List- Step 1 scores by school - add your school on here

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golfman

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I know there is another thread on this, but there isn't much of a list of scores. Maybe a thread dedicated to a list would help. I think we should maybe sticky this puppy and keep it growing. If you don't want to divulge what school you go to just PM me and I'll add it in.

Medical College of Wisconsin (as of c/o 2012) = 226
Northwestern (c/o 2012) = 240
West Virginia University (as of c/o 2011) = 226
Creighton (c/o 2011) = 226
University of Virginia (c/o 2012) = 236
Loma Linda (c/o 2011) = 226
UAMS (c/o 2012)= 215
 
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yeah, I call BS on anything over 235, unless there's a school website that specifically mentions it. Board scores are the last thing a school admits. I had to manually calculate our average for the years 2004-2007 @ Ohio State. It came out to 223.80. And keep in mind that our average is probably even lower, since this website only mentions the people who matched.

This is the website that has our data.

http://medicine.osu.edu/students/life/academic_advising/usmle/specialty_selection/Pages/index.aspx

There's no way Feinberg is 240. I mean I'll believe it if there's a website, but I just can't believe it's 240. I know 3 kids that go there. All 3 had scores under 215 (one of them had a score under 200 actually). And these are the only 3 people I know there. Yes, I have no right to make an assumption with n=3, but you'd be pretty biased/skeptical too if the only people you knew @ Feinberg had scores this low. Not that they're "low", but they're not even close to that 240.

Also, keep in mind that medical students are the biggest bull$hitters you will ever come across. Never take anyone's "word", because it's worth s.hit. Either have them show you the website that states the average, or call them out on their BS.
 
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jon2727 said:
Agreed. Nearly a standard deviation above the mean ON AVERAGE? I'm not buying it.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's tough to believe numbers like that. One of my friends told me one year (pretty recently) that Michigan had an average of 240-245 and at least 6 ppl there scored 270+
 
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phospho said:
yeah, I call BS on anything over 235, unless there's a school website that specifically mentions it. Board scores are the last thing a school admits. I had to manually calculate our average for the years 2004-2007 @ Ohio State. It came out to 223.80. And keep in mind that our average is probably even lower, since this website only mentions the people who matched.

This is the website that has our data.

http://medicine.osu.edu/students/life/academic_advising/usmle/specialty_selection/Pages/index.aspx

There's no way Feinberg is 240. I mean I'll believe it if there's a website, but I just can't believe it's 240. I know 3 kids that go there. All 3 had scores under 215 (one of them had a score under 200 actually). And these are the only 3 people I know there. Yes, I have no right to make an assumption with n=3, but you'd be pretty biased/skeptical too if the only people you knew @ Feinberg had scores this low. Not that they're "low", but they're not even close to that 240.

Also, keep in mind that medical students are the biggest bull$hitters you will ever come across. Never take anyone's "word", because it's worth s.hit. Either have them show you the website that states the average, or call them out on their BS.
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I am in the Chicago area and I have friends at Feinberg.

The school DID sent out an internal e-mail, that much is true since I saw it. Are they lying? That I don't know what to say and anything I write you probably aren't going to believe anyway.

I know that the class of 2011 had an average of 229. There was a similar e-mail sent out too last year about this.

I know several people who scored in the high 260's and 2 people who scored 270+. Granted, I also know a couple people who scored in the 220's. I do now know anyone who got 210's or even near 200.

That's my 2 cents.
 
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Medical College of Wisconsin (as of c/o 2011) = 224
Northwestern (c/o 2012) = 240
West Virginia University (as of c/o 2011) = 226
Creighton (c/o 2011) = 226
University of Virginia (c/o 2011) = 233
Loma Linda (c/o 2011) = 226
 
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im in the class of 2012 and i was present when our deans told the entire class that our average score was a 240. my only explanation is that my class is full of gunners
 
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phospho said:
yeah, I call BS on anything over 235, unless there's a school website that specifically mentions it. Board scores are the last thing a school admits. I had to manually calculate our average for the years 2004-2007 @ Ohio State. It came out to 223.80. And keep in mind that our average is probably even lower, since this website only mentions the people who matched.

This is the website that has our data.

http://medicine.osu.edu/students/life/academic_advising/usmle/specialty_selection/Pages/index.aspx

There's no way Feinberg is 240. I mean I'll believe it if there's a website, but I just can't believe it's 240. I know 3 kids that go there. All 3 had scores under 215 (one of them had a score under 200 actually). And these are the only 3 people I know there. Yes, I have no right to make an assumption with n=3, but you'd be pretty biased/skeptical too if the only people you knew @ Feinberg had scores this low. Not that they're "low", but they're not even close to that 240.

