M3/M4 grades

[iluvmac]

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I'm pretty set on ophtho..i got a 246/99 on step 1 and have 2 minor publications. my problems is my clinical grades! my school makes it insanely difficult to get A's on rotations. I've gotten B's on all my rotations (including IM and surgery)! how will this effect my application for ophtho? thanks in advance!

 

[JMK2005]

I'm pretty set on ophtho..i got a 246/99 on step 1 and have 2 minor publications. my problems is my clinical grades! my school makes it insanely difficult to get A's on rotations. I've gotten B's on all my rotations (including IM and surgery)! how will this effect my application for ophtho? thanks in advance!

I didn't know schools still grades. It's a hard question because many applicant's won't have grades, so hard to compare across the board. If your class rank is high, then that should help buffer the impression that the B's are no good. See what you can do to get AOA. That will make the grades a non-issue.

 

[MR1]

I'm pretty set on ophtho..i got a 246/99 on step 1 and have 2 minor publications. my problems is my clinical grades! my school makes it insanely difficult to get A's on rotations. I've gotten B's on all my rotations (including IM and surgery)! how will this effect my application for ophtho? thanks in advance!

AOA status and class rank I think are more important. Your step 1 is strong so that should balance some B's out.

side note - I was asked to explain 2 C's I got in undergrad at one interview!

 

[azzarah]

My school did not release our classrank and they did not release AOA status until after the match (@ graduation), but they did send a graph with our transcript showing the percentage of students who got a certain grade on various rotations....

 

[taco bell]

Would appreciate any input/advice about my chances, and which type of programs to apply to

Had some trouble during M3 surgery & psych rotation

My stats:
Step 1: 238/99
Class rank: second quartile (45 of 120)
M3 grades:
Honors in OB, ER, Medicine, Peds
High pass in Family
Pass in Surgery, psych
Pubs: 2 case reports (2nd author), 2 non peer reviewed articles
2 strong letters (1 med and 1 oph), hoping for another strong oph letter next month

How many programs/ which tier programs should I apply to (high vs middle vs low)

No geographic preference (but prob not gonna apply to cali programs)

Thanks

 

[Slide]

After going through this process, I really don't think class grades matter much, if at all. Grading is so subjective, especially in the clinical setting. Some people may barely pass a rotation simply because the attending didn't like a person's shirt that day, or may give that person the highest grade possible because the attending and that student go to church together. Though I did well in most of my clinical rotations, it was never brought up. Other applicants I talked to had said their clinical grades were never brought up as well, and their "grades" weren't exactly stellar.

Long story short, don't sweat it. Hell, in my opinion, if you really want to go to a certain program, just going to a medical school in a nearby state raises your chances more than what you made on medicine. The papers and former admission panel members who say that clinical grades are of the upmost importance have been likely removed from the process by several years, and in a field like Ophtho, the admissions criteria changes every few years.

 

[Slide]

Would appreciate any input/advice about my chances, and which type of programs to apply to

Had some trouble during M3 surgery & psych rotation

My stats:
Step 1: 238/99
Class rank: second quartile (45 of 120)
M3 grades:
Honors in OB, ER, Medicine, Peds
High pass in Family
Pass in Surgery, psych
Pubs: 2 case reports (2nd author), 2 non peer reviewed articles
2 strong letters (1 med and 1 oph), hoping for another strong oph letter next month

How many programs/ which tier programs should I apply to (high vs middle vs low)

No geographic preference (but prob not gonna apply to cali programs)

Thanks

Apply widely. If you're not from California or NYC, don't apply to those programs. Not even people who lived in California their whole life but went to med school out of state have that great a chance (based on talking to other applicants). I would say apply to most if not all programs in your local region. For instance, if you're from the midwest, focus a lot of your efforts on Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Iowa, and Missouri. It's a numbers game, and you got to play the odds.

 

[TheEyeCutter]

Apply widely. If you're not from California or NYC, don't apply to those programs. Not even people who lived in California their whole life but went to med school out of state have that great a chance (based on talking to other applicants). I would say apply to most if not all programs in your local region. For instance, if you're from the midwest, focus a lot of your efforts on Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Iowa, and Missouri. It's a numbers game, and you got to play the odds.

Not entirely true...I personally know of californians who went out of state for med school and ended up back in cali and people from outside of NY going to residency there but yes, it is less likely if you did not do med school to get into a CA/NY residency but it can be done! It is true though that you should focus on regional programs.

Also, if you come from a big name school, you can apply everywhere. Everyone loves a Harvard or Hopkins grad.