How strict are USMLE cutoffs for residency interview consideration?

[zofrantic]

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It's with great trepidation that I'm posting on SDN, because I'm pretty sure it's just going to freak me out. But nevertheless...

US MD student applying to anesthesiology with Step 1 of 219 and Step 2 of 228. Not great, but surely adequate to match somewhere. Looking through FREIDA, I'm seeing a lot of programs with Step 1 cutoffs of 220. At the moment, ~10 of my preliminary ~30 program list explicitly states a cutoff. Is it worth applying to them anyway? Thanks.

 

[Dermione Granger]

U can email to find out. Usually cut offs are strict but maybe waived for home students / rotators

 

[operaman]

If your app is very strong otherwise and you have we'll known faculty at your school, that can sometimes get past it. If you have an awesome back story, this can help too, though you really need some way to get a real human to look at it. If you have any connections at those programs, you can use those to get past it as well.

I remember one student at our school a few years back who matched to a competitive specialty at a great program with a published cutoff on their website 20 pts higher than his/hers.

 

[DermViser]

Is FREIDA that accurate in general? Most would say the info is quite dated.

 

[ACSurgeon]

Unless you communicate directly with the program and hear that cutoffs on their website are not strictly enforced, I would assume that they are strictly enforced. You can still apply, but any program who you don't meet the cutoff for should be in addition to the programs that you do meet the cutoff for. So, if you were planning to apply to 20 programs only, and added the 10 that you don't meet the cutoff for, then that's fine. If you were planning to apply to 30, then you're actually applying to 20. If you start getting interviews from these programs, at that point I'd assume that their cutoff is no longer relevant. It's always interesting when students try to avoid the cost of an additional 5-10 programs when applying for residency. The cost of reapplying and potentially delaying your training completion is far more expensive.

 

[colbgw02]

It's always interesting when students try to avoid the cost of an additional 5-10 programs when applying for residency. The cost of reapplying and potentially delaying your training completion is far more expensive.

Excellent advise. NRMP and interviews are costly, no doubt, especially when you're living off of loans. And it's easy to feel like it's a waste, but it's nothing compared to the cost of going unmatched. Like so many things, it's a risk/benefit analysis. It's crazy to overvalue the benefit of a few thousand dollars less of debt when a decent applicant can virtually drop the risk of going unmatched to zero by spending that money.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Is FREIDA that accurate in general? Most would say the info is quite dated.

Agreed. I would not put much stock in any "cutoffs" on FREIDA.

Given the (relatively) low cost of adding more programs on your ERAs app, I wouldn't make too many decisions based on these supposed cutoffs.


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[zofrantic]

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, the marginal cost of applying to a bunch of extra programs is pretty low in the grand scheme of becoming a physician. So I'm probably just going to apply indiscriminately (and perhaps add a few more programs onto my list) and do the more in-depth research once I get interviews.

 

[iwrobleski]

From someone in a similar situation in terms of board scores, any updates on how it all turned out?

 

[repititionition]

From someone in a similar situation in terms of board scores, any updates on how it all turned out?

you'd probably getter a better response by quoting their post (like this), so they get a notification