Also, keep in mind that medical students are the biggest bull$hitters you will ever come across. Never take anyone's "word", because it's worth s.hit. Either have them show you the website that states the average, or call them out on their BS.
Click to expand...

A 240 average isn't that hard to believe. Is it a statistical anomaly? Probably. Like I said, previous years averages have been in low 230's or high 220's which is expected. Plus, its like 160 odd people out of tens of THOUSANDS of people taking it. There are going to be some years where the numbers don't seem to make statistical sense.

I have no vested interested in proclaiming the greatness of Feinberg (I am NOT a student there). My own school, which is a middle-tier school, probably will never be in the mid or high 230's in terms of average since the distribution of students and their standardized test-taking skills more likely fall within a normal distribution.

Again, I argue that Step 1 scores have low correlation with clinical skills. This is coming from someone who got 2 SD's above the mean on Step 1. For some of the higher end specialties (we all know which ones these are), Step 1 score may be indicative of how well you can do your job. But for the rest (IM, Peds, FM, Psych, etc.), you can be a hell of a clinician without needing to ace the Step 1.
 
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^ i fail to see how a high step score can indicate how well you will do your job in a high end specialty like radiology or derm and not in IM for example
 
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I am curious as to why people want to know the average boards scores for med schools. People ask that all the time, and i just don't get why. Sure, I want to know the average for my own school because I can use it to gauge the quality of the preparation since it will affect me. I can also see premeds being interested in those numbers since you would like to go to a school with better averages...but there are so many other factors that's important in choosing a school that even then it isn't necessary. For instance, Caribbean med schools often have very high averages, but that's because they don't allow you to take the test if they're not confident you'll score well. Soooo, it just curiosity, or is there something tangible to be gained from this, or is it the phenomenon where apple is being witheld from you so it just seems that more tantalizing and you just HAVE to know? Please enlighten me...
 
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DrDrToBe said:
I am curious as to why people want to know the average boards scores for med schools. People ask that all the time, and i just don't get why. Sure, I want to know the average for my own school because I can use it to gauge the quality of the preparation since it will affect me. I can also see premeds being interested in those numbers since you would like to go to a school with better averages...but there are so many other factors that's important in choosing a school that even then it isn't necessary. For instance, Caribbean med schools often have very high averages, but that's because they don't allow you to take the test if they're not confident you'll score well. Soooo, it just curiosity, or is there something tangible to be gained from this, or is it the phenomenon where apple is being witheld from you so it just seems that more tantalizing and you just HAVE to know? Please enlighten me...
Click to expand...

I think people are just curious. The OSU link was mildly interesting to look at
 
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kryptik said:
^ i fail to see how a high step score can indicate how well you will do your job in a high end specialty like radiology or derm and not in IM for example
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IM should be in that boat with derm, some surg subspecialties etc. I've heard that the IM boards are extremely tough

Step 1 says little about clinical ability but it can say something about natural or developed test taking ability, the ability to process a lot of info, and work ethic/study habits
 
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It is interesting and I also think there is some correlation about the quality among US allopathic schools
 
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Comparing USMLE scores is like comparing phallus's. You're always curious.

All jokes aside, the OSU website is good to know for different specialties though I'm shocked at numbers like (NSGRY = 230???). Also, I think USMLE scores should be more relevant for US News rankings than say research grants from NIH which the medical students see so little of.
 
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2012mdc said:
IM should be in that boat with derm, some surg subspecialties etc. I've heard that the IM boards are extremely tough

Step 1 says little about clinical ability but it can say something about natural or developed test taking ability, the ability to process a lot of info, and work ethic/study habits
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Relatively speaking, not true. I have tons of friends in IM. They rarely study for their yearly in-service exam and take a 1-week crash course before their board exam at the end of residency. Overall pass rate is > 90%.

Compare that to derm, rads, ophtho, rad onc, etc boards where we have to read on a daily basis, our yearly in-service is hard as hell and the board exam at the end even harder. Rads exam is notoriously difficult.

Ophtho's board certification exam has only a 70% pass rate (if you end up in the bottom 30% you fail automatically). Clearly it's not b/c ophtho residents are lazy or don't test well (Step 1 avg for matched applicants was 237 in 2009).

I agree with your 2nd paragraph.

Now back to the original topic.
 
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phospho said:
yeah, I call BS on anything over 235, unless there's a school website that specifically mentions it. Board scores are the last thing a school admits. I had to manually calculate our average for the years 2004-2007 @ Ohio State. It came out to 223.80. And keep in mind that our average is probably even lower, since this website only mentions the people who matched.

This is the website that has our data.

http://medicine.osu.edu/students/life/academic_advising/usmle/specialty_selection/Pages/index.aspx

There's no way Feinberg is 240. I mean I'll believe it if there's a website, but I just can't believe it's 240. I know 3 kids that go there. All 3 had scores under 215 (one of them had a score under 200 actually). And these are the only 3 people I know there. Yes, I have no right to make an assumption with n=3, but you'd be pretty biased/skeptical too if the only people you knew @ Feinberg had scores this low. Not that they're "low", but they're not even close to that 240.

Also, keep in mind that medical students are the biggest bull$hitters you will ever come across. Never take anyone's "word", because it's worth s.hit. Either have them show you the website that states the average, or call them out on their BS.
Click to expand...

That's pretty crazy they put out such detailed info. If you had the highest score in your specialty you pretty much know the scores of everyone else who matched with you (especially if there's only 1 or 2 others!)

How did you calculate the average without the number of people going into each specialty? Just curious.
 
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Thought I would update the list. MCW just got it's class of 2012 Step 1 score analysis back and we jumped 2 points compared to last year.

Medical College of Wisconsin (as of c/o 2012) = 226
Northwestern (c/o 2012) = 240
West Virginia University (as of c/o 2011) = 226
Creighton (c/o 2011) = 226
University of Virginia (c/o 2011) = 233
Loma Linda (c/o 2011) = 226
 
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phospho said:
yeah, I call BS on anything over 235, unless there's a school website that specifically mentions it. Board scores are the last thing a school admits. I had to manually calculate our average for the years 2004-2007 @ Ohio State. It came out to 223.80. And keep in mind that our average is probably even lower, since this website only mentions the people who matched.

This is the website that has our data.

http://medicine.osu.edu/students/life/academic_advising/usmle/specialty_selection/Pages/index.aspx

There's no way Feinberg is 240. I mean I'll believe it if there's a website, but I just can't believe it's 240. I know 3 kids that go there. All 3 had scores under 215 (one of them had a score under 200 actually). And these are the only 3 people I know there. Yes, I have no right to make an assumption with n=3, but you'd be pretty biased/skeptical too if the only people you knew @ Feinberg had scores this low. Not that they're "low", but they're not even close to that 240.

Also, keep in mind that medical students are the biggest bull$hitters you will ever come across. Never take anyone's "word", because it's worth s.hit. Either have them show you the website that states the average, or call them out on their BS.
Click to expand...


lol, there are definitely schools that have avg >240, consistently. schools like Feinberg (I have no connection to that institution and cannot speak to it specifically) admit a bunch of people who are awesome at standardized tests AND are gunning for competitive specialties (esp since the ridic tuition means primary care specialties are simply unrealistic for many of their graduates to pursue).

lots of these schools have kids who did >35 on the mcat and are capable of doing >260 on step 1. combine this with a month off to study for step 1 and a drive to get into uber competitive specialties at top residency programs, you will find a perfect storm of people who memorize FA, pore over USMLE WORLD, and do nothing but study for this test in the weeks preceeding it. no wonder several schools have avg >240. It not BS, its the real world.
 
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From last year's (2009) data that they gave us at career counseling, our average at WashU was 237.

They also gave us this very intimidating table of average match statistics for washu:

Specialty WU Matched Applicants (Mean Score)

Plastic Surgery 249
Dermatology 236
Otolaryngology 250
Radiation Oncology 248
Neurosurgery 241
Diagnostic Radiology 237
Orthopaedic Surgery 240
Ophthalmology 235
 
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RapplixGmed said:
From last year's (2009) data that they gave us at career counseling, our average at WashU was 237.

They also gave us this very intimidating table of average match statistics for washu:

Specialty WU Matched Applicants (Mean Score)

Plastic Surgery 249
Dermatology 236
Otolaryngology 250
Radiation Oncology 248
Neurosurgery 241
Diagnostic Radiology 237
Orthopaedic Surgery 240
Ophthalmology 235
Click to expand...

I am curious about the above scores. Is the specialty mean score that of WU students from 2009 who matched into the above-mentioned specialties at any institution or of people from anywhere who matched into the above-mentioned residencies at WU? Or does it denote WU students from 2009 who matched at the above WU residencies?

Thanks if you can clarify.
 
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JelloBrain said:
I am curious about the above scores. Is the specialty mean score that of WU students from 2009 who matched into the above-mentioned specialties at any institution or of people from anywhere who matched into the above-mentioned residencies at WU? Or does it denote WU students from 2009 who matched at the above WU residencies?

Thanks if you can clarify.
Click to expand...

I do believe these were the averages of WU students who matched into these specialties at any institution.
 
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