Importance of 4th Year Elective Grades

[biofreak21]

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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?

Thanks!

 

[GoSpursGo]

Way less important than your step 1 score and your overall grade trend, but while it's impossible to accurately weight every detail in some formula, everything "matters." Anything lower than an HP, let alone a negative comment on MSPE, would raise some eyebrows, as generally everyone knows you're going into that field and thus tend to play nice on grades unless they really have a reason to dislike you. But at the end of the day it's just one piece of the puzzle, and if the rest of your app is great it'll likely have minimal impact.

If you're fretting about HP, you should just forget about it.

 

[biofreak21]

Thanks! This is reassuring to know!

 

[jurassicpark]

Way less important than your step 1 score and your overall grade trend, but while it's impossible to accurately weight every detail in some formula, everything "matters." Anything lower than an HP, let alone a negative comment on MSPE, would raise some eyebrows, as generally everyone knows you're going into that field and thus tend to play nice on grades unless they really have a reason to dislike you. But at the end of the day it's just one piece of the puzzle, and if the rest of your app is great it'll likely have minimal impact.

If you're fretting about HP, you should just forget about it.

exactly. Just make sure you don't slip down.

But if you're applying IM, those sub-i's are important especially if you're doing an audition rotation. Shine, baby shine!