watermelon master said:
Would have been nice if you also quoted where preclinical grades lies on that list
To answer your narrowly framed question, the answer is ...depends.@ MedEd said it better than I could. As I mentioned in my post which you neglected to acknowledge, you have to live with this person for 3 or more years. LORs, auditions, boards, class rank, interview, all go into the decision to match someone.. Step score is important, and helps get you a look, but is not the defining element. Plenty of people have perfect SATs and dont get into Harvard.
It's the single most important thing that prevents you from getting screened out, but that doesn't mean you're getting interviewed/ranked.
You should do both!.. but in reality, if you're an 80%+ student, that's fine. A 70% student would worry me.
focus on passing + high step score. Step 1 score is the most important factor when getting an interview
It's always step > grades. But doing well in both is also an option...my school consistently shows that the factor they've found to correlate most with step 1 score is pre clinical performance.
Untrue. When writing a LOR, I always include class rank. When I sat on a resident selection committee, it was also a determining factor. PD surveys indicate that Step is one of the foremost factors, no doubt about it. Who do you think the program takes? Someone with high step and top third class rank, or someone with high step and bottom third? The latter might indicate someone who is bright and lazy. A bad combination for a resident, who will be in the program for at least 3 years. Many factors go into deciding which applicant a program will rank.
Oh I know. I've always said supplement class material with board stuff. But completely ignoring it and not doing well in coursework really doesn't seem like the best idea
All of the PDs and actual physicians are saying step is only part of it and grades do matter (although not a ton). Why do you think you're more correct then people who have actually gone through the process? Haven't you not even taken step yet? I'm just wondering where you are getting the data to back up your horrendous advice to incoming first years.
Agreed, AOA is a scholastic honorary society looking at multiple factors, but you cant be AOA without high class rank. It is school specific as you said. At my Wife's school you had to be in the top 10% . Agreed, you could be top 10% and not be AOA, but most were in her class. So I will continue to maintain that class rank is an important factor when RANKING a candidate. As the PD survey indicates, Step 1 is probably the best indicator for granting an interview, but your whole app and your interview get you the spot. From reading some of these posts, I think some students believe that getting a good Step score is the only thing that matters.
Not crazy at all. If you look at the PD survey above, 70% of PDs list class rank as a "citing factor" for granting an interview. So 70 % of programs look at class rank before granting an interview
"look at class rank"
Once again, you would be correct. My point is analogous to your point about what " let grades decline means" . Surely nobody splits candidates by top quarter or top third. As you point out, competetive programs look to see if your not in the bottom third. It is clearly a factor that more competetive programs consider. Just as there wont be a big distinction between getting 95% vs 87 to 92%. But if a high step score doesnt correlate with class rank, it makes one consider what's going on? Is the student shy? Have a poor work ethic? Too dogmatic and innefecient? Why did they excel in didactic work and not clinicals? This is all I'm trying to say. I think some read my comments that not being in the top third will exclude them from being ranked. In most cases this wont be true.
You and I are on the exact same page. 👍
