Importance of 2nd year path course?

[getunconcsious]

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Hi guys,
I am an MS2 who is interested in Pathology. As at most schools, we take Pathology during the 2nd year. It's a big long course and goes for the whole year. I'm just wondering if the pressure is on me to do well in it, and if so how well (honors or just high pass?) I'm looking for input because I've heard 3 different opinions on the subject:

1) MS2 pathology is more important than MS3 rotations if you end up wanting to do path (this is from an older path attending)

2) All residency programs, including pathology, don't care at all about basic science grades and will not pay any attention to your grade in the course. Rotations are still the most important thing (This from a path resident)

3) Pathology is soooo uber easy to get into that nothing you do matters, and you could get Passes in everything from here on out and match wherever you want (Pretty much everyone else I've asked)

So what is the real story? Do I need to do well in the course? I enjoy it and think I could high pass it just based on that. But do I need to honor? Or is it true that no one will care what grade I make?

 

[djmd]

2) All residency programs, including pathology, don't care at all about basic science grades and will not pay any attention to your grade in the course. Rotations are still the most important thing (This from a path resident)

Door #2.

I would say that a grade better than pass in MS2 pathology MIGHT help, but a High pass or honors in MS3/4 pathology is more important...

And pathology is not as hard as Derm, or Urology.. but it is not a match where ever you want if you show up field, strong programs are selective.
(try reading the multiple discussion regarding residency)

 

[yaah]

I'm sure some interviewers and PDs will glance at your path score, but so many schools are pass fail now that I doubt they would even give it a second thought. The main issue would be did you fail any courses, not whether you honored them.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Door #2 for me as well. Getting High Passes/Passes in your 3rd year clerkships is acceptable. Honoring your path rotation is important but should be much easier than Honoring let's say medicine or surgery. When I did my path rotation, all 6 of us got Honors because we gave a 15 minute talk at the end of the rotation

Door #3 is a bit extreme. But if you just passed everything, you should still be able to match somewhere. You may even be lucky and match at your top choice.

I guess in the end, I'm somewhere between #2 and #3 cuz I do think that matching in path overall is uber easy. As djmd says, there are a handful of more selective programs where things may be a bit more competitive.

As for #1...nobody really looks hard at your pre-clinical grades. Just learn enough and keep up during MS2 year so that you can ace your step 1...that will do much more wonders for you. Scoring extremely well on Step 1 automatically places you in the upper tier of the applicant pool.

 

[getunconcsious]

Thanks for the advice guys. Good to know the pressure's off. I'd like to do well in it b/c it's so good for the boards, but I'm glad it's not an uber important grade or anything. *sigh of relief*