Importance of 4th Year Elective Grades

[biofreak21]

Hey everyone,

I am a fourth year applying for IM this upcoming cycle. Currently, in the midst of some 4th year electives, and I wanted to know the general stance and weight given to 4th year grades by residency PDs. Currently, our fourth year grades have a purely subjective H, HP, P, F grading scheme and so I have concerns of my grades based on the discretion of various attendings. How much do 4th year grades matter for determining interview invitations (assuming you pass)? Or does a drop from 3rd year grades to HP and P 4th year grades reflect poorly even if you did well 3rd year? (Note this is not a post to try to cruise through my fourth year electives and scrape a pass, but more so concern for subjectivity and possible grade changes noted on my transcript despite putting in effort).

Thanks!

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[pgy0246]

Grades in medicine sub-I and ICU will matter as this show PD you can handle the more intense workload as an intern.
I also encourage my MS-4 to carry a minimum of 4-5 patients, involved in admission order, dc summary and formulate their own assessment and plan to help their preparation for intern year.

MS-4 who done 4-5 intense rotation as a 4th year really get a head-start come their intern year

 

[IM-2019]

ERAS only including my first few rotations from 4th year and then grades weren't updated again unless we requested them to be, from what I recall. The main focus was on Honoring Sub-I and also on getting letters from attendings from Sub-I and any medicine electives that you needed. Our IM PD essentially told us that 3rd year clerkship grade in medicine was the most important, followed by the Sub-I and then other 3rd year clerkships and then electives last.

My school actually had easier grading on electives 4th year or maybe I just got luckier with my graders, but I had significantly more honors as a 4th year, but I don't recall interviewers really ever mentioning grades with me. They seemed more interested in what my schedule was like for 4th year, and I specifically had one say that he was glad I was taking medicine electives throughout the year rather than setting up a lot of non-clinical rotations near the end, as that leads to a rougher start to intern year. I did still have a few easy electives, but it was roughly 75% required or medicine, and I had reasons for why I had signed up for those easier electives when asked.

 

[Laradd]

Grades really don't matter if your step scores are good enough. Just don't fail anything and you'll be fine

 

[jdh71]

What’s your bench?