, the difference in going to HMS vs. East Podunk State medical college).

Hey now-- I go to East Podunk State Medical College!! I love my school and wouldn't trade it for the world.

 

[EctopicFetus]

I would argue that research is much more important in competetive fields. 1st and 2nd yr grades pretty much dont really matter unless you are going into Pathology. They seem to care more.

 

[dancelover]

I heard that an Honors/High Pass in Internal Medicine is always helpful, regardless of what specialty you intend to go into. Not sure if that's true but it sounds reasonable.

 

[HiddenTruth]

I would argue that research is much more important in competetive fields. 1st and 2nd yr grades pretty much dont really matter unless you are going into Pathology. They seem to care more.

i would definately agree--and to add to it, the EXTENT of your research (publication, location, who u worked with, etc.) vs a one month research elective at your school to write on your CV that you had "research experience" is very important. Compet. fields wanna see some kind of publication and like to see some time put into it. I mean we all know one month, even 2 months of any kind of research is pretty podunk. Afterall, the purpose of research is not only for the sake of doing research, but shows a lot about you as a person. E.g if you did research in the summer btwn MS1 and MS2, you were willing to give up that summer; you seem determined and motivated. If you had been doing research all along your basic sci years, you were able to multi-task and carry on a huge academic load concomittantly with some scientific research--from attending an ACS conference, this latter reasoning is the significance of research for most PD's and practicing attendings I met. These are my $0.025 (I think it was worth a bit more, eh?). 😀

 

[Mumpu]

Per my schools' dean, only having "Pass" grades on clinical rotations will HURT you. Unless you molest your patients you will pass every rotation so passing makes it look like you were merely present there -- no effort, no enthusiasm, no learning (even though it may be untrue -- I know people who got taken down from H to P because of a poor Shelf score). I'm not saying that you need to gun everything, but put in some effort here and there and pick up a couple of HP's and H's.

 

[chicamedica]

what about schools that hide the HP grades and report them all as Pass?

Do residency programs ever know that those passes were HPs?

 

[Seaglass]

What's the point of having high pass if your school doesn't report it?

 

[blackwell]

I think the schools may still use the internal grade of HP for
class rank purposes - even if it doesn't show up on your transcript.

 

[chicamedica]

What's the point of having high pass if your school doesn't report it?

I know seriously. . .It's such a bummer.

Maybe the internal class rank is true. At this point, I've completely lost any care for what my rank is (as of 2-3 years ago